LAS VEGAS—Allied Esports has multiple esports venues and content production facilities across the world, with HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas being one of the primary locations. Part of what we do is host people coming together to play friendly matches against one another. It’s exciting to oversee the many different kinds of technology required.
At the Las Vegas arena we have three floors housing our audio equipment. We use three Lawo Compact I/O stageboxes on these floors, which are tied to the main core of our Lawo system. This setup lets us control everything from two separate services across our compound: one in the back in the production area and one in the front of the house.
GOOD BANG FOR THE BUCK
Creating good sound in this fastmoving environment is only possible with very powerful tools that are easy to use. We chose Lawo mc²36 consoles and Compact I/O stageboxes because of their power and price point. The power inside the system enables us to shift through multiple floors in our venue using fiber that connects everything to one core and two mc²36 consoles.
We get a lot of functionality out of what we feel was a very good investment. The mixing desk is an important element for creating efficiencies: We have up to 12 players competing simultaneously in a broadcast scenario. The mix engineer must be able to work through multiple pages and have backup scenarios for every single pod on stage in the event of failure in the middle of a competition.
MIX AND MATCHING SIGNALS
One of the biggest challenges is mixing player intercoms. Through different mix zones, players can hear both the intercom and game playing. Players can control those items independently—hence the challenge.
I spend a lot of time using the mc²36’s auxes and sums to control and shift audio streams around our arenas. The summing function is a quick way for us to achieve multiple zones of action because we can route different feeds by simply touching different features.
Being able to move signals via digital patch field is a major benefit. Almost anyone can intuitively navigate through the system’s signal functions. We use the Lawo core as our primary audio router. It’s really important for us to be able to navigate through it directly and effectively from the mc²36 console.
With a specific bank of knobs, I can control and select anything, and it comes up on the screen. For instance, when I select a given PC, I immediately see all my gains displayed in a pop-up window. Basically, I just grab something, and all relevant information pops up right in front of me.
When we expand our facilities to global operation, we’ll need the ability to connect all locations together and have one central point of control for multiple simultaneous competitions. That’s where I can see the true power of wide-area-network IP and a native IP console. The ability is there, which is why it makes sense for us to keep investing in Lawo.
I can even log into the mc²36 console remotely and mix a sequence or route signals, which is pretty cool. It’s also exciting that when someone needs help, I can reach out and mix from home. I can’t wait for the ability to grab resources from one location and make them available elsewhere.
The Lawo mc²36 console is powerful at a good price, easy to use, and feature-rich. And that’s what I need.
Alex Markley currently serves as chief engineer at Allied Esports International, and is responsible for the technical activities at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas. He can be reached atinfo@alliedsports.com.
For more info, visitwww.lawo.com.
