SuperCreative.tv uses two Blackmagic Studio Cameras 4K and DeckLink Mini Recorders to stream its popular twitch.tv interactive gaming talk show, The Attack
Blackmagic Design today announced that Hollywood production company SuperCreative.tv uses two Blackmagic Studio Cameras 4K and DeckLink Mini Recorders to stream its popular twitch.tv interactive gaming talk show, The Attack. The show, which built a brand new broadcast studio based around Blackmagic Design products, has quickly grown to be one of Twitch’s most popular channels with more than 50,000 followers and millions of views.
Launched in early 2015, The Attack streams to Twitch daily with a variety of different segments and topics that cover pop culture, ranging from technology to general news to video game reviews. The channel also features interactive events like video game playthroughs, giveaways and online hangouts with viewers and subscribers. Shot in SuperCreative.tv’s studio in Hollywood, the channel began with a bare minimum of broadcast quality production gear, and began to grow quickly after the team realized how much better they could make it. They set out to make higher quality productions and turned to Blackmagic Design’s line of broadcast products.
“The success really took us by surprise,” said technology director Carlos Rivera. “We started getting a lot of traction very quickly, so much so that within just a few months, we were featured on the front page of Twitch as a featured channel, which is still the case today every time we go live. We decided we should put more production value into the channel. Some friends of ours who also stream on Twitch told us how great the Blackmagic cameras are, so decided to give them a shot.”
Carlos installed two Blackmagic Studio Cameras 4K as part of the studio’s four camera setup. One camera is used as a singles camera and is set up with a teleprompter on top of it. “This works very well for us because it’s easy to frame up who is speaking to the camera with the Studio Camera’s large 10 inch viewfinder,” said Carlos.
The other Studio Camera 4K is used as a float camera to get shots for each episode from various angles. The cameras are fed into Blackmagic Design DeckLink Mini Recorders, which Carlos chose for their ability to capture both SDI and HDMI. Depending on the day, the inputs to the DeckLink vary between the cameras as well as other sources like gaming consoles and computers. From there, Carlos streams in 60fps to The Attack’s Twitch channel using Telestream Wirecast.
According to Carlos, the images from the Blackmagic Studio Cameras are crystal clear, and their audience loves the professional production value of the channel now. He is looking into replacing his other cameras in the setup with additional Blackmagic cameras. “Most Twitch channels just use webcams, and users don’t realize how better quality equipment can increase their production value,” said Carlos. “But once we show them and explain it to them, they easily understand it and love the quality it puts out. It’s a total game changer.”
Carlos praises the ease of use of the Blackmagic Design Studio Cameras, pointing out that the connections and menu settings are easy to access and understand.
“Our camera operators were able to learn the cameras very quickly,” said Carlos. “That’s one of the great things about them. They are very easy to use, the menu is useful and easy to read, the color balance is superb. The tally lights are very helpful. We use peaking mode a lot during stunts which helps us focus. It’s a great camera with a lot of easy to use features.”
He concluded, “The Blackmagic cameras are very robust and work flawlessly. We keep them on for hours at a time and they still perform perfectly. We’re very happy with them.”
Learn more about The Attack by visiting twitch.tv/TheAttack or http://supercreative.tv/.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.