When does it actually make sense to use a YoloBox Extreme over an ATEM?
I've been trying to figure out the honest answer to this for a while, because the marketing for both devices is kind of useless for actually deciding.
The spec sheet comparison makes the Extreme look like a no-brainer - more inputs, lower price, portable. But I've talked to a few engineers who used it for a show or two and went back to their ATEM, and I've also talked to people who swapped and never looked back.
From what I can tell the split comes down to one thing: do you need to move the rig? If you're always at a fixed install or you have a cart and a truck, the ATEM is the more predictable choice. Audio sync is more consistent, frame rate handling is cleaner, the software has less of a "we'll fix it in the next update" feel.
But if your workflow involves packing into venues where a cart isn't practical, the Extreme is doing something nothing else really does at that price point. 8 HDMI and 5 NDI in a device you can carry is a real capability gap.
The CPU constraint is real and you have to plan around it - you can't run every feature simultaneously, and NDI sources eat more headroom than HDMI. But that's knowable and plannable, which is different from it being unreliable.
Curious how others in this sub are thinking about it. Is anyone actually running Extreme units in production and if so, what's your source count and use case?