During the review, the ATEM Micro Camera Panel was integrated into Cottonwood Creek Church’s video workflow, offering tactile camera control in a small-footprint panel.
Sometimes, a small form factor in AVL equipment equals a small set of features. Other times, a manufacturer can design so much into a small piece of gear that it’s difficult to understand and operate. But occasionally, a tool comes along that combines the best of both worlds - compact, feature-rich, and easy to understand and operate. This is the case with the new Blackmagic Design Atem Micro Camera Control Panel. It’s truly an impressive, intuitive, and budget-friendly camera control unit that gives church techs the features they need to elevate production quality.
This Looks Familiar...
When I opened the box and saw the Micro Camera Panel for the first time, I thought, “This looks familiar.” I have used many Camera Control Units (CCUs) and Remote-Control Panels (RCPs) before, including the Blackmagic Design Atem Camera Control Panel. They all have a standard that shaders and video engineers are used to. I was impressed by how the Micro Panel, despite its small size, maintained a standard setup at its core. The joystick that controls the iris, gain/pedestal controls for dialing in white and black balance, and even shutter speed and master gain were all there where I expected them and were easily identifiable to a non-experienced engineer’s eye. I was excited to get it connected to a switcher and begin controlling some cameras.
“It’s the volunteer-friendly features of the shading’s coarse and sensitivity controls that make it game changing for any technical director seeking to set up their volunteers for success.”
As I began connecting it, I noticed some interesting items next to the USB-C port that connects the Micro Panel to the computer running Atem Software Control. There was a Bluetooth button and a Battery Off/On switch. I was instantly intrigued! I consulted the easy-to-read manual and discovered that the Micro Panel can connect wirelessly to your computer via Bluetooth and operate with an internal USB-C rechargeable battery, enabling a video engineer to walk around and wirelessly control cameras. I had to check this out!
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Despite its small size, the ATEM Micro Camera Panel includes industry-standard CCU controls—iris joystick, gain, pedestal, shutter, and scene recall—along with Bluetooth wireless operation, internal battery power, and USB-C connectivity for seamless integration with ATEM switchers.
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The ATEM Micro Camera Panel supports USB-C and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing camera control through ATEM Software Control with optional wireless operation and internal battery power.
Pairing the Micro Panel with the computer running Atem Software Control connected to my Atem Television Studio 4K Switcher was as simple as pairing any Bluetooth device. The software recognized the panel, which caused it to light up. I noticed that the buttons on the left side of the panel selected the camera to control. It was intuitive to choose one of the three Blackmagic Design Studio Camera 4K Pro cameras I had connected to my switcher by selecting the responding camera button and begin shading each camera… while walking around untethered! It was so cool. I also noticed that each camera button indicated which was on Program by turning red and which was on Preview by turning green. The lights on the panel truly told the story of what was happening, including when a key was activated.
Volunteer-Friendly Design
The next thing I noticed was the Sensitivity and Coarse knobs next to the joystick. Consulting the manual, I learned how these knobs set the joystick’s iris control range. I set the knobs so that pushing the joystick fully up or down completely opened or closed the iris. Then, a thought hit me. This is a great volunteer-friendly feature that lets you help someone learning to shade. Allowing the volunteer to learn shading within a range on the joystick that keeps the iris open is a cool training feature for a church technical director’s toolkit. So, I adjusted the knobs again to set it so that pulling the joystick fully down kept the iris partially open.
The next part of my testing was adjusting the finer points of color correction on my cameras. First, it was easy to see the shutter speed on each camera. The shutter speed display was labeled, and the adjustment buttons were right next to the display. I easily adjusted each camera to the same shutter speed. Secondly, I set the white and black balance for each camera using the Micro Panel’s pedestal controls. It was cool to see the camera adjustments I was making on the Panel happen in real time on the cameras’ displays and in the Atem Software Control on my computer. Finally, with the color dialed in, I used the Scene controls at the top of the Micro Panel to save the settings for later recall. The Scene File memory locations and the store button were once again easy to find and use. Having the ability to save color-correction settings is vital, and Blackmagic Design made it effortless for operators to do so.
While making these color adjustments, I had another thought. The Micro Panel is controlling the Atem Software Control on my computer. But I have other Atem switchers on my network. As I switched the settings in Software Control on my computer to control another switcher on my network, I noticed that the Micro Panel Camera Control followed which switcher was selected, allowing me to control the Blackmagic Cameras connected to that switcher. What another neat feature! One Micro Panel can control cameras on multiple switchers via the software. This feature can be handy in a Master Control Suite overseeing various venues and studios.
The final part of testing was connecting the Micro Panel to an Atem Mini Pro ISO switcher, also controlling a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was once again amazed at how quickly the panel lit up when I started running ATEM Software Control connected to the Mini Pro ISO. Shading and engineering the video were as easy with this camera as they were with the Studio Camera 4K Pro in the larger setup. Once I had all the settings dialed in, it was easy to save a scene file with all my settings. Recalling the scene was effortless, too. The Micro Panel controlled both a Studio Camera and a Pocket Cinema Camera with ease.
The Blackmagic Design Micro Camera Panel is a must-have for any church or ministry using Blackmagic Design cameras and switchers. The video industry-standard layout, combined with wireless, battery-powered Bluetooth operation and USB-C connectivity, is impressive enough. However, it’s the volunteer-friendly features of the shading’s coarse and sensitivity controls that make it game-changing for any technical director seeking to set up their volunteers for success.
