Video Transport enables HLTV to produce debate shows about esports
HLTV is a media company that is built around Counter Strike, a popular first-person shooter that has a prominent position on the rapidly developing esports scene. Medialooks Video Transport was instrumental in creating a live debate show on Twitch to cover events such as the currently happening IEM Katowice 2019, that has a prize pool of $1,000,000 and has attracted over 170,000 spectators.
The weekly show usually features 4 commentators—a host, 2 journalists and an expert,—each joining from their own location to discuss tournaments, teams, strategies, personalities and so on. The low latency allows them to interact naturally as if they were all in one room.
The technical setup of the show is straightforward and low-budget. Participants grab video from their Logitech cameras and use Video Transport to stream their feed to Lukas Wiinholt, the show producer, who manages the scenes and uplinks his output to Twitch. Two separate computers are used for mixing and streaming for the sake of reliability.
Video Transport was a life saver. A lot of programs allow to video chat, but we needed the cams to be available as separate inputs so that we could do our own mixing and graphics in OBS. It also allows a higher quality alternative to Skype.
Having started in August last year, the streams now average 50,000 unique viewers.