Building the Ultimate ATEM Podcast Studio with 5x NEW 4K Blackmagic Micro Studio Cameras

Learn how to build a professional podcast studio! I'm taking you behind the scenes of ‪@RadioRufusFM‬ and showing the full ATEM Mini and Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 setup I designed and built for their 1960's radio style podcast.
Check out the Radio Rufus channel here: / @radiorufusfm
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This video is sponsored by LiveU:
LiveU allows you to deliver exceptional live video coverage anytime and anywhere thanks to their innovative hardware encoders and cutting edge cellular bonding technology. Check out the LiveU Solo Pro here: go.alex.live/liveusolopro
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Kit Featured In This Video:
Blackmagic ATEM Mini Extreme ISO: go.alex.live/atem-ext-iso-
Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2: go.alex.live/micro-4k-g2
Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 Leica: go.alex.live/12-25mm-lens
Meike 8mm Wide Lens: go.alex.live/8mm-lens
Elgato Wall Mount: go.alex.live/elgato-wall-mount
Up Angled HDMI: go.alex.live/up-angled-hdmi
Fiber HDMI Cable: go.alex.live/20m-fiber-hdmi
Behringer X32 Rack: go.alex.live/x32rack
Shure Super 55 Deluxe Mic: go.alex.live/super55-mic
M2 Mac Mini: go.alex.live/m2mac
GL.iNet Router: go.alex.live/glinet-router
Elgato StreamDeck XL: go.alex.live/streamdeckxl
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Retro set pieces & all professional audio props sourced by:
willys-hifi.com/
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My Full ATEM Mini Extreme ISO Setup:
kit.co/alexpettitt
Book a One-To-One session with me:
alex.live/consulting
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Blackmagic Camera 8.6 Public Beta
Blackmagic has now released the REST protocol and File Sharing features that was mentioned in this video, to more of their cameras. To find out more about it here:
www.blackmagicdesign.com/supp...
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Big thanks to ‪@TheFellasStudios‬ for allowing me to film this build. Check out their channel above for weekly videos following the behind the scenes of building the UK's fastest growing podcast network.
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Note: The above links are affiliate links. It basically means I earn a small commission when you use my link to buy the product, but costs you no extra. It helps me to keep making videos. So thanks :)
#blackmagic #atemmini #podcast

[@AlexPettitt]

Got a question about the setup? Let me know below as I plan to do a live stream answering them soon

[@Walaby50]

I understand the ease of use of everything, but I would have loved if the old mixer in front of them would have played a role. Did u consider setting something up for that? Also knowing the camera positions and angles, why did you choose zoom lenses for some of the cams? And last question. Did you consider filters on the lenses to make it look more vintage? And for that also analog compressors for the sound?

[@pierrejeanjean9355]

Hi Alex, It's the second time you're using a DMX node controler... Which kind of node are you using? thanks, Love your project. Tx

[@kevinphillips6593]

How about an update on lenses with powered zoom available? We run a 4+ camera setup for our filming and streaming studio at ClayShare and would like to go with Blackmagic cameras to add 4k recording synced up to our ATEM Extreme ISO.

[@xanhetu6034]

What was the lighting set up? was it just standard room lighting?

[@AlexPettitt]

@@Walaby50 All great questions and I’ve noted them down for the live :)

[@alexplisko7794]

Awesome. I'd recommend putting some cables in the back of the vintage audio desk to add to the realism. Sells the look of it being used.

[@AlexPettitt]

Funny you should say that, I was thinking the exact same thing will I was editing this video. Going to 100% do that for sure 👍

[@alexplisko7794]

@@AlexPettitt Nice! This vid got me subscribed. Love the content.

[@garyoliver-encounterchurch]

Would so much appreciate a video on bit focus companion for our church tech!

[@literallykevin]

Alex: "Underneath, we have the x32 mixer..." Me: "Woah...wait...bro, that's overkill for the setup...wtf" Alex (seconds later): "It is worth saying that the x32 mixer probably is a bit overkill..." HAHAHAHA....You've pulled the sub right outta me. Excellent work.

[@terryhatziieremias]

what an interesting video

[@titusking-coloradorealtor]

Awesome project! That’s great to hear that a USB-c hub works! That was my question when the camera was released.

[@abennett]

Dude this is so impressive!

[@AlexPettitt]

Thanks so much!

[@ThisIsLeeBird]

Finally! The micro studio 4k G2 in action. Been waiting to order three until I saw something on them.

[@AlexPettitt]

Hope this video helped Lee :)

[@ThisIsLeeBird]

@@AlexPettitt it did! Love it 👍👍

[@ForGrimTilTV]

Alex, I love these videos :)

[@JonSchwark]

Very cool project! The cool thing about those cameras is they are small enough you could fit the in an old large format camera body, or other vintage gear to disguise them

[@AlexPettitt]

Yeah exactly! At one point we actually drilled out the middle of a vinyl record to hide it. They so small it’s brilliant!

[@magnificatscriptorium]

Great work Alex. I built something similar but with the larger 4k Studio cameras with help from your KZbin channel. The new smaller cameras came out two months after we finished the build. Wish I could've gotten those instead. They were cheaper too! darn.

[@keridudouze6143]

thanks for the video and congratulations for the studio. It is amazing ! regarding the Blackmagic G2, I plan to have one for making a PTZ (with the APC-R from Middle Things). It is a the perfect camera for tiny places !

[@villadante]

Amazing setup and very well explained! Im looking into building something similar, with a low footprint. Would you mind sharing how much they spent on the whole tech side of things (cameras, lighting, etc)?

[@fut-mcking2409]

I’ve craved straightforward info on this Micro G2 with results Best video on the topic I’ve seen thus far!!! I’ll be ordering 2 of these for my own podcast project !!

[@AlexPettitt]

So glad you found this video useful! Best of luck when using them in your podcast build...they are great little cameras!

[@xanhetu6034]

Hey Alex, thank you so much for putting this video together. I am like literally building a podcast studio set with a similar inspiration that you have just used on the set. And has given me more confidence and ideas on how to go about it. I would love to know more about how to use bit companion with bmd products, and the black magic cameras specifically.

[@hans-jochenwinkler6161]

thanks a lot! this is really something special that you built there-congrats! btw - its hi time that streamdeck is also able to control a yolo box ;-)

[@AlexPettitt]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed seeing it. And agreed, hopefully they build that in some time soon.

[@JadeWard-uh6ih]

Really loves this was super excited for this one after seeing the radio rufas set, I’d love to see what lenses you guys used I’ve never used that lens mount

[@AlexPettitt]

Thanks Jade, glad you enjoyed it! The lenses used are the Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 Leica: go.alex.live/12-25mm-lens and the Meike 8mm Wide Lens: go.alex.live/8mm-lens

[@AZisk]

Nice setup. What would you do to take advantage of the 4k that the cameras are capable of?

[@AlexPettitt]

Good Question, so the next step of this setup will be to have each camera attached to the network via 2.5gbe adapters, as well as have a 2tb hard drive attached. That will then mean that at the end of a recording, all the BRAW Camera Originals can be pulled from each camera over the network, and used with the ATEM ISO DaVinci File to do an instance replace of the 1080p ISO's for the 4K Camera Originals. Hope that makes sense :)

[@headwerkn]

As someone who used to own an old Teac mixer and Akai X series RTR - I approve!

[@AlexPettitt]

Hahah love that!

[@zatoichiable]

the radio station room-like is very retro looking.... old school.

[@BrisWiz]

Fantastic setup Alex! I can see that you would have enjoyed the challenge in putting this project all together. And not that it was applicable for this setup, but have you ever delved into wireless HDMI transmitter and receiver adapters for HDMI to USB-C UVC video capture?

[@AlexPettitt]

Thanks Bris! So I’ve only ever really done it with multiple devices, IE Hollyland for the HDMI MARS wireless part and then something like a CamLink to take that into a PC via UVC. Hope this helps.

[@johanderrez]

Cleverly thought out this setup, Alex. And a great looking studio. I am considering using these cameras for our mobile podcast studio instead of the two FS5s and one FS7. These cameras are simply too big for this job.

[@AlexPettitt]

Thanks Johan! They’re great, the biggest thing going over from Sony to them is: 1) No continuous auto focus 2) Recording on camera is in BRAW. If neither of those are a deal breaker, then I’d say go for it!

[@patamuslo69]

hi @AlexPettitt great video as always... please explain me, i dont get how yo do cam control from the atem, having only HDMI , but fiber, i understand its one way only, can you have camera control on fiber hdmi cable? or only copper hdmi with 2 way comm? thanks!

[@AlexPettitt]

Good question, so quite a few of the fiber HDMI cables now will include the back channel ATEM uses to send data back to the camera (for control, tally etc). I always make sure I choose a fiber cable that includes both ARC and CEC, then I find I get that two way connection. Note that you still need to plug the HDMI cable the right way round. More info can be found at the start of this video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6q4pJqGqdprsMU

[@AskJoe]

Great video. Awesome build. What fascinates me most is that you confirmed that you can use a USB hub to use both a network adapter and an SSD at the same time, making me wonder if Blackmagic will support USB hubs on their entire line, including the Pocket Cinema Cameras. I'd love to be able to buy the focus demands to tweak my focus but I use the single ports on my BMPCC 4K and 6K G2 for recording.

[@AlexPettitt]

Hey Joe, two quick things for that. The Focus and Zoom demands have USB daisy chaining, so you plug the focus demand into your camera and then the SSD into the focus demand and this should work fine. BUT, I believe that if you update your BMPCC4K to the latest Public Beta that came out this week, you can now also use USB hubs of those + get the benefits of the networking stuff I talked about in this video. Hope this helps

[@AskJoe]

@@AlexPettitt That's great to know. I knew they had a daisy chain feature for chaining the Focus and Zoom, but they never made it clear that you could potentially chain an SSD or as you explained, the Ethernet. Ideally, hub support could simplify everything.

[@svenlakemeier]

Impressive set up for such a small space. I'm not a fan of the camera perspective for the producer with the reflecting board, that looks out of place to me and while I get showing him in the surroundings makes him kind of small in the frame. What caused the use of this and not a wooden surface, as would be more typical? While I understand that the set dressing aims for a feeling more than authenticity, what prompted this choice of microphone? I'm pretty sure those weren't used in UK radio studios in the 1960s - and probably not in the US, either.

[@AlexPettitt]

Yeah I agree with you about the producer cam. Not sure why they went with the plastic for that bit of set (will have to ask the designers). As for the mics, we wanted something that had a modern (SM7B) type sound but with a vintage look, and this checked both those boxes... even if it doesn't exactly fit the 60's time period, it still has that feel to it to help sell the illusion without sacrificing on sound quality.

[@GabrielLamounier-REZLAM]

Great job, as always! Question: What lenses have you use? Are they prime or zoom? Can the focus be controled from the Atem?

[@AlexPettitt]

Great question Gabriel! So this build had two types. For the host, producer and guest single shots it was the new Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 Leica: go.alex.live/12-25mm-lens. Then for the two super wide angles I used the Meike 8mm Wide Lens: go.alex.live/8mm-lens. The 12-35's focus can be controlled by the ATEM remote, so if tweaks need to be made the producer can do that on the fly (very rarely). The super wide angles are manual focus, but because they're so wide, and we set the aperture to about f4, the focus covers the whole studio and we haven't had to adjust them once. Hope this helps :)

[@chrisghz]

I've recently bought an Atem Extreme ISO SDI, I also have a few HDMI versions too, so tally for those just works as you mention. But how do you get camera control and tally out of the SDI model back to the Studio cameras? I'm scratching my head on where that return feed should come from. I'm sure its probably super obvious. Love you work BTW so super informative! Will defo be looking for some consulting work at the University Innovation centre I work for.

[@AlexPettitt]

Hi Chris, great question. So the ATEM EXT SDI has 4 SDI output (you can feed program output which contains the tally info to any of those 4 outputs). So what I tend to do (to save on ports) is to feed one of those outputs to a BM SDI Distribution box, which takes the signal and splits it into 8, allowing you to run return SDI's to up to 8 camera, by only up one of your ATEM's outputs. Hope this helps :)

[@chrisghz]

@@AlexPettitt Thanks Alex! That's just the answer I needed. Totally missed the fact you could use one of the outputs with all the control data on it. I was thinking there was some fucky ethernet business it could use over the network. That would be a great feature from BM. Time to buy 8 more SDI cables and untie all my cable runs.... 🤣... Sigh.

[@AlexPettitt]

@@chrisghztechnically now that the camera has the REST protocol it can be controlled over Ethernet, but not yet from the ATEM Software control. Hopefully that comes in the future.

[@tommyclay6922]

What cable do you use to connect to your switcher? I’m using a 2ME Contellation ATEM controller and wondering how to connect micro SDI to regular SDI connections.

[@AlexPettitt]

Hey Tommy, great question. So although they are hard to find, there are "Micro BNC to BNC" cables available. Try searching amazon and a few options should come up. You use these cables to convert to full size BNC, then a regular SDI cable to connect to switcher. Hope this helps :)

[@DigitalCreations2012]

Great planning for this studio build. Where on earth do I buy mini sdi to mini sdi from in the UK? Same with mini sdi to full size female sdi. I have the G2 as well... been using it as car cam.

[@AlexPettitt]

They’re definitely aren’t many places selling them at the moment, but hopefully more people do as the demand increases. In the U.K. I’ve found a couple of online outlets that stock them, but they’re not cheap

[@davidkane4248]

​@DigitalCreations2012 Canford sell micro BNC connectors and cable assemblies; I got 300mm micro BNC male to BNC female cables for £23 ex VAT (stock no. 38-9222) for my Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 and they work perfectly and are intended for 12G/UHD compatibility. They seem light and flexible enough to allow gimbal work too, if you want to do a "poor man's remote head PTZ" sort of setup, which I hope to use one for at some point. Of course, at over £55 inc VAT for the two cables required for full functionality, whether that is "cheap" is a matter of opinion - to be fair, it's only roughly 5% of the camera RRP, so it could be worse, but it's also not great. Still, the G2 has been an impressive little camera so far and I look forward to seeing what other people come up with when leveraging its tiny size - so many creative possibilities!

[@PeetSneekes]

This looks awesome, but 🍑 the field of view of all these pictures seem quite deep. Let’s say you want that really smooth ‘cinematic’ image with a narrow depth of view. Than you need to refocus / auto focus all the time right? And that really put me off of these otherwise great camera’s: you need an operator to focus. You and many other youtubers never seem to talk about this. Could you make a video on the concept of a low maintenance studio setup where people and focus can be tracked easily or automatically?

[@AlexPettitt]

Good question! So fun fact, the producers so far haven't had to adjust the focus at all. In fact they barely touch the setup at tall as it's all fixed. For the single shots (Host, Producer and Guest) the F stop is around 2.8 - 3.0. The super wides are set to around 4.0 if i remember correctly so that the focus covers the whole of the room. Plus the producer is able to adjust the focus from the ATEM software if needed :) Totally get your point though, if BM ever brought auto focus to its range, there would be a lot of happy campers, that's for sure!

[@PeetSneekes]

@@AlexPettitt indeed. I’m looking to expand my one man band studio with two Sony Alpha 7IV’s and basically need to go for fx30 , or two more 7IV’s for the close ups to get the same quality and peace of mind (heating, recording and Flextape strength focus stick). Now that Nikon has taken over Red, perhaps Sony can take over Blackmagic Design 😉 Best of both worlds 💪

[@LikeThisReview]

You are still on Companion 2.4?

[@sleepynotded]

What type of cucial SSD did you use? Is Sandisk Extreme e61 2TB recommended?

[@shanepeters]

Can anyone comment on how well the StudioPro 6k would match with the micro 4k G2 in a livestream environment? How similar would the images look between these 2 cameras?

[@richardstegmann4488]

Great build, just a pity you couldn't hide or disguise the cameras a little more!

[@shaneclk9854]

Can it output video over the network 2110?

[@AlexPettitt]

With some of Blackmagic's newly released 2110 converters yes. Natively, no.

[@raulhespinosa]

Hi, What about the lenses you used in this setup?

[@user-om1ly4cf8l]

Panasonic 12-35mm F2.8 Leica Meike 8mm Wide Lens

[@AlexPettitt]

All linked in the description of the video for you :)

[@raulhespinosa]

@@AlexPettitt Yeah, I just realized.. thanks!!

[@HerodeStinfil]

Merci Jesus amen ❤🙏🏽🤝🏽🇭🇹

[@uralrider88]

If it hasn't got 3 sensors it isn't a studio camera, single sensor doesn't cut it in a TV studio the colour is always poor especially skin tone . Get yourself an older sony pmw 350 or 500 .

[@nebukadnezzar3578]

The Arri Amira Live and the new Alexa 35 Live have no good color because they lack sensors? I dunno man 😅

[@uralrider88]

Single sensor is like autocrome film from the early days of colour photography, three sensors is like Technicolor. Single sensor is okay and the more you spend the better it is, if your looking for a look, pardon the pun then who needs true colour and if you can afford a guy to correct it etc.

[@uralrider88]

@@nebukadnezzar3578 how much does the arrive cost? Jvc gym hc 900 three 2/3" new £12k

[@Goodmanperson55]

spending all that money only for the image to get squashed into a 1080i mpeg-2 stream 😅

[@uralrider88]

@@Goodmanperson55 mpeg 2 stream ? H.265 (hevc) these days. And what's wrong with 1080i? I bet at an average viewing distance on an average TV you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and 4k, never mind that 8k nonsense