Blackmagic Design today announced ATEM Microphone Converter, a new audio analog to digital converter that lets customers add additional microphones to ATEM switcher models such as the new ATEM Television Studio HD8. Featuring a MADI connection, it means customers don’t have to configure any complex settings because the connection is a simple BNC cable. The design features amazing quality with an extremely low noise floor of -129dBV, a dynamic range of 131 dB(A), low distortion of 0.002% and uniform tolerances across all channels. The design also features an HDMI monitoring output with scrolling waveform displays. ATEM Microphone Converter will be available in Q2 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide for US$395.
Now it’s easy to expand the MADI input on ATEM switchers so customers can add multiple microphones or external audio mixers. The ATEM Microphone Converter simply plugs into the ATEM Television Studio MADI port, so there’s no complex setup required and additional units can even be daisy chained for more sources. Each converter has 4 analog inputs that are mic/line selectable and have 48V phantom power. The design features amazing audio quality with an extremely low noise floor, a wide dynamic range and very low distortion. The design even uses 8 separate ADCs on each separate input that work together to extend dynamic range. There is also an HDMI monitoring output with scrolling audio waveforms.
The ATEM Microphone Converter features a familiar converter based design that has space for the analog electronics required for high quality analog to digital audio conversion (ADC). It features combined XLR/TRS input sockets allowing both XLR or jack cables to be connected. It also includes a MADI output with the converted audio, as well as a MADI input which allows multiple ATEM Microphone Converters to be daisy chained so more than 4 channels of audio can be embedded into a single MADI connection.
he innovative design of the ATEM Microphone Converter also has other benefits, such as extremely precise matching between input audio channels. The multi ADC per input design technique means that each analog audio input has very similar specifications and tolerances so all input channels are statistically more uniform. Plus the unique 8 ADC input design will maintain a stable and consistent flat noise floor that won’t experience the negative effects of noise floor level modulation that traditional staggered ADC designs suffer from.
ATEM Microphone Converter also includes an HDMI video monitoring output so customers can connect a simple TV or computer monitor for a full status display. It includes 4 scrolling waveforms over the last 60 seconds of time, which is both informative and fun to watch. There are also audio meters to show the level at the input connector. There are also indicators to show the switch settings for mic/line input selection and phantom power. Plus if customers daisy chain converters the monitoring output will adapt and display more than 4 channels.
“We are very excited by this product because we spent a lot of time innovating on the analog conversion design for incredibly high quality,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “We didn’t want to design a cheap converter, we wanted to design the best, so the benefit to customers is their microphones will have a very low noise floor so there is no background noise. The noise floor of this converter is lower than all the microphones we tested! That means any customer can get radio station audio quality without any technical knowledge. The converter does it all.”
ATEM Microphone Converter Features
- Expand audio inputs with ATEM Microphone Converter.
- Robust converter style design.
- Connects via MADI for multi channel audio.
- Extremely low noise floor of -129dBV.
- Ultra high dynamic range of 131 dB(A).
- Precise input matching and low distortion of 0.002%.
- Includes HDMI monitoring output with scrolling audio waveform display.
Availability and Price
ATEM Microphone Converter will be available in Q2 for US$395, excluding duties, from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.
For more information on the ATEM Microphone Converter, go to the website https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/atemtelevisionstudiohd/atemmicrophoneconverter
