Using Dante with Blackmagic’s ATEM Switchers
I wouldn’t be writing this if Dante was built in Blackmagic!
Over the years I’ve had a few ideas on how to get Dante working with ATEM Vision mixers and after my recent article, I thought I’d go through some of my ideas for getting Dante audio into an ATEM switcher and what’s changed to get me to my ideal setup today. I should point out that I know only the first method works the reason being I no longer have access to all the gear I would need to test these theories or the half a million-pound budget to buy everything to test all of these ideas. From my research though I have no reason to believe that any of these ideas would not work. If you happen to have any of the gear for any of my ideas then let me know how you get on in the comments below.
Back to Basics
This one may sound a bit simple but that’s because well… it is. If you are mixing your audio separately and want to include it in your broadcast you can take a Main Left and Right audio feed from the audio mixer and plug them into your ATEM switcher either via XLR or by 3.5mm jack.
I would advise where possible to have a separate in-house mix to your broadcast mix as the venue you are working in is going to have a completely different sound stage to your broadcast. I did a gig once where I was recording the audio straight out of the in house mixer and was planning on using it as the main audio for the final edit but found that all the vocals were being overpowered by the instruments and backing tracks but the mix sounded excellent in the venue.
If you’d like to go down this route you can get signal splitters such as these that allow you to split the XLR Signal from one input and sent it out to 2 mixers.
Using Cameras for Audio Input
My next method of getting audio into the switcher is by using the built-in audio inputs on the cameras you are using. It’s another quite simple option but this one is a bit messier as you need to run audio cables to each of your cameras either from a breakout box or from the performer themselves.
I really don’t like this approach if you have cameras that move around a lot. If you have a camera or 2 that are locked off then perfect utilise the camera inputs but when you have the camera on a dolly or jib then it’s best to avoid this approach as you already going to have a power and signal cable to deal with let alone audio cables on top of that too. Plus it’s also one less thing to go wrong.
Another way you could use this method, well something very similar, is to run your camera signal feedback to the Switcher as normal but before you plug into the switch and an audio embedder (such as the Teranex Mini Audio to SDI 12G). The downside to this is the additional cost for each audio channel you want to add to your broadcast or recording.
Of course, rather than running a bunch of XLR cables from one side of a venue to the other, you could use CAT5e instead. With devices such as these from Dante, You can have a Dante-compatible stage box on the stage and a Dante AVIO Analog Output at each camera, or at your embedder, that way rather than running 2 separate mic cables you now have 1 network cable instead. There’s also a lot less mess on stage as the in-house engineer can use the same stage box if their mixing desk is Dante compatible.
Converting Dante to MADI
For a long while, I thought I was stuck with one of the solutions above where I would try and find a way to force Dante audio into the switch somehow. Then I found out that Blackmagic has been including a magical feature on their 8K constellation ATEM switcher. The major downside to this is that the switcher is around £10,000 and is really not worth it for one feature. Then just before NAB Blackmagic Introduced an HD model of the Constellation Switcher and the highest end of this new model also included this magical feature too. Unfortunately, Blackmagic hasn’t released a 4K line of Constellation switchers yet but I hope they do soon.
What is this Magical feature? I hear you ask. It’s called Multichannel Audio Digital Interface (MADI for short) It is a protocol that allows you to send up to 64 audio channels through one cable, and is used in production houses across the world. You might be saying… That sound familiar doesn’t Dante do that. Well, you’d be right Dante does do that just more than 64 channels of audio whereas Dante can support 512 channels of audio… in each direction!
As you can imagine, I got really excited when I found out about this especially as I remembered seeing a MADI to Dante converter when doing a bit of Window shopping on Thomann a couple of months back. Now All I need for a super simple and super clean set-up is a Dante Enabled Stage Box, Some CAT5e Cable running to my switch, the MADI to Dante converter and some SDI Cable to link it all together then I’ll be able to produce a broadcast sound mix with little to no fuss. If I really wanted I could include a Dante Enabled Sound Desk and route the stage box to the sound desk and the Audio outs of the mixer to the Dante to Audio Converter. This would allow me to mix the show outside of the ATEM Software and give me the chance to add any effects and still send a multi-track mix to the ATEM for any final tweaking.
Now, If only I had the money
I hope you can see why I’m so excited to see MADI makes its way to the smaller ATEM switchers from black magic. This can make life much easier when producing a recording or live broadcast. The only problem I have now is the usual one… Having the money to buy all the gear. Suppose you read my post from Monday and go through the kit list. You’ll see that for that 5 Camera setup you’re looking at around a quarter of a million pounds. Sure, there are a couple of nice-to-have items on that list, but when you’re spending that much money it’s always nice to have a shiny thing or two you can appreciate. Of course, that list doesn’t include a broadcast truck or the cost of kitting it out but maybe that’s for a future post.
If you know of another way to get audio into an ATEM Switcher that I’ve not covered here in the comments below. Also, let me know what you think I’d need to include in a broadcast truck as I feel that’s going to be a post I’ll be writing in the not-so-distant future.
