Now we can stream!!

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In my last post, I gave you my idea for a multi-purpose camera rig. This time I’ll be fleshing that rig out to give us a Live streaming setup for Productions and Live events. The camera rig will be the same except this time we’ll have 4 of them paired with a few other goodies. So without further ado let’s get to it.

The Switcher

For the switcher, I’ve chosen Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K. It has 8 12G SDI inputs that all have a standard converter built-in, so no matter what resolution the inputs are we can stream at 4K.

And don’t worry about the HDMI outputs on our BMPCC 6K camera we’ll be dealing with that in our floor rack later.

Monitoring

To monitor the Video streams I’ve chosen 2 SmartView 4K monitors from, you guessed it, Blackmagic Design. Each of the monitors has 2 x 12G SDI inputs so that we can switch between multiple sources on each monitor. This comes in handy later.

Playback

For playback, we’ll be using 3 Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck Studio Minis. These little beauties are able to output 2 streams of 4K each, meaning that you can play graphics with key and fill, such as titles or lower thirds.

The Hyperdecks can also record media too so if you need a copy of your production to give to the organisers of the event straight away your all sorted.

They only have 6G SDI but the ATEMs built-in standards convert will easily handle the footage coming from the Hyperdeck.

Live Graphics

For live graphics, We’ll be using 2 M1 Mac minis from Apple. These Apple Silicone-based Macs have more than enough power to run mimoLive.

To get the key and fill for these graphics out of the Macs though we are going to need a capture and playback card. For that I’ve chosen 2 Blackmagic Design Ultra Studio 4K Mini, on for each Mac mini.

As you can input a video feed to the Ultra Studio 4K you can send a clean feed to it from the switcher and overlay any addition graphics, such as lower thirds or graphics for a live stream, straight out of mimoLive.

Other Main Rack Gear

We need a few other pits to complete our main rack.

First up is Blackmagic Design’s Smart Video hub 20×20. The video hub should give us more than enough inputs and outputs so we can switch feeds on the fly should we need to during production.

As well as a video hub we’ll also need a Network switch. For this, I’ve gone with Ubiquiti’s 16 port PoE Switch paired with the Dream Machine Pro as a controller which also gives us another 8 non-PoE Ports. This may seem like a little overkill but should you want to add more devices to the network it’ll be more than worth it.

Stage Rack

The stage rack is how we are going to connect our audio and video feeds to the ATEM. At the bottom Is the Yamaha Tio 1608-D Dante stage box Above this there will be a 16 port patch panel for XLR connection and Optical Connection from the switch to be sent into the box (I didn’t add these to the picture)

Next up we have another Ubiutiti 16 Port PoE Switch to connect to the HDMI to Optical Teranex mini converters from Blackmagic Design. I went for these model as they include 2 XLR inputs on each to send the audio from the Dante network to the ATEM. The converters also give us 6 SDI outs at stage level too so if you want to give each of your camera ops a feed or send a feed to projectors your good to go.

Inside we also have 2 Dante AVIO Analog Input Adapters for the 2 converters that we don’t have outputs for on the stage box.

Finally, on the back, we have an MTP to “Optical” Breakout cable feeding each of the HDMI to Optical converters. There is an MTP trunk running from the stage box to the control area. This MTP Trunk carries 24 optical fibres 12 for the converters, 4 for the network switch and 8 spares for future use (I’m sure I can always use more cameras)

There are a few more bits and pieces needed that I think I have covered in the list bellow.

Product	Qty	Price	Total
BMPCC 6K Setup (see Previous Blog Post)	4	£9,231.15	£36,924.60
DataVideo HDMI Cable 100M	4	£636.00	£2,544.00
ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K	1	£2,758.80	£2,758.80
Mackie Universal Control Pro Bundle	1	£1,483.00	£1,483.00
Blackmagic Multi Dock 10G	1	£534.00	£534.00
Samsung 2TB 2.5″ SSD	6	£188.99	£1,133.94
Blackmagic Smart Video Hub 20×20	1	£1,834.80	£1,834.80
Blackmagic Hyperdeck Studio Mini	3	£654.00	£1,962.00
Blackmagic Ultra Studio 4K Mini	2	£922.80	£1,845.60
Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Cable 2M	1	£54.34	£54.34
Blackmagic Smart View	2	£894.00	£1,788.00
20 Port USB Power Station	1	£48.09	£48.09
USB-A – USB-C Cable	20	£7.99	£159.80
Blackmagic Micro HDMI to SDI Converter	10	£58.80	£588.00
1U Rack Shelf	3	£21.99	£65.97
The t.tracks VM-100 Voltage Meter	2	£41.00	£82.00
2M HDMI Cable	20	£9.99	£199.80
10 Port Blanking Plate	1	£9.30	£9.30
HDMI Port	10	£10.10	£101.00
3M SDI Cable	2	£15.12	£30.24
0.5M SDI Cable	20	£4.80	£96.00
2M Cat6 Ethernet Cable	7	£4.49	£31.43
5M Cat6 Ethernet Cable	2	£4.99	£9.98
100M Cat6 Ethernet Cable	10	£48.99	£489.90
Empty Cable Reel	10	£85.00	£850.00
8U Rack Case	1	£70.00	£70.00
Thon Rack Panel 1U 16XLR	1	£9.48	£9.48
Yamaha Tio 1608-D (Dante Stage Box)	1	£1039.00	£1039.00
Dante AVIO analog Output Adaptor	4	£145.00	£580.00
Dante AVIO analog Input Adaptor	4	£145.00	£580.00
UniFi Dream Machine	1	£364.89	£364.89
UBNT USW-16-POE Gen 2	2	£295.18	£590.36
Blackmagic Teranex Mini HDMI to Optical Converter	6	£450.00	£2700.00
Double 12U 19” Workstation Flightcase	1	£810.15	£810.15
Mac mini Rack Shelf	1	£238.80	£238.80
Mac Mini	2	£699.00	£1398.00
Apple Magic Keyboard (w/ Numpad)	2	£129.00	£258.00
Apple Magic Mouse 2	2	£99.00	£198.00
3U Draw	2	£51.68	£103.36
6U Draw	1	£77.73	£77.73
Glensound Beatrice R16 Rackmount Intercom	1	£2136.00	£2136.00
Glensound Beatrice 2 Channel Beltpack	10	£510.00	£5100.00
100m 24 core MTP Trunk Cable	1	£458.40	£458.40
24 Core MTP Breakout Cable	2	£275.62	£551.24
Total			£72,888.00

To have a full 4 camera 6K Multicam setup for just under £73,000 I think is fantastic. Let me know if you found any of the goodies I didn’t mention interesting. I know that I snuck in a couple of gadgets that will make production just a tad easier.