The True Geordie and Coral rely on Blackmagic solutions to produce live sports program

The YouTuber The True Geordie in collaboration with the Coral betting house launches the production of a live sports space with an ATEM Television Studio Pro HD mixer and a Teranex AV converter.

The True Geordie turned to British audiovisual agency Formidable to obtain professional creative and technical advice for the deliveries of The Kick Off with Coral, which has an average weekly audience of more than 350,000 viewers.

“The new season was quickly approaching, and we were confirmed that we had just over a week to equip the studio and control room, but thanks to Blackmagic Design products we were able to achieve our goals on time,” said Pete Gibbons, creative director at Formidable.

However, one of the most technical challenges they had to face was an essential component for the program's editorial offering. “We have real-time access to Premier League statistics and compile them into a graphical interface, so presenters can use them live using a touch screen,” explained Iain Slater, director of the programme.

Not only did Slater need to transmit the signal from the computer to the touch screen, but he also needed to duplicate it, in order to send that source to the ATEM Television Studio Pro HD switcher. “To achieve this, we connected a Teranex AV converter to the touch screen, in order to transmit the HDMI signal and in turn convert it to match the 1080p25 format necessary in this production,” he says.

"On the other hand, we can separately generate responsive graphics and add them to the mixer's media panel over an Ethernet network, while I mix the program. This was especially useful, as it gave us the ability to make the most of the presenters and their skills," he adds.

Optimizing production

The program's on-air signal in 1080 format was formidable, thanks to a Teranex Mini – SDI Distribution converter that gave them the possibility of obtaining a backup copy using a HyperDeck Studio recorder, and also provided three individual outputs for the broadcast of the show live on YouTube using the open source application OBS.

“We operate in a relatively small control room and intimate studio, so the compact design of the ATEM Television Studio Pro HD helped us get the most out of the space we had,” concludes Slater. "In addition, easy access to macros is very advantageous when it is necessary to quickly change the lower thirds or to display content from social networks on the screen. This allows us to follow the dynamic rhythm of these networks and at the same time the updates of live football matches."

The betting house had already taken advantage of this system in previous shows, since it was in charge of organizing the special UFC fight in which boxers Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather faced each other. This broadcast had an audience of more than 16 million viewers, becoming the most viewed content on YouTube that day.