Page 22 - spaces4learning, November/December 2019

Collaboration begins with
spaces4learning ESPORTS
puting hardware and IP transport. IP is the established standard for connecting devices that is now being applied more pervasively to media. IP is a mature, existing technology, ubiquitous on a global basis. By its very nature, IP technology efficiently handles any and all of the data types that are of interest to media produc- tion and distribution.
NDI Empowers IP Production
Network Device Interface (NDI) is a free-to-use protocol built upon IP-based standards, enabling compatible products to share video, audio and data across a standard local area network. Us- ing refined encoding and communication, NDI permits systems, devices, and applications to identify and communicate bi-direc- tionally with one another over IP, and to encode, transmit and receive multiple streams of high quality, low latency, frame-ac- curate video and audio in real time. Furthermore, it is a standard used freely among competitors such as Sony and Panasonic. NDI is royalty free, so there are thousands of software and hardware products with NDI support, and millions of users incorporating it into their environments.
It is also familiar in the esports space: Twitch uses it to support many of their productions, and OBS Studio — one of the leaders in streaming software — utilizes NDI as an enabling technology. Simply put: it is an affordable, interoperable and simple solution
to effectively transfer video over a network.
As students are the primary users, an esports production center
must be quick and easy to operate. Using standard IT interfacing, gaming workstations have to be connected over the network si- multaneously. Free scan converter tools can be used to make each gaming PC available as video sources. Game consoles from Nin- tendo, Microsoft or Sony can also be added to the network with converters, making these and other HDMI video devices NDI sources.
Bringing It All Together: Live Production Systems
Switching for all cameras, gaming PCs and consoles — along with video clips, graphics and audio — needs to be combined into an IP-capable digital media production system.
A production system needs to be simple to use and incorporate automated functions so it can be set up in a self-service mode. In this way instructors or students can produce finished content without needing technical experience. A comprehensive macro automation system will let users record, store, edit and automate their common settings and typical command sequences. Macros can be set up to run manually from a combination of compatible control interfaces or be set to perform actions with the system automatically.
Some production systems can use a Microsoft Word document to act as the teleprompter script that is delivered to monitors, tablets or
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