The Australian Community Uses Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Mini Pro to Livestream New York ANZAC Day Program
No matter where in the world they are, Anzac Day connects Australians. To help make that connection in 2021, NYC based group ‘The Australian Community’ hosted a multicamera live stream of the NYC ANZAC Commemoration, which brought in talented Australians, such as Amanda Bishop, Analisa Bell, Roanna Dempsey, and Kaye Tuckerman to read poetry and letters, and perform songs that reflected the spirit of the occasion.
The mission of The Australian Community is to connect Australians living in the U.S. through social, professional and charitable initiatives. The largest non profit in the United States by Australian membership, the group assists Australians living across the United States and moving to America from Australia.
Bringing in feeds from around the globe, along with streams from the group’s NYC office, The Australian Community relied on Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Mini Pro video switchers.
ANZAC DAY Live Stream
ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders who served in wars and conflicts. It is a solemn day that is not observed in other countries, but which is still an important part of the identity of Australians and New Zealanders around the world.
James Boland, the president and founder of “The Australian Community,” is committed to helping Australians, no matter how far away from each other they are. To help accomplish this goal for the 2021 ANZAC Day, he decided to livestream the full set of activities being held by the group that day.
The stream, which was available from the group’s Facebook and YouTube channels, included a live ceremony commemorating ANZAC Day in NYC, performances featuring Australian singers and actors, the streaming of a documentary about the making of the film “Gallipoli,” interviews with members of the Australian International Screen Forum about the film’s 40th Anniversary release in the US and a trivia competition featuring questions from film.
Feeds for all of these were brought into an ATEM Mini Pro switch, which was being run by Boland himself. Live participation was on Zoom, and the public watched via the Facebook stream.
“The ATEM was at the core of the entire stream, and helped make this all possible,” explained Boland, who was able to quickly learn and use the ATEM Mini Pro.
The singers and actors included Amanda Bishop, Analisa Bell, Roanna Dempsey, Georgia Kate Haege, Ben McHugh, Sarah Wadsley, Nick Hardcastle, Amelia Cormack, Joey Gutos, Matt Hetherington and Kaye Tuckerman
“The decision was made to prerecord the international performances ahead of time to reduce risk. At a minimum, the ATEM Mini Pro was at the core of the stream flawlessly and securely streaming Zoom to Facebook, and enabling switching between recorded video and a live camera. It was all seamless, the audience was unaware as to what was live and what was prerecorded, and the operator and live talent only had to press a few buttons which removed the complexity and stress of the Livestream,” said Boland.
The ATEM Mini Pro managed feeds coming in from a main camera as well as a Zoom feed coming from a Microsoft Surface Pro via the HDMI 1 port of a Surface Dock. All pre recorded performances were sent to the ATEM Mini Pro via the Surface Dock.
Zoom was used so that the group’s members could interact privately during the stream. The ATEM Mini Pro controlled the content and management of the public stream, which was streamed directly to Facebook. The ATEM Mini Pro was used to bypass Zoom’s streaming feature, which Boland appreciated since it simplified management.
“One of the most useful tools the ATEM Mini Pro gave us was the ability to use macros, such as creating a panic button that reset everything and switching back to CAM 1 in case things went wrong. Another was the ability to fullscreen preview directly to the ATEM Mini Pro from OBS to play videos. The direct link between OBS and the ATEM Mini Pro really simplified sending prerecorded content to Zoom,” he said.
“The ATEM Mini Pro was incredibly useful. From the little things like enabling AFV on input 2 to make clean audio cuts between the video and camera feeds, easily being able to monitor the stream cache, to the ease of use and set up, the ATEM Mini Pro was a joy to use,” Boland continued.