ATEM TVS setup - grainy quality

Hi all!

Really hope you can help me.

Here's my setup-- 3 cameras (HDMI) as well as an iMac (minidisplay port to hdmi) feeding into an ATEM TVS , from which I take the HDMI output into a 4 port HDMI splitter. 3 of those ports go to televisions in various parts of the campus, while the final one goes into a Blackmagic Thunderbolt Intensity Extreme feeding into a Mac mini.

The Mac Mini encodes using Livestream's Producer app for our online livestream, bringing in audio from our sound board for the stream.

The cameras run over J-Tech digital hdmi to Cat-6 extenders, btw. So that's the setup, and it's rock solid as far as no signals dropping, working week after week, etc.

My problem though, is that the picture quality is always lower than what I know the cameras can put out. Up until a few weeks ago, I've used lower end Panasonics, so I always just assumed they were the issue in my setup. I've since tested some nice (not high end, but $2k to $3k i.e. Canon HFG30, Sony AX100 and PX70) cameras as well and received the same results.

And I've tried to isolate the problem, but nothing seems to be the culprit. I get beautiful images at the camera, but once it enters the ATEM everything is grainy. The multiscreen monitor from the ATEM shows a grainy picture, the televisions connected to the output show a grainy picture, my livestream isn't that great either.

I've connected the cameras directly using a short HDMI cord to cut the extenders out of the mix, I've done an SDI connection with the PX70, I've gone just ATEM into Intensity strictly doing local capture on the Mac Mini-- I cannot replicate what the camera is seeing out of the switcher. I've tried 720p and 1080i, nada.

The crazy thing though, is that the iMac output plays beautifully through that 4th input. Videos and images I send through from ProPresenter are HD, look great on everything, including online.

Anyways, it's driving me nuts-- hope you guys can help!!

By the logic of what you say it must be your cameras. If the mac mini output is fine then the ATEM is not doing anything to the signal. When you say you see a good signal on the camera how are you seeing it. What is your comparison.

Take the HDMI output of the camera on a short cable, no extender systems and plug it into a capture system and record a bit of video. With the same settings and conditions for the camera (eg same light), plug the camera into the TVS and record the output of the TVS (not with the H264 encoder, but to something recording the HDMI, same as you used for the camera in the previous step).

Encode the files with exactly the same settings and upload them so we can see the difference you are talking about.

Generally (but anything can happen) the ATEMS just mix the signal, I can never see a difference between my input and output (ie if I go camera to monitor, or camera atem monitor they are exactly the same).

There are also some steps we don't see in your signal chain - how does the image get to livestream producer, what hardware sits between the ATEM and the computer? Do you see the same problem if you move the mac mini to one of the inputs that the camera is using, or if you switch the cameras to the mac mini input? If the cameras and the mac mini are the same then it is your cameras. What is you reference, are you just looking at the LCD on the camera?