The Blackmagic Atem Mini Pro ISO (and its siblings) have become awfully popular during the last year or so due to lockdowns and the newfound remote video needs of the planet’s population. But the typical setup for an Atem Mini Pro and devices like it is positioned squarely on the desktop. Well, what if you want to go portable? That was the need for David Joshua Ford, who decided to merge all his kit into one for the ultimate portable Atem Mini Pro rig, 10.1″ screen and wireless video transmitter, audio, the lot. In this video, he goes over the build and how it all works together. There’s no camera in this rig, but it’s easy to bolt one in there, as David demonstrates.
The rig is basically an entire remote streaming solution in a proverbial box. Everything’s attached together in one big lump and it has a handle on top for easy portability. The whole setup can mount on top of a tripod with a mount for a camera on top of the rig itself, along with all the necessary bits to attach other cameras and that might need to plug in and stream out to the world.
The whole setup is powered by FXLION Nano Two 98Wh tiny v-mount batteries, including the Teradek ACE500 wireless kit for remote cameras, Teradek Cube 655 WiFi encoder for wireless monitoring, as well as a Raspberry Pi that allows for remote control. The Sennheiser G4 wireless system is used for audio, although David can easily hook up a Zoom L-8 audio mixer if he wishes – which simply powers from USB. David also attached an Elgato Cam Link 4K for when he just wants to connect the whole thing to Zoom or Skype on a laptop mounted above. Mounting the Atem Mini Pro at the angle David’s chosen (as well as putting it behind a 10.1″ monitor) makes it a little difficult to access the controls, but that doesn’t bother him one bit because he’s using a smartphone or tablet app to control everything using a handy touchscreen interface. In fact, if it were up to him, he says they could remove all the buttons from the Atem Mini Pro and it’d suit him even better! It’s a pretty cool (and very expensive) rig for keeping everything compact and together when you need to head out onto location to stream one or multiple cameras. If you’ve been thinking about doing something similar – or you’re just trying to make your existing setup a little more compact and portable – it’s well worth a watch. If you want to find out more about the rig and the specific gear David uses, he has a blog post that goes into a bit more detail.
