45 ROUND TABLE Esports Arenas
FEED: HOWCANCLOUDBASEDTOOLSHELPUSRUNABETTER ESPORTSBROADCASTOPERATION?
CHARLES CONROY: As esports tournaments emerge as top-tier broadcast and streaming staples, a cloud solution offers a way for leagues to broaden their footprint while maintaining professional production quality. A cloud-based model can accommodate additional live video feeds from another source – for example, the video output directly from the competitor ’s screens or a guest commentator connecting remotely via video link over the internet. In the current environment of social distancing, cloud-based production can play a crucial role in extending esports broadcasters’ remote production capabilities. This reduces travel for teams, crews and support staff, enabling them to keep their distance and lessen overall risk.
JAMES DEAN: I’d highly recommend the ability to adopt cloud based tools, both to expand the feature set of the production and to reduce overheads and running costs of smaller productions. ANNA LOCKWOOD: Most esports broadcast operations are cloud native. During the pandemic, the ubiquity of cloud-based tools and virtualisation of broadcast operations helped esports to stay live and relevant – and actually grow in popularity – while the traditional sports industry almost halted completely. Esports producers have shown that they can still put out great competitive events and content even in the most adverse conditions, completely online.
FEED: HOWCANWEKEEP FANSENGAGED INTHEARENA BETWEENMATCHES? CHARLES CONROY: Storytelling is becoming a bigger and bigger part of esports. Leagues are getting much better at producing story lines for fans to digest between games, and I think this is going to become one of the biggest ways to engage fans between events heading into 2021. Another way fans can be kept engaged is by producing additional bonus-content at an event, such as match breakdowns and player interviews. In a traditional sports scenario, the players will rarely come into the commentary booth to offer an overview or breakdown of the match. In esports, you will almost always have the players offering commentary on the tournament. JAMES DEAN: Fans can easily be kept between matches with all sorts of experiences that commonly rotate around light competitive entertainment. There is also a clear opportunity for merchandise and F&B sales and various community meetings, including fan meets and brands. ANNA LOCKWOOD: For fans watching online, a lot of banter, commentary and social interaction goes on in the Twitch chat between games, along with the live stream of the analysts, player interviews and shoulder programming. With the frequent mash-up of gaming, music and entertainment at esports events, there is often music during a break to entertain fans watching online or in the arena, along with games, competitions and social interactions. If you’re at an esports event in Australia, odds are that fans will chant, lead people snakes around the arena and maybe even do a ‘shoey’ or two.
MOST ESPORTS BROADCAST OPERATIONS ARE CLOUD NATIVE
FEED:WHATARESOME TECHNOLOGIESWESHOULDBE LOOKING AT TOCREATEABETTER IN-STADIUMFANEXPERIENCES?
CHARLES CONROY: Esports has done a great job of giving fans more control of the viewing experience – for example, by using augmented reality in stadiums. In the Philadelphia esports arena, they’re implementing screens where fans can select their own viewing experience and player streams, with incredible levels of interactivity. Artificial intelligence and VR are also going to have huge parts to play in the near future, especially on a broadcast level. The League of Legends championships won an Emmy back in 2018 for an AR dragon that flew through the video view of the stadium. JAMES DEAN: Check out weavr.tv. This is our government-backed innovation project in the UK that is exploring a wide variety of personalisation and end user engagement though AI machine learning, while encapsulating all forms of immersive
technology. It’s designed to enhance both in-stadium experiences and online audiences, bringing them together. ANNA LOCKWOOD: Esports fans are wonderful, and anyone who has attended a packed esports event full of passionate and diverse fans and gamers will rank the experience with any great sporting event they have attended. Tournament organisers and venue designers work to make the in- venue experience as seamless as watching online on Twitch, with experiences that enhance the stream or broadcast for audiences at the venue. These include spectacular opening and closing celebrations, state-of-the-art LED screens, in-venue hosts, special shoutcasters and analysts, great Wi-Fi and 4G/5G coverage that supports high usage and density, and brand activations with special prizes or giveaways only available at the venue.
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