petera209 wrote:I have a very significant question. I have purchased multiple Blackmagic products including the ATEM Television Studio. In December I purchased the ATEM Mini to be used for smaller live event shoots. To see Blackmagic offering a superior product that addresses the main drawbacks of the original Mini, so close to the original launch feels a little upsetting. Had I known about a superior version of the hardware being released less than 4 months after the original I would have waited. The reality is that Blackmagic announced the original Mini earlier in last year but I don't know of anyone who was able to get a retail unit until late November at the earliest. By November, Blackmagic had to know they were planning the Pro model. Shouldn't they offer a trade-in for early adopters of the ATEM Mini or a discount for them? If not that, wouldn't it be fair to offer a firmware update that would offer the mutliview feature? As of a month ago, their phone technical support was saying that an upgrade to the software or hardware might give the Mini multiview capabilities. I just think that for some purchasers, we would have paid the extra money for the extra features had we known they would be available. This would be a fair way to deal with us as early adopters. Any thoughts?
Look on the bright side, at least Blackmagic Design updated the ATEM Mini quickly... the current ATEM 1 M/E Production 4k has been around for what, about 5 years or so now, with no hardware updates? Same with the 2 M/E? The entire mid-range of BM's ATEM line is SORELY lacking in updates and features vs all the models that have been released in the last two years... I was really hoping to see some updated hardware for the 1 M/E, 2 M/E, and 4 M/E models during Grant's presentation, however it looks like we'll have to wait longer.... holding out hope for an actual "Broadcast" announcement late this month around when NAB would have taken place... It would be great to see BM's mid-range switchers "catch up" with the features of their $300 and $500 model switchers. Consider the following price points / features:
ATEM Mini - $295 (INCLUDES fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advanced chroma keyer, no stream encoder)
ATEM Mini Pro - $595 (INCLUDES fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advanced chroma keyer, + stream encoder)
ATEM TV Studio HD - $995 (
NO fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advance chroma keyer, or stream encoder)
ATEM Production Studio 4k - $1,695 - (
NO fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advance chroma keyer, or stream encoder)
ATEM TV Studio Pro HD - $2,295 (
NO fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advanced chroma keyer, or stream encoder)
ATEM 1 M/E Production 4k - $2,495 - (
NO fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advanced chroma keyer, or stream encoder)
ATEM TV Studio Pro 4k - $2,995 (INCLUDES fairlight audio and per-port standards conversion and advanced chroma keyer, no stream encoder)
ATEM 2 M/E Production 4k - $3,995 (
NO fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, advanced chroma keyer, or stream encoder)
ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast 4k - $5,995 (
NO fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, or stream encoder, 5+ years old, does have advanced chroma keyer)
ATEM Constellation 8k - $9,995 (INCLUDES fairlight audio, per-port standards conversion, and advanced chroma keyer, no stream encoder)
Don't get me wrong, I love BM and their gear, but man, it would be really great to see some mid-range product updates in the very near future that bring the 1 M/E, 2 M/E, 4 M/E models up-to-date.
PS: BM did the same thing with the current TV Studio Pro HD and TV Studio Pro 4k model releases... the 4k is far superior to the HD version with only a moderate price differential, and they were only released about 4-6 months apart from what I recall.
PPS: RTMP isn't dead by far... SRT most certainly is the future, but RTMP is a long way from being dead.