WATCH: Blackmagic Design ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel Revealed

Recently at the Blackmagic Design Conference & Expo at Universal City, we had a chance to catch up with Bob Caniglia, Director of Sales Operations, North America at Blackmagic Design.

Blackmagic had all of there new products which were recently announced this month. In this video, Bob shows us the all-new ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel and how it fits into the robust lineup of Blackmagic Design’s Broadcast products.

ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel (available now, US$2,995): ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel is a new elegantly designed compact hardware control panel designed to work with all ATEM switchers. The ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel features the latest broadcast technology, smooth professional buttons, knobs, T-Bar fader and joystick, a built-in LCD and more.

The ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel features newly designed buttons and LCD based labels that help improve clarity and reduce incorrect key presses. The buttons have customizable color backlighting to indicate status and activity. In addition, dynamic displays are placed above and below the buttons. These provide customizable text, multi-language support, and the custom label colors. The combination of button colorization and customizable text labels help customers quickly identify important keys while working on high pressure, fast-paced live switched programs.

The layout of the panel has been designed with the help of professional broadcasters. The ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel has a new custom design T-Bar fader and buttons that are logically grouped in a familiar broadcast layout, so customers with experience using older panels can get up and running quickly. Dedicated groups of buttons are spaced apart so controls for things such as transitions, macros and keyers can be quickly located and used without the risk of accidentally hitting the wrong button. The ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel features a shift button that doubles the number of inputs that can be controlled from 10 to 20.

The new M/E selection buttons allow control of up to 4 independent M/Es on a single panel so customers quickly switch between and control up to 4 mix effect rows, effectively enabling total control of a 4 M/E switcher from a 1 M/E hardware panel. This makes it possible to use the ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel with the new ATEM 4 M/E Broadcast Studio 4K.

The upper section of the ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel features a large 5 inch LCD with 4 soft buttons and 4 soft knobs, along with a set of dedicated function buttons on the left, and a numeric keypad and professional joystick on the right. The color screen gives customers large clear labels of what’s currently on the preview and program busses. Plus, the screen automatically changes based on the current function and provides controls for quickly adjusting things such as transition rates, effects, graphics and more.

“The new ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel is exciting because it gives customers total control of up to 20 inputs and four mix effects rows, all in a compact design that can be taken virtually anywhere,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “The built-in LCD along with the dynamic button screens, customizable colors and labels takes the ATEM 1 M/E Advanced to a whole new level of design and features for live production. We’ve worked hard to build a state of the art panel that will enable customers to work on their live programs faster and more accurately than ever before!”