
ESL expands and upgrades Polish production facility for REMI with Blackmagic Design By Adrian Pennington
Monday, September 27, 2021 - 10:03
Print This Story
ESL Katowice has quadrupled in size from one studio and control room to four new control rooms and three multipurpose halls
While the pandemic forced the shutter down on spectator attendance at esports events, unlike regular sports the live action continued unchecked.
For players, the shift to playing remotely was not a big adjustment as they were already used to playing online and from home. Most talent were also already outfitted for online streaming, as many had their own content channels and had already invested in the kit needed to broadcast online. It was up to esports producers to quickly pivot to this new reality.
Perhaps the world's biggest is ESL Gaming, part of digital entertainment group MTG, which operates international leagues and tournaments under the ESL Pro Tour umbrella, including Intel Extreme Masters, ESL Pro League and other pre-eminent, stadium-size tournaments such as ESL One.
ESL Gaming also operates production facilities (Burbank, Sydney and Cologne among them) which host its own branded events as well as white label content for other tournaments or events.
The Katowice, Poland hub for ESL is among its most prestigious. In the past year it has quadrupled in size from one studio and control room to four new control rooms and three multipurpose halls, including ESL's existing arena space. Design and specification began in March 2020 with the last studio/control room finished and operational in June of this year.
Blackmagic Design ATEM Constellation switchers and Universal Videohub are at the heart of the facility
Head of engineering Krzysztof Pawlus explains that flexibility was the key element when designing the production workflow and control infrastructure.
We produce a huge variety of live events, including ESL-branded formats, he explains. With that in mind, the entire workflow is reconfigurable to meet those needs and demands. Recently most of the talent has been remote and we also have to ensure the production teams continue to stay safe. We've made sure the studio infrastructure can bring in multiple external sources alongside signals from the studio floor, without any latency issues. It's imperative that our streams are accurate.
The entire facility - built at a new site just 100m away from the original studio is now fibre connected. Each interconnected control room has a 288 288 router with 24 fibre in and out, as well as a bank of SDI cards for converting PC desktop signals to SDI. It enables the team to distribute any incoming source to anywhere in the facility, depending on the production's requirements.
Blackmagic Design sits at the heart of the complex, which relies on multiple ATEM Constellation switchers and Universal Videohub for content production.
A new green screen virtual production set has camera tracking from RedSpy, chroma keying courtesy of Ultimatte (part of the Blackmagic Design stable) and rendering in Unreal Engine.
The halls are equipped to host a wide range of events, including space to accommodate up to 64 PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds mobile players.
Content is vision mixed on a variety of ATEM switchers. The largest control room has been furnished with an ATEM Constellation 8K switcher, which has been deployed across several high-profile events, including the Gamers without Borders charity tournament, where dual language programs were delivered simultaneously. All productions are delivered in 1080p 59.94 and streamed to Twitch and YouTube or via live video cloud to other platforms.
Other gear includes EVS replay machines and the Dyvi vision mixer, AJA signal conversion cards and Sony FS7 and Sony 4000 series studio cameras. All video equipment was delivered by local distributor Wamm Video Solutions.
EVS replay machines and the Dyvi vision mixer, AJA signal conversion cards and Sony FS7 and Sony 4000 series studio cameras have been installed
Communications can be an issue, and making sure everybody is on the same page is a lot more problematic in a decentralised production, says Pawlus. The amount of communication, split-second decisions, and the speed at which the in-game production takes place makes remote operation a challenge, for sure, especially when we aim to improve on last year's event, not go down in production value.
Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2020 tournament had to be played without fans in attendance at the 11,500-seat Spodek Arena as the Polish government forced the country into quarantine. That may have helped the final of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive IEM Katowice 2020 set a viewership record.
Esports Charts pegged the final's peak viewership at 1,002,132, which it says is a new record for the IEM series.
Earlier this year, the 2021 tournament was also forced to play behind closed doors. With more than 20,500,000 hours watched across multiple distribution platforms, IEM Katowice saw hundreds of thousands of fans tuning in to catch the action with peak concurrent viewers (digital platforms, excluding China) surpassing 580,000, according to ESL figures.
ESL Gaming is now selling in person stadium tickets for the February 2022 IEM Katowice event but, even if fans are permitted back to the arena, many of the remote workflows implemented during the past couple years are here to stay.
Many more production personnel who would have been involved in an outside broadcast at the studio prior to the pandemic can now operate remotely. These include observers (in-game camera operators). Also, we're just starting to expand the features for our virtual studio. We want to introduce more video feeds, for example, reveals Pawlus.
The availability of Blackmagic's SDK allows us a high level of work
More from Sports Video Group
12/08/2026
Traditional live sports production has focused on creating the best possible pro...
12/08/2026
FOR-A will showcase a range of broadcast and production products at IBC2026 (Stand 2.B53, Amsterdam RAI, September 11-14), including software-based switching, A...
12/08/2026
The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and EBU will host live demonstrations of NMOS BCP-008 Minimum Status Reporting at IBC2026 (September 11-14) on th...
12/08/2026
Dalet has announced Dalet Solution Suites, a portfolio of cloud-native solutions...
12/08/2026
Net Insight has announced that DMC Production Norway has selected its Open Live ...
12/08/2026
Zixi has appointed Alyson Stewart as Senior Director of Sales. Stewart will be responsible for direct sales and partnerships, with a focus on broadcasters, medi...
12/08/2026
LiveU's LU900Q intelligent production unit was deployed as part of the host broadcast operation for the Games in Glasgow (July 23-August 2, 2026). Host broa...
12/08/2026
Disney , ESPN, and Formula E have announced a multi-year deal bringing all Formula E races to Disney and ESPN in the U.S. and to Disney in most international...
12/08/2026
PSSI has launched X-LIVE, a managed service offering dedicated engineering resources and Appear encoding infrastructure for live event signal processing and tra...
12/08/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League Summer Season reached 18.3 million unique live viewers across three stops on ABC and ESPN, a 78.5% increase compared to the...
12/08/2026
BBright will showcase an expanded IP-Gateway at IBC2026, adding support for all RIST profiles to its existing support for MPEG Transport Stream over IP with SMP...
12/08/2026
BBright will demonstrate EBU OGraf animated graphics support in its software-bas...
12/08/2026
Interra Systems will demonstrate its ORION, BATON, BATON Captions, and VEGA solutions at SET Expo 2026 (August 17-20, Distrito Anhembi, S o Paulo) at partner Li...
12/08/2026
DPA Microphones has appointed Raul Contreras as West Coast Regional Sales Manager. In the role, Contreras will oversee sales and customer relationships througho...
12/08/2026
Live spectacles ranging from the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup to the Oscars and...
11/08/2026
Weekly immersive broadcasts will feature 8K 3D video, a 180-degree field of view...
11/08/2026
By Briana Brady, Social Media Manager, Production Hub
Sports content is having ...
11/08/2026
She addresses why media organizations need more than asset storage, how sports t...
11/08/2026
Remote commentary has improved significantly on these broadcasts
At a clip of ...
11/08/2026
A pair of LANTIME IMS M2000 PTP Grandmasters deliver resilient timing infrastruc...
11/08/2026
LTN has announced expanded capabilities for its Live Event Master Control offering, providing sports broadcasters, leagues, rights holders, and content owners w...
11/08/2026
WTA Ventures has appointed IMG as its managed production services partner in a multi-year agreement commencing with the 2027 season. The partnership is the late...
11/08/2026
The New York Jets and CBS New York have agreed to a multi-year extension of their partnership, keeping CBS New York as the official broadcast home of the team. ...
11/08/2026
Nielsen Holdings and DoubleVerify have announced a definitive agreement under which Nielsen will acquire DoubleVerify in an all-cash transaction with an enterpr...
11/08/2026
The Audio Engineering Society has announced the results of its 2026 Board of Dir...
11/08/2026
The CSN co-founder details its network and affiliate' model, how creator wi...
11/08/2026
Gravity Media is providing host broadcast operations for the Esports World Cup (EWC) 2026, supporting ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) in delivering the tournament to glo...
11/08/2026
TAG Video Systems has released a memory usage optimization for its MCM software that reduces the cost per channel by up to two-thirds for compressed workflows. ...
11/08/2026
SMT is expanding its technology partnership with the Cincinnati Open this year, adding new LED displays, production capabilities, and fan-facing experiences at ...
11/08/2026
The Pac-12 has announced that home Olympic sports broadcasts throughout the fall season will be available free on the conference's YouTube channel at youtub...
11/08/2026
Spreading a message of faith requires both widespread accessibility and uncompromising visual quality. Real Life Network (RLN), a free, faith-based digital stre...
11/08/2026
Taking the synergy of sports and entertainment a step further, the NFL venue in Nashville will house iterations of two iconic music clubs
The marriage of Taylo...
10/08/2026
Weekly immersive broadcasts will feature 8K 3D video, a 180-degree field of view...
07/08/2026
Diversified has appointed industry veteran Pete Emminger as global chief technology officer. Emminger will lead the company's global go-to-market technology...
06/08/2026
The broadcaster's 14-race schedule begins in Iowa and ends in November with ...
06/08/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
06/08/2026
As media organizations consolidate teams, technology platforms, and content libr...
06/08/2026
Firmware updates introduce Dolby's next-generation picture engine, content-aware optimization, and new motion and ambient-light tools...
06/08/2026
TNT Sports will have wall-to-wall coverage of the upcoming FIBA Women's Bask...
06/08/2026
swXtch.io (Stand 5.MR13) has unveiled groundSwXtch for Audio over IP (AoIP), a software application that lets broadcasters and media organizations move audio in...
06/08/2026
At IBC2026, Riedel Communications (Stands: 10.A24, 10.A31, 10.A38) will bring modern media production to life with the Live Production Experience - a connected ...
06/08/2026
The first live-sports director to receive the prestigious honor, eight-time Emmy...
06/08/2026
NBC Sports will continue to present the Preakness Stakes on NBC and Peacock thro...
06/08/2026
Cobalt Digital (Stand 8.F90) continues to reinforce its commitment to delivering...
06/08/2026
Wave Central has promoted promotion Jeff Daubert to Director of Sales, Americas.
In his expanded role, Daubert will lead Wave Central's sales strategy and ...
06/08/2026
KMH Integration is expanding its ability to serve media, broadcast, and IT organizations by adding Keith Hanadel, an accomplished architect with decades of indu...
06/08/2026
Advanced Systems Group (ASG) has promoted Michele Ferreira from Vice President of its Systems Integration team to the newly created position of Chief Business O...
06/08/2026
Demonstrations will include new JPEG XS, Dolby audio, cloud-gateway, stream-processing, and distribution capabilities...
06/08/2026
The deal includes three premium mobile units, engineering personnel, existing br...
06/08/2026
Broadcast Management Group produced Amazon Prime's inaugural Obsessed Fest a...