New Territory Media Live Streams Don't Tell Comedy Show with ATEM SDI Extreme ISO

New Territory Media Live Streams Don't Tell Comedy Show with ATEM SDI Extreme ISO

Brie Clayton September 2, 2024

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Blackmagic Design today announced that video production agency New Territory Media recently used an ATEM SDI Extreme ISO live production switcher to live stream a standup comedy show for Don't Tell Comedy, introducing a new kind of viewing experience for its popular popup shows and expanding its reach to its audience of more than 1.5 million YouTube subscribers.

With more than 100 live events happening each week across 200 cities globally, Don't Tell Comedy is a standup comedy company that creates popup shows featuring secret lineups of comedians performing in undisclosed venues. Known for delivering viral comedy content across its YouTube, TikTok and Instagram channels (@DontTellComedy), Don't Tell Comedy features standout comedy sets from its events to a combined audience of almost 5 million followers.

New Territory Media was hired to bring a live streaming element to two recent tapings in San Diego, CA. While select events are recorded and broken down into clips for Don't Tell Comedy's social channels, for these shows the company also wanted to experiment with a live stream, bringing the viewing experience to fans outside of Don't Tell Comedy's operating cities.

When we initially explored the idea of live streaming our shows, we were concerned about the complexity and cost of the equipment required. However, the compact and powerful setup provided by New Territory Media and Blackmagic Design completely changed our perspective. The ATEM SDI Extreme ISO allowed us to create a high quality live stream with minimal footprint, opening up exciting possibilities for bringing our unique comedy experience to audiences far beyond our physical venues, said Brett Kushner, COO of Don't Tell Comedy.

We had to run a lot of cables because of the physical distance of the venue and needed at least seven inputs for the cameras, so we opted for the ATEM SDI Extreme ISO, said New Territory Media CEO Joey Daoud. With more than 15 years in the industry producing documentaries, brand videos, and the creative technology publication VP Land, Daoud was already familiar with the ATEM and knew that it was perfect for this job due to its reliability, support for multicam production and streaming capabilities, among other features.

As Daoud noted, the goal was to design an intuitive, portable and unobtrusive live streaming workflow that could easily be implemented on top of Don't Tell Comedy's existing setup. The ATEM SDI Extreme ISO achieved this, along with a Micro Converter SDI to HDMI 3G and DeckLink 8K Pro Mini capture and playback card.

Not only did the ATEM SDI Extreme ISO have more than enough inputs to support the multicam workflow, but the ATEM's direct streaming capability meant that we had a seamless backup live stream to YouTube in case the main feed went down, and we needed to hot swap them, Daoud noted. Since this was the first time streaming the shows live to YouTube, it helped to have a safety net in case we encountered any unforeseen issues, but luckily everything went smoothly. Also, the ATEM is ultra portable, packing professional features like a multiview, DVE, chroma keyer and more into such a compact body.

The nature of a Don't Tell Comedy show is very spontaneous since the audience doesn't even know the lineup or exact location until that day. It doesn't feel like a traditional comedy show since it's not in a comedy club, rather the venues can be anything from a boxing gym to a yoga studio to even a backyard, Daoud explained. While that spontaneity is part of the magic that makes these events so unique, our approach to the workflow was quite the opposite; everything was well thought out, with reliable and portable gear being the crux.

We played with the ATEM's ISO recording features, and I can see that coming in handy in the future not only as another form of backup but to help simplify the workflow when it comes to delivering recorded content across social channels. It's these added bells and whistles from the ATEM that help elevate workflows to another level, Daoud added. Also, we didn't have the luxury of lots of space and the established technical accommodations that come with a typical theater or comedy show venue. As such, our workflow needed to have a small footprint while still delivering powerful technical capabilities. The ATEM SDI Extreme ISO was just that.

Our goal for the live stream was to build on the success that Don't Tell Comedy has already achieved at these live events and experiment with what's possible at a high quality, technical level so we can see what will work in the future as these shows continue to expand, Daoud concluded. We're happy with what we were able to achieve with the ATEM SDI Extreme ISO and can't wait to see where things go from here.

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