Corporate Events Go Multi-Screen and Remote with Riverview Systems Group’s Use of ATEM Television Studio HD

The days of simple corporate events and two screen multimedia presentations are long gone. Most people don’t want to sit through presentations that they could see at home on their TV, and with the availability of affordable high quality 4K switchers and converters, AV companies are now creating impressive, dynamic AV setups at corporate events.

One such company is Milpitas, CA-based Riverview Systems Group, Inc, an award winning, full service technical event production company. Riverview Systems Group provides Event Staging, Trade Show, Creative Services and Systems Integration support for their clients world wide.

Using the right AV tools, Riverview Systems Group turns event spaces into complex corporate events complete with keynotes, product launches, sales presentations, breakout rooms, and more. With a large warehouse of equipment, Riverview Systems Group supplies sound, lighting, video, and staging equipment for their client’s events.

At the heart of many of their projects are Blackmagic Design’s ATEM production switchers, which include ATEM Television Studio Pro HD and ATEM Television Studio HD switchers as part of the setup for breakout rooms and presentation environments.

Building a Better Breakout Room

One of the requests that Riverview Systems Group constantly receives from their clients is how to effectively display multiple sources of dynamic content on various screens in a production environment. Clients have also increasingly requested the option to have two screens show different sources in a presenter operated environment.

Presenter operated environments have traditionally been straight forward and limited systems. But now more than ever, presenters expect the ability to hot switch between several sources during their presentation. What would have previously been a significant hurdle, requiring an operator and costly switching, is now easy with Riverview Systems Group.

Having been longtime users of Blackmagic Design Mini and Micro Converters for general SDI to HDMI workflow needs, Riverview’s team started to look at Blackmagic Design’s ATEM line and selected the ATEM Television Studio HD for its ease of operation, fast HDMI switching, and ability to function as a two output matrix to build these new multi-content workflows.

Blackmagic Design’s ATEM switchers and Mini Converters are designed to be small and portable, which allowed Riverview Systems Group to build a set of mobile AV systems. Because the products are affordable, Riverview Systems Group has been able to take the unique approach of owning their equipment, rather than renting it. According to Johnathan Regnier, director of design and marketing at Riverview Systems Group, the team does not install the products into a fixed installation, but rather uses the equipment as a touring solution that can easily flex to meet each shows’s specific needs.

“The products are not being installed into a studio or into an office. Instead it’s all on location, and we ship the gear for most of our shows in tractor trailers,” said Johnathan. “Every show is different and suited for our specific clients and their markets. The equipment is on the go with us all the time. We use the ATEMs for both breakout rooms and general session environments. It’s our secret weapon for quick, point-to-point source switching.”

Using the ATEM switchers as tabletop video switchers, Riverview Systems Group and their clients have the ability to have two screens show different sources in breakout rooms. They selected the ATEMs for their ability to do HDMI at 1080p, store logos, and have a switchable aux output. The team also currently uses a sizable inventory of Blackmagic Design Mini and Micro Converters of various configurations, as well as Teranex Mini SDI Distribution 12Gs with Teranex Mini Smart Panels.

“Our team utilizes Blackmagic technology in a variety of scales on shows around the world.” said Johnathan. “We deploy fully integrated video systems with fiber racks, etc. To accompany that, we need our switchers to have a small footprint and be agile, easy to use, powerful and reliable. The ATEMs do everything we need in a small, user friendly form factor. We keep them packaged up and ready for deployment in our warehouse. We love that they are easy to set up and have a configurable multiviewer.”

Riverview Systems Group recently put the system to work when they provided fully integrated production services for data science and analytics technology company Alteryx, Inc. Developing an AV system for the company’s annual “Inspire 2018” user conference, which was attended by more than 3,000 analytics and business leaders, Riverview Systems Group was tasked with providing full production services for the main general session, but also had to support more than 12 breakout training and meeting spaces, using all ATEM units within all of the setups.