Panasonic AW-HN40H TV Technology: Guide to Sports Production - Page 3

Competitors get ready for battle during Ninja Vegas 18 at Esports Arena Las Vegas. IT'S GAMING OF THE OTHER KIND AT VEGAS' LUXOR eSports gets the broadcast treatment By Mark R. Smith LAS VEGAS-The list of attractions tourists can see in Las Vegas is always in growth mode, and sometimes it seems like the latest might really be the greatest. Until a month later, anyway. But consider one of Sin City's new offerings, this time at the Luxor: Esports Arena Las Vegas, a 30,000-square-foot, multilevel venue that can host every form of competitive gaming. Unveiled just before the NAB Show, it can host everything from daily play to high-stakes esports tournaments and features a competition stage, 50-foot LED video wall, telescopic seating, PC and console gaming stations, and a network TV-quality production studio. It's an impressive setup, but the venue has been open about two months and already doesn't represent the latest step forward in esports' maturation: That would be the new NBA 2K League, in which 17 of the 30 NBA franchises have founded gaming teams. It held its first tournament in early May at Long Island's Brooklyn Studios. So today, an industry that's been criticized for keeping gamers relatively inactive has them dashing off to compete in places that range from small gaming venues in a community or at a college to a major professional sports arena to watch gaming teams play­-­ often times. the same games they play. LATEST, GREATEST As for Esports Arena Las Vegas, "It's the only such forum of its size, and is what others aspire to," said Drew Ohlmeyer, director of content for owner Santa Ana, Calif.-based Allied Esports International (AEI), noting that other esports operators have built similar venues, like Blizzard, in Burbank, Calif. [in the old "Tonight Show" studio] and in Dubai. "Ours is set up to be a [large] studio, with more than two dozen camera bays" and accommodates about 1,500 enthusiasts, depending on the event setup. It's now the flagship of AEI, which owns eight properties worldwide, including mobile trucks in the U.S. and in Germany. "There's not an inch of this new building that we can't put on camera," Ohlmeyer said, including "the control room, for those observers who want to see the high action of the game." As for what's in the control room, the switcher is a Grass Valley Karrera and the audio board is a Lawo MC2 36 for the [3] TV TECHNOLOGY