FREMONT, CA – Blackmagic Design noted that Imagine Dragons used the company’s gear including Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Cameras, an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K and Blackmagic Design Mini Converters HDMI to SDI to stream the channel’s first broadcast on its new Twitch Channel, the live streaming platform owned by Amazon.com.
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A popular live streaming video platform and community for gamers, Twitch allows anyone to broadcast and stream about topics they love. Imagine Dragons uses its Twitch channel as a way to interact with fans by answering fan questions, discussing the band and its music, playing popular video games such as ‘League of Legends’ with followers and subscribers and treating fans to acoustic music sets. Content on Twitch can either be viewed live or on an on demand basis.
To create the streaming setup for Imagine Dragons, the group’s Twitch Project Manager Turner Pope installed an ATEM 1 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher into a custom built road case he can easily ship and unpack on any stop of the band’s 105 city worldwide tour. He plugged feeds into the switcher from five Razor Blade Gaming Laptop computers, four of which the band used to play ‘League of Legends,’ with the fifth being used to view comments and questions coming in from fans on Twitch’s chat feed. Two Pocket Cinema Cameras were set up to film the band and were connected to the switcher along with audio feeds from the microphones sitting in front of the band members.
Turner controlled the switcher using ATEM Software Control on his laptop, and used the ATEM’s SuperSource feature throughout the broadcast to combine the camera feeds with the laptop feeds, so viewers could both see the band as they spoke and follow their game of League of Legends. Turner then streamed to the band’s Twitch channel using Telestream Wirecast.
“It was really simple to set up the system with the ATEM switcher and Pocket Cinema Cameras, and it’s super easy to move around,” said Turner. “Everything fits nicely into the road case and stays very organized. The cameras give us really nice images; they are very compact and I don’t even have to use SD cards. I just plug them into the switcher.”
He continued, “The guys really wanted to be able to connect even more with fans, and broadcasting via Twitch allows them to give fans all over the world a unique experience that goes beyond the music. The Blackmagic equipment provides a very professional look and feel to the stream, and with the great quality they provide, we can give fans the best Twitch experience possible.”
The first official broadcast from Imagine Dragons’ Twitch channel took place on July 1 from Boston, where the band was performing as part of its Smoke + Mirrors world tour. The band plans to broadcast regularly on its Twitch Channel.
