
NAB 2019 Perspectives: The Switch's Charles Conroy Says Traditional Sports Broadcasters Can Help But Need To Listen to Esports' Needs Company's new VP of gaming is focused on supporting the space from a genuine' place By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, April 19, 2019 - 11:40 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
Esports was a dominating trend at NAB 2019, but few exhibitors put their flag in the ground more dramatically than The Switch. The longtime provider of network connectivity and managed, private cloud services formally introduced The Switch eSports division, which comprises technology and personnel dedicated to integrating esports production, transmission, and distribution from anywhere in the world.
At The Switch's esports activation in the North Hall was recently hired VP, Gaming, Charles Conroy. Joining the company in November, he is a veteran of the esports space, having most recently served as chief development officer for Next Gen Tech, parent company of Complexity Gaming, which was sold to the Dallas Cowboys about two years ago. Conroy is adjusting to life on the technology side and, at NAB 2019, was showing off a newly developed transmission box dedicated to the unique needs of live-esports-content producers and distributors.
Conroy took a few minutes to chat with SVG about his vision for the esports industry, how The Switch is focusing its technology to meet its needs, and why it's so important that the company enter the industry from a genuine place.
The Switch's Charles Conroy: It's the job of the production people to adapt to esports while bringing in the production quality that's expected in traditional sports. I think that's where you see the two worlds really marry.
When did The Switch decide to make this move into esports? What has the effort entailed?
The Switch did BlizzCon and the Overwatch League Finals last year, which was sort of their first foray into esports. Through some traditional sports connections that they had, they were brought in to help produce those events, and they did a great job. [The events] have linear needs that The Switch hit it out of the park with.
A lot of esports is IP-based, so they realized they needed to make a shift to an IP product. They contacted me and brought me in. I had been in esports for 15 years. I was looking for an opportunity to come back into the space working in both the sports world and the esports world. The Switch is a great blend of that. I've started helping develop their esports product, and we did that by going to a lot of tournaments and shows and talking to every tech guy that we could.
One thing that I think is interesting about esports and a fatal [error] that a lot of production companies made in the past is trying to fit the esports model into their traditional sports model. Esports matches aren't a set 90 minutes. It's the job of the production people to adapt to esports while bringing in the production quality that's expected in traditional sports. I think that's where you see the two worlds really marry.
Esports has a need for a lot of the things that traditional sports does, and traditional sports needs to be nimble enough to fill those needs without bringing on the complete traditional sports model, because that's just not an effective way to come in. We made sure not to do that.
We came in from a genuine perspective. We got a lot of information from a lot of people about what products they needed, and we built our esports box that can bring connectivity and can get anyone on network anywhere in the world. We've been sending this to Lisbon and Brazil, streaming both IP and linear.
For a client refresh, we're doing 32 different feeds, sending six or seven clean feeds out that are translated in different languages for casting, and we do that all out of [that box]. We don't need a lot of infrastructure to get that going. We'll take whatever network is there, even if it's public Internet, and get it onto our The Switch network, which is then secured. That has been very popular for them, but it was one of those things where, instead of shoving linear down people's throats, we heard the clients' needs and developed the solution.
What has it been like for you to be on this side of the business, and do you feel that you were able to bring your own expertise in to help build technology that makes it happen?
I will say, there was a really large learning curve. I was coming from sponsorship sales, and I had done some on-camera work. I knew the space really well, but I was never behind the camera. I knew all the guys that were. I came in as an esports expert that was a total production novice. I have a respect for what those knowledge levels need. I was able to meet and learn from all the people I needed to meet and learn from.
I basically got a technical degree in the last four months. The first meeting was super-intimidating because everyone was using abbreviations I had never heard of and it was like they were speaking a different language. I walked out kind of shell-shocked. It has been great since then, though. Our engineers are some of the smartest in the world, and they've been very patient with me. I can bring them in and talk to the right people, and I can keep up with the conversation. It's they who have been able to create what I think is a really cool product, giving me the opportunity to advise how we utilize it, where we deploy it, and how to do that in a genuine way.
What are some of the conversations you are having here at NAB 2019? Are they with novices e looking to understand the space better? Are you seeing a lot of hardcore esports broadcasters looking to take their productions to the next level?
I think it runs the gamut. NAB has the mix, but I've still ha
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
At IBC2026, MediaKind will make its first major appearance as a unified global powerhouse in video, showcasing one of the world's most comprehensive video i...
06/08/2026
Big Blue Marble (#5.A63) will demonstrate how its integrated technology and operational expertise help media companies scale premium services with less complexi...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has received more than $500,000 in first-year fund...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Viruses are masters at invading our cells thanks to specialized proteins that coat their surfaces. When scientists design vaccines, they often crea...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-The brain has its own immune system, which detects threats and mounts a defense. A growing body of evidence has shown that in Alzheimer's disea...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve....
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research ranked third in the inaugural 2026 Cure Innovation Index recognizing the top-performing institutes and centers across the United S...
06/08/2026
Benjamin Cravatt, the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and a professor of chemis...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Dennis Burton, professor and the James & Jessie Minor Chair in Immu...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Inside every human cell, proteins are constantly being tagged with small chemical modifications after they're produced. Known as post-translati...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA-Scripps Research has established the Ian Wilson Endowed Chair, a new fa...
06/08/2026
Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Science...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Professor Jin-Quan Yu of Scripps Research has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the U.K.'s national academy of sciences and ...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-For years, researchers have been hoping for vaccines that protect people against not just one strain of HIV, but every strain of the quickly mutati...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-The Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines, the nonprofit...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Building the complex 3D molecules needed for new medicines has alwa...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Fentanyl and related variants of the synthetic opioid kill more Americans each year than car accidents and gun violence combined. In too-high doses...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-What do decoding communication between organs and reimagining the future of genome editing have in common? They're among the scientific questio...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States, app...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-For some people, cancer immunotherapies are life-changing. These treatments can turn the body's own immune system against a tumor, either elimi...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Many conditions that cause vision loss share a common feature: the ...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-RNA interference is a natural mechanism for living cells to control whether specific genes are being used or not.
Crowned with the 2006 Nobel Priz...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-The drugs that keep rheumatoid arthritis in check may one day help people stop drinking. A new Scripps Research study shows that an anti-inflammato...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health, linked to an estimated 4.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. As mor...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Some of the world's best-selling diabetes drugs depend on a che...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Detecting infectious disease threats early and responding quickly can dramatically alter the course of an infectious outbreak. Technologies such as...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Molecular biophysicist Joan Pulupa will join Scripps Research in Ja...
06/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-HIV is globally so diverse, consisting of hundreds of thousands of ...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/08/2026
At this year's SET EXPO, PlayBox Neo will present recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solutions. By show...
06/08/2026
Live demo at IBC2026 VisualOn Booth, Hall 5, Stand A55
Amsterdam, Netherlands Modern Streaming Solutions Private Limited, a rising force in India's dig...
06/08/2026
Screen Australia and YouTube Australia fund five new teams through eleventh Skip...
06/08/2026
How Karukera Studio Built a Media Production Hub with SNS EVO
Melanie Ciotti August 5, 2026
0 Comments
Hero images displays Karukera Studio in Sainte-...
06/08/2026
NHK drama series Rosanjin no Kamado shot on PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton August 5, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and DaVinci Resolve Studio capture the...
06/08/2026
Camera Match: AutoSetup 3d Plugin / script for Photomontages- Cinema 4D
Jamie Cardoso August 5, 2026
0 Comments
If you do any kind of Architectural Vi...
06/08/2026
In Time airs Monday 10 August at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In Time is the first film account of the life of D nal Lunny, one of the most influential Iri...
06/08/2026
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how developers, 3D practitioners and enterprises can transform their workflows u...
06/08/2026
August is here, bringing 26 new games for GeForce NOW members.
Command the seas in World of Warships: Legends and discover what's next in the GeForce NOW ...
05/08/2026
Thomson's Climate Crisis Toolkit for Media in Tanzania is being included in a new virtual library designed to ensure accurate and engaging storytelling arou...
05/08/2026
RSNs, teams, leagues, and streamers explore the present and future of local spor...
05/08/2026
As sports-production workflows generate larger volumes of unstructured data and ...