Switching Upstream Key's Camera on ATEM TVS

Change Camera Here?

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Maybe I'm missing something, but when Chromakeying, to switch to another camera I need to select it from the drop down?

This seems inconvenient, if I want to do a 3 camera shoot with a green screen. I must be missing something obvious on how it should be setup.

Change Camera Here?

Untitled-1.jpg (25.71 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

I've written a detailed example of how to use, want amounts to be one simple script, to manage a multi-camera virtual studio with a single Key, as found on the ATEM TVS models here:

http://www.atemuser.com/forums/atem-vision-mixers/blackmagic-atems/just-macros/atem-television-studio-chroma-possibilities#comment-7858

The post below the one linked to, includes links to download the script(s).

Thanks John that's exactly what I was looking for. I'll try that out tonight.

Could you please elaborate on this… I have a ATEM TV studio… on a Mac. I would like to do a 3 camera shoot with green screen. Does this require a special software to create macro keys to drive the ATEM and set up the Upstream Keyer Presets for Camera 1,2,&3? I have downloaded the scripts.

In my 'GVG to ATEM' software, I am just finishing off the code to 'interlock' chromakey switching to input selection.

The way it works is that once interlocked, you just select the camera on the program buss and it will select it in the chroma key along with the required background AND recall all the Chroma key parameters (Hue, Gain, Y suppress, Lift, Mask and Mask settings) for that input.

I am also going to extend it to switch the Media players source so you can have multiple backgrounds stored in the still store and it will select the appropriate one for each camera.
This would be great for virtual sets!


Baz

You can also outboard the composite to CasparCG if desired. Grab a decklink quad (you may need 2). Then input the 3 cameras in to Caspar CG, have it chroma key each video, then spit the composited key back out to the ATEM.

There are some advantages and disadvantages to this:
1 - You'll need a fairly beefy system to ensure you don't lose frame rate in the key. I'm also not 100% sure how well 1 system can deal with two Quad cards. I don't think you can have the Quad active as both an input and output. You could also just have 3 systems with 2 Decklink SDI cards each, but now you have more to manage
2 - The huge advantage here is that you can have different backgrounds mapped to each camera angle. You can even have some subtle videos playing to make the illusion even better. It also allows pretty precise live switching as well as individual key settings per camera
3 - Added cost. While CasparCG is free, the Decklink cards, GPUs and computers are not. Combined this should still cost less than a Tricaster though.

The above solution isn't for everyone, but may be a viable option for a few.

All of these solutions, while solutions, seem fairly hacky.

Is it easier to set this on the M/E 1 with just using the M/E layer or would I need to use JustMacros/Dropdown Menus to switch Fill?

yes .. with just macros you can change lot of things together , when U switch cameras .. im using media player as a subtitle generator (name of speaker) , and with cameraswitching is automaticali switch subtitles (in DSK) ..

All of these solutions, while solutions, seem fairly hacky.

"Hacky" is a term I do not like, JustMacros is using the official SDK, fully implemented according to BMDs own documentation, and so to all intents and purposes it's doing exactly what the official BMD software is doing. There should be very little that can be described as a "Hack" (use of kit outside of original purposes). The Chroma Key on the ATEM works exactly as you would expect from any production switcher.

The point of the posts was to illustrate how you can change both the Chroma Key Fill (Camera with subject), and the background with a single action. The example is XKeys, but you could also use a PC keyboard, MIDI or DMX panel. And I've also set-up BMD Mixing surface AUX Selection panel to work this way for a client.

Using the Media Pool for backgrounds, you can pretty easily do it without any additional hardware, as long as you have a computer (Parallels, if only Mac available, is recommended - so £45 on Mac for now, native Mac JM is in development) for control.

Sorry, didn't mean to deride with the term hack, but maybe I'm just used to hardware 1 M/E & 2 M/E switchers where I can assign the fill from another bus and do my switching/mixing on that bus.

Probably will trade-up the TVS for the 1 M/E anyway

Sorry, didn't mean to deride with the term hack, but maybe I'm just used to hardware 1 M/E & 2 M/E switchers where I can assign the fill from another bus and do my switching/mixing on that bus.

Zero offence taken mate, but I try not to miss opportunities to promote JM, and the fact it's an official SDK system (not that really means much), but theoretically it should mean it is "supported" by the manufacturer.

Doesn't really matter if you have a 6ME GV Keyenne, you paid a million dollars for, you'll always end up wanting to push your tools as far as they go, and then a tiny bit further. Multi-cam green screen on a TVS is certainly pushing the limits of what you can expect to do with a TVS, but you CAN DO IT!

Probably will trade-up the TVS for the 1 M/E anyway

The 1MEs are great, and you'll definitely not regret that decision, you may end up feeling you really want the SuperSource as 1 DVE on 4 USKs is perhaps a little limiting, but this is nit-picking as the 1ME is an extremely capable mixer.

My advise if you go for the 2ME, put a VideoHub or other Matrix in front of it. Never know when a re-route away and back again might be needed to sort a dodgy input, and the VideoHubs are also a super-good-value way of doing this.

Good Luck

John

Using the Media Pool for backgrounds, you can pretty easily do it without any additional hardware, as long as you have a computer (Parallels, if only Mac available, is recommended - so £45 on Mac for now, native Mac JM is in development) for control.

i was tested free virtualbox , and Xkeys is not works ..

i was tested free virtualbox , and Xkeys is not works ..

Not quite true, and it makes it difficult to help you, when you give no information.

Provided you have PIEHID.dll in your JustMacros directory within the Virtual machine, all you should need to do is allocate the USB Device to the Virtual Machine. In Full Screen Mode, you access the Devices Popup Menu of VirtualBox:



Select the XKeys Panel you wish to allocate to the VM. Then restart JustMacros within the virtual machine, and go to your XKeys Tab, and you will find your XKeys panel there, and will work normally.



You can set up "Device Filters" too, which will allow you to force the VM to grab the XKeys panel whenever it starts.

When on a Mac, like I said before I strongly recommend Parallels, where the procedure is very similar, and even though VirtualBox works fine, I really appreciate the work the Parallels guys have done implementing things like coherence mode:



If you are old school and using VMWare, which is probably the most used Virtualisation solution, the process is also very similar:



Suffice to say: Whatever your host OS and/or virtualisation environment, JustMacros will work normally, with or without XKeys / MIDI / DMX and Other USB Devices. Most of our JustMacros instances run in one virtualised environment or another, and I know of no problems doing this, in fact I strongly recommend it.

Regards

John

John : IT works now .. VirtualBox need to install additional Extension pack with USB 2 drivers .. after it Windows see Xkeys .. GREAT !!!