Review: Blackmagic Design ATEM Constellation 8K

Audio Monitoring and Controls

Monitoring audio on the Constellation 8K with headphones benefits from the individual controls for levels of the master, talkback, and sidetone audio levels. The master audio is your main mix but the other two merit some explanation.

Talkback audio is the audio coming from your camera operators in supported workflows while sidetone audio is your own headset microphone audio that is looped back to your headset. Typically, you would set the sidetone audio level fairly low but the presence of some level of audio is useful similar to how a stage monitor is useful for a vocalist as a bit of sound re-enforcement. Typically, sidetone audio is more desirable when you’re using noise-cancelling headphones.

Audio on the Constellation 8K can be shaped using Fairlight audio controls. These include a 6-band parametric equalizer; dynamic controls like threshold, range, ratio, attack, hold, and release; expander/gate; compressor; make up; and limiter. Typically, I would process some of these functions on an external digital soundboard, but when I don’t have control over that portion of the workflow, having advanced audio controls can make the difference between audio that is meh, and a great audio recording.

Media Pool

The ATEM Media Pool on the Constellation 8K varies according to the resolution you are working in. For 4320P it is 100 frames, 2160P is 400 frames, and 1080P is 1,600 frames. The Media Pool is content that is stored internally in the video switcher and loaded in from a connected computer with software control panel.

If your requirements exceed the video pool you can connect a Hyperdeck for additional capacity. The advantage of using a Hyperdeck for video playback is that you can recall specific clips using a programmed macro, which is more efficient than pressing play on a connected laptop and timing the switch.

Keying

ATEM switchers have both upstream and downstream keyers for convenient graphics overlays and greenscreen work. The 4 upstream keyers work on the M/E block and can perform luma, linear, pre-multiplied, chroma, pattern, of DVE keys. The 2 downstream keyers work on the DSK block and can perform luma or linear keys.

I appreciate the Adobe Photoshop plug-in that allows me to add graphics directly to the ATEM Media Pool. This is a feature I find especially useful when graphics need to be updated on the fly or because something changed since the initial graphics package was created.

My Experience

Getting the whole workflow up and running took me a few hours. Small things took a bit longer than with my normal workflows, like the need to convert each output from SDI to HDMI for my regular monitors, or to track down my SDI monitors. Connecting multiple devices on the ad hoc ATEM network meant I needed to revisit the networking rules that I outlined earlier in this review.

My review unit needed a firmware update as I was already running the latest version on my laptop. The update took only a few minutes, but during this time the fans ran at full throttle and generated significant noise—roughly 90dB at 1 foot. So, while it is obvious that the Constellation 8K has very powerful fans for cooling, they can generate significant noise if they need to run at full speed. I didn’t turn on the heat in my studio before testing and the ambient temperature of the room was only 54 Farenheit/12 Celsius. Once the firmware update was complete the fan noise went down significantly but consistently was much noisier than any of my other hardware. The full force of the fans can also be heard briefly when you first power on the unit.

Setting-up and operating the SuperSource, to composite the picture by picture image that I really wanted to test, was fairly easy. It did take me a few minutes to figure out how to properly use it as a regular source and at the same time get my head wrapped around the multitude of control options on the software control panel with the regular program bus and multiple M/E buses. Compared to my software workflows to accomplish the same result, I found this workflow less intuitive.

But in fairness, it was a new workflow to me, and in the end I attained the same result. And I can hardly blame the Constellation 8K for having too many input and output options. With all workflows there is going to be a learning curve.

Working with so many inputs and outputs takes careful planning and a level of understanding as to what each spigot does. It seems really obvious to me now, but initially I could not get my SDI input 2 to work. I went through my usual troubleshooting, eventually switching that source to input 1 to prove that my video camera was properly outputting a compliant signal. But then my first source wasn’t working. It wasn’t until I realized that I was trying to connect my second SDI source to row two instead of input 2 in the array of 40 inputs. The top of row 2 corresponds with input 5 and input 2 sits below input 1, and not next to it.

HyperDeck Extreme 8K HDR Workflow

In addition to testing a review unit of the ATEM Constellation 8K, I also reviewed the Hyperdeck Extreme 8K HDR (Figure 6, below) with the HyperDeck Extreme Control. It worked as expected as both an external recorder and a media player, although I did run into a notable codec issue.

Figure 6. The Hyperdeck 8K HDR

My main interest in the Hyperdeck was the option to record in the highly efficient H.265 codec. I tested this workflow with an external SSD drive connected to USB-C. One note of caution is that that there are two USB-C ports on the back and one is for the SSD and the other for a computer connection to assist with initial setup.

I tested the footage on my laptop and it played back fine in the default Windows Media Player and with VLC. Unfortunately, when I tried the same on my video editing system, it prompted me to purchase a $0.99 HEVC plugin. I purchased the plugin but it still didn’t work. The file did play fine in VLC, however. I then tried to edit the footage in Adobe Premiere Pro. The file imported as an audio-only file and despite troubleshooting with Adobe and Blackmagic’s support, I never got the footage to work natively. Blackmagic believes the issue is a Premiere Pro support issue. The files work properly in DaVinci Resolve.