First Look at the ATEM Mini Pro ISO and Streaming Bridge New member to the Blackmagic Design family of streaming controllers

A few days ago Blackmagic Design announced a third member of its very successful line of ATEM mini line of streaming controllers. This new model doesn’t change much on the outside but brings a few important capabilities to this form factor. The company also released a new Streaming Bridge which will allow users to connect two remote ATEM units for creating a much higher quality video chat as well as some other uses.

In the above video Aaron Parecki gives a very clear explanation about the changes made to the ATEM Mini Pro which turn it into the ATEM Mini Pro ISO. Basically, as we noted there are no physical external differences but internally there is a lot more powerhouse added to allow recording each one of the incoming channels. Basically instead of only recording in-camera, you can now record up to 5 separate H.264 video streams in real-time (a clean feed of all inputs plus the live program).

The big extra bonus is that you are also going to get a DaVinci Resolve project file so you can open your live production to adjust edits, change shots, remix audio very easily in post-production. This means that if you made a mistake during the live stream and you would like to fix it and repost – you can – and very easily.

These are really the two main differences between the ISO and non-ISO versions of the  ATEM Mini Pro. As for the Streaming, Bridge Parecki explains in the video above two potential use cases. The Streaming, Bridge basically decodes live stream from any ATEM Mini Pro model switcher and converts it back to SDI and HDMI video. allowing broadcasters to connect high-quality video links directly from any ATEM Mini Pro studio worldwide. Since ATEM Mini Pro’s video stream is much higher quality than simple conferencing software, the broadcast quality is going to be better and without those annoying burn-in logos (ahm ahm Skype).

Although we are far from being experts on streaming we find it strange that the ATEM Mini line has no headphone or XLR input support (getting great video is one thing but the audio is super important for streaming and pro-level audio typically comes in the form of XLR mics and although you can convert XLR back to 3.5mm this is far from ideal). We won’t be surprised if some sort of ATEM Mini Pro audio will be announced next with several XLR inputs and outputs).

Finally pricing, the ATEM Mini Pro ISO sells for $895 while the ATEM Streaming Bridge will sell for $245.

Bonus video: Alex Pettitt’s hands-on with the ATEM mini PRO ISO

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Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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