ZMBmedia Relies On Blackmagic To Live Stream DC Fintech Week

Video production company ZMBmedia relies on a Blackmagic Design ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD live production switcher to produce conferences, including the high profile DC Fintech Week event that was distributed via social media and national news networks.

Founded in Baltimore by video producer Zephan Moses Blaxberg in 2013, ZMBmedia specializes in videography and live streaming services and serves clients including Fortune 500 companies, small business, nonprofits, associations, hospitals, houses of worship and universities across the U.S.

Blaxberg, along with his team, was brought in by DC Fintech Week to produce and handle all streaming components for the event, which focused on democratizing information and fostering meaningful dialogues about financial technology and the future of finance for everyone. The two-day conference was live streamed to Fintech’s YouTube channel and its Facebook page. In addition, ZMBmedia provided all feeds to major national news networks to be used by reporters onsite for live shots in between the panels and behind the scenes footage.

“Being part of DC Fintech Week was a very exciting opportunity for us,” Blaxberg said. “Our goal from the beginning was to fully incorporate our Blackmagic Design equipment to create a hybrid scenario where we could bring in speakers via Zoom to interact with keynote speakers and panels on site, while at the same time live stream the conference online and show it via the screens on stage to the attendees.”

Taking advantage of the ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD’s 20 standards converted 3G SDI inputs and 12 independent 3G SDI outputs, Blaxberg was able to send feeds to two different screens that were on stage during the conference, run confidence monitors and provide clean feeds to the reporters onsite, so they could work with the news networks and incorporate their own branded graphics when going to air.

“Having those 12 outputs was a huge life saver,” he said. “I took the two dedicated SDI outputs for multiview and looped them to inputs 19 and 20 on the switcher so I could also send my multiview to any of the 12 outputs. That allowed me to route my multiview to a monitor that was backstage with our audio tech who was mic’ing people, so he could see the live feed and all our camera feeds. He could see as speakers walked up to the side of the stage or if someone walked off stage because they were done, and he was ready to take their mic from them.

“I’ve used a range of the ATEM Mini line, including the ATEM Mini Extreme ISO and ATEM SDI Extreme ISO, for other projects in the past, and they were just what I needed for the type of work I was doing,” Blaxberg added. “Now, with the ATEM 2 M/E Constellation HD, I’ve been able to take my productions to another level while remaining portable and efficient.”

Blaxberg also turned to his ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel during the event and took advantage of the custom macros, as well as a HyperDeck Studio HD Plus broadcast deck for backup recording. He explained: “I created various macros so that I could send PowerPoint slides to one screen on the stage and Zoom guests to the other screen. Customizing macros that essentially sent any input to either screens or to the confidence monitors was a huge lifesaver as it automated my workflow. The LCD screen was also helpful as I could see what I had named each macro as well, making the whole experience more flawless.”