Back in August, I made a video describing what I wanted in my perfect ATEM Mini.
Today, Blackmagic finally announced the next ATEM Mini, the ATEM Mini Extreme.
Did they listen?
Blackmagic just announced the ATEM Mini Extreme and ATEM Mini Extreme ISO.
And I am just so, so excited about these updates.
I've been using ATEM Minis since they first launched and I have been pushing the limits of what they can do.
I use them for my weekly livestreams as well as teaching workshops from my studio.
If you've been following along with my live streams lately, you'll know I've been talking about using a separate switcher to add more inputs into the ATEM Mini since it turns out I
end up using up all four inputs pretty quickly.
But anyway, let's go back to my video from August and see how many features I asked for that they end up adding.
First, please just add a headphone jack.
Yep. Sure enough, there is a headphone jack.
Everybody was always asking for this, so it is great to see that they actually listened.
While it's not a huge deal to have to plug in a monitor to the HDMI out and then plug headphones into that, it is sure a lot simpler having it built in.
And actually one of the really cool things about it is that you can choose which audio you want to listen to in the headphones.
It's not just the main program out and there's also nice buttons on the top that let you then mute the headphones and control the volume.
I would really like to see a second HDMI output on this.
Yes, again, the ATEM Mini Extreme has two HDMI outputs.
And they did better than I expected to because both HDMI outputs are actually assignable to any source.
You aren't stuck with one being multiview and the other being program like in some switchers.
Instead you can choose which to send out of each output.
That means you can use it for multiview and output an HDMI to a high quality recorder.
Or you can use it in a venue setting where you have multiview for yourself and then you send the presenter's computer that you're capturing back out to a projector using the
second HDMI out.
This is really cool and I am glad they made both outputs assignable.
So the obvious solution here is have two USB ports.
Yes, thank you.
Again, this was a huge limitation of the ATEM Mini.
With two USB ports, you can now use it both as a webcam into Zoom or Skype and record your program to a USB drive.
And this is actually super great for my main use of the ATEM Mini, which is teaching workshops over Zoom.
Recording in Zoom is always terrible quality, and I would like to be able to create high quality replays of the sessions myself later.
So now I can use as a webcam and also record the program to a USB drive.
And with the ISO model, I can even record my computer screen and my camera and any other sources I've got plugged in and just mix the whole show later.
But one of my biggest pet peeves about the current ATEM Mini is that the media pool disappears when you power down the device.
Okay, so this one, it turns out they shipped this in a firmware update for the ATEM Mini Pro and ISO back in October.
So thankfully, that feature has been fixed for a while now.
It is really so great that the media pool saves across reboots.
It makes it a lot faster to get up and running with a show now.
I would like to see two media players and two downstream keyers.
Okay, they did add another media player.
So now you have two media players and two downstream keyers.
You can use one for a lower third or title screen and then another to show like a small logo in the corner.
There's a little more they added along those lines as well.
But we'll get to that in a second.
And this one might be a bit of a stretch, but it would be super great to also have two SDI inputs in addition to the four HDMI inputs.
Now, I really did not expect that the new ATEM Mini would have eight inputs.
Eight. I did not expect them to go this high.
I was thinking maybe six at most.
This is actually super cool because it means a lot more flexibility for cameras, computer screens, chat overlays.
Plus you can run key/fill output from a hyperdeck for doing transparent video overlays to and still have six inputs left.
This is going to be such a relief in my studio because I was really feeling the limits of having just four inputs.
Now, I will say they did stick with HDMI rather than SDI like I was hoping for.
So I am still going to need a bunch of SDI converters.
But having eight inputs really opens up a lot of possibilities.
So ideally I would like to see balanced quarter inch input jacks for audio.
Ok, this is the first thing on my list they didn't give us at all.
It is still the same two 1/8" jacks as the original ATEM Minis.
I guess this isn't the end of the world.
I've been doing fine running audio through my camera and then using the 1/8" input for music from an iPod.
The rest of the features they added, which we haven't even talked about yet, more than make up for the lack of this feature.
Last audio feature I would like to see, and this one is actually super important, especially with the new streaming bridge, and that is to be able to assign which of your
audio sources are sent back out through the USB webcam out.
This is another one I didn't hear mentioned at all during the announcement.
I did notice they said the headphone output is assignable.
So maybe it's possible that this is already in there in the USB output too, or maybe they can add it in a firmware update in the future.
I'm still holding out for this because I do think it would make things a lot easier getting a mix minus feed into Zoom, for example.
Okay, lastly, I want macro buttons.
There are macro buttons, there are six macro buttons right on the top.
That means you can make these buttons do whatever you want.
Now I will say there's still a whole bunch of buttons on this that I'm not going to use, like all the camera control buttons, because I definitely don't have eight Blackmagic
cinema cameras, so I would still like to see the ability to reassign some of the other buttons on top.
But, hey, at least there are a few dedicated macro buttons right now.
Now onto the list of things that they added I didn't expect to see at all.
First, there's a new use of the USB ports, and they even shipped this as a firmware update to the ATEM Mini Pro and ISO.
You can now share your phone's hotspot to the ATEM Mini over USB.
This opens up some really cool possibilities for the ATEM Minis since you are no longer tied to ethernet for live streaming.
So now you can livestream on the go by just plugging in your phone, turning on your phone's hotspot feature.
It'll even automatically fail over from ethernet to tethering so you can use it as a backup connection as well.
And that is perfect for me, since, as you might know, if you've been following my live streams, I've actually lost power in this studio a few times during live streams.
So having that backup Internet connection will be super handy.
Okay, another feature, the multiview output now has some extra superpowers, too.
It's basically a grid of 16 rectangles.
And you can choose what you want to put into each rectangle.
That means you aren't limited to the fixed layout in the current ATEM Mini Pro, you can decide whether you want to monitor cameras in these or your media players or your audio
and streaming status, or you can even monitor what you're sending out of the HDMI ports.
Okay, I asked for to downstream keyers, but I didn't ask for any more upstream keyers.
And the reason I didn't bother asking for more is because it isn't until you get up to the $2500 ATEM 1M/E that you get more than one upstream keyer anyway.
So I figured it would just add too much cost to the Mini to get any more than one.
But somehow they managed to ship this with four upstream keyers.
That's right. Four.
That means you can do some really, really cool stuff.
Now, remember, the upstream keyers can do a bunch of different things.
You can use them for a DVE effect and a pattern effect, meaning you can scale and crop a source or put a video in a circle, or you can use an upstream key for green screening one
video on top of another.
Grant actually talked about using this to create virtual sets with four different cameras so you can take four different video sources, greenscreen each of them, put them on to
four different background layers and then switch between all those different angles.
This is going to be really cool and I can't wait to show you how to do all this stuff.
Okay, and now a big one, something I never thought I would see in an ATEM Mini or really anything that costs less than $4000, is Supersource.
If you aren't familiar with this feature, just wait until you see all the cool things you'll be able to do with it.
This is the feature that lets you get up to four different video sources on the screen on top of a background image all at the same time.
PhotoJoseph has the ATEM 2M/E with this feature and that's what we used to demonstrate doing a remote livestream with four different people.
We were using the Streaming Bridges to bring them all into the ATEM.
This is the feature that gets you the newscast style layout of video sources.
I literally cannot believe this is in the ATEM Mini Extreme now.
And as soon as they announced that feature, my first thought was, oh no, that's going to add like $1000 to the cost of this.
Speaking of...
Now let's talk about the price. I think this device should cost somewhere between $1295 and $1495.
I called it! The Extreme ISO model is $1295, which thankfully is at the bottom end of my range.
But what's really amazing is that they are also shipping a non ISO model which costs only
$995. If you don't need ISO recording, it's hard to describe just how affordable this is for everything you get in this device.
Four upstream keyers, SuperSource, two HDMI outputs.
These are all things you see in their much more expensive switchers.
It is really an amazing price.
So the big question, should you upgrade?
First, I will say if you have the $295 ATEM Mini and it's doing everything you need, you probably don't need to consider this new model at all.
The original ATEM Mini is still a fantastic device and it is still the cheapest way to get four HDMI sources into a computer as a webcam or add four HDMI sources into another
livestreaming switcher like the YoloBox.
Now, on the other hand, if you have the ATEM Mini Pro or ISO, there is a chance you might want to upgrade to get the new features in the Extreme models.
But the price difference isn't small.
It's $595 for the Pro compared to $400 more for the Extreme at $995.
Now if you've been taking full advantage of the features of the Pro and running into limitations, that might be a sign that the Extreme would be a good fit for you.
The most common limitations this will get around, which also can't be fixed with a firmware update to the Pro, would be the ability to use it both as a webcam as well as
record to a hard drive, and to get multiview out as well as HDMI out to something else at the same time.
But I wouldn't immediately rush out and sell your Pro to upgrade, since there are still plenty of uses for the Pro itself.
Just really think about whether the new features that they're adding are actually worth that additional cost to you.
Now, if you're considering getting an ATEM Mini for the first time, I would take a really close look at the Extreme models and see if it makes sense to save up for them.
It really will be a lot more flexible in the future and it'll get even more firmware updates in the future as well.
As for me, I am definitely going to be replacing my main ATEM Mini Pro with the new Extreme ISO as the center of my livestreaming desk.
It really does look like they listened to all of our feedback and this solves a lot of problems that I had.
So even though they missed my birthday by two months, I am still super excited to see it and I can't wait to get a hold of one.
If you are thinking about buying one.
Please use my affiliate links down below, that is a great way to support this channel.
And it helps make it possible for me to make more videos and tutorials.
I've got a lot of new videos coming down the pipe to show you all of the amazing things you can do with the new ATEM Mini Extreme.
Thanks so much for watching and I will see you in the next one.