I purchased this device to solve the CPU overload issues I experienced while live streaming Tidal Cycles from Blue Ridge Parkway.
The ATEM connects to the Latitude 7230 over ethernet using static IP addresses. The outbound stream from the ATEM is sent to nginx-rtmp running in Docker on the Latitude, which pushes the broadcast to multiple downstream platforms, including Owncast, YouTube, and Twitch using the device’s built-in 4G LTE mobile broadband. OBS is no longer used in this configuration, and video encoding is done directly on the ATEM, which saves significant processing power on the Latitude 7230. A dedicated external 12v battery is used to power the switcher.
The switcher control software provided by Blackmagic is only available for MacOS and Windows; fortunately, an open source alternative has already been developed.
Blackmagic ATEM Mini Pro ISO and Dell Latitude 7230 Demo
This live stream was a demonstration of the technologies described above. A few postmortem notes on the video: there is a buzzing in the audio track that I only noticed in post-production. I believe it was caused by the having connected line out from the Zoom H8 to mic in on the ATEM mini. This can be rectified with a Direct Box (a voltage transformer for audio equipment).
Also, the lights on the device are not flashing as they appear in the video. This is an artifact of the camera’s frame rate being out-of-sync with the LEDs.
As was mentioned in the video, this is all still a work in progress. The Latitude 7230, for example, is not routing traffic from the ATEM correctly, so I have to run Nginx-RTMP as a Docker container on the laptop. I will continue to update this thread as the project progresses.
Just a quick note that I am going to implement a second instance of Nginx-RTMP in order to improve stream performance. I was previously running one instance on my Latitude 7230 that would attempt to push to Owncast, YouTube, and Twitch; however, my AT&T broadband does not have sufficient bandwidth for this. Instead, the 7230 will stream to a second instance of Nginx running on my Dell Tower Plus at home. This PC has a much faster network connection and can replicate the single stream to multiple downstream platforms more effectively. I’m planning to host another stream this afternoon experimenting with this new model.
