Where's the ATEM 4M/E Constellation 4K?
Just before NAB, Blackmagic dropped a wave of product announcements, and boy, was I excited. While they unveiled a lot, I'm only going to dive into two of them today: the Constellation HD and the Cloud Store. Frankly, I’m quite disappointed by one, and I would absolutely love the other—if they had just made one little tweak.
The Cloud Store
When Blackmagic introduced the Cloud Store, it looked like a dream on paper: a high-performance network storage device featuring four 10G Ethernet ports, fancy HDMI monitoring, native Dropbox sync, and more. I wanted it almost immediately.
That is, until they dropped the price tag and revealed a massive caveat: you cannot buy an empty one and add your own M.2 SSDs.
Currently, there are three models available:
- The Cloud Pod: Converts any external USB-C disk into network storage.
- The Cloud Store Mini: Features 8TB of fixed M.2 SSD storage.
- The Cloud Store: Offers 20TB, 80TB, or a massive 320TB of fixed M.2 SSD storage.
In my opinion, Blackmagic missed a massive trick by not offering a "Bring Your Own Drives" option for the Cloud Store and Cloud Store Mini. Yes, we technically have the Cloud Pod, but if I’m recording a live show with 6 cameras, I don’t want a USB interface acting as my speed bottleneck. A BYOD option would also make long-term archiving simpler; instead of buying more units, users could just swap out internal SSD pools.
The ATEM 4M/E Constellation HD
When I saw that Blackmagic was releasing a new Constellation switcher, I was ecstatic—right up until I realized they were only releasing an HD-only model.
If you caught any of my blog posts before my recent tech meltdown, you’ll know I’ve been hunting for a seamless way to get Dante audio into ATEM switchers with as little hassle as possible. The top-tier ATEM 4M/E Constellation 8Kactually has a perfect solution for this via its integrated MADI inputs. You can easily use hardware converters to bridge Dante to MADI with zero trouble.
The only problem? The ATEM 4M/E Constellation 8K carries a hefty sticker price of £8,382.80 on the CVP website.
Paying just shy of ten grand just to get a single, crucial audio feature is a bitter pill to swallow. Don't get me wrong, having an extra 3 mix effects rows, SuperSource, standards conversion, and an absolute mountain of inputs is amazing—but it's a lot of money when you don't actually need to switch or broadcast 8K content.
I sat with bated breath hoping the HD release meant a mid-tier 4K version was right around the corner, but the 4K version didn’t arrive. I'm also gutted that Blackmagic still hasn't added native ISO recording to anything outside of the entry-level ATEM Mini lineup. I know you can achieve ISO recording by looping out SDI feeds into a bank of HyperDecks, but having all sources automatically synced up inside the switcher for the master edit would easily save an hour or two in post-production.
Overall, it’s a massive upgrade over Blackmagic's older ATEM HD switchers, but I think a fair few production crews looking for a modern, mid-tier 4K solution are going to feel left behind.
The Updated Live Kit List
It wouldn't be a Blackmagic post without dropping my updated live production kit list. I've factored in these new releases to see how the numbers stack up. Take a nosey below and let me know if I’ve missed anything crucial!
Product | Cost | Qty | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
Blackmagic Cloud Store 20TB | £8,686.80 | 1 | £8,686.80 |
Blackmagic HyperDeck Extreme 4K HDR | £2,866.80 | 7 | £20,067.60 |
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 2TB M.2 SSD | £217.99 | 7 | £1,525.93 |
Blackmagic HyperDeck Extreme Control | £1,242.00 | 1 | £1,242.00 |
DB9 Male to Male RS422 Cable | £11.99 | 7 | £83.93 |
Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 | £3,618.00 | 5 | £18,090.00 |
Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder | £1,566.00 | 5 | £7,830.00 |
Blackmagic URSA Studio Viewfinder G2 | £1,566.00 | 5 | £7,830.00 |
Blackmagic Focus Demand | £226.80 | 5 | £1,134.00 |
Blackmagic Zoom Demand | £226.80 | 5 | £1,134.00 |
Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kit | £378.00 | 5 | £1,890.00 |
Blackmagic URSA Mini Mic Mount | £126.00 | 5 | £630.00 |
Blackmagic URSA V-Lock Battery Plate | £90.00 | 5 | £450.00 |
Blackmagic Camera Fiber Converter | £2,730.00 | 6 | £16,380.00 |
Blackmagic Studio Fiber Converter | £2,730.00 | 6 | £16,380.00 |
CamRade TravelMate XL | £299.00 | 5 | £1,495.00 |
Sommer Cable SC-Octopus Hybrid SMPTE 100m | £1,539.00 | 6 | £9,234.00 |
Blackmagic Studio Fiber Rack Kit | £142.80 | 3 | £428.40 |
Blackmagic ATEM Camera Control Panel | £2,782.80 | 2 | £5,565.60 |
Blackmagic ATEM 4 M/E Constellation 8K | £9,382.80 | 1 | £9,382.80 |
Blackmagic ATEM 2 M/E Advanced Panel | £5,554.80 | 1 | £5,554.80 |
Blackmagic Talkback Converter 4K | £2,394.00 | 1 | £2,394.00 |
Blackmagic Smartview 4K | £1,446.00 | 2 | £2,892.00 |
Lexar UHS-II Class 10 V60 SDXC Card 64GB | £31.94 | 100 | £3,194.00 |
Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4K Mini | £946.80 | 2 | £1,893.60 |
Apple 16″ MacBook Pro (10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD) | £4,099.00 | 2 | £8,198.00 |
Apple Magic Mouse | £99.00 | 2 | £198.00 |
Blackmagic Micro Converter BiDirectional SDI/HDMI 12G | £142.80 | 10 | £1,428.00 |
Blackmagic Web Presenter 4K | £654.00 | 1 | £654.00 |
Wise 1TB CFast 2.0 Memory Card | £648.00 | 20 | £12,960.00 |
Wise Advanced WA-CR05 CFast Card Reader | £60.00 | 6 | £360.00 |
Canon CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 – 4K EF | £4,180.00 | 5 | £20,900.00 |
Manfrotto 612 & 645 Fast Twin Alu Tripod | £954.00 | 5 | £4,770.00 |
Manfrotto Telescopic Pan Bar | £56.99 | 5 | £284.95 |
Manfrotto 114MV Dolly | £360.00 | 5 | £1,800.00 |
PolarPro Base Camp Kit | £599.99 | 5 | £2,999.95 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Gold Morphic Filter | £164.99 | 5 | £824.95 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Blue Morphic Filter | £164.99 | 5 | £824.95 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Mist Filter | £199.98 | 5 | £999.90 |
PolarPro BaseCamp ND8-GR Filter | £199.98 | 5 | £999.90 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Mist Heavy Filter – 2/5 VND | £199.98 | 5 | £999.90 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Mist Heavy Filter | £199.98 | 5 | £999.90 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Mist VND Filter – 6/9 | £199.98 | 5 | £999.90 |
PolarPro BaseCamp Mist Heavy Filter – 6/9 VND | £199.98 | 5 | £999.90 |
K18-PH200 CamCrane | £2,040.00 | 1 | £2,040.00 |
Direct Cables Evolution XPC HD Leads – 1M | £22.99 | 30 | £689.70 |
Direct Cables Evolution XPC HD Leads – 2M | £25.99 | 20 | £519.80 |
Direct Cables Evolution XPC HD Leads – 3M | £28.99 | 21 | £608.79 |
Dream Machine Special Edition | £437.75 | 1 | £437.75 |
Ubiquiti Switch 24 PoE | £343.24 | 1 | £343.24 |
Ubiquiti Access Point WiFi 6 Lite | £89.54 | 1 | £89.54 |
Ubiquiti Ethernet Patch Cable – 3M | £3.03 | 24 | £72.72 |
Ubiquiti SFP+ MM Module (2 Pack) | £33.83 | 1 | £33.83 |
Double 12U 19” Workstation Flightcase | £1,149.60 | 1 | £1,149.60 |
the t.rack Power 7 S GB (7 Way Power Distro) | £24.50 | 4 | £98.00 |
Mackie Control Universal Pro | £959.00 | 1 | £959.00 |
Mackie Control Universal Extender Pro | £749.00 | 3 | £2,247.00 |
Yamaha RMIO64-D (MADI to Dante Converter) | £2,545.00 | 1 | £2,545.00 |
Yamaha RIO3224-D2 (Dante Stage Box 32 In / 16 Out) | £6,555.00 | 1 | £6,555.00 |
Yamaha TF-5 | £2,999.00 | 1 | £2,999.00 |
Yamaha NY64-D Dante (Dante Card for Mixer) | £458.00 | 1 | £458.00 |
Yamaha DZR15-D Dante Powered Speaker | £1,379.00 | 2 | £2,758.00 |
K&M 21366 "Ring Lock" Speaker Pole | £66.00 | 2 | £132.00 |
Yamaha DXS18XLF Dante Powered Sub | £1,318.00 | 2 | £2,636.00 |
Behringer ULTRALINK MS8000 (Microphone Splitter) | £69.00 | 4 | £276.00 |
Total | £235,238.63 |
Note: Dropped cables with 0 quantity from the final view to keep the manifest clean.
What do you think? Drop a comment below if you spotted any glaring gear omissions or if you’ve found a better way to route Dante audio into a mid-tier broadcast workflow!
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