这台卖到脱销的机器，灵感来源于一场葬礼
如果说有人没有为新冠疫情期间做礼拜做好准备，肯定就是我在纽约州哈德逊谷加入的那座教堂。虽然现代福音派教堂都有广播系统，甚至让大部分本地PBS电视台都自愧不如，但我们县这个有着250年历史的教区，最近才刚刚安上空调。
所以，在3月中旬纽约宣布封城之后，我们被迫临时拼凑一些设备。最初，我和另外一位教区居民帮助牧师提前录制好礼拜仪式，然后上传到教堂的YouTube页面，在周日早上使用。我们使用摄影师的单反数码相机、我的iPhone手机和一部尘封已久、用来录制播客的话筒，做成了一台可以使用的多摄像头装置。
这台装置在前几个月效果还不错，但显然对现场礼拜仪式的限制会继续下去，因此我们不得不寻找更可持续的解决方案。原因有两个方面：发布预先录制的视频，影响了教堂给民众带来的充满活力的社区感，其次，我每周要花五个小时编辑视频。
我们最初以为直播设备肯定很贵，但后来我们搜索到了Blackmagic Design公司的一款产品ATEM Mini，这套设备在YouTube中的教堂科技栏目中走红（没错，确实有这样一个栏目）。
Blackmagic Design公司位于澳大利亚维多利亚，其主营广播和影院硬件等产品，例如高端、高分辨率的摄像机和多路输入广播切换台等，售价超过1万美元。但在2019年11月，该公司推出了其ATEM广播切换台的缩小版ATEM Mini，售价只有295美元。
ATEM Mini支持四路HDMI输入，可以连接摄像机、视频游戏主机或个人电脑等设备，而且操作人员能够通过转场、画中画和色度键（绿屏）等高级功能，在不同信号源之间切换，还可以处理音频。它真正令人惊喜的是，所有视频信号处理都在设备上完成，所以在插入一台计算机之后，这台设备会显示为USB摄像头，能够用于Zoom、YouTube等视频流媒体播放平台。
Blackmagic Design公司的北美销售业务总监鲍勃•卡尼利亚说：“公司的首席执行官在一次葬礼上产生了设计这款产品的灵感。在葬礼上，人们会尝试回放视频，然后切换到其他画面，他们每次都要频繁插拔线缆。他说人们需要的是一款可以在不同输入信号之间切换的小盒子。这有多难呢？”
Blackmagic公司的开发团队很快意识到，这样一款设备还能够有其他应用，比如Twitch游戏玩家、YouTube博主、课堂、商务演示、虚拟会议和教堂等。
他们没有想到的是，这款产品在推出之后几个月内，会变得如此火爆。“如果有人在去年9月告诉我说，我们到现在会卖出这么多台产品，我会问：‘谁会买它呢？’但疫情突然爆发……”
事实上，ATEM Mini在音视频设备专营零售商和亚马逊（Amazon）上已经脱销数月。随着公司、教堂和政客将活动转到线上，ATEM Mini的价格已经被黄牛炒到了制造商建议零售价的两倍左右。（乔•拜登的竞选团队使用Blackmagic Design的设备用于在家制作广播节目。）
Blackmagic Design现在有大量ATEM Mini的积压订单，公司甚至还为该系列新增了两款产品：售价595美元的ATEM Mini Pro，增加了以太网插口和编码器，可以直接将流媒体视频传送到YouTube或Twitch，从设备的USB-C端口将视频录制到硬盘，甚至还有多视图监视功能，让导演能够查看每个输入信号的情况；另外一款产品是售价895美元的ATEM Mini Pro ISO，增加了将每个输入信号单独录制成视频文件的功能。
我很高兴收到了一台ATEM Mini Pro测评设备，而且这款产品也不负众望。这台设备的设置非常简单（只要你知道如何把一台Apple TV插到电视上，你就知道如何设置ATEM），让人惊喜的是，这个并不昂贵的小盒子可以实现非常专业的效果。我们的教堂已经购买了一台，并计划在完全开放之后，继续提供礼拜仪式的流媒体视频。哈利路亚。（财富中文网）
翻译：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
如果说有人没有为新冠疫情期间做礼拜做好准备，肯定就是我在纽约州哈德逊谷加入的那座教堂。虽然现代福音派教堂都有广播系统，甚至让大部分本地PBS电视台都自愧不如，但我们县这个有着250年历史的教区，最近才刚刚安上空调。
所以，在3月中旬纽约宣布封城之后，我们被迫临时拼凑一些设备。最初，我和另外一位教区居民帮助牧师提前录制好礼拜仪式，然后上传到教堂的YouTube页面，在周日早上使用。我们使用摄影师的单反数码相机、我的iPhone手机和一部尘封已久、用来录制播客的话筒，做成了一台可以使用的多摄像头装置。
这台装置在前几个月效果还不错，但显然对现场礼拜仪式的限制会继续下去，因此我们不得不寻找更可持续的解决方案。原因有两个方面：发布预先录制的视频，影响了教堂给民众带来的充满活力的社区感，其次，我每周要花五个小时编辑视频。
我们最初以为直播设备肯定很贵，但后来我们搜索到了Blackmagic Design公司的一款产品ATEM Mini，这套设备在YouTube中的教堂科技栏目中走红（没错，确实有这样一个栏目）。
Blackmagic Design公司位于澳大利亚维多利亚，其主营广播和影院硬件等产品，例如高端、高分辨率的摄像机和多路输入广播切换台等，售价超过1万美元。但在2019年11月，该公司推出了其ATEM广播切换台的缩小版ATEM Mini，售价只有295美元。Blackmagic Design公司的ATEM Mini零售价为295美元。
ATEM Mini支持四路HDMI输入，可以连接摄像机、视频游戏主机或个人电脑等设备，而且操作人员能够通过转场、画中画和色度键（绿屏）等高级功能，在不同信号源之间切换，还可以处理音频。它真正令人惊喜的是，所有视频信号处理都在设备上完成，所以在插入一台计算机之后，这台设备会显示为USB摄像头，能够用于Zoom、YouTube等视频流媒体播放平台。
Blackmagic Design公司的北美销售业务总监鲍勃•卡尼利亚说：“公司的首席执行官在一次葬礼上产生了设计这款产品的灵感。在葬礼上，人们会尝试回放视频，然后切换到其他画面，他们每次都要频繁插拔线缆。他说人们需要的是一款可以在不同输入信号之间切换的小盒子。这有多难呢？”
Blackmagic公司的开发团队很快意识到，这样一款设备还能够有其他应用，比如Twitch游戏玩家、YouTube博主、课堂、商务演示、虚拟会议和教堂等。
他们没有想到的是，这款产品在推出之后几个月内，会变得如此火爆。“如果有人在去年9月告诉我说，我们到现在会卖出这么多台产品，我会问：‘谁会买它呢？’但疫情突然爆发……”
事实上，ATEM Mini在音视频设备专营零售商和亚马逊（Amazon）上已经脱销数月。随着公司、教堂和政客将活动转到线上，ATEM Mini的价格已经被黄牛炒到了制造商建议零售价的两倍左右。（乔•拜登的竞选团队使用Blackmagic Design的设备用于在家制作广播节目。）我们的教堂直播电台中的ATEM Mini Pro（中间）。
Blackmagic Design现在有大量ATEM Mini的积压订单，公司甚至还为该系列新增了两款产品：售价595美元的ATEM Mini Pro，增加了以太网插口和编码器，可以直接将流媒体视频传送到YouTube或Twitch，从设备的USB-C端口将视频录制到硬盘，甚至还有多视图监视功能，让导演能够查看每个输入信号的情况；另外一款产品是售价895美元的ATEM Mini Pro ISO，增加了将每个输入信号单独录制成视频文件的功能。
我很高兴收到了一台ATEM Mini Pro测评设备，而且这款产品也不负众望。这台设备的设置非常简单（只要你知道如何把一台Apple TV插到电视上，你就知道如何设置ATEM），让人惊喜的是，这个并不昂贵的小盒子可以实现非常专业的效果。我们的教堂已经购买了一台，并计划在完全开放之后，继续提供礼拜仪式的流媒体视频。哈利路亚。（财富中文网）
翻译：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
If anyone was ill-prepared for worship in the time of coronavirus, it was the church I attend in New York’s Hudson Valley. While modern evangelical churches have broadcast systems that would put most local PBS stations to shame, our 250-year-old country parish only recently had air-conditioning installed.
So when New York’s lockdown restrictions hit in mid-March, we were forced to improvise. Initially, I and another parishioner helped our priest record services ahead of time that would be uploaded on the church’s YouTube page for Sunday morning. We used our cameraman's DSLR camera, my iPhone, and a podcasting microphone that was gathering dust and created a serviceable multi-camera rig.
This worked for several months but as it soon became apparent that restrictions on in-person worship would continue we had to find a more sustainable solution. The issues why were twofold: posting pre-recorded videos took away from the live community that church gives people, and secondly, I was spending up to five hours per week editing the videos together.
Our initial assumption was that any sort of live-streaming equipment would be prohibitively expensive, until research led me to a product called the ATEM Mini by Blackmagic Design that was taking church technology YouTube by storm (yes, that's a thing).
Based in Victoria, Australia, Blackmagic Design’s bread and butter is in broadcast and cinema hardware such as high-end, ultra-high resolution camera bodies and multi-input broadcast switchers that can cost north of $10,000. But in November 2019 the company introduced the ATEM Mini, a shrunken down version of its ATEM broadcast switchers. The price was a quite radical $295.
The ATEM Mini accepts four HDMI inputs—whether they be cameras or from a source such as a video games console or PC—and allows the operator to switch between them with transitions, picture-in-picture, and advanced features like chromakey (green screen), and audio processing. Where it gets really nifty is that all the processing of the video signals is handled on the device, so that when plugged into a computer the device shows up as a USB webcam that’s ready to go in Zoom, YouTube or your video streaming platform of choice.
“The idea came to our CEO at a funeral of all things,” says Bob Caniglia, Blackmagic Design’s director of sales operations for North America. “At the funeral, people were trying to play videos back and then switch to something else, and each time they were plugging and unplugging cables. He said there all there needs to be is a little box to switch between inputs. How hard is that?”
Blackmagic’s development team soon realized there would be other applications for such a box, such as Twitch gamers, YouTubers, classrooms, business presentations, virtual conferences, and yes, churches.
What they didn’t realize is just how in-demand that product would be just months after its launch. “If someone told me last September, that by now we’d sell as many as we have I’d have asked, ‘Who’s buying this?’ But you throw a pandemic in there and all of a sudden…”
Indeed, the ATEM Mini was sold out at specialist A/V retailers and on Amazon for months. Scalpers were reselling the units at nearly double MSRP as businesses, houses of worship, and politicians made the switch to online. (Joe Biden's campaign uses Blackmagic Design equipment for his at-home broadcasts.)
Blackmagic Design has now caught up with the backlog of orders for the ATEM Mini, and even added two new products to the line: the ATEM Mini Pro for $595, which adds an ethernet jack and encoder for directly streaming to YouTube or Twitch, recording to a hard drive from the device’s USB-C port, as well as multi-view monitoring so the director can see what’s happening on each input; and the ATEM Mini Pro ISO for $895 which adds the ability to record each individual input to a separate video file.
I gratefully accepted the offer of a review unit of the ATEM Mini Pro, and the product lived up to the hype. It's simple to set-up (if you know how to plug an Apple TV into a television, then you already know how to set up the ATEM), and the results are surprisingly professional for such an in-expensive box. Our church has since purchased one and intends to continue streaming services once able to fully re-open. Hallelujah.
