PTZ Camera Setups Using Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro Switchers

For multi-camera environments—such as house of worship, conference centers, product demos, remote education environments, or even multi-camera video podcasts—PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras are a great choice as they are easy to control remotely with small crews. One of the easiest ways to get your cameras up and live streaming quickly is with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini Pro and Extreme series HDMI live streaming switchers.

ATEM Mini switchers are compact, easy to set up, and reasonably priced to fit all productions from low budget to studio. The ATEM Mini Pro allows you to get up and running quickly by plugging into your existing Internet connection, providing a direct input for your HDMI cameras and an easy-to-use software control panel when you connect the unit to a laptop or desktop computer over the network or via USB-C.

The switcher then allows you to enhance your broadcasts by using high-quality cameras, allowing you to add graphics, logos, utilize picture-in-picture mode, switch between cameras and other HDMI sources, record your program and/or individual camera feeds to external media, and live stream to the internet.

First, if you’re looking for ways to control your PTZ cameras, ATEM Mini switchers will only switch HDMI inputs and do not control PTZ cameras. They can control only select Blackmagic cameras such as the Pocket Cinema Camera 6K and 4K series, but PTZ cameras from different manufacturers require an additional hardware controller. 

Also, if you are working with SDI cameras, the ATEM Mini Pro switchers only have HDMI inputs, so you’d need to purchase an SDI to HDMI converter or use the ATEM SDI.

For these examples, we’re going to concentrate on the Mini Pro and Extreme series of HDMI switchers because of their advanced features and compatibility:

• ATEM Mini Pro 4-Input (HDMI)

• ATEM Mini Pro ISO 4-Input (HDMI)

• ATEM Mini Extreme 8-Input (HDMI)

• ATEM Mini Extreme ISO 8-Input (HDMI)

Some additional facts about ATEM Mini Pro and Extreme switchers:

• They can input 4K video but maximum streaming output is 1080p60, so if your camera outputs 4K it will be downsampled—but the image quality and color depth will be extra sharp

• The switchers can connect to a computer as a webcam via USB-C

• The Pro/Extreme base models can record program output only, while the ISO models can record the program and a separate video file for each camera, which is great for post-production

• All Pro/Extreme models have a hardware encoder and allow you to live stream without a computer

• All Pro/Extreme models provide cut, mix, dip, dissolve, transition effects, upstream/downstream keyers, media playback, and audio mixing

Let’s start with a simple setup with a couple of HDMI/IP PTZ cameras in any networked space:

1. First, set up your PTZ cameras, such as Canon CR-N300, PTZCam UV401, or PTZOptics Move 4K, on your Ethernet network.

2. Set up an IP PTZ controller on your network, such as the PTZOptics SuperJoy, PTZCam View, or AVMATRIX PKC4000 and connect to the cameras to utilize VISCA-over-IP control signaling.

3. If you have a network switch that supports PoE (Power over Ethernet), this would be a great time to connect your cameras and controller and power them over a single cable.

4. Connect both cameras to the ATEM switcher via HDMI cables.

5. Connect your ATEM switcher to a computer or laptop via USB-C or over the network and set up the connections using ATEM Software Control.

6. You can also utilize software such as vMix or OBS on your computer, or you can connect to conferencing/streaming applications like Zoom, Skype, or YouTube.

7. If you only need to stream to a single site, you can even configure the ATEM to stream directly to the Internet from the switcher.

This setup allows you to switch between cameras using the camera buttons on the switcher, and then you can seamlessly control the cameras using the controller.

Using SDI Cameras with ATEM Mini

This setup also works with SDI, as all the above cameras can output via SDI to an ATEM SDI, ATEM SDI Pro ISO, or ATEM SDI Extreme ISO. For extended cable runs, SDI performs better than HDMI.

Using NDI on a Network with an ATEM Mini

One of the best advances in broadcast-quality IP video has been NDI, a network protocol that transports your video using a high-quality, ultralow-latency stream that can traverse any Ethernet network, while also including data within that stream such as control signaling, talkback/return audio, and tally status. Most PTZ cameras that support NDI also support PoE, so it is convenient to run a single Ethernet cable to each camera, as well as have cameras at nearly unlimited distances from a controller.

When you have numerous cameras that need to send high-resolution video to a far-away ATEM switcher, using NDI is a great choice. However, ATEM Mini switchers do not directly support the NDI protocol. But not to worry, there’s a solution out there. One example is the BirdDog NDI Decoder that converts video signals from NDI to an HDMI output that is compatible with your ATEM.

For long runs with SDI cameras, you can utilize an SDI-to-NDI encoder to extend your signal and then decode it using an NDI-to-SDI decoder. The BirdDog model can do both, as well as allow you to carry talkback and communications signals to complete a setup with multiple operators.

If your HDMI PTZ camera does not support NDI but you want to utilize the low-latency streaming, an NDI encoder and decoder would be needed to utilize power/video/control over a single cable. If your camera supports IP, you may also want to run an Ethernet cable to your camera for control/PoE.

Now let’s look at a setup with NDI decoding:

1. Set up an IP controller on your network, such as the PTZOptics Superjoy, PTZCam View, or AVMATRIX PKC4000-NDI and connect to the cameras to utilize VISCA-over-IP control signaling or NDI signaling (these controllers support NDI natively).

2. It may be handy to utilize an HDMI splitter out from each camera for local monitoring – one direct HDMI output and the other HDMI to an encoder to NDI on an IP network.

3. NDI-to-HDMI decoder to ATEM

4. You can also use OBS with an NDI plugin or vMix with native NDI support that will automatically detect your NDI camera. The software will also tally information via NDI.

5. The ATEM then outputs the stream to the Internet.

Central Control of All Devices

These examples include a lot of hardware, and there are solutions to make adding more devices easier. The Elgato Stream Deck XL is a powerful hardware interface that allows you to select control of just about any device, making it easy to streamline your setup when you need to control settings from a central location. There is also a software version of the Stream Deck called Bitfocus Companion, an opensource web application that allows you to control all ATEM buttons and functions and individual devices using customized pages and layouts.

Please feel free to share with us a PTZ camera Blackmagic ATEM switcher experience in the comments below.