PGL wanted to enrich viewer experience by having the panel in a virtual set, based on a remixed version of the B site in Dust2 – an iconic map from CS:GO. “The cyberpunk theme was chosen by our art team,” Stroie explains. “In-game AR features enriched the freeze time between rounds by showing statistics about different players.” PGL Major Stockholm 2021 was the first CS:GO major broadcast in 4K, but wasn’t the organisation’s first 4K tournament. “The industry standard right now is for 1080p broadcast, but CS:GO is a fast- paced game. The improvement in video quality boosts the viewing experience,” says Stroie. “Fans are increasingly demanding; they watch the games on big screens, and every pixel is important. Our 4K stream on YouTube went viral – people enjoyed every second of the tournament.” When you realise the audience watched over 71,269,601 hours in total, with an average of 593,060 viewers tuned in at any one time, that’s a lot of enjoyment.
IMPROVEMENT IN VIDEO QUALITY BOOSTS THE VIEWING EXPERIENCE. FANS ARE DEMANDING... ON BIG SCREENS, EVERY PIXEL IS IMPORTANT
esports media landscape, and we lean on their expertise to create the perfect strategy for ensuring maximum distribution.” Languages supported among the territories ranged from Russian, Romanian and Icelandic, to Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese and Malay. “We use our sales and account management team in each market. They’re experts in the local language, and offer the support needed with broadcast partners.” FULL-SPECTRUM WARFARE In the arena, the coverage rivalled top-flight football, with 21 camera operators and over 15 cameras.
“Cutting-edge 4K cameras of various brands helped deliver spectacular, crisp, innovative shots,” says Stroie. “We had static broadcast cameras, Steadicams, individual player cameras, jibs and drones. As a video switcher, we used Blackmagic’s Atem Constellation 8K – and, to deliver the best experience possible, a mix of open-source (OBS Studio) and commercial (vMix) software. For an esports tournament, having excellent latency is decisive. To obtain this, we used ultra low-latency switches and minimised signal path.” In addition, VoIP and AoIP were served up using NDI 5 and Dante protocols, respectively.
STREAMERS Record numbers watched Navi’s dominant win in high quality
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