How to Switch Between Slides and Camera on the ATEM Mini Pro

To switch between your slides and your camera on the ATEM Mini Pro, give each device its own HDMI channel: the laptop with your slides on one, your camera on another. Queue the slide, press that laptop's button to send it, use picture in picture to stay on screen, then press your camera's button to come back.

That is the routine Chris Schwager demonstrated live to Desktop Studio owners in a Video Confidence Collective session, and the video on this page is the full demonstration. It sits inside the wider guide to switchers, picture in picture and multi-camera setups. The steps are below so you can run it on your next presentation.

What do you need before you start?

• A second laptop for your slides. It does not need to be powerful. In Chris's words, a $500 machine "will do the job."
• An iPad or iPhone, if you want one. Optional. Chris uses an iPad for whiteboard-style content and an iPhone from time to time.
• One HDMI cable per device. For a phone or tablet with a USB-C port, get a straight HDMI to USB-C cable rather than a cable plus an adapter.
• Fifteen minutes before you go live to test it, covered further down.

If a device is not plugged in yet, start with how to connect a device to your switcher, then come back here.

Which channel does each device go on?

Every source needs its own channel. On most Desktop Studios the laptop sits on channel one and the camera on channel two. An iPad or iPhone can go into any of the spare channels, such as channel three.

A member asked in the session whether the laptop and the tablet were switched with the same button. They were not. As Chris put it: "No, they've got to be on different channels."

The laptop and the iPad simply mirror what is on their own screens. Nothing reaches your audience until you press that device's button, which means you can line things up off to the side first.

How do you switch slides in and out while you present?

1. Queue your slides on the laptop. Open the deck and find the first slide before the session. Your audience cannot see it yet.
2. Glance down to grab the next slide. Chris looks slightly down to the laptop to line up what is coming, then looks back to the lens.
3. Press the laptop's button when the timing is right. That sends the slide to your audience.
4. Put yourself in picture in picture. That keeps your face on screen while the slide is up. If the small window is in the way of something on the slide, move it.
5. Press your camera's button to come back. Take the slide away as soon as it has done its job.
6. Do the same for the iPad or iPhone. Press its button to bring it in, use picture in picture where you see fit, and return to your camera.

If your switcher does not start up on your camera with picture in picture ready to go, here is how to program your ATEM Mini startup state.

Chris's advice on the switcher itself is to ignore most of it. It has a lot of buttons, and the handful he points to in the video are the only ones you will use.

Can you show a website or a video instead of slides?

Yes. The laptop sends whatever is on its screen. During the demonstration Chris pulled up a member's video from the Ridge website and switched it in, with his own picture in picture on top.

The switcher is HDMI in, so anything with an HDMI output can be plugged in and used. "If it's got HDMI, you'll be able to plug it in and you'll be able to use it."

How long should a slide stay on screen?

A few seconds. Chris builds his masterclass slides with a single word on some of them, brings each one in, makes the point and goes straight back to camera: "three seconds, four seconds, five seconds, ten seconds, right? I'm not holding for the entire duration."

He is particularly against opening on a title slide with the presenter's name and holding it. The audience registered for the session and already knows what it is about. Heavy text slides held for a long time have the same problem.

The reason is the whole point of having the switcher: "rather than the slides being the hero, we've designed this system for you to be the hero." For more on running the session itself, see these ten tips for nailing your online event.

Why rehearse the tech before a presentation?

So you are not fixing cables in front of people. Before this session, Kev from Ridge joined 15 minutes early with another laptop connected, and they ran through a mock version of the presentation to check every screen came through the right way.

Chris recommends the same before any presentation of your own: "then you're just going to sort of relax into it and you're going to start hot and ready to go."

How do you plug in an iPhone or iPad?

Use a straight HDMI to USB-C cable, plugged into a spare channel. Chris's advice to the member who asked: "Plug it in. Don't worry about the adapter. Just get the straight cable."

Give a phone a moment to appear. Chris finds the phone connection "a little bit more temperamental" than the laptop, and it can take a little while to come up.

Why does my iPad show black bars on the switcher?

It is the iPad's orientation, and Chris has not found a way around it. When he shows a whiteboard from the iPad through the switcher, black bars appear on the left and right. "That is the thing that I've never been able to figure out." His best guess is "a little bit of an Apple limitation."

It is the whiteboard that comes up with the bars. When Chris runs a presentation off the iPad itself, it fills the screen.

Switching slides on the ATEM Mini Pro: questions

Do the laptop and the tablet use the same button on the switcher?

No. Each device has to be on its own channel, so each one has its own button. Typically the laptop is on channel one, the camera on channel two, and a tablet or phone on a spare channel such as channel three.

Do I need a powerful laptop to run my slides?

No. The slide laptop only mirrors its screen to the switcher. Chris says a $500 machine will do the job.

What cable do I need to connect an iPhone or iPad to the ATEM Mini Pro?

For a device with a USB-C port, a straight HDMI to USB-C cable into a spare channel. Chris recommends the straight cable rather than an HDMI cable with an adapter.

Can my audience see the slide before I switch to it?

No. Nothing on the laptop or iPad reaches your audience until you press that device's button on the switcher, so you can queue up the next slide while you are still talking on camera.

Video transcript

Auto-transcribed from the Zoom recording of this session and lightly edited for readability. False starts, repeated words and one stretch of crosstalk are removed, misheard words are corrected where the meaning is clear ("picture in picture"), member names are replaced with [member], speaker labels in the question section are inferred from context, and strong language is removed. Chris's words are otherwise as spoken. The video on this page may start or end at a slightly different point.

Chris Schwager: As you guys know, and you would have seen this every week, the ability to switch in these slides and whiteboard, it's right in front of me. And you can't see it yet because I'm not sending it to you. But I've got a slide deck queued up on a separate laptop. And this doesn't need to be a powerful machine. A little $500 machine will do the job. And then over here, I've got the little iPad that I occasionally use. But you're not seeing this yet because I haven't switched it, right?

Now on your Desktop Studios, you'll most likely have your laptop plugged into channel one. And if you do have an iPad, you can put it into any of the other channels. But typically for most setups, you will have your camera on channel two. So it could be laptop, iPad or iPhone on channel one. And then you'll also have the ability to put in other angles or other sources as well, if you see fit.

But I haven't switched this yet. And what's really nice about this is both of these devices are just mirroring what's in front of me. It's just mirrored. So I can cheat and have this stuff off to the side before I decide to send it to you, which is really good. So I can queue up my slides ready to go. And then I'll just be looking slightly down to grab those, and you would see this every week from me. And then mix them in when the timing is right. Away we go, mix it in, and then put myself in picture in picture from the ATEM Mini switcher.

Now if I want to bring in the iPad again, I'm just using the red buttons here and bringing in the iPad. And again, same deal, picture in picture where I see fit. If it's in the way, I'll move it around and away we go. So you combine that with what I've just taught you about Zoom, and that becomes very creative in some ways to getting it to the state that you want to have it in.

So if you're ever doing a presentation, do what we've done today. Kev's been on for 15 minutes before the session. I've had another laptop connected. Go through a mock scenario of role playing this so that you know the tech's working, you're getting the screens and everything in the right way before you start your session. Then you're just going to sort of relax into it and you're going to start hot and ready to go.

So does that work for people who are currently using slides now and doing some live demonstration or whatever it is? Because don't forget this laptop here can be whatever you want it to be. I'm just using slides as an example. But if I wanted to pull up my website, I'll pull up [member] here. Of course, he's still playing in the background, right? And I'll show you [member]'s video. Then away you go, there's [member]. I can introduce that really, really quickly. And what's good is what you're seeing from me at the moment is a dynamic way of presenting content, because I still control the action.

And no competitor will ever have the same control as you have with the studio. They just won't. Tell me in the next webinar you go on if you're seeing anything like this. It's usually a screen share. The same thing happens that I showed you earlier: they'll end up with some sort of picture in picture. And if the recipients most likely don't know Zoom well enough, that's where you'll stay for 45 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, whatever it is. And it's not interesting. And I think it's brutal that people actually put you through a slide deck that is either too much detail or not enough relevant information.

Nobody's taught these people how to really execute a good webinar presentation, or even live presentations. You often see, particularly in corporate, the first slide will be the name of the presentation and the name of the person presenting it. And then they'll start and say, "Hi, I'm Tammy, and the title of this presentation is..." And it's like, I knew what I was opting in for before I got into this webinar anyway. It's nice, maybe, as a courtesy to introduce, but they know what they're in. They've registered, they've gone through your collateral, they've looked at the title, they understand roughly what this is about before they get there.

So introducing and holding a slide like that, and any other slides that are very heavily text-based, I think can be a mistake for presenting content. And it's certainly a mistake when you have the ability to show them and then remove them and bring yourself back to present the content. Rather than the slides being the hero, we've designed this system for you to be the hero.

So if anyone's joined my free monthly masterclasses, I've got slides that literally have one word on there. It's certainly not something I'm going to hold on to. Let me just see if I can show you a masterclass presentation. Here we go, these types of things. I'm going to bring it in and bring it out. I'm going to go, "Hey, so what video are you using right now?" Bam, and back. That's it. Three seconds, four seconds, five seconds, ten seconds, right? I'm not holding for the entire duration. I'm queuing up my next one. "All right, so let's talk about why listen to me." Bam, out. You got me? It's just a visual, a little bit of visual candy there to make things more interesting.

What's great about the switcher is just the ease of use. You've got 100 buttons on there that you'll never use. The ones that I'm pointing to are the ones that you use. And by virtue of playing around with those, it's just no fail, really. It's such a nice thing to have. It works. There's no upgrading needed, and no programming you need to do. So that's covered off the slide switching. Any questions on that?

[member]: Chris, I've got a question. You switched between the laptop and the tablet. Was that using the same data button?

Chris Schwager: Yeah, it's a great question. No, they've got to be on different channels. Now what's beautiful about the switcher is it's just HDMI in, so you can feed it whatever. Go and get a webcam, plug it in. If it's got HDMI, you'll be able to plug it in and you'll be able to use it, which is really powerful.

Now, you guys would have seen me use iPhones from time to time. I'm just using this little device here, which is an HDMI cable, and I'm plugging in an extension that converts that into USB-C. This is how I usually run it, because I don't often have a need to have the laptop, an iPad and an iPhone all running together. But I'll plug it in. This is probably a little bit more temperamental. Let me just see if it comes up. It can just take a little while for this kind of thing, I find. Oh, there we go. And then I'll just introduce it that way, which is cool for showing stuff full screen.

[member]: On the switcher that I've got, which I think is the same as the other guys have got, it's the ATEM Mini Pro.

Chris Schwager: Yep. That's right.

[member]: So it would be like channel three you want to put the tablet or the phone into.

Chris Schwager: Yeah, do that. Just HDMI to, I'm assuming, USB-C for you. Just get a straight cable, HDMI to USB-C. Plug it in. Don't worry about the adapter. Just get the straight cable. You'll be able to buy that from Amazon. And then yes, you'll be able to have the same functionality.

Now, with the tablets, what's annoying is the orientation. You see the black bars on the left and right there. That is the thing that I've never been able to figure out. It's funny, because on a whiteboard it comes up with those black bars. If I actually ran a presentation off my iPad, it would be full screen. So it's a little bit annoying. It's a little bit of an Apple limitation, I think.