38 ESPORTS FOCUS H1Z1
we are right now in the world of content production.” She adds that “there’s nothing that separates it from being a broadcast job. We could do any broadcast production with this gear. In fact, our chief engineer Matt Battaglia also works for Fox Sports. He’s a technical supervisor for NFL, and he says, ‘Hell, we broadcast in 720p!’” A NUMBERS GAME Ensuring good picture quality from the 83-camera shoot was the responsibility of video controller Bob Kertesz, who speaks highly of the Panasonic AK-UC3000 cameras. “They are kind of unusual cameras. It’s a single 35mm-sized chip with the relay optics built into the head so it could take 2/3in B4 lenses. That’s the way the camera was designed. I was anticipating all kinds of relay lens issues with soft corners and flaring and all the usual problems you get with relay adapters and I got nothing. I spent a day evaluating them and I was very impressed with them.” Five cameras were handheld, with others on jib, Technocrane and one with a 95:1 box lens to cover the announcers at their desk. Kertesz describes the players as “all facing out, and around the outside edge of the circle there was a two-and-a- half-foot wide platform all the way around where the handheld guys wandered.” He estimates, though, that more than half of the broadcast was made up of gameplay
footage. “There was a second room set up with highly experienced gamers and another switcher. They’d preselect and they would send what they felt was important on the preview buses.” The demand for 1080p60 pictures was unusual, even for sports. “More than half the football games broadcast in [the USA] are at 720p,” Kertesz continues. “They’re on Fox which is 720p. They’re on ESPN – which is Disney – which is 720p. NBC and CBS are 1080i broadcasters. Combined, Fox and ESPN are probably 55 or 60% of games.” The complication, Kertesz says, is that “everything has to be 3G SDI and it’s not so easy to find a switcher that’ll do that. Everything was 1080p, everything was 3G as a result, and 1080p60 is not normally done. So, everything had to be configured properly and everything had to work at that rate.” A Grass Valley Kayenne vision mixer was used for its 3G support and automation features. The motivation for targeting the higher resolution format, Denke says, comes directly from the fact that the gamer audience is technically savvy and used to watching high-quality images on a large, close-up display. “1080p60 is the gaming standard. When you have your gaming rig and you have it how you want it to be, you want the best possible, and you’re going to run your game at 1080p60.” Finally, Kertesz mentions smoke: “The game has a mode as you approach the
IN THE MOMENT Although coverage of the H1Z1 tournament involved 83 cameras, the broadcast drew heavily on gameplay footage, with experienced gamers preselecting important sequences.
There’s nothing that separates it from being a broadcast job. We could do any broadcast production with this gear
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