showstack / hardware / blackmagic-atem-4me-constellation-hd
Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E Constellation HD
Four mix/effects live production switcher with forty SDI inputs, built-in multiview, chroma key and streaming. The switcher that made multi-M/E production affordable for small crews.
Protocols it speaks
| Protocol | Direction | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| sdi | bidirectional | 3G-SDI in and out across all ports. |
| genlock | in | Blackburst / tri-level reference input. |
| ndi | out | NDI via separate Blackmagic conversion, not native. |
Connectors
- 40x 3G-SDI in
- 24x 3G-SDI out
- Reference in
- 2x Ethernet
- USB-C webcam out
- Analogue audio in
What to watch for
ATEM control is a software panel or a hardware panel over IP; the switcher has almost no front-panel control of its own. Losing the control network means losing the ability to cut.
ATEM Software Control version must match the switcher firmware. A laptop that has auto-updated will refuse to talk to a switcher that has not.
The audio mixer inside is capable but easy to overlook, and an embedded-audio problem often turns out to be a Fairlight setting rather than a source.
Sources
- Blackmagic ATEM — Blackmagic Design primary
Understand the mechanism
Something wrong, or missing?
Known gaps on this entry: released. If you can source one of them, that is a ten minute pull request.
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