Do you have any suggestions for a roundtable podcast setup using an ATEM Mini and a Rodecaster Video? Cameras, lighting, audio, table, backdrop etc?
ASKED BY · Paul Walhus · AUSTIN, TEXAS · 30 OCT 2026 · ▶ 00:18:17
Questions why both ATEM Mini and Rodecaster Video are needed; recommends using Rodecaster Video alone with Rodecaster Pro 2 for audio input, which offers video-follows-audio switching without a technical director.
Points to Diary of a CEO as high-production roundtable reference; notes that in-the-round shooting requires deciding whether cameras will be visible or hidden, as the latter creates claustrophobic framing.
Recommends semicircle table layout rather than full circle to limit camera coverage needs; suggests single 4K camera with region-of-interest capability via OcGo Omni 12 to generate multiple shots from one source.
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18:10Do you have any suggestions for a round table podcast set up using an ATEM Mini and a RODECaster video, cameras, lighting, audio, table, backdrop, etc.? Alexander. Not sure why you want to use an ATEM Mini and a RODECaster video. It sounds to me like you've run out of inputs and you're trying to cobble together a setup where you have two different camera switchers, which I don't suggest.
18:35But can you do that, I guess? I would look for inspiration I would look at that podcast I forget his name that does a diary of a CEO he does things with in a round table type of interview and I think his show is probably one of the better ones out there that I've seen and in fact if you go to his YouTube channel there is
18:55search around for it but there is a behind the scenes video that he did showing the whole studio space and the lighting and all the cameras they have and they have pretty high-end cameras they're I'm not saying you need to go out and buy Sony cinema cameras for your setup, Paul. But one of the things that drives me crazy when people do these style of things is they tend to use huge mic arms that tend to be in the way.
19:17In the way, you always have sight lines to worry about with camera stuff. So get yourself low-profile camera arms. Elgato makes some pretty good ones. I've got one here that's made. Yeah, yeah, mic arms. I've got one made by Neewer, N-E-E-W-E-R. are they make a low profile one that's that's really high quality and it's not very much money it's about a hundred bucks so that's what I would suggest and
19:41then you know large light sources the largest possible light sources that you can afford and again there's some good examples of the lighting that not behind-the-scenes video for diary of a CEO I would look at for where is it where else did he say audio I mean if you're looking are you if you're looking for suggestion for microphones i mean paul you have so many microphones now you've got i think
20:05some mv7 uh mv7 microphones so you already have some decent dynamic microphones look at acoustic treatment so the first thing that i do when i'm doing any kind of studio space is treating the room acoustically that's always you're always dealing with that you know you got hard surfaces parallel walls which are not friendly to that uh type of thing that you're going to be doing there
20:27So I would look at investing in some acoustic treatment. There's so many companies that offer those types of products out there, and I'm not going to specify one single one, but I would seriously invest in some acoustic absorption panels that just cut down on those reflections that are in the room there. Backdrop, I mean, that's, I don't know if I can really easily give you guidance there
20:50because a lot of that is taste, but obviously the lighting designer hat has to be worn there because there's some things you have to think about in terms of like how you're gonna light the background like do you want a really dark background do you want to have some accent lights there's the things that you can think about and I'm not saying mine's the best in the world I don't think it is but I I'm a
21:09big fan of lamps in like a lot of practical lighting so I do like those style of like sort of vintage looking lights that kind of and now this what this light here above me is from Ikea so this is a really inexpensive LED light that kind of looks like a vintage incandescent light. I actually have some ND film wrapping around it
21:32to just cut down on the brightness. And it's blooming a little, but the highlights are blooming a little bit here just because I have a very subtle black pro mist on my camera lens that kind of blooms the lights a little bit. So those are things you can think about. Like a lot of my stuff is from Ikea. This other, you can sort of see this little red lamp here.
21:52Again, I really like red lamps. I don't know for some reason I just like that color so those are things that you can think about but start looking out of the people shows for inspiration you know who also has a great channel is I think it's called filmmakers Academy it is a program designed by Shane Hurlbut the cinematographer he's he's done so
22:13many motion pictures he's got this this school you can take these courses but a lot of content they kind of chop up some of the classes and release a lot of free content on their YouTube channel. I would look at that because he does, and he has actually, some of his videos are done in what looks like a home studio, but because he's a cinematographer, like he knows what
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