Be your own cameraman (camera person) and record all your presentations with slides and picture-in-picture

Use Bitfocus Companion to Control Blackmagic’s ATOM Mini Pro ISO and Google Slides

Summary

Do you give live in-person presentations and want to be your own cameraman to do a multi-camera recording of your presentations using picture-in-picture of a camera feed while showing your slide deck?  That was my goal, and I’ve finally figured out how to do it.  As a former software developer and having professional video shooting and editing experience in the past, I thought this would have been easy to figure out.  It wasn’t, and after months of piecing together my solution, I’m happy to share it with the world.  Probably should make a video to explain all this, but let’s first write it down.

Caveats

  • This solution is not 100% bullet proof, but I did get it to work with a remote control fairly consistently
  • This is for computers running Windows (10 and 11 have been tested)
  • This is for Google Slides
    • PowerPoint control should actually be easier, but I haven’t tried yet, the rest of the steps should be the same

Required (or suggested) hardware (these are NOT affiliate links, although I kinda wish they were)

Required (or suggested) software

Connect all the hardware

    • You’ll obviously need some sort of a powerstrip, I travel with a pretty compact one listed above
    • Connect the travel router to power and optionally wifi network
      • I won’t go into specific steps on this, any router could work, but you do need one to control the ATEM Mini over the network from the computer
      • If your presentation is in the cloud, you will also need to make sure you have an internet connection, the GL.iNet travel router can be setup as a repeater which is very useful
    • Connect the cameras and presentation output from computer to the ATEM via HDMI.  Also don’t forget to connect the SSD for recording
    • Connect the R1 controller to the computer via Bluetooth
      • Unfortunately every time you turn it off and on, it has to be re-connected, so in Windows Bluetooth settings remove it and add it again
      • YOU MUST SET IT TO MODE B by pressing the M and B buttons after turning it on to make it work with JoyToKey

Run all the software

  • Run the software listed above
    • For the 1st time, you’ll need to install and setup the software
    • I can provide the setup files and scripts I’m using
  • Open your Google Slides presentation in Chrome
  • Open Companion in Edge (could be setup with Firefox or any other browser too)
    • Ensure the connections to ATEM and Vicreo are working in Companion
    • Open the Emulator controller
      • You’ll have to set it up first, as already mentioned before

 

Blackmagic ATEM Software

Companion Setup

AutoHotkey Script

#Requires AutoHotkey v2.0

SetTitleMatchMode(2)

^F8:: {
; Try to find and activate a window belonging to the chrome.exe process
WinActivate("ahk_exe chrome.exe")
WinWaitActive("ahk_exe chrome.exe")
Send("{Right}")
Sleep(100)
WinActivate("ahk_exe msedge.exe")
}

^F7:: {
; Try to find and activate a window belonging to the chrome.exe process
WinActivate("ahk_exe chrome.exe")
WinWaitActive("ahk_exe chrome.exe")
Send("{Left}")
Sleep(100)
WinActivate("ahk_exe msedge.exe")
}

 

JoyToKey Setup

How to use all this

    • Buttons A,B,C,D on R1 Joystick select inputs 1-4
    • Up turns on the Key (Picture-in-Picture) settings are setup in Blackmagic software
    • Down toggles virtual Zoom in and out of for the PIP
    • Left and Right uses the AutoHotkey scripts to switch focus to Chrome and move the slides forward or back then change focus back to Edge
    • Bottom trigger is a SHIFT key for Joystick 2 controls, while holding, press A-D to control the input for the PIP
    • Top trigger is a SHIFT key for Joystick 3 controls, while holding press A-D to control to placement of PIP (Top Left, Top Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Right)
  • BE SURE TO LEAVE SPACE IN YOUR PRESENTATION SLIDES FOR THIS!
    • Usually bottom right is best

Notes

R1 Joystick is not required, all the controls can be done from the Companion emulator or if you’re lucky enough to have a hardware controller for it, even better.  Theoretically could be controlled from a phone or tablet on the same network too, I haven’t tried yet.

Category: Uncategorized

Author: Roman Smolkin