Harvard Adds Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K Switchers

Harvard University has installed six Blackmagic ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K switchers as part of a new production workflow supporting the broadcast of Harvard athletics to the Ivy League Digital Network.

These switchers join other Blackmagic Design products at Harvard, including the Compact Videohub, Micro Videohub, ATEM Television Studio and several Mini Converters.

Initially, the new workflow is being used to broadcast and stream the Harvard tennis season, with an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K installed at each of the six indoor tennis courts located at Harvard. Each match is streamed directly to the Ivy League Digital Network, a new nine channel network that includes live and on demand content from a variety of sports across all eight United States Ivy League schools.

Imry Halevi, Harvard’s Director of Multimedia and Production for the Department of Athletics, built and maintains the broadcast workflow.

“The tennis coach approached me about streaming matches online, and while I knew we could do it, I did a lot of research to figure out the best way to go about it,” said Halevi. “I needed something with a DVE channel, something that added audio, and I needed it to be affordable. The ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K was by far the best solution for us.”

Each of the six tennis courts has a camera at one end for a wide angle shot, which is fed into an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K. Audio input for the commentators’ feed is fed into the switchers, as well as a second video input for a shot of the scoreboard, which is then used in the wide angle shot for the DVE effect.

Halevi is even able to link the ATEMs to share scoreboard shots. The tennis center houses two scoreboards, one scoreboard for each set of three tennis courts, and during matches, scoreboard feeds are input into an ATEM switcher, then connected to the other switchers via an auxiliary output. HDMI feeds from the switchers are outputted to a Teradek VidiU online streaming box for streaming directly to the web. Imry controls everything remotely with the ATEM Software Control Panel.

“The ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K does everything I need it to do at such an affordable price,” said Halevi. “We’ve done a few test runs with this setup for scrimmages, and everything has worked great. The switcher has been very easy to use and reliable.

“It is also very powerful and has a lot of scalability,” he continued. “It will even prepare us to stream in 4K down the line, which I am very happy about. I’m excited to expand on what we are doing now as the seasons go on.”

Halevi plans to implement the same setup for Harvard’s six outdoor tennis courts to continue streaming matches after they move outdoors in the warmer months.