Behind the Scenes at Blizzard Arena: Inside the Home of Overwatch League, the Hottest Property in Esports An inside look at Blizzards production workflow for the hottest property in esports By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - 9:21 am
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With teams dishing out $20 million apiece to join and Twitch inking a two-year, $90 million streaming rights deal, Blizzard Entertainment doesn't just believe Overwatch League can be among the elite esports properties in the world - it believes it can be among the elite sports properties of any kind. In order to be a first-class league, you have to have a first-class production facility, and that's exactly what the video-game titan has endeavored to create with Blizzard Arena in Burbank, CA.
Inside Blizzard Arena, home of Overwatch League. Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
Opened in October 2017, Blizzard Arena has served as the home of Overwatch League competitions since its inaugural season began in January. What was once home to The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson in Burbank Studios is now a modern 11,000-sq.-ft. studio dedicated exclusively to esports. However, the Arena itself is just one portion of Blizzard's sprawling 74,000 sq.-ft., five-level facility (including the basement), which also includes a second studio for additional programming, two control rooms and an observer room , a shoutcaster announce booth, nine edit suites, private practice rooms for all 12 Overwatch teams, dugouts for both competing teams, multiple press rooms, vast stretches of office space (including Jay Leno's former digs), and much more.
We've been planning this project for a couple years, so it was a very extensive buildout and we tried to account for everything, says Pete Emminger, senior director, global broadcast, Blizzard Entertainment. Right from the beginning, we built out all the necessary infrastructure to support everything that Blizzard does - not just Overwatch League. So, it's been very flexible for us. We've already done almost every Blizzard esport here and we are continuing to grow bit by bit as we get into new programs, but Overwatch is obviously our main focus right now.
Inside the Arena: An LED Feast for the Eyes
The Blizzard Arena soundstage, which has seating for up to 450 fans, is centered around the primary stage, where the two six-player teams compete against a 13,000-pixel-wide 4mm LED wall. In addition, a LED halo display hangs above the stage and tracks the payload progression for each Overwatch match. All LED panels are all wired redundantly throughout the facility and driven by a custom graphics/playout system developed in-house by Blizzard.
The Blizzard Arena stage features a 13,000-pixel-wide 4mm LED wall and LED halo above. Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
All the LED is completely reactive to the game, says Emminger. We have a number of custom game software elements that drive all this LED. All the hero panels and other [elements] up on the LED are all driven directly from the game engine and the Halo [above the stage] is totally reactive to the game [to visualize] the Overwatch payload progression.
Just a few feet in front of the stage is the primary desk set, where four analysts break down the action throughout each match.
In terms of in-arena audio, the house PA system utilizes a Yamaha QL1 mixing console and one EAW line array PA with subs for tiered seating.
Both teams utilize analog headsets (custom-modified from a pilot headset to ensure noise cancellation) and totally independent comms systems (driven by two Yamaha QL1 audio consoles backstage). Via these noise-cancelling headsets, players can hear one another and the comms feed is piped into both dugouts located behind the stage so the respective team managers can hear and provide feedback at halftime. The comms feeds are also recorded for postgame analysis during the week.
Each Overwatch League player is covered by Blackmagic Micro Cinema POV cameras and wears custom-modified pilot headsets. Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
We have two separate consoles for each team in order to maintain tournament integrity, says Emminger. That way there's no chance of a configuration error or mix up, which is a must at this level of competition.
Since competitors play at 144Hz, necessitating short cable runs between the player and the hardware, all of Blizzard's HP gaming hardware is located in small racks next to both team's areas on the stage.
Blizzard also has a second studio at the facility, which is utilized for its weekly look-ahead studio show Watchpoint, its Tespa collegiate esports events, player interviews, standups, and other multipurpose needs.
Blizzard utilizes a second studio in Burbank for a variety of programming, including its weekly look-ahead show Watchpoint.
The production team has 16 Grass Valley LDX86 (eight of which are outfitted with six 22X lenses and two wide angle lenses) cameras at its disposal to cover action inside the Arena (Stage 1 at Burbank Studios), as well as for Blizzard's secondary studio (Stage 5). In addition, the primary arena has four Sony BRCH800/1 1080p PTZ cameras.
In addition, up on the stage, Blizzard deploys a dozen Blackmagic Micro Cinema POV cameras with SLR Magic 8mm lenses for close-ups of each player's face during competition. Blizzard has a single shading room to shade both the Grass Valley cameras (painted with traditional CCU's) and POV cameras (using Blackmagic's DaVinci Resolve coloring software).
Inside the Control Rooms: Calling the Shots From Matching Rooms
Blizzard Arena is equipped with two control rooms and two audio rooms, as well as an observer room, which produces the in-game action itself. A Grass Valley Kayenne K-Frame 9 M/E switcher is split
