Captioning with a Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini

The ATEM Mini series of video switchers are an affordable option to live video switching and editing. This article discusses the ability to use the Downstream Keyer in the ATEM Control Software along with a rectangle placed into the Media Library.

Prerequisites:

• A Blackmagic Design ATEM Mini, Mini Pro, Mini Pro ISO, Mini Extreme or Mini Extreme ISO

We have not tested this with other models of the ATEM Switcher, however, while this should work on the whole ATEM family, you may wish to use the super source on the switchers which support this feature.

• A computer running Zip Captions connected to the ATEM via HDMI (see below for instructions for setting up Zip Captions)

• A computer with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Control Software installed and running, connected directly to the ATEM via USB-C or on the same network as the ATEM.

In this example, we have the computer running the captions plugged into HDMI 1 on the ATEM, and we have an additional computer input plugged into HDMI 2 displaying a web browser. The HDMI output is set to PGM.

All of the setup for this is going to happen in the ATEM Control Software.

1. Open the ATEM Control Software and connect to your switcher

2. Click on the Media tab at the bottom of the screen.

3. Download this rectangle (links to Google Drive) or this one which is opaque.
4. On the left side of the media panel, navigate to where you downloaded your rectangle.

5. Drag and drop the rectangle to one of the empty media library locations.

6. Drag the rectangle in the media library, to the media box on the right hand side of the screen.

Drag and drop the rectangle from your media library to the active media location

1. Click on the Switcher tab at the bottom of the screen

2. On the right hand side click on Palettes

1. Scroll down to the Downstream Key section

1. Set the following settings:

   • Fill Source choose your HDMI 1 input

   • Key Source choose the Media Player 1 Key

You should not be showing Input 1 on the switcher, the red live indicator should now be on Inputs 2, 3 or 4.

1. In the main window find the section titled DSK 1 and click on the ON AIR button

1. You should now find that your captions appear in a rectangle at the bottom of the screen

Captions appearing in a rectangle drawn over the main image.

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Considerations for setting up Zip Captions

• The theme should be set to Zip Dark to work with this rectangle, if you wish to use it with another theme, you would need to change the rectangle to match the colour of the theme.

• The On Screen Results setting should be set to 1 or 2 lines to prevent the text from creeping outside the rectangle.

• Zip Captions should be set to full screen to remove the header and footer

You can always choose to view HDMI 1 to get Zip Captions set up properly, or you can choose to view the Multi View in order to access the settings.