COLOGNE, Germany—As esports continues to rise in popularity, Nielsen will be lending its assistance to ESL and DreamHack for measuring key components of the esports industry, including viewership, as part of a new partnership agreement.

The three companies have been previously working together to establish a foundation for delivering consistent and standardized esports measurement to media and advertisers, and this new agreement is an expansion upon their past work. In addition to utilizing standardized metrics for esports viewership measurement and benchmarking, the agreement focuses on brand impact, media & sponsor valuation and consumer analytics.

As members of the Nielsen Esports Advisory Board, ESL and DreamHack will support the establishment of standard audience metrics for all digital and linear esports broadcasts.

“It is very important for the esports industry to use standardized reliable data measured by an independent company like Nielsen in conversations with brand partners and broadcasters,” said Thomas Schmidt, CCO at ESL. “Our work with Nielsen reaffirms our commitment to shape the esports industry and build stronger relationships with media and advertising partners by driving the standardization of key performance indicators across the industry with an independent and reliable partner. Establishing KPI’s live average minute audience (AMA) and others will push the industry forward and make it more accessible for media partners worldwide.”

Nielsen will provide its measurement services for the recently announced ESL Pro Tour that will be run by ESL and DreamHack.

Stand 14.D10, IBC 2019, RAI, Amsterdam: Intinor Technology, Sweden’s leading developer of products and solutions for high quality video over IP networks, has announced that ESL, the world's largest esports company, has deployed a combination of Intinor’s Direkt router, Direkt router lite, and Direkt receiver units to cover its linear broadcasting needs.

ESL wanted to move away from a rigid managed service model for traditional linear broadcasting and expand its internal distribution workflows for the web and, for the first time, take care of linear broadcasts internally.

ESL Director of Streaming, Steven Jalicy, said, “We wanted a solution that could dynamically scale and deliver high quality and high reliability without generating out of control service costs and technology bottlenecks. Furthermore, we wanted the future capacity and potential to merge our online and linear workflows into a single ecosystem.

“To achieve this, we needed a hardware system that was protocol and service agnostic. Something we could build into our own infrastructure and workflows to deliver traditional linear content to traditional linear takers, but deploy it using the same concepts that have been so successful for ESL when it comes to delivering content to our core audience on online platforms. Intinor was the perfect partner for this project.”

Intinor’s solution for ESL was to use a combination of Direkt router, Direkt router lite, and Direkt receiver units. The receiver units enable ESL’s takers to receive content via IP transport, which then breaks out to an SDI output that conforms to the respective traditional broadcast standards required. The routers enable ESL to contribute and distribute content from live events directly to takers worldwide and are the backbone of the deployment as they handle SDI source inputs onsite; perform live video encoding; process IP contributions; and ensure content distribution across the vast ESL network.

With the Direkt system, ESL can now directly manage and operate its own linear content distribution network without an expensive managed service, and without investing in the traditional infrastructure and hardware that would normally be required for linear content delivery.

Additional benefits include the ability to use Intinor’s proprietary Bifrost Reliable Transport (BRT™) protocol for 100 percent redundant transport over the public internet while also staying flexible and agnostic with options for RTP, HLS, RTMP and SRT protocols. Owning the hardware also enables ESL to integrate Intinor technology with ESL’s own workflows, which can then deliver key functionality for innovative broadcast concepts without increased costs for services and development.

Jalicy added, “Set against a backdrop of an almost impossible deadline - we had to go from fundamental design, through proof of concept and then onto a full scale deployment in less than four weeks - Intinor has been a great partner throughout this process and we will soon deliver our first live event using the new Intinor system, which takes place 28th-29th September 2019, live from the Barclays Center, New York. This represents just the beginning of our plans and we are confident that Intinor technology is going to play a crucial role in ESL’s continued innovation in the live broadcast space.”

Intinor CEO Roland Axelsson said, “We are delighted to have delivered such a robust and well-received Direkt system for ESL that eliminated their need for an external, restrictive, and expensive managed service provider. Having freed them from such hold-ups, we very much look forward to even more exciting applications and deployments for both companies.”

ESL will feature prominently in The IBC Esports Showcase on Tuesday 17 September, which will include information and discussions on entry into esports and managing the complexity of production through to the seamless technical delivery of an esports broadcast.

Intinor will feature the Direkt router, Direkt router lite, and Direkt receiver on Stand 14.D10 during IBC 2019.

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About ESL
Founded in 2000, ESL has been developed into the world’s largest esports company leading the industry across the most popular video games with numerous online and offline competitions. It operates high profile, branded international leagues and tournaments such as ESL One, Intel® Extreme Masters, ESL Pro League and other top tier stadium-size events, as well as ESL National Championships, grassroots amateur cups and matchmaking systems, defining the path from zero to hero as short as possible. With offices all over the world, ESL is leading esports forward on a global scale. ESL is a part of MTG, the leading international digital entertainment group.

About Intinor
Intinor develops its own products and comprehensive solutions for high quality video over IP networks. With solutions for contribution, as well as for distribution and web TV, Intinor has customers ranging from small production to major television channels. Intinor also work as consultants with product development and has extensive experience in developing custom-designed systems to meet specific needs. For more information, visit www.intinor.com.

Company Contact:
Martin Weber, European Sales Manager
Sales and Marketing
+49(0)176-231 322 65
+49(0)8122-84 700 59
martin.weber@intinor.se

Media Contact:
Jennie Marwick-Evans
Manor Marketing
jennie@manormarketing.tv
Phone: +44 (0) 7748 636171

AMSTERDAM—This year’s IBC conference will welcome the gaming world, and how it impacts the broadcast industry, in a big way, announcing an Esports Showcase on the final day of the conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, as well as a live esports tournament.

The Esports Showcase will look at the technological and commercial challenges of esports, trends and the latest developments with a number of industry leaders participating as speakers. Among the scheduled speakers will be Chester King, CEO of British Esports Association; Michiel Bakker, CEO at GINX Esports TV Canada; Jonas Gundersen, COO for North A/S; Henrik Nyhuis, the head of Ran Esports at ProSiebenSat.1 Sports Gmbh; Jens Fischers from EVS; Simon Eicher, ESL’s executive producer, director of broadcast and esports services; Ryan Chaply, senior esports program manager for Twitch; and Peter Emminger, vice president of global broadcast at Blizzard.

In addition, the ESL National Championship teams from Germany and Spain will take part in a live “Counter-Strike” tournament on the big screen of the RAI Auditorium.

The IBC Esports Showcase is being sponsored by EVS, ESL and Lagardere.

IBC 2019 will take place from Sept. 13-17 in Amsterdam. More information is available at show.ibc.org.

Manchester, United Kingdom - July 5, 2018 - Blackmagic Design today announced that ESL, the world’s largest esports company, delivered the inaugural live finals of the League of Legends European Masters, with a bespoke playout system built with a series of DeckLink Quad 2 capture and playback cards.

The playout solution handled a unique and complex live program mix, vision mixed on a live production workflow built around the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher, to a live audience, and to millions watching the championship’s livestreams worldwide.

“Esports broadcasting is rewriting the rules for content production, however, as with many developing industries, off the shelf solutions can often be out of the production team’s budget, or may fail to meet all of the technical demands of multilayered, multi source layouts that are needed for major tournaments,” explains Sam Deans, executive producer, ESL UK.

When ESL set about designing the architecture for such a vast production, Sam knew Blackmagic Design would play a pivotal role in the production workflow.

“We have developed our own custom built solution for VT playout, instant and slow motion replay, on air fill and key motion graphics and driving dynamic scenic LED screens, all of which rely on the DeckLink Quad 2 I/O hardware. Its ability to handle eight video signals simultaneously from a single card is a hugely powerful feature,” according to Sam.

He adds: “Whether turning to existing 'off the shelf' software or developing our own solution, it's becoming more and more apparent that built-in DeckLink support is the first choice for developers and reinforces our decision to embed it at the core of everything we do here at ESL.”

An instant replay server ingested four live video feeds and outputted a single feed in 1080p 59.94 back to the main production unit, where two ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switchers worked in tandem to produce the program mix for broadcast.

“Then the primary switcher took live camera feeds, broadcast graphics and video game signals, and this was vision mixed on the ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel. When you are dealing with more than 18 sources and two independent fill and key graphics channels in such a rapid and pressurized environment, having the panel in front of you brings a real confidence to the mix.”

A second switcher operated by an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel created a submix of ten POV cameras, which are used to capture player reactions during the tournament, and then sent a submix back over two SDI outputs to the primary switcher.

“The live production at League of Legends simply would not have happened without Blackmagic Design,” concludes Sam. “Not only do products like the DeckLink cards lower the barriers of entry to ultra high end broadcast production, but they also help us to solve specific challenges as we continue to rewrite the rules for content production and live broadcast in the digital space.”

Press Photography

Product photos of DeckLink Quad 2, ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, ATEM 2 M/E Broadcast Panel, ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/images.

About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

Press Contact

Nick Govoni
Zazil Media Group
(e) nick@zazilmediagroup.com
(p) +1 (978) 866 7354

COLOGNE, GERMANY—Much like one of Super Mario’s mushrooms does, Studio Technologies’ Model 214 Announcer’s Console has been added to ESL to upgrade its services. The e-sports company, which produces and broadcasts video games tournaments globally, has announced it recently upgraded much of its equipment, including the addition of the Dante-enabled Model 214.

One of three Dante-enabled consoles from Studio Technologies, the Model 214 is designed to serve as the audio control for announcers, commentators and production personnel. The unit can integrate on-air talkback and cue audio signal routing in a single tabletop system. The system can be powered by an Ethernet connection with Power-over-Ethernet or external 12-volt DC power source.

The Model 214 allows ESL to use a network switch and plug an Ethernet cable into each announcer console, then route everything through a computer, according to ESL audio engineer Ben Cochran. Other features of the system include changeable mic pre-amp gain and power-entry connections.

Studio Technologies is a provider of video, audio and fiber-optic products for the audio and broadcast markets.