My Blackmagic ATEM Mini Studio Setup

My ATEM Mini Setup

As someone who has been creating YouTube videos for over 5 years now, I’m no stranger to odd workflows. Thankfully,  Blackmagic and Elgato have released a suite of products that have made pro-sumer content creators’ lives a lot easier. Because of this, I’ve been able to craft myself a home studio that not only outputs a great image at a low price, but increase my workflow and productivity while doing it. In the video above, I go through my entire setup, from what products I use, to how I connect them together, to how I personally use them to create the content I want to create.

The “Studio” Corner

In the video, you’ll see I have broken up my workstations into two. On one side is the “Studio”. This is where my two main cameras reside, the Canon EOS R for my main camera A, and the Sony a6000 (b-cam) for top down shots. I also have an old 2016 5K iMac that I use strictly for bringing up videos and websites for commentary. All these devices are piped into the ATEM Mini, which is a great HDMI switcher for a low price. This ATEM Mini allows me to, on the fly, switch to any input or camera I have attached. What this does is allow me to Multi-cam edit on the fly, drastically reducing my editing time. It does all this, without worry of inputs, resolution, and codecs. It just works! The microphone I use, the Shure SM7B is sent separately to my Zedi8 mixing board, which resides on my PC Station

The “PC” Corner

This area is where both my PC’s, my mixing board, my capture cards, and separate camera, all reside. Think of it like the “brain” of the studio. So first off, the ATEM Mini is connected to the Gaming PC by one USB cable. The Zedi8 is also connected to the Gaming PC by USB. All my microphones are connected to the Zedi8 by XLR, and my Streaming PC is connected to the Zedi8 by 1/4 line. This allows me to not only capture audio from my mics into OBS, but both of my PC’s for gaming capture. Speaking of game capture, my Gaming PC (i7 9700k/GTX1080ti) holds an HD60 Pro for capturing my gaming consoles like my Nintendo Switch and PS4, all by HDMI. The Streaming PC (i7 6700k/GTX1080), captures my Gaming PC via 4K60Pro through HDMI. So when PC gaming, I utilize my Streaming PC, and when capturing the “Studio Corner” & console gaming, I utilize my Gaming PC. Lastly, for game capture, I use my Sony a7RIII as a “webcam” captured via Camlink 4k. So all in all, no matter what I do, I’m able to capture my content in very high quality.

Conclusion

Finally, this set up might seem a bit convoluted. But compared to what we had to deal with before products like the Camlink and ATEM Mini existed, it’s a Godsend. I love the versatility and speed this setup has. I can turn my cameras on, turn my lights on, sit at my desk, and I have a full multi-cam studio, that I can fully control, all at my fingertips. While it may seem expensive, it’s still a fraction of the cost equipment with these features used to cost! So hopefully you’ll able to come away from this video/article with a new appreciation or understanding on what goes into making a solo-one-man-studio. If I can figure it out, you can too!