43 ROUND TABLE Esports Arenas
FEED: SHOULD WE BE LOOKING AT A TECHNOLOGY SET-UP THAT MIMICS TRADITIONAL SPORTS PRODUCTIONS? ARE THERE SPECIFIC MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL BE ESPECIALLY USEFUL FOR ESPORTS?
CHARLES CONROY: Existing technology set-ups are very capable of handling advanced esports productions. Our Burbank Control Room is able to handle the live production and delivery of any esports event, maintaining the highest quality. JAMES DEAN: In many ways you can copy traditional sports, but it goes beyond that for sure. There is more room for experimentation and the younger audience is generally an early adopter of new technology and platforms, craving new experiences and entertainment. Lower- cost AR tech should be considered, with a PC-driven backbone that offers a lot of versatility. It’s also important to remember
that productions widely vary in scale, which doesn’t necessarily relate to commercial success or reach. Budgets and complexity need to scale within the same facility. ANNA LOCKWOOD: Esports productions have been digital and cloud native from the beginning, and have not had to manage the legacy equipment and legacy workflows that most sports broadcasters struggle with when trying to innovate their productions. Indeed, traditional sports have learned from esports production and have begun to adopt the interactivity and immersive reality of competitive gaming. Esports technology teams tend to use off-the-shelf hardware rather than
proprietary hardware, open-source software rather than proprietary software and take great pride in doing high-value productions at a fraction of the cost of traditional sports. Esports producers have been early adopters of AI to help manage all the different perspectives and points of view in covering a game, and detect where the most important action is happening at any given time. AI is also used to moderate social interactions and chat, and to track viewer engagement and key themes. Esports broadcasters have also made great use of their direct access to in-game data, with far more data generated and at hand during a live event than traditional sports producers and commentators have had.
feedzinesocial feedmagazine.tv
Powered by FlippingBook