05 Feb Case Study: Ragnarok Muay Thai Livestream
Ragnarok Muay Thai Fight Night is a series of amateur Muay Thai boxing fights, showcased over a single evening event. Ragnarok is a small organisation of extremely passionate athletes whose mission is to exhibit and promote sporting talent in Ireland and overseas.
Project Background
Usually Ragnarok Fight Night events are pre-recorded and sold as video bundles or packages, but this time they wanted to do something special. They came to Idiosync looking for live multi-camera livestreaming services and we were more than happy to accommodate. We did not originally get into the video business to work in sport, but the immediacy and drama of live sport is actually quite intoxicating. Ragnarok’s target audience for this livestream event was made up of close friends and families of fighters, as well as other clubs and Muay Thai fans across Ireland, the UK and overseas. Therefore an online livestreamed, pay-per-view event made the most sense.
The main challenge for any livestream event is almost always to do with infrastructure and bandwidth. Does the venue have an uncontested hard line internet connection with enough bandwidth to support high definition video streaming? Can the hard line connection be made uncontested, that is isolated or dedicated to the video stream? Is the venue’s router accessible? Is the connection stable and private, that is closed to the public.
Idiosync has a 4G router that can be used in cases where hard line internet is not present or the connection is not reliable or stable enough to support live HD video streaming – but a hard line connection is always the best option. This means that with live streaming, a technical scout of a new location or venue is always necessary.
Concept Development
Ragnarok knew quite well what they were looking for from the outset. They needed multiple cameras, live vision mixing capabilities and microphones for two live commentators. We offered 3 cameras, one for the live commentators and two ringside cameras, to be placed on platforms on tripods, manned by camera operators. With our Blackmagic vision mixing system this meant we could cut live to either ringside camera or to the commentator camera between fights.
With this set up the online audience could follow and stay right up close to the center of the action, they arguably had a better view than the live audience in the room. Ragnarok’s chosen venue was The Complex and on a separate day at least a week before the event, we visited the site and tested their hard line internet connection for speed and stability. When testing the internet we are looking for, at a minimum, twice the bandwidth of the stream. So for instance if you are streaming at 5mbps, you will need a stable internet connection with a speed of at least 10mbps, uncontested – meaning that bandwidth is not shared with the public over WIFI etc.
The venue came with a DJ and an impressive sound system, so we would be supplied music throughout the event. However this also presented a challenge in terms of isolating the commentators from the music. This can be crucial. For example, if a DJ is playing commercial music in the venue, and that music can be heard through a commentator’s microphone, the platform that you are streaming to, such as Youtube, might automatically mute or outright cut your livestream. In this case the music being played was not commercial and was safe. Another challenge is simply making sure the commentators can be heard over the music in general, if the music is extremely loud, and the commentators are positioned right up against the ring, then they could end up with all the speakers in the venue pointed at them and their microphones. It takes careful consideration and design, as well as live sound mixing to deal with this.
Pre-Production
After researching how boxing, wrestling and other ring combat sports are filmed and presented, scouting The Complex, prepping our three cameras, vision mixer and sound desk, we were good to go for the big night. The Ragnarok team were using a pay-per-view platform who provided us with the necessary stream keys and other information needed to set up the livestream. We set up a test stream from our office to check everything in good time.
Production
Idiosync has three Panasonic 4k cameras as well as lenses with stabilization, perfect for ringside filming. Our camera operators took positions on their platforms with stools and tripods. We relied on the venue’s lighting system, as The Complex has an impressive overhead truss system of stage lights with an in-house operator so we were all set there.
Before and between each fight, the DJ would play traditional music and the commentators would discuss the fights. Each commentator had a microphone and our vision mix operator was also mixing sound for the livestream. We would cut to the commentator camera between fights and during fights we would use both ringside cameras and keep the commentator mics open, the DJ would lower the music and we would add a bit of camera audio so the audience could hear the impacts of the fighters’ strikes. We recorded high resolution 4k in our cameras, while our vision mixer system recorded the stream quality HD, so there was plenty of room for editing later. We were also able to add the pay-per-view platform’s logo in the top right of the streamed image for brand awareness.
Post-Production
Ragnarok only asked for a rough ‘top and tail’ of each fight, that is a very simple edit without anything else added to each fight video. We enhanced some of the colour and sound as final touches. All footage was archived and we still have it, saved in case Ragnarok ever wants to revisit the project. We archive all footage and projects unless asked otherwise.
Execution Details
We had several weeks to prepare for this event which was needed to test the venue’s internet in good time. If their internet had not worked, we would use our 4G router as an alternative. Our production team included two camera operators and a vision mixer who edited the footage later. Ideally the budget should allow for a separate sound engineer, as on live events a sound engineer is pretty much essential, but Ragnarok did not prioritise sound and we managed. However, on live events we would always recommend a separate sound engineer. Sound takes a very different skillset to video and though an online audience will generally forgive shaky camera work or graphical errors, everyone will always notice bad sound.
Results and Impact
The online livestream was a great success, with the pay-per-view platform selling plenty of e-tickets and subscriptions. The internet connection remained stable and the music mixed with commentators sounded great. When live, it is difficult for us see and hear what it’s like for an online audience member, which is why we always as our client to watch the livestream themselves in a separate room or building so as to fully appreciate the quality output and present feedback on camera work, sound, or let us know about any connectivity issues.
Lessons Learned
This project was a great success and a perfect learning opportunity. We had no experience with live sports before this and had a great time working in such an unpredictable yet energetic environment.
With this event we learned the value of communication systems, which would for instance, allow our vision mixers to communicate with our camera operators during a show. With Ragnarok it was a very simple set up where the camera operators didn’t really have a choice as to where to point their lens – all the action was right in front of them. In future however we will invest in a communications system to allow for camera direction.
Conclusion
As a first taste of live sports audio-visual production Ragnarok was a fantastic project. Just the right size of event to test our crew and equipment. A great platform from which to build and a really fun event. When live streaming works, it works well and is very satisfying – once there are no connectivity issues, which we did not experience. Ragnarok were delighted with the event and how smoothly it all went.
Next Steps
Looking back on the limited communications and lack of a sound engineer, soon after this event we invested in a new sound desk to allow more control and more audio inputs. This will help give our sound engineers more control on their end, leaving our vision mixer to cut cameras and manage graphics.