EKZ enhances its live streaming setup with Blackmagic ATEM Mini Extreme

The Austrian town of Zell am See is home to EK Zeller Eisbären (EKZ), which compete in the AlpsHL, a professional ice hockey league based in Central Europe and comprising teams from Austria, Italy and Slovenia.

The club has some of the highest average game-day attendances in the league. However, it wanted to broaden and improve access to those games for existing fans who couldn’t attend and engage with new audiences.

Early efforts by EKZ to live stream relied on consumer-grade camcorders and software only. “With just one camera, no microphone and no replays, the quality was poor, leaving fans wanting more,” revealed production manager Lucas Portenkirchner.

He contacted the club to offer his services, where a schedule and setup were built from the ground up in the space of a month. “Our brief was to deliver a streaming solution for broadcast that could be operated from a 4sqm space. We put almost everything into a custom-made 12 RU case for an easy workflow.”

The workflow was based on Blackmagic’s ATEM Mini Extreme live production switcher and a mixed camera package. “We purchased an ATEM Mini Extreme to handle eight inputs and added two HyperDeck Studio HD Minis for replays, allowing us to record the two goal positioned cameras.”

He added: “They are continually recording. Once a point is scored, a macro stops the recording, enters playback mode and goes to the last 2.5 seconds. Another macro then triggers playing back the clip at 50% speed and sets the program to the correct output, including the videowall.”

Seven cameras are used on a typical match day. The goal cameras run directly into the HyperDeck recorders, and all other camera signals feed into the ATEM using optical HDMI or SDI.

One output on the ATEM displays the multiview, with the second split into four program feeds for the commentators, videowall and another monitor in the control room.

The videowall has its own ATEM Mini Extreme, with Bitfocus’ Companion linking every device on the network and helping to automate some tasks. “We connected a laptop running OBS to show all the graphics, such as player stats, line-ups and scorers. The livestream also sends a program signal to the ATEM, allowing us to show replays on the wall,” explained Portenkirchner.

“Once a goal is scored, the live stream automatically plays the replay via a macro, which takes over the LED wall. Once the replay ends, the program switches back to the laptop with OBS.”

The club now broadcasts in 1080p50 to valcome.tv via the production switchers built in h264 encoder.

“I was impressed by the seamless communication among all the Blackmagic devices, working right out of the box without any complicated setup,” he concluded. “The addition of Bitfocus Companion and its easy integration with the ATEM also helped to level up production capabilities this season.”