Articles tagged #MIXING
Articles tagged
#MIXING
Videocraft builds first Esports Production Studio in Australia for Gfinity
The global esports market is booming with revenue predicted to reach US$1.65 billion in 2020. One of the industry’s drivers in this country is Gfinity Esports Australia with their new Elite Series competition which is delivering gamers and fans a clear and structured competitive framework within Australian esports. A key requirement for the Elite Series competition was the creation of Australia’s first, dedicated Gfinity esports production studio which has been designed and built by Videocraft. The Elite Series presented by Alienware sees 6 city-based clubs competing weekly in front of a live audience at Gfinity’s state of the art esports arena within the Hoyts Cinema Complex at Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter and it is here that Videocraft built the new production studio.Clubs compete across iconic game titles: Counter Strike Global Offensive, Street Fighter V and Rocket League, for a share in the some of the largest prize pools in Australian Esports history and each event is broadcast live on Twitch. COO of Gfinity Australia Sam Harris said, “Gfinity are setting the new benchmark for quality in esports in Australia. As such, we looked for experienced partners to help bring our vision to life. Videocraft played a pivotal role in the development of the high quality production capabilities for our first esports arena at the Hoyts Entertainment Quarter.” Videocraft’s Nick MacLean added, “Gfinity have produced esports events very successfully in the UK for years and set a very high standard for their productions. It was clear that all of our 45 years of broadcast experience would come into play for this project as the knowledge required to build the studio transfers perfectly into esports.”As well as creating and building a studio to create content for Twitch, Videocraft also had to send content, ready for playout, to TEN’s digital channel, One. MacLean continued, “For this studio we had to produce all the content to a much higher standard than for regular SD television which is usually 1080 50i. However, as the primary delivery and viewing platforms are online and in order to keep up with refresh rates, all of the content from the studio is 1080 60p.”
Videocraft designed and built the new Gfinity esports production studio with one of their highly-acclaimed and well-proven FlyAway kits at the core. The kit also integrates Sony HDC-2400 cameras, HDC-P1 cameras, EVS XT3 video servers, a Sony vision mixer and full Yamaha audio. MacLean added, “We deliver all of the competition match content in 1080 60p live to Twitch who in turn put it out live to their viewers. For One we had to work with Channel TEN to come up with a solution that looked equally as high quality. This meant a workflow which involved sending One the content in 1080 60i - which is the same as a live feed from the USA - and then cross converting that to 1080 50i. From there it all went out via the Telstra DVN and the whole process was flawless.” The mix of broadcast expertise and workflows combined with the new generation of esports’ requirements is an interesting one as the production crew and equipment are all from a traditional TV environment which in turn makes the esports online production values particularly high. Maclean said, “We used all of our broadcast experience and expertise to give Gfinity, Twitch and One the very best quality content possible. We also broke new ground by using the clever new Bird Dog NDI converters for supplying vision feeds to monitors throughout the new facility. This meant we could control the units, get them to accept any material we wanted in 1080 60p and put this up on the screen whenever we wanted to. The Bird Dog converters enabled us to maximise the network infrastructure we built for the new facility and made life particularly easy for operators choosing content from a single screen. There were also complexities involving the project to the cinema location that we needed to overcome. The studio floor was built in the cinema and our CAR and control room built in one of the projection bio boxes on the other side of the complex. We had an extensive fibre install completed to enable us to send signals to various parts of the cinema complex. Utilising Mediornet and a 10gig Ethernet backbone made this very simple.” 
In a nutshell esports is already having a huge impact in Australia and now with dedicated arenas and high end production facilities, that impact stands only to grow further. Nick MacLean concluded, “This project was all about quality and experience. We had to use all of our experience and work closely with Twitch, TEN and One to make sure everyone got the pictures the way they required them, in a seamless fashion and looking amazing. In the world of esports gamers play at 1080 60p therefore the images we give them to watch also have to be of the same ultra-high standard. This creates the very best in engaging content which in esports, is all that’s acceptable.” Season 1 of the Gfinity Esports Australia Elite Series started on 2 June and runs for 7 weeks of competition, featuring Melbourne Avant, Sydney Chiefs, Brisbane Deceptors, Perth Ground Zero, Melbourne Order and Sydney Roar. Each of the Clubs 3 teams compete on Saturdays, CSGO 3-8pm and Sundays, Rocket League 10-1pm and Street Fighter V 4pm-7pm in an action packed 5 week regular season and 2 week Finals.Avid Announces New Innovations Delivering on Avid Everywhere for Audio
Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID) today introduced a comprehensive global ecosystem for the audio industry delivering on Avid Everywhere™. Enabled by the Avid MediaCentral Platform, these audio innovations bring together artists, technology vendors, media organizations, and publishers onto one unified platform so they can create, collaborate, and distribute music and audio content more powerfully, efficiently, and profitably. “The goal of Avid Everywhere is to provide a common platform where everyone—from aspiring pros to established artists and professionals—can come together and create their best work,” stated Avid Chairman, President and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr. “Our comprehensive global ecosystem delivers on this promise, making it possible for content creators to tell their stories and connect to the world’s widest network of artists, film studios, broadcasters, and media organizations.” Pro Tools | First – Join the Avid community for free Opening music production to everyone, Avid introduced Pro Tools | First, offering artists, audio enthusiasts, and aspiring pros access to many of the same music creation tools used by top professionals and facilities—at no cost. Simple enough for beginners to learn, yet sophisticated enough for the experienced musician, Pro Tools | First enables everyone to experience the industry’s most trusted digital audio workstation so they can turn their musical ideas into fully realized, professional productions that stand out from the crowd. Pro Tools 12 - Flexible licensing options Avid announced Pro Tools 12 giving professionals more choice over how they purchase and deploy their tools, collaborate with others, and get more exposure for their work. Customers can now subscribe for as little as $29.99 per month, or buy Pro Tools software outright. With these new options, users can stay current with future software updates and innovations as soon as they are released via the cloud, at no additional charge. Avid Cloud Collaboration — The world is your studio Avid Cloud Collaboration, initially to be accessed by Pro Tools users with others to follow, is a groundbreaking set of collaboration capabilities that enable artists to compose, record, edit, and mix sessions working with other Pro Tools users in the cloud, as if they are all together in the same studio. New services in the Avid Marketplace The Avid Marketplace allows Pro Tools users to engage in a community of artists, acquire new plug-ins and apps as they need them, easily store their work securely in the cloud, and post their finished assets or Pro Tools session files for others to license in their productions. Sibelius | Cloud Publishing Underscoring Avid’s commitment to the music notation market, Sibelius | Cloud Publishing is a groundbreaking new publishing technology that revolutionizes the way sheet music scores are sold online. With a Sibelius | Cloud Publishing-enabled site, publishers can allow customers to view, play, transpose, print, and purchase scores using any current web browser or mobile device, including Android, iOS, and Linux.
Avid Unveils State-of-the-Art S6 Control Surface that Redefines Sound Recording, Mixing, and Editing
Avid® today unveiled a major new addition to its industry leading family of control surfaces for sound recording, mixing and editing, further extending its leadership in the space. Avid S6 is designed for audio professionals in the most demanding production environments, delivering the performance needed to complete projects faster while producing the best sounding mixes. In addition, S6 provides mixing professionals with a state-of-the-art solution that easily scales to meet their current and future challenges. “Working in ever more complex environments with fast project turnarounds, mixers need intuitive, tactile control of editing and mixing, and the ability to easily work with other artists, engineers, and facilities,” said Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of products and services at Avid. “Drawing on more than 20 years of leading edge innovation, the S6 delivers the game-changing modularity, superior ergonomics, and streamlined collaboration to meet mixers’ changing business requirements.” Built on the same proven technology that is core to the industry-leading ICON and System 5 product families, the Avid S6 enables mixers to quickly turn around complex projects while swiftly handling last-minute changes. With its unparalleled ability to simultaneously control multiple Pro Tools® and other EUCON™-enabled DAWs over simple Ethernet, S6 also speeds workflows and enables network collaboration on a single integrated platform. Avid S6 redefines professional mixing with key features that include: Revolutionary modular design — Adapting to every stage of a user’s business, the S6 control surface can be customized with the addition of the modules needed to match current workflow. It can be horizontally and vertically scaled as the client base grows. Pre-configured S6 M10 or S6 M40 surfaces may be purchased with the required faders, knobs, etc. already provided or, with S6 M40, further personalized with different channel control combinations. Superior ergonomics — A traditional, familiar console layout allows easy transition from previous systems. The multipoint touchscreen quickly and easily accesses plug-ins, large track counts, surround panning and more, while top-lit status knobs and high resolution OLEDs add operational efficiency. Additional 12.1” displays on S6 M40 systems further enhance instant project overview by providing deep visual feedback on key items such as channel names, audio meters, routing, clip names, and scrolling waveforms. Ultimate recall enables quick location for last-minute mix changes. 
Intelligent studio control — Compatible with Pro Tools and other popular EUCON-enabled DAWs, S6 enables detailed work on up to eight audio workstations simultaneously, as well as the ability to switch sessions in seconds from a single control surface across the facility. High-speed Ethernet connectivity makes it easy to reconfigure operations as business requirements dictate. Availability and Pricing Avid S6 will be available at Avid resellers worldwide in Q4 2013. As a modular system, S6 is available at a variety of prices, with M10 configurations