Half of the esports experience is the broadcast - the world wants to see you pwn n00bs 😉The question is, how do you set up a broadcast that is easy to transport, but is also high quality and can be suitable for a variety of venues?
Let's take a look at one of our recent live events - a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament at Mountain View Community College.
The Venue
Alumni College Center - Snack Bar @ Mountain View Community College (Utica, NY)
The Desired Setup Requirements
Nintendo Switch feed
Player camera feed
2x Audience view camera feeds
Audio
This setup is going to require capture for 4 HDMI feeds (Switch and 3 cameras). Since this is a 1 man production setup, the camera feeds will have to be stationary. Limiting myself to only 4 HDMI feeds allows me to avoid using a larger video switcher and use an Elgato Cam Link Pro. Pro tip - if you don't want to bring a desktop PC (since the capture card is a PCIe card), you can use the Cam Link Pro in an external PCIe enclosure over Thunderbolt 3.
For audience view camera feeds, I used 2 Panasonic G7 mirrorless cameras on either corner of the stage facing inward. To prevent a cable mess (running long HDMI cables SUCK), we used 2 Hollyland Mars 300 Pro wireless HDMI transmitters and receivers.
For player view, we used a Canon Vixia HF G50 camcorder, also with a wireless transmitter.
Another pro tip, if you are looking at getting some cameras for live broadcast use, 4K is NOT something you need to worry about. 4K live streaming is extremely rare and really not necessary as most platforms do not support a high enough bitrate to make 4K streaming worthwhile over a high quality 1080p broadcast.
For software streaming, OBS is still the way to go. It's open source and free! To project onto a screen, use the "Fullscreen Projector" feature in OBS.
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