Noisy fans -> network protocol?

Hi,

I just bought an ATEM Television Studio HD and a HyperDeck Studio Mini for a low budget project, just to learn that both are, although functionally excellent, unsable or at least problematic for the intended purpose because of their noisy fans. Both, especially the HyperDeck, produce a penetrant and audible noise from the outer (case) fans, and it seems as if there are more, even louder, fans inside (cpu fans I guess). Since the devices were intended to be operated by the person sitting in front of the camera and microphone (there's no director), the mic will record the noise. I'm somewhat disappointed since all my other camera/recording gear is completely or quite silent. That's the first recording equipment I have making lots of noise.

Now I have to deal with that problem somehow.

One approach would be to build a simple remote control at least for the „cut” button, which should not be much of a problem except for programming. A simple button mounted in a table.

Is there a description of the API / network protocol to operate the devices over the network as Blackmagic's Mac software does?

regards

The Atem UDP control protocol is pretty heavy and officially not released.

You could look into 3th party hardware like Skaarhoj which has a lot of small controllers to control the atem.

Another thing you could do is buy an old Atem. (THe older ones are fanless) Also the older hyperdecks are silent too..

Laptop/desktop + numeric keypad 15 ft USB? If you use long ethernet the BM hardware doesn't even need to be in the same room. Sometimes the simple solution is best.

Yes, a scaling converter is best. Thanks Daniel for the input.
Cheers

[quote="Xtreemtec"] Another thing you could do is buy an old Atem. (THe older ones are fanless) /quote]

I have one for sale.

yeah, mmmh, I just bought a brand new ATEM, and buying another, older one to deal with shortcomings is not exactly what I had in mind as a solution.

My workaround plan was to take one of those cheap microcontrollers with a WLAN interface, add a battery and some keys, and glue it under the table as an invisible remote control, for around 20 bucks.

But to be honest, my plan was to just use the ATEM as it is. I really don't understand why BMD uses cheap fans. I had not expected to need a workaround at all, my intention was to just buy it and use it.

I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one disappointed with the noisy fans on the ATEM Television Studio HD. For a device that is sold to be used in live production, it should be quiet enough to actually use it in live production. It wouldn't have hurt as all to make it a full 19 inches wide if needed in order to make it quiet.

To be honest, I don't really see the issue with the fans - but then again, I rarely have the switcher in the same room as the performance. I've done that a few times only, with purely static cameras and no operators. Whenever we actually direct, we need a more quiet area anyway for comms and stuff.

In any setup with rackmounted PCs for graphics, that's gonna make more noise than the ATEM anyway, in my (albeit limited) experience. Stuff it in a well ventilated but closed rack, that'll kill a lot of the high-frequency "whine"

I'm surprised you bought an atem not knowing about the fan noise 'problem' almost every independent review has made mention of it, along with many separate posts here discussing it.

A.

I'm surprised you bought an atem not knowing about the fan noise 'problem' almost every independent review has made mention of it, along with many separate posts here discussing it.

Considering that I pre-ordered it before there were any real user reviews, it would have been very difficult to have known.

The fan noise isn't anything new. It started with the introduction of the prod. studio 4k then with the newer 1me and 2me models. So it's been a 'problem' for the last 18mnths or so.

As the guys have suggested above put it in a 19" rack case with plenty of space around it to aid ventilation and that will help in it running a little quieter.