By adding SRT support to its encoders and decoders, the company can now bridge SDI and ST-2110 environments on the ground, with cloud processing environments that use the SRT protocol. SRT support sits alongside the company’s support for Zixi and RIST, allowing customers to use a wide range of industry-supported formats.

The implementation has been extensively tested against numerous third-party products for interoperability.

“Many content providers are using the SRT protocol to send and receive video over the internet,” said Kieran Kunhya, Founder and CEO of Open Broadcast Systems. “By creating a highly sophisticated in-house implementation, we are able to provide the highest reliability possible for our customers”

The SRT implementation will be shipped to customers starting today.

Open Broadcast Systems is a leading-edge manufacturer of encoding and decoding for B2B video contribution and distribution. Its software-based solutions are deployed to deliver premium video content over any network, from satellite to IP. High-quality solutions developed by Open Broadcast Systems deliver services to millions of people every day, including many major sporting and breaking news events.

Encoding and decoding solutions from Open Broadcast Systems are high quality, cost-efficient and agile, able to be developed and installed in extremely short timeframes.

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Available on Meta Quest and PlayStation VR, this title will bring fans closer to the gridiron than ever before, allowing them to play like a professional football player through a first-person 3D immersive experience.

“Virtual reality gaming is rapidly expanding and our partnership with StatusPRO allows us to explore a new immersive version of NFL gaming with support of the two largest VR platforms within this emerging space,” said Joe Ruggiero, SVP, consumer products at the NFL in a statement. “We are seeing a growing number of fans engaging with VR and we’re excited to launch the first-ever VR gaming title that complements our existing offerings in the market today.”

“Today marks an important milestone for StatusPro and the VR industry. By partnering with the NFL, we will offer a new form of engagement between athletes and fans unlike anything in the marketplace. NFL football fans and gamers alike will be able to connect with the world of sports through authentic, immersive gaming products that democratize the experience of the professional athlete,” said Troy Jones, co-founder and chief executive officer of StatusPRO.

The NFL and StatusPro will leverage StatusPro’s athlete-led technology and work alongside their experienced team of developers to change sports gaming as fans get a first-person experience similar to their favorite football players.

“We are grateful to the NFL and our community of investors and stakeholders who share our vision to create an entirely new standard in sports and gaming,” said Andrew “Hawk” Hawkins, StatusPRO co-founder and President. “We keep the athlete first in everything we do, and as former football players it means even more to be able to recreate what it actually feels like to step out on the field. Through our proprietary technology at StatusPRO, we can deliver an immersive experience that helps NFL fans transform into pro athletes.”

Release dates and additional information about the NFL’s and StatusPro’s new gaming title will be announced at a later date. 

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The pandemic has resulted in a lot of changes in many different sectors of the broadcast industry, with remote working particularly the most far reaching. The industry was caught off guard, as broadcast has been the slowest to adopt cloud for production of live content, mainly because the bandwidth and tools needed to support live production simply haven’t been ready. The need to produce content in a socially distanced manner has only accelerated that process as broadcasters were forced to adopt remote production and scrambled to leverage products that are “remote friendly” – TAG VS is a great example of this. 

We now have a new model that sees remote workforces engaged 

This has however provided l challenges for broadcasters ashey now have to adopt cameras that are capable of streaming content over IP networks. NDI is great for local networks, but what happens when you need to send NDI into the cloud?

It is no longer simply just a case of contribution and distribution, though that was challenging enough. If you consider a live production of a sporting event, there are usually a lot of cameras and monitors, not to mention all the people in one location, and all of that infrastructure now has to be replicated using the internet.

Sports commentary is one of the key areas where this is taking place currently, with graphics starting to follow. More elements of the live workflow will be added over the next few years, like AWS CDI, which will allow for ultra-high bandwidth traffic between EC2 instances. This is the type of tech needed to be able to switch cameras, add graphics, deliver replays, etc. Keeping on top of all these elements that are traversing an invisible medium (the internet) will require a new type of monitoring and some type of router in the cloud to help users understand what’s happening under the hood.  

Production in the past was about SDI cables that don’t exist once you move into the kind of cloud-based workflows that are the lynchpin of such operations. Here there’s nothing to plug into, and that has created a definite requirement for tools that can manage, monitor, and orchestrate the effort without introducing additional costs that might be necessitated by adding a further layer of IT/cloud and broadcast video engineers.

This trend has only begun, and COVID has helped to push adoption forward for broadcasters. While live production is increasingly interested in 5G connectivity, and even slightly further out LEO satellite networks such as Starlink or Amazon’s forthcoming Project Kuiper, broadcasters will still need to leverage a packet protection protocol to ensure packets aren’t dropped. IP networks aren’t perfect and will often drop packets, and while this is ok for a lot of applications, TV broadcasting needs to ensure every single packet is delivered. 

Those protocols will be required to resend dropped packets and help guard against quality issues as pixellation is already considered to be a deal-breaker by many viewers. As we move towards a future of increasing interactivity with sports content, and even potentially a metaverse deployment, the very highest quality signal is going to be required throughout the chain.

Quality in esports

We are already seeing this necessity for quality in the field of Esports. This very different environment raises an interesting set of challenges for those looking to broadcast its content.

One advantage is it’s already online, with organizations typically using the OBS open source solution to capture and stream to a variety of platforms such as Twitch or YouTube. OBS is usually sufficient for a single gamer who wants to broadcast to the internet. however when you have to aggregate multiple gamers and switch cameras, along with voice over talent, you now have a very complex workflow that doesn’t have a deafult solution. Broadcasters could go back to broadcast standards and convert everything to SDI using capture cards before reconverting it for transmission, but that would be reductive. That means software only solutions are the de facto standards, and here too, media organizations need a solution to be able to see and orchestrate all their incoming streams.

In this regard quality is vital. In esports coverage you can easily have eight incoming streams from different geographic locations around the world, all of which have to be synced in an environment where there is no timecode generator that will help you sync our sources. One client we have worked with came up with the interesting idea of having all players displaying an atomic clock on the screen to help narrow down the sync. This is where they can make adjustments in software to ensure one player isn’t out of sync with another player on the screen, and as these are based on internet clocks, which are already accurate. This enables the streams to be matched so that, for instance, the action of one player shooting another can be seen from both player POVs.

The online nature of coverage is both a challenge on the one hand, and an advantage on the other. Gamers are used to high quality on their screens when they play and will not tolerate stepping down to inferior quality when it comes to viewing esports coverage meaning 1080P as a minimum standard and4K as a better one. Happily, all the virtualized infrastructure to make this happen can be managed in a browser obviating the need for any broadcast layer and helping to keep costs down and quality up. Efficient transport protocols are again important here, especially when using cloud-based services for the insertion of lower thirds and graphics. Material needs to go through the I/O and creative process with all its information and metadata intact.

The online nature of esports enables media organizations to think different, for example inbuilt lag to mitigate against profanity is a matter of ticking a checkbox in software rather than buying a blackbox of electronics, but the watchword of quality is as important here as it is traditional broadcast. And that inevitably means acknowledging that delivering high demand live events to any device anywhere in the world is a challenging process.

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In the past decade, esports has gone from niche industry to mainstream staple; just five years ago, more people watched the League of Legends world finals (43 million viewers) than the NBA Finals Game 7 (31 million viewers). This year in particular, we’ve been hearing murmurs about whether the esports bubble is about to burst. But consider this…

According to recent reports, esports viewership is expected to grow at a rate of 9 percent per year between 2019 and 2023, thanks in part to the popularity of titles like Fortnite and expanded coverage from mainstream outlets like ESPN. But even before it became a broadcast spectacle, the industry was on a growth trajectory. Who could forget Atari’s Space Invaders World Championship, which attracted over 10,000 competitors before the internet even existed? Although live sports events may have taken a hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic, esports is stronger than ever due to three main drivers: demographic changes, diversification of content and the rise of 5G.

More fans, more revenue

One silver lining to the pandemic has been big increases in players, fans and engagement. Newzoo’s recent esports report proved what many of us saw coming: global lockdowns have resulted in increased viewership across all major platforms. In the annual report from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), nearly 80 percent of participants reported that esports offer stress relief and relaxation. It just makes sense: when you’re locked down, what better way to release some tension? And though the pandemic will eventually subside, this new audience is expected to stick around, with sustained growth hitting 920M by 2024.

The thing to remember is that this growth is two-pronged. It’s not just about the players; it’s also about the fans that watch the players, which is where much of the revenue comes from. Twitch personalities like Ninja can bring in nearly 100,000 concurrent viewers in one stream. And according to the ESA, the average age of esports enthusiasts has steadily ticked up over the years, now falling in the 35-44 age range — the largest consumer spending group and a prime audience for advertisers.

More content, more creativity

The emergence of streaming platforms gave the esports industry a boost, followed by further expansion when it was adopted by mainstream TV platforms. Now, due to the relatively low barrier to entry, we are seeing smaller games publishers trying their hand. Almost every genre has a competitive online multiplayer option these days, and a quick search shows that hundreds of small tournaments take place daily for relatively unknown titles, any one of which could break out and become the next big thing. It all comes down to marketing.

As anyone in the industry knows, the past year has been a challenge. Navigating city, state and country-wide restrictions — while also tasked with the challenge of keeping people safe — esports brands had to get creative. Many tournaments moved online but struggled to match the energy of an in-person event. In Brazil, we helped Riot Games bring the League of Legends championship tournament to life on the rooftop of a high-rise in downtown São Paulo, with the city lights glittering in the background. The striking, unexpected location surprised and thrilled viewers, who were used to seeing the event in a gymnasium or stadium, and they talked about it for weeks afterwards.

We are also seeing the line between gaming and “real sports” blur quite a bit. With live events off the table, sports franchises have had to think outside the box. Take the Formula E “Race at Home Challenge,” where players can compete against professional drivers — in some cases even beating them. It’s a smart, fun way to increase fan engagement and, due to its popularity, is likely to stick around post-pandemic. Which all goes to show that, with a good idea and the right tech, anything is possible.

More access, more growth

When we look back at the evolution of smartphones, we can see those changes directly impact the popularity of esports; current estimates are that 45-50 percent of gaming is done on mobile platforms. As 5G rolls out across the world, it is expected to proliferate fastest in APAC and further open up the mobile gaming and esports markets in both participation and viewership. The stereotypical image of the obsessed teenage gamer with multiple screens and a massive headset has been replaced by millions of people on their phones—in line at the deli, riding the bus or wherever they happen to be.

So, the esports bubble isn’t going to burst any time soon. But if it’s really a growth market, where will it grow fastest? We believe it will broadly follow the console market, driven by the launch of new hardware and updates to major franchise titles. Strong growth will continue in APAC, North America and Europe, which have been the top three regions over the past two years, but we’re also keeping an eye on Latin America, as emerging markets are often the best place for brands to experiment with new ideas.

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Hi-Rez is the publisher of game titles such as “Rogue Company” and “Tribes: Ascend.”

The Hi-Rez Studios is designed for a demanding schedule of up to six league tournaments per week all varying in size, scope, and communications needs.

A production crew for these events would include all of the positions you’d expect, including technical directors, replay operators, producers, etc., each needing a communication link to each other. At Hi-Rez Studios, Clear-Com’s HelixNet intercom system is providing multiple lines of IP connection.

“We’re on anywhere from five to six days a week, with broadcasts lasting up to eight hours at a time, and we’re only continuing to grow,” said Dylen Roberts, lead broadcast engineer at Hi-Rez Studios.

The new set at Hi-Rez studios from Erector Sets.

“It’s one-stop shopping. It’s great not having to route 15 different things through multiple sources. For example, our audio operator can mix audio through the program feed without having to change headsets. Our production crews can talk to the talent without having to run a different IP system. All the different functions are easy to use and everything coming through the systems is clean and has almost no latency,” said Roberts.

Due to COVID-19, Hi-Rez has also utilized remote production including moving their tournaments option.

In this instance, HelixNet matrix was able to provide a wireless connection for the crews.

“That’s where the modular design of these systems really comes into play,” said Roberts. “As we grow and face unanticipated hurdles, the system is scalable and easy to change and expand.”

Multiple LQ units extend the capabilities and intercom channels of the HelixNet system by interfacing with remote personnel who have downloaded the Agent-IC mobile app, working over cellular or Wi-Fi connections.

“As we grow and face unanticipated hurdles, the system is scalable and easy to change and expand.”

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The buzz about eSports has been growing steadily for a few years now, but, even when you’re used to it and the opportunity it represents for the production sector, the numbers are still impressive.

Take the Super Bowl as an example. The final total audience number for Super Bowl LIV is estimated by Nielsen to have been somewhere between 135 to 140 million once you factor in events such as parties and all the offline viewing. At Ncam, last year we worked on an eSports event in Cologne, Germany, that had a live audience of over 15,000 and a total viewership of over 62 million sessions.

It’s big business already, one set to generate over $1 billion for the first-time last year, and while the traditional sports market of course remains much larger, the year on year growth of eSports and its younger skewing demographic means that there’s a lot of interest in helping drive it forward. The production community hasn’t been slow in recognizing this either. You have a look around a big eSports event and you tend to see the same big names from Outside Broadcast there as you do at a big soccer or basketball tournament.

That’s good news for people that work in production. A lot of kit that’s currently being used for eSports broadcasts on whatever platform — from linear TV to specialist streamers like Twitch and on to social media — is currently the same as for any live broadcast. You’ll find Grass Valley or Sony switchers, EVS replays, Avid editing, and so on, and it’s the same people driving it all too.

Things are starting to change though as new technology is increasingly employed in eSports broadcasts, with producers finding new ways of using Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality environments to tell the story of the tournaments. This is being driven in turn by the increasing power and ubiquity of games engines such as Epic’s Unreal Engine which are both as close to free to use as doesn’t matter and deliver stunning performance when it comes to delivering real-time computer graphics.

It’s not just about the quality either, it’s about the creativity. Graphic artists can see the environment they’re creating in real-time and iterate it in real-time as well, reacting to their surroundings and production feedback to create ever-more arresting images. And some of the technology which is dramatically pushing forward eSports coverage is having an impact on conventional sports as well.

Take Formula E for example, the worldwide electric car motorsport franchise. It has a feature called Attack Mode where a driver can drive off line to get a 25kW power boost to their engine. A camera is placed high above the Attack Mode zone and this is illustrated on the live broadcast using Ncam technology with AR chevrons on the track ‘filling up’ with energy as a car drives over them. The story of the race makes little sense without it, but it would have been impossible to capture at several recent storm affected events due to rain and gantry movement. Our tracking technology helped it to happen because we track using Infra-red, which is the same technology that helps us retain tracking at eSports events despite the often-impressive pyrotechnic displays that are increasingly associated with them.

There is more convergence coming down the pipe, as the increasing use of audience data enables a greater degree of personalization. Couple this with the ability of AR to actually put audiences into the onscreen action, and you have the potential for a, quite literally, game-changing offering.

Currently producing an eSports for broadcast or streaming is not too dissimilar than for producing any other sports event. But the amount of AR that is already used to showcase the in-game action gives a hint that, despite the cross-pollination that is occurring between the two different types of event, they could have quite divergent futures. And with eSports organizations built from the ground up in the cloud-based era and used to using everything as a service, they will be able to evolve very rapidly. The skillsets are transferrable now, but as eSports coverage increasingly leverages more and more powerful and sophisticated games engines, that is likely to change. If you want to get onboard, the time to get onboard is now.

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Of course, a key to a solid production is properly mixed audio. Calrec, a broadcast audio company, recently spoke with Lance Gordon, an audio engineer about mixing for Esports along with his backstory.

Can you provide some background on who you are and what you do?

As a freelance audio engineer and co-owner of Soundcheck Technologies, I have worked with some of the biggest rock bands and largest sporting events in the world. I have done just about everything from the Superbowl to NBA Finals, Winter Olympics and even the Ping Pong World Championships. I won an Emmy for the 2010 Winter Olympics and have been nominated multiple times for mixing other sporting events. It’s a crazy industry and I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to work in it for more than three decades.

Tell us about some of the recent projects you have been involved in.

Today, my primary focus is in the sports television world, mostly doing broadcast audio for combat-style sporting events. My most prominent productions include MMA and Bellator MMA tournaments for the Paramount Network, as well as WCW and WWE wrestling and ESPN’s live boxing events. I have also had the opportunity to mix many of the Winter Olympics events for NBC, and I’ve mixed sports for all the major networks – ABC, CBS and FOX. Recently, a friend of mine in the industry asked me to assist with productions at EA Sports’ new arena and studio, which led to my involvement with the Madden World Championship tournament. At Soundcheck Technologies, we also produce events such as the Alamo Bowl luncheons, galas and press conferences, as well as the U.S. Army All-American Bowl Awards banquet.

How did you get into the industry?

My interest in the industry began back in the in seventh grade when I was acting with my local theatre; I was always looking at ways to improve the lights and production value. I started working behind the scenes and doing mostly lighting, set building, designing lighting rigs and providing audio assistance. This led to me working with some local bands and I ended up in Hollywood with a permanent gig. While in Hollywood, in the late 80s and early 90s, I worked at all the big rock clubs, such as the Troubadour, Roxy and Whiskey, with some of the top bands of that time – Mötley Crüe, Poison and Guns N’ Roses.

I was mostly a lighting guy up until about 1990 and then I ‘graduated’ to gospel television production. After moving back to Texas, I started a lighting company with a friend of mine and we worked on all the big festivals, with artists like Garth Brooks, Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood and Alan Jackson, to name a few. I began to tire of the lighting gigs because we were always the first-in and last-out, so I started a transition into audio. I was fortunate to have my then-business partner Earl McCoy by my side as it helped ease that move. His father-in-law was Doug Sahm of the Texas Tornadoes. Their tour needed a monitor engineer, so Earl recommended me for the job. He showed me the ropes and threw me into the gig, and I’ve been doing audio ever since.

What led you from music and gospel to the world of combat sports?

Eventually, Earl and I dissolved our partnership and I took a position with Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, where I was really able to hone my audio skills. I ended up going out on the road with TV evangelist TD Jakes, doing stadium and arena tours that included massive choirs and bands – all broadcast live. In 1999, the San Antonio Spurs were in the NBA Finals and the broadcasters found themselves shorthanded for the visiting team’s mix. Somehow, word got out that I was a local who could mix audio and, next thing I knew, I had the gig. Similarly, when Bellator MMA director, Rick Beczynski– who has been very instrumental to my career – found out that I was available during an event, he asked me to mix. He offered me a permanent role with Bellator, and I’ve been with them for about 10 years now. It’s become my favorite sport.

Describe your typical workflow.

I don’t really use much outboard gear other than maybe some fader stuff to get rid of PA noise; I never really have. In combat sports, it’s not always pretty or perfect because it’s hard to incorporate outboard gear. You’re in and out so quickly that you don’t have a lot of time to integrate these things. On the Calrec consoles, especially for Bellator, I use the auto mixer, compression, EQ, dynamics, gates, delay and GPI; I pretty much use all the features. The Bellator desk has 24 subgroups, eight main outs and 100 multi-tracks, and I’ve put them all to good use.

We use such a large board for Bellator because of all the miking that we incorporate. For instance, I have a specialty mic array set up above the cage, with five Sennheiser 60-Series mics, which allows me to hear the fighters speaking to one another. I also built eight mic setups that bolt to the catwalk around the ring – these make it possible to hear all the action of them grappling around the edges or while they’re on the ground. We’re also trying to pick up the live crowd reaction, without it being too overwhelming to the sounds of the fight. Honestly, though, a mic is just a mic; it’s not magic. So, we have to try to EQ it in a way that we’re removing the rumble of the PA and still capturing the audience screaming, the punches from within the ring, one fan reacting interestingly or the referee screaming “he’s out, he’s out,” while also not destroying the mix.

How does an eSports workflow compare to traditional sports?

I pretty much approach eSports the same way as any other sports production – level consistency and maintaining input and output levels. For one of the more recent tournaments, we did a countdown or roll call where we went into the studio with the other players and asked some silly questions. Then we faded into the tease and the open, ultimately ending at the announce desk, just like a typical sports broadcast. I added music and we ran it like a package. As the competitors walked in, I’d hit another cut of music. It was a lot easier than combat sports in the sense that I didn’t have that screaming crowd pushing into my mix. The game part is pretty easy for the most part and, when each of the four quarters was about to end, we would go into another cut of music. It took about an hour to do one game. When that game was over, we would have an interview headset for the winner over at the announce desk. Then, the next set of players walked in and we would do it all over again. I’d do that for eight hours, so it was a long day.

That was also my first chance to work on Calrec’s new Brio console, which I had seen for the first time at NAB the year before. I came in and saw they were using the console and thought to myself “great, they have a Calrec!” I had the team show me a few of the newer features that rolled out with that console, but the beauty of Calrec is that they are easy to figure out, especially if you have an audio background or previous experience with Calrec. The nice thing about Brio is that I didn’t have to use a lot of EQ. It has a nice warm sound and crisp high-end; it’s a really smooth, flat console. With the Brio, you get a lot for the buck. It’s powerful, comprehensive and compact, so it’s able to address a pretty wide range of broadcast requirements. Brio is broadcast-ready with no compromise or workarounds.

When did you first start working with Calrec?

My experience with Calrec has run the gamut, from Artemis to Brio. When I first got started in the industry, audio was all analog with just eight boxes, 12 if you were lucky. So, when Calrec came out, it just blew my mind. Calrec’s analog consoles were way ahead of their time because they had multiple main outputs. One of the first times I used a Calrec was during Mark Cuban’s “A Day in the Garden” music festival (a Woodstock anniversary show featuring Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Pete Townsend, GooGoo Dolls, Phish and 40-some-odd other bands), which was broadcast live. I was able to mix one band while my A2 would re-patch the next and get all my line levels in place – this way, when they announced the next band, I could slide over, bring up that fader and be on my way. I remember thinking “you can do so much with this!”

My first major sports event with Calrec was at the 2006 Winter games in Torino. I believe it was the Sigma. One of my mentors, Jonathan Freed, who was serving as lead audio for the events, brought me on to work with him. He really helped me learn the ins and outs of the board. That experience gave me a jump start in the industry because Calrec was becoming the industry standard, so I could walk onto any sports broadcast truck and know how to operate the desk.

What are some of the standout things that you like most about Calrec?

Those of us in sports truly prefer Calrec. We can be more creative and not have to second guess ourselves because we know where everything goes and how the compressors and EQ respond. The ergonomics on a Calrec console are just great; the way it’s laid out makes it so easy to use. Even the smaller consoles, have so much power built into a little frame. That’s what I love about Calrec.

Honestly, I’m personally a huge Calrec fan. The company invests its time in its users and it really shows. For example, they allowed me to come to their facility in New York for training and they always have techs on-hand at large productions to help with any nuanced requests. When the Apollo was released, they hosted an audio summit where we all had a chance to spend time on the board. Then, pretty much the very next week, I was on a truck using that console and I was so grateful to have had time familiarizing myself with the board.

Today, I pretty much refuse to work on anything else; Calrec is my console of choice. When the time came to upgrade our trucks for Bellator, the production company wanted to use a competitor brand and I told them if they went that route, “I won’t do the mixes anymore. If you ask me for something on a Calrec, I can give it to you fast. But it takes me a long time to get comfortable on some other boards – they just aren’t made for what we do.” So, they put in a huge, fully loaded 144-fader Apollo for me. When the network got out of the truck business, they sold their fleet off to NEP and the Bellator truck really paid off for them because Calrec is what all the A1s want to use.

How have you seen technology evolve over your career?

The digital revolution began not long after I got my start in sports production, which was 1999. I’ve always kind of been stuck in my ways, but I embraced the world of digital audio, and it helped me get a lot more calls for work. Even so, I was amazed at the transition that audio took in just that short amount of time. I was right there on the cusp, and it was life-changing for me, career wise.

After that, the concept of hybrid workspaces was developed; it really revolutionized the audio world. Now, we’re transitioning into Dante audio, which has already taken off beyond belief. The one drawback with that solution is that you only have digital gain, rather than gain from pre-amps, and that’s a little bit weird. But it works fine in the controlled environment of a studio.

Have you seen any changes in the way audio is mixed and delivered to audiences?

Content providers, whether traditional broadcasters or streaming services, are trying to deliver an entertaining product. My job as an A1 is to provide clarity from the announcers and good effects from the sounds of the game or fight, or whatever it is. We need to be able to transition from booth to set without hearing a dip in audio. That’s really important because it’s the biggest thing that producers and directors really comment on. They just love it when you have good, natural sounds; they eat it up and that’s what content providers are looking for as far as quality, entertaining sound.

The trick to accomplishing that is working well with the front-of-house mixers, who are playing to the in-house, live audience. While they are trying to make sure the crowd is happy and giving you the on-site hype of the event, the broadcast team needs to entertain the millions of at-home fans who couldn’t attend. I always like to have a meeting with the entire audio team ahead of an event, to discuss the goals of each role and explain that, while the promoter has one goal in mind, the broadcaster is ultimately in charge of the gig, so we have to play to their requirements. It’s got to sound good on TV.

Where do you see audio and programming going in the next five years?

Everything is going to streaming; that’s the new real thing, I think, as far as delivery is concerned. For us on the audio side, I don’t see that having a big impact on the way that we mix audio. The “A Day in the Garden” event that I worked on, back in 1999, was one of the first real streaming content productions I can think of, and a lot of what we did for it has been the same ever since. Though, the actual quality of the sound has obviously improved, and now all the viewers have transitioned to using mobile devices and apps.

I do think that the app-based services are going to need to improve a bit on the quality of their delivery system. As television professionals, we’re already there, ready to deliver what they need. I think they just need to have a little better, more dependable bandwidth; and it will come full circle.

The post Q&A: Audio engineer Lance Gordon on eSports production and workflows appeared first on NewscastStudio.

With this evolution comes a wealth of opportunities for organizations driving growth across media technology, especially that which better enables remote production and help facilitate fast, global multi-channel distribution. This dynamic vertical combines the broadcasting opportunities of live sports and entertainment with exciting differentiating factors that demand the aforementioned capabilities. If media tech enterprises want to seize on this boom, understanding the unique nature of eSports production and distribution is important, as there are some new challenges and opportunities compared to traditional sports productions.

eSports’ Rise on the Leaderboard Explained

While gaming tournaments have been around since the 1970s, eSports as we know it bloomed in the 1990s, in the time of games such as DOOM, Unreal Tournament and Starcraft. Still, the rate at which eSports have gone from a niche hobby to a truly mainstream phenomenon in more recent years is impressive to say the least.

In a 2013 PCWorld article, writer Andrew Groen argues that the then-state of professional PC gaming could be attributed to its massive “economic rise of Asia”. While eSports had looked like a dying industry in the early 2000s, Groen suggests that the availability of free PC gaming centers and the prominence of competitive PC gaming in countries like South Korea not only helped to rescue eSports but to position it for the mass appeal it’s currently enjoying.

As it stands now, pro-gaming is a dynamic and lucrative business on nearly every continent, and shows no signs of slowing down. With a wide range of games—such as League of Legends (LoL), DOTA 2, the aforementioned Overwatch, Counter-Strike and Fortnite—competitive gaming enthusiasts can easily find a challenge that suits their individual tastes.

With the introduction of streaming community services like Twitch, professional gaming competitions are as accessible as the largest sporting events (e.g.: The 2017 LoL semifinals had a viewership of over 80 million people!), and major brands like Mercedes Benz, Toyota, DHL, Coca-Cola, and Spotify have arranged sponsorship deals with global leagues like OWL, ESL One or IEM, while Disney XD, ESPN, and ABC have teamed up with the leagues to form broadcast partnerships. Brands are beginning to recognize eSports as one of the best ways to market to younger demographics who might otherwise be harder to reach, and it’s likely that these sponsorships will only increase in prevalence.

Bringing Content to the Masses

Now that it’s clear that eSports is a big deal and only getting bigger, it’s essential for media technology businesses to understand what this means for them—how they fit into the emerging puzzle.

Recently, VentureBeat published the transcript of their eSports panel at the 2019 National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) convention. The wide-ranging conversation explored the nuances of broadcasting eSports competitions, and how they superficially resemble regular sports broadcasting while exhibiting some fundamental differences (more complex technology, the integration of additional workflows such as social media promotion, etc.) in the production needs.

Matt Edelman, the chief commercial officer at Super League Gaming suggested, “If you’re interested in eSports, relatively new to eSports, it will help if you think of eSports as sports.” While this is definitely a helpful way to consider its current cultural import, from a production and broadcast standpoint there are some crucial distinctions. Certainly, some of the same technology and production equipment is used, but we see critical differentiators in production workflows. eSports events are often much longer, so that logging and metadata becoming key for post-production and social media teams. Furthermore, we have to consider the in-game workflows and the different limitations coming from the observer itself.

While traditional sports and other live events have started to adopt remote or centralized productions, eSports seems to be pushing that model further and faster, to reduce production costs and to streamline global workflows. Additionally, remote production makes central archiving easier, allows post-production and social media teams to stay at home, offers less OPEX, and ensures employees don’t have to travel unnecessarily. With this model, much of the editing, the creation of graphics, and the addition of audio effects is predominantly done at a home facility away from the venue. This means that every single one of these massive events requires solutions that can facilitate constant, complex remote workflows that depend on swift and secure file transfers to and from the venue in near real time over public and private IP networks.

Furthermore, we see much faster adoption of cloud-based workflows in the eSports industry as well. That isn´t really a big surprise, when we consider that all the multiplayer games are living in the “cloud” already. With major publishers operating their own private WAN networks around the world, it´s just a natural step to shift more and more traditional broadcasting jobs into the cloud. A good example is Blizzard’s OWL production. Blizzard uses AWS Services to add localized graphics for different MRLs and regions and to transcode up to 37 individual video-streams.

The ability of broadcasters to handle all these components and production conditions as quickly as possible is absolutely essential for, as VentureBeat notes, the battle for eyeballs as it is far more hectic when it comes to eSports, and social media relevance demands the deployment of content ASAP. Even posting content five minutes late can make it less desirable. Additionally, while a football game or a basketball game might only be broadcast on a single channel because of exclusive media rights deals, eSports events are often broadcast on multiple channels across multiple platforms without geo-blocking. As such, being able to move content quickly, and create coverage that is dynamic and attention grabbing while under the real-time pressures of a given tournament is vital.

The final component that makes eSports such fertile ground for media technology businesses is the timeframe in which events take place. Since the debut of Twitch, gamers have been able to stream uninterrupted for days, and eSports competitions can last an entire weekend or longer. Gaming fans are used to tuning in for extended periods of time, and—whereas a basketball game might just take up a solid three hours of someone’s afternoon—eSports enthusiasts will tune in and out or even watch for an entire day. This means broadcasters are constantly moving files over a long period of time, and they demand solutions that can handle such conditions.

Gaming Around the World

Another crucial element for media technology organizations to consider is that eSports is a global phenomenon (the 2019 Newzoo article estimates that 57% of eSports enthusiasts are in the Asia-Pacific region), and the way in which fans tune in reflects that.

Whereas football fans might have a favorite local club or cricket fans a regional rivalry, eSports fans largely follow individual players. That geographic loyalty or team obsession is much less prevalent in this vertical, so even if you live in Dubai, you could be dedicatedly following a gamer based in Tokyo (though, organizations like Blizzard are trying to get fans invested in local teams through leagues like OWL). Compounding this is that, beneath the eSports umbrella, there are enthusiasts who really only care about one game of the dozens that currently drive eSports’ popularity.

eSports also serve the purpose of educating or engaging new gamers with the mechanics of games at which they might still be novices. As per Joe Lynch, the head of broadcasting at EA, and one of the members of the NAB panel, “Going by all these stats that we’ve looked at—the vast majority of the people who are watching are watching to learn…As broadcasters and storytellers, we have to spend a lot of time teaching. NFL football games don’t do that…They’ll do a little to explain the basic rules so you can enjoy the game, but they’re not going to go into the minutiae…Those are the things we have to do as storytellers, and that part is really different.”

So, what does all of this mean for distribution? Well, on a basic level, the distribution net for eSports is far wider than for any other type of sports. If I’m an Overwatch super fan, I’m going to tune into OWL competitions no matter where in the world they are, time difference be damned. And, if I can’t check out a tournament because that time difference is a factor, I’m going to want (or expect) that I can watch that tournament at a different time, at my convenience.

eSports is Here to Stay

The bottom line is simple: eSports isn’t going anywhere. In 2018, alone, the industry saw 4.5 billion dollars in investments.

The market, as it stands, is experiencing immense growth, and a heretofore undreamt-of level of legitimacy, and with that comes a trove of needs and opportunities that media technology businesses should be paying extremely close attention to.

Remote production and global distribution are elemental to eSports and with that comes an incredible demand for solutions that can support the workflows and omnichannel content push that defines the industry. This will continue to be a growth driver for media technology and certainly for Signiant as we provide intelligent file transfer solutions to the entire value chain including the game developers themselves, the broadcasters and online streaming services.

Still, no matter what your niche is, it would be absolutely foolish to dismiss eSports as a fad. In the past, pro-gaming might have been seen as a temporary craze or a fringe hobby, but the last half-decade has done wonders to disprove that assumption. Dubai even announced the construction of the first eSports-exclusive stadium in the Middle East!

The eSports wave is sweeping the world and media technology organizations should be paying attention. When it comes to production and distribution, the chances are immense.

If you’re committed to innovation, you’ll go where the innovators are.

The post The eSports phenomenon is bringing new challenges and opportunities in media tech appeared first on NewscastStudio.

Consider, for example, a typical five-on-five eSports competition. Ideally, you have a POV camera for each gamer, plus you’ll need a live feed from each of their consoles. That means you already have 20 video sources, plus you’ll need studio cameras to cover the commentators, audience, wide shots of the venue, etc. If you include a secondary studio, perhaps a “lounge” where players can socialize and watch other competitors in an informal setting, you’ll need even more cameras.

Q&A: EA adds dedicated broadcast production facility for eSports

To accommodate so many potential inputs, we recently built an eSports control room around a Ross Video 4 M/E Acuity switcher, along with a Ross Ultrix 144×144 router and EVS replay server. A Ross XPression with the Inception social management system handles CG and graphics, and easily integrates viewer feedback into live productions. A wall of multi-viewers was installed to monitor the dozens of potential sources.

Audio presents its own challenges. After all, each gamer needs a mic, each commentator needs a mic, and each game console needs a dedicated audio input. We addressed the quantity of sources with a Calrec Brio console with Dante AoIP connectivity.

Productions get more complicated when you manage the private communication between team members. Proper audio routing is vital to the integrity of the game. You can’t let one team hear the strategic communications from the other team.

We solved the audio routing issue by installing two completely separate intercom systems. The first, a Riedel Artist 128 matrix with Clear-Com FreeSpeak II wireless intercom system, is a dedicated intercom system for the production crew. The second Riedel system was configured (and officially sanctioned) to keep team communications separated between teams, but allows the audio from all players to be shared with the broadcast audience.

LED walls are common set pieces for eSports productions; they can show customized elements to create different on-screen looks for various competitions, as well as display highlights from the game action. Unfortunately, moire patterns on LED video walls and other on-set displays can be a huge problem. With physical and DSP filters to minimize or eliminate moire patterns, Ikegami cameras are leading the industry for eSports applications, so we chose HDK-99 cameras with FUJINON lenses for the main studio.

A recent eSports broadcast control room build out.

Integrators also need to be wary of potential sync issues. By its very nature, eSports creates a complex production chain. For example, from ingesting graphics-based content from multiple gaming consoles to distributing the live production, your encoders will be tested throughout the competition. Encoding is just one area where sync can fail. If the home audience is viewing video that is out of sync with the audio, you’ll get complaints. But if the team audio lags behind the game action, the competition could be invalidated and you could lose business.

Finally, don’t overlook storage. We outfitted master control with a Quantum SAN large enough to record a three-day tournament for 10 hours a day with up to 16 ISO cameras in real-time. Plus, we included a Quantum LTO-8 archive with 1 PB of tape storage.

eSports continues to grow in popularity, and it’s bringing video production to the next level. However, there is a noticeable lack of technical expertise specific to eSports in the industry. Broadcasters with facilities designed for news or talk shows may find themselves unprepared to handle the production requirements of eSports. The innate complexity of design brings with it a number of technological challenges. Systems integrators need to be ready to lead facility build efforts and answer questions that customers may not even know to ask.

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The eNASCAR iRacing All-Star Event will be the first featured under the agreement, airing this Thursday, July 25, during “NASCAR America” on NBCSN.

“The trio of NBC Sports, iRacing and NASCAR has been terrific in wanting to work together to find new ways to bring current and new fans into the NASCAR scene,” says Jeff Behnke, VP of NASCAR Production at NBC Sports Group. “For five years, the simulator has been used on ‘NASCAR America’ to showcase tracks and racers around the USA and this new four race venture will be a natural extension of that teamwork.”

Krista Voda, Parker Kligerman, and AJ Allmendinger will host the broadcast along with Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton.

Kligerman, Letarte and Burton also own team’s in iRacing, with Kligerman participating in the All-Star event on Thursday.

“This is a landmark moment for iRacing, and all racing esports,” said Tony Gardner, president, iRacing. “We’re incredibly excited to work with NASCAR and NBC Sports to bring our world-class simracers to a live national television audience for the first time on NBCSN. We expect the action to be intense, and we can’t wait for the green flag to drop this Thursday.”

“Our eNASCAR platforms bridge the gap from one race weekend to the next, delivering NASCAR-style racing to our fans through the rapidly growing esports space,” said Tim Clark, senior VP and chief digital officer, NASCAR. “This new collaboration with our partners at iRacing and NBC Sports is an example of how esports is allowing us to evolve the way we engage our fans.”

After the first All-Star event, iRacing will air on “NASCAR America” the last Thursday of every month.

While this is NBC’s first foray into airing NASCAR eSports, NASCAR and iRacing have worked to expand the sport’s presence the past few seasons with trackside activations and a regular professional series where drivers compete for prizes.

The post NBC testing NASCAR eSports telecast with four race trial appeared first on NewscastStudio.