ATEM-tally-light
Wireless tally light and 'On Air' sign for use with ATEM switchers. Connects over WiFi using only a D1 mini board (ESP8266 WiFi module) and a RGB LED or LED strip. This solution is not limited by the ATEM switchers' connection limit, making it possible to connect as many as you need.
ESP32 is also supported. Depending on your board, you might need to change the pin numbers.
It should easily be convertable to use with regular Arduino boards and a WiFi module, by changeing the include statements and a few other things (however, this is not tested).
DIY guide is available in the wiki. No coding required!
Video tutorial available by Josh from @Budget Church Livestreaming
What does it do?
Once set up, it will automatically connect to an ATEM switcher over WiFi and function as a tally light or 'On Air' sign.
When the program is uploaded to the ESP8266 the setup is done with a webpage it serves over WiFi where you are able to see status details, and perform the basic setup. Depending on if it's connecting to a known network or not it will serve the webpage on it's IP address, or on 192.168.4.1 (default) over a softAP (access point) named "Tally light setup". For more details, see the guide int the wiki.
As Atem swithcers only allow for 5-8 simultanious clients (dependant on the model) v2.0 introduced Tally Server functionality. This makes the system only require one connection from the switcher, as the tally lights can retransmit data to other tallys. An example setup is shown in the diagram below, where arrows indicate the direction of tally data from swtcher/tally unit to client tally unit.
NOTE: As this brings a lot of flexibility with how to connect the units, bear in mind that the ESP8266 isn't that powerful, and is limited to 5 clients each. (In some cases 5 might even be too many).
Connection and tally state indication
The different states of connection is signalled with LED colors.
| Color | Description |
|---|---|
| BLUE | Connecting to WiFi |
| WHITE | Unable to connect to WiFi - serves softAP "Tally light setup", while still trying to connect. |
| PINK | Connecting to ATEM Swithcher (Connected to WiFi). |
| RED | Tally program |
| GREEN | Tally preview |
| OFF | Tally neither live or preview (or no power. Blue LED on the D1 mini is on when not in program). |
| ORANGE | Connected and running (Only shown by status LED on addressable LED strip). |
Modes of operation
By default the tally light works as a normal tally light would in a professional enviroment, but other modes are available as described.
| Mode | Description |
|---|---|
| Normal | As describen in the above table. |
| Preview stay on | Tally will be green whenever not in program |
| Program only | Tally will be off whenever not in program |
| On Air | Red when switcher is streaming, off otherwise. |
Note: only some Atem models support streaming, so On Air mode only works with those models. On Air mode also needs a direct connection to switcher, not another tally unit. However, it still retransmits tally data to other units if needed.
Use Arduino IDE with ESP8266 module
See details at ESP8266 on how to setup and use ESP8266 modules like a regular Arduino board. They have links for further documentation as well.
Credits
Based on ATEM libraries for Arduino by SKAARHOJ, available at Git repo: SKAARHOJ-Open-Engineering
Inspired by ATEM_Wireless_Tally_Light (However, this works completely different)