Mac Mini vs Studio?

[mishakim]

My M1 MacBook Pro is showing its age, and I have no need for a laptop in the current setup, so I'm looking at replacing it with a Mini or Studio. I'm trying to decide between am M2 Studio or an M4 Pro Mini -- assuming the M4 Studio may be out before I make the purchase, pushing the price of an M2 down.

Does anyone have experience with either of these to make a comparison, or confirm that either is good enough or has some problem?
I'm using it for a weekly church livestream, with three cameras and two audio sources, streaming to YouTube, so the streaming itself is not very resource intensive. The M1 is generally fine with the stream, it's managing Keynote, stream deck, PTZ camera control, DAW, etc. that bogs things down. I'm also hoping to add a monitor for the sanctuary soon as well, though that may need another computer just so a second person can manage it; we can use the to-be-retired MacBook for that.

 

[TFE]

I have a base-model M1 Studio running OBS for live-streaming two shows a week at 1080/30, 7000 kbs, with four cameras, and two other video inputs — a MacBook Pro via NDI for Skype or Zoom, and an ATEM switcher that allows bringing in another four video sources. The Mac Studio also drives four monitors and has other I/O including: NDI from a MacBook Pro, audio from a Rodecaster Pro, inputs from Stream Decks, etc. Works great, using less than 8% of the CPU. Never drops more than a handful of frames in a two-hour show. I previously streaming with a base-model M1 Mac mini, and it worked fine, too, albeit with fewer monitors. I now use the M1 Mac mini to run Keynote to input video/images/graphics into the streaming computer. I usually run Zoom, Skype, Keynote on a computer other than the streaming computer, although I've had no problem running Zoom or Skype on the Mac Studio along side OBS. The obvious advantage of the Studio (over the Mini) is the more robust I/O.