ATEM mini extreme streaming issue

Hey, We are a portable setup being we set up each Sunday to stream. We have a pretty basic 3-4 camera and a computer input used for key on an ATEM mini extreme. Sound comes in from an X32 to the mic input. (we go XLR to DI box and then jack to 3.5mm, also had XLR direct to 3.5 and jack to 3.5 and rca to 3.5, so thats not an issue).

We have been forced to use the USB C port to connect to OBS to stream because i am unable to get streaming speeds sufficient to not have the cache fill up within 5 minutes of going live.

When i set it to the lowest setting Streaming low, i get 2.9-4mbps upload. When i set to high i suddenly get 6-7mbps and on hyperdeck low i got 11-12mbps. So i know that our internet is sufficient to stream at low because on the different settings i can get higher speeds. but it seems that i can only get the base speed needed to stream on each setting but it isn't fast enough to stream for the 90minutes i need it for. max 5min and the cache is full. Local speed tests give me a 27mbps upload speed. I have ethernet connection directly to the router. tried all types of different setups.

In the end we go to OBS, but even then i find that the output video is great but the sound is unbalanced and distorted when it comes into OBS i need to do heavy compression (-20db) and reduce the output 5db on the main audio slider just to avoid distortion it despite it sounding great on the ATEM. And the smallest buzz gets exaggerated to an annoying loud sound. (ive check its on the correct output setting line not mic and ive tried split and unsplit audio settings.) Kinda run out of options except to wanting to bin the ATEM as it seems to be the bottle neck. Or risk spending 200 euros for a HDMI capture card for our streaming PC from the ATEM which seems a waste when the ATEM can stream if it were to work as intended.

We are a church that started using an ATEM mini extreme pro earlier this year. There are a few threads that discuss the cache filling during streaming you could search for. I don't remember specifics. The ATEM ethernet can get busy depending on if you are streaming, using Software Control or a panel, or using third party wifi-connected control apps. Besides which if your attendees are on wifi on the same connection. We set our ATEM to 1080p30 and our cameras are 1080p60. So this is easy for the ATEM to handle just halving the frame rate.

Audio through an ATEM can be tricky. Of course there's the issue of balanced to unbalanced and mic vs line which you understand. However I believe the meters you see in Software Control are post fader, not pre. So you can be clipping even if a meter isn't pegged at the top. If a meter is post you can be hard clipping but the meter just follows the fader. The sign of this is the meters don't move much in Software Control but stay pretty much the same level all the time, even if they aren't at the top.

We take our audio out via the HDMI program out not USB so I don't have experience with that. We started streaming with the ATEM but moved to Resi. However we never had the cache filling problem but we had a fast uplink as well.

X32 has a pair of RCAs (5 and 6) at line level.

Set the ATEM audio jack for Mic 1 to LINE level in ATEM software control.

Use an RCA to 3.5mm into Mic 1 on the ATEM.

If you're getting mains buzz then you may need a ground loop isolator.

If the Cache is filling up when streaming to Youtube modify the RTMP address from RTMPS to RTMP.

Yes we use rca when we can. But the cable is prone to breaking very easily. We are portable so it needs plugging in and out each week which doesn’t help. Resi is out of budget for us. Hence why we use obs.

I tried putting the ATEM straight into the router with an Ethernet and control via usb and then also without usb control and didn’t see any difference.

we stream 1080,30. Do you think if we have our cameras on something not 60 or 30 that could be an issue? Our main camera is a black magic pocket 4K on 30. But our two smaller Panasonic g70s are on 50 or 24. They don’t have 30 as an option. I set higher usually. Our pro7 input is also just a simple screen output so I doubt that does much and is only used for chroma key.

Changing RTMPS to RTMP is well attested in the threads. If OBS streams fine but the ATEM doesn't and you are only using the ATEM ethernet port for streaming then I would certainly try changing to RTMP.

Our cameras do 24 or 60 so we chose 60 because that's computationally easier to convert to 30 than 24. We didn't test if using 24 caused the cache issue.

Something I noticed one time was if we were hard clipping the MIC1 input it took down Software Control. Like we were somehow overloading the engine in the ATEM. So you could try turning the preamp control on MIC1 all the way down just to make sure you aren't clipping.

Interesting idea about MIC1 input clipping causing a glitch in the ATEM code. BM might review that idea.

Something I noticed one time was if we were hard clipping the MIC1 input it took down Software Control. Like we were somehow overloading the engine in the ATEM. So you could try turning the preamp control on MIC1 all the way down just to make sure you aren't clipping.

About September we started getting cache issues. I will spare you the isolation testing I did. I am at the end of what I can change to make this ATEM work like it did just weeks (year) before. I will try lowing the MIC 1 ATEM input and also try the pull the ethernet cable when the cache panic happens. Those are NOT fixes they only make the issue hide for awhile. Blackmagic might consider those test sets. That MIC 1 CLIPPING seems interesting because I did increase my board send to the ATEM MIC 1.

Hope a true fix and update is coming soon for the ATEM to fix this. Don't want to go back to OBS.

I believe it's a significant issue that the level meters on the audio page of software control are post-fader. On sound boards one has a choice if level meters are pre or post-fader. This is why I'm familiar with this- I work with sound.

The result of this is you can't easily tell if you are driving MIC 1 into clipping except by noticing the meters don't vary much as the program varies. The level meter when hard clipping will just follow the level of the fader.

I got around my issue with the audio by switching from mic to line in setup. It's easily overlooked.