ESL upgrades eSports production studios with Blackmagic Design solutions

Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Constellation mixers and Universal Videohub devices land in ESL’s eSports production studios.

These facilities, located in Katowice, Poland, have recently been expanded with four new control rooms and three multipurpose spaces. WAMM Video Solutions has led an integration in which it has pursued, above all, to create a flexible workflow. Krzysztof Pawlus, Head of Engineering, elaborates on the new ESL infrastructure: “We produce a huge variety of live events, including ESL branded formats and white label content for other tournaments or events. With that in mind, the entire workflow is reconfigurable to meet those needs and demands.”

“The entire facility is fiber connected. Each interconnected control room has a 288×288 router with 24 fiber in and out, as well as a bank of SDI cards for converting PC desktop signals to SDI. Essentially, we can distribute any incoming source to anywhere in the facility, depending on the production’s requirements,” says Pawlus.

ATEM Constellation

ESL content, including a 64-player PUBG Mobile competition, is mixed with Blackmagic Design ATEM units. The largest control room features an ATEM Constellation 8K model, which has been used for high-profile events such as the Gamers without Borders charity tournament, for which programs were broadcast in two languages at the same time. All productions are delivered in 1080p 59.94 format and shared via Twitch and YouTube, or from the cloud to other platforms, depending on customer requirements.

Pawlus, satisfied with the flexibility provided by the Blackmagic Design SDK, is confident that the manufacturer’s technology can bring new opportunities to ESL’s future: “Availability of Blackmagic’s SDK allows us a high level of workflow customization, while the ability to automate complex processes through custom macros is a real advantage and helps us to diversify our streams. We’ve already been able to develop some very clever and efficient solutions to ensure our content remains at the pinnacle of esports production, and I’m sure there are many possibilities we’ve still to explore.”