TV Skyline gears up for League of Legends with new flypacks

German remote-production–services provider TV Skyline’s presence at IBC marks the end of one busy period that involved the rollout of the OB7 vehicle as well as a massive effort at the World Cup and a new busy period as it rolls out two flypacks that are already lined up for the massive League of Legends video ame world, which will be televised from Seoul’s World Cup Stadium.

“The flypacks are basically OB7 without a chassis,” says Robert Kis, TV Skyline, managing director. Equipment includes a Snell Kahuna vision mixer, Riedel intercoms, a Lawo audio console, an L-S-B Virtual Studio Manager (VSM), and up to 24 Sony, Ikegami, or Grass Valley cameras.

“It’s quite big for a flypack and has a comfortable design,” says Kis. “We developed it on our and also built it in-house so nothing was installed by a system integrator.”

The finals will involve two teams of five playing League of Legends, from Riot Games, against each other in front of 50,000 fans. Kis says the 23-camera shoot will feel more like a Champions League semifinal production than a videogame production.

“Riot Games was inspired by the work of ESPN and Fox Sports so they want to make e-sports something that is thrilling,” adds Kis. “It will be available on the Web, and all signals will be transported via fiber to L.A. for the production. There will be 21 camera signals heading back to the L.A. studio, where they will build the world feed.”

After the event in October, the flypacks will head back to Europe, where Kis says the goal will be to give clients who may not want to work in an OB van all the components typically found in OB vans.

“We didn’t want to be the typical flypack but, instead, one with quality components,” he adds. The flypack has already been booked for other shows, including concerts and corporate gigs.

“It’s busy without doing any marketing,” says Kis. “There is definitely a market for flypacks.”

As for new technologies on the IBC show floor, the company demonstrated a jib outfitted with the CUBE:CAM.

“Polecam has always had a fixed lens, but, with CUBE:CAM, it has 20X zoom and better pictures than any chip camera,” says Kis. “Plus, it can turn 360 degrees. We think it will be the next-generation Polecam.”