St John Ambulance Relies on ATEM Mini During Pandemic

posted:

25/02/2021

Blackmagic Design today announced first aid and health charity St John Ambulance has implemented a streaming workflow based upon the ATEM Mini to support essential communication and training provisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A volunteer led, charitable organization dedicated to the teaching and practice of first aid in the UK, St John Ambulance is a leading provider of first aid training, event support, ambulance services and medical supplies. Unit manager for the London Healthcare Unit, Cormac O Conaill, says, "In the early days of the pandemic we approached the NHS and asked, what do you need us to do? The answer was to provide help responding to 999 calls across the country, staff up the Nightingale hospitals and support emergency departments, while fast tracking more people with existing first aid qualifications and clinical skills into the organization to further support the NHS.”

To cope with this new challenge, St John Ambulance shifted its entire operating model overnight, taking processes traditionally physical, such as training, continuing professional development sessions and information cascades towards digital delivery. As part of this transition, it utilized the ATEM Mini switcher to help support critical communications across the charity as well as training delivery online.

O Conaill explains, “We soon found ourselves needing to disseminate large, complex amounts of information to an increasingly dispersed group of people. Throughout the pandemic, information was being updated and revised continuously. We did not have the time to record multiple videos, stitch them together or add information. The world was moving too fast.

“We began running a portable, multi camera setup with wireless audio in a run and gun live production box,” explains O Conaill. “The ability to store graphics and titles using the built in media pool gave us a compact, simple but powerful live streaming platform which we integrated with Microsoft Teams via laptops and Microsoft Office 365.

"The ATEM Mini fits our needs perfectly,” he concludes. “It’s easy to use, quick to set up and intuitive. It allows us to cascade information on critical clinical updates to our team, and enhance the quality and professionalism of our training to our volunteer healthcare professionals and emergency ambulance crews.”

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post-production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia.