Atem Mini Pro ISO - how to combine multiple projects

Hi,

I have just finished a shoot in the studio yesterday where we used multiple Pocket cameras on an Atem Mini Pro ISO. Since the DIT used downtime to backup footage and project files, I just noticed that the SSD connected to the Atem Mini Pro ISO now contains several folders with successive projects.

In the end, I will need to create a single timeline, with all these projects and their synced video files together as multiple layers.

How do I approach this?

How can I combine multiple projects together?
How do I create a multicam file, with each camera on a separate track?
How do I reconnect/replace the MP4 files with the source BRAW files recorded in the camera?

Please advise.

[Peter Chamberlain]

Good question.

Assuming they replicated the folder structure when copying the projects, the last ATEM Mini Pro ISO folder created for each recording will have a .drp. If the same SSD had start and stop recordings, sound like it did, then you will have multiple of these folders.

Leave the folder structure intact in your media storage.
Manually copy the BRAW clips from each camera into the same folder ATEM generated for each recording.

Then import each drp, one at a time to create projects.
Verify that with the menu selection, clip i think or icon on cut page, you can switch between the the BRAW and the h.264.

With dynamic project switching turned on in the project manager, open all projects and copy and paste the timelines into your first project.

Hi Peter,

Thanks for your quick response.

Is said dynamic project switching a feature of Resolve 17? I can't seem to find it in v16, which is what I currently use. But maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks,

Richard

Hi Peter,

I notice that the Atem Mini Pro ISO does make each project only partially unique, nor the assets incorporated inside the project.

In the ATEM folder successive folders are created (mine were called "Untitled.drp" up until "Untitled 6.drp" indicating the six times the DIT removed the SSD in between takes and breaks to back up the footage and project files.

However, inside these folders, the names of successive clips are identical, not unique: each folder contains "Untitled 01.mp4" etc, and the Video ISO Files "Untitled CAM 1 01.mp4" etc.

When merging several projects into one, using a copy/paste feature from one timeline to the next, this results in several clips with identical names on a single timeline.

It seems to me that all assets inside a project should be given a unique name. Also, if you want to re-link/replace these assets to/with the original BRAW files from the camera, it would have been far easier if these assets were given the same identical name as the files recorded inside the camera, with .braw vs .mp4 being the unique factor and perhaps a reference to the project file it belongs to. Since a return path exists between Pockets and the ATEM Mini Pro (ISO), it would be far easier to manually relink BRAW assets if they have identical names.

Also, you would expect the project built by the ATEM to feature a single timeline containing 5 video tracks and an accompanying number of audio tracks:
- CAM 1 on track 1
- CAM 2 on track 2
- CAM 3 on track 3
- CAM 4 on track 4
- Program Out on track 5
- Stills on track 6 (when used)

Perhaps the engineers can think of this in a future update?

Thanks.

Having a similar conundrum here - because the only good 'on the fly' way to DIT and name stuff through Atem Mini ISO workflow is the single "filename" field in the Atem software, we just shot a whole week with of hundreds of now 'projects' that need to be somehow, tediously, merged together.

It would be helpful if in Resolve a drp could just be added into the existing, open project when imported. Similar to an XML being spit out.. for other high end switcher record systems that actually interface with Atems over network and record edits. When importing xml you don't a new project created every single import, it's basically just the timeline and related media.

2nd option, maybe the Atem software should have an option to just 'add to project' when recording with a new filename. Have ONE overall project name or maybe an additional field to fill that info in which makes the root folder, and then you can record as many files onto it as you desire. I.E. our day's project is "5-13 Comedy Night" and every record we do for different shows through the night, simple fall into that project even when filename is different. They create a new timeline within single .DRP that gets updated each record.

As for the way the timeline is built: I do NOT agree with the stacked timeline on tracks. The way higher end systems work is they actually build out a traditional, universal multicam sequence. In order words, all cameras angles are synced, made into a multicam sequence, and the mutlicam sequence is pre-cut up according to how the TD switched is. So you can double click it, opening up your angles, and use keyboard shortcuts to quickly change out the angle at any given cut, etc. I am surprised Atem Mini/Resolve workflow did not integrate this and just went all in on the Cut page 'sync bin' thing. I get trying to push that and as a super quick and dirty option for consumer type applications, but shouldn't Sync Bin and the Multicam function on Edit page be one in the same?

Just some thoughts through practical use and workflow.

Cheers -w

[citation="Weston Woodbury"]
As for the way the timeline is built: I do NOT agree with the stacked timeline on tracks. The way higher end systems work is they actually build out a traditional, universal multicam sequence. In order words, all cameras angles are synced, made into a multicam sequence, and the mutlicam sequence is pre-cut up according to how the TD switched is. So you can double click it, opening up your angles, and use keyboard shortcuts to quickly change out the angle at any given cut, etc. I am surprised Atem Mini/Resolve workflow did not integrate this and just went all in on the Cut page 'sync bin' thing. I get trying to push that and as a super quick and dirty option for consumer type applications, but shouldn't Sync Bin and the Multicam function on Edit page be one in the same?

Just some thoughts through practical use and workflow.

Cheers -w [/quote]

Me too !! please Blackmagic !!

This "system" also leads to data loss. In my production I had 3 DaVinci projects in the end, but only the in-camera .braw recordings of the last project. No idea where the recordings of the first two projects went…