The production technique is also evolving to make content closer to the user. It is necessary to innovate and appropriate innovative techniques, maintaining the look oriented to changes and new proposals.
Juan Pablo Morales S*
Recently, a music-loving boy surprised at a concert by André Rieu in Bogotá, playing a flute made of PVC from his chair, and in the long intermission that took place during the event, while solving a sound problem, he was called to the stage by the talented artist amid applause.
Days later, Rieu himself would give him a flute of the Johan Strauss Orchestra, with which he will surely be able to play the same songs and, little by little, practicing and experimenting, he will improve his technique, making the harmony, strength and purity of the sound increasingly better than the one he had in his old handmade flute.
Another paradox of this story is that Rieu would solve a delicate technical problem caused by his sophisticated equipment and installed by his exceptional sound engineers, entertaining the audience with the music of a PVC flute.
The world of video content is not much different. It's about knowing how to make the most of available resources. While having the best technology and knowing how to use it is a great advantage, the fact of not having access to it is not a limitation. The important thing is to find the balance between technology and creativity.
For this reason I want to start this installment of the fourth axis of the USER theory, that of Technical Resources, with a look at what some of the best players in the content industry are doing, some of them, geniuses in realization, storytelling, technique and cost reduction, and also, with surprising levels of global audience, that any TV channel would envy: video game streamers.
However, first I want to quote something from the article I published in November 2018, stressing that while any novel technique is useful and can make a difference, it is appropriate to use them when necessary. The technique must always go hand in hand with the story you want to tell.
Game streamers, usually alone in their rooms and multitasking geniuses, are focused on not losing a game, interacting with their users in real time, commenting on their own game, asking for donations, writing opinions, sharing on social networks and acting in front of their own camera. All simultaneously, winning games, followers and establishing emotional bonds with your audience.
What is also surprising is the level of sophistication of the realization of some of them, since they simultaneously capture their consoles and their webcams, their voice, use Picture In Picture, insert curtains, videos, texts and characters or overlapping graphics.
There are many blogs that detail the most recommended equipment for this trade, from monitors, keyboards, PCs to capture cards and realization and coding software. The interesting thing about it all is the simplicity with which truly amazing realizations are being made.
OBS, of whom I have spoken on different occasions, does not cease to amaze. You don't have to go far for those who want to have a simple software to level up in terms of real-time realization. I invite you to look on the internet for the large number of videos and tutorials that teach how gamers use it when designing their broadcasts and how they connect it with other types of inputs. Its compatibility with Windows and Mac, as well as its performance due to the low level of CPU use, the customization alternatives it grants and other types of advantages, such as the possibility of integrating NDI, has made this software one of the most used along with XSplit, with the advantage of the first of being free.
Another interesting free software to use is player.me. A system that intuitively allows you to integrate pre-designed overlays for gamers, producing much more stimulating user experiences in terms of their interactivity and engagement.
For its part, the German company Elgato Systems, which was well known a decade ago for starting to think about bringing TV to computers and later for its gaming capture cards, began to understand the market opportunities in technology designed for video game streamers and has been designing products that simplify production and their workflows. A couple of weeks ago, a great friend, and entrepreneur of the streaming industry in Madrid, introduced me to one of the most recent products launched by this company. Elgato Stream Deck, a macro panel to automate the realization, making it possible for a panel of buttons to display titles, handle the planes and movements of PTZ cameras or even change the lighting and that can be integrated with OBS, Social media and many other systems relatively easily.
The surprising thing about Elgato is that it has been able to understand gamers, designing technical solutions in capture, realization and even lighting, designed to facilitate audiovisual realization, transforming the complex into something simple, and making multitasking something that can be controlled with a single button.
The production technique is also evolving to make content closer to the user. One of the most important things I want to highlight is that we must innovate and appropriate innovative techniques, keeping an eye on changes and new proposals in highly volatile content industries, such as video games and OTT platforms.
The trend of the sector will continue exactly the same. More and more simultaneous elements, better technology, higher processing speed, more ease of use, lower cost. Both in lighting, cameras, optics, mixing, audio, music, editing and post-production, as well as in content design, art creation and marketing, evolution shows the need to work with greater speed and with increasingly specialized skills, which requires the ability to work with the user as the main focus, oriented to carefully take care of every detail of a production and with eyes wide open in the industry.
Digital transformation
In a recent conference, he mentioned that many organizations are restructuring with digital transformation methodologies to face the challenges of current and future markets and that the media and video content industry is no exception.
Although digital transformation is today a globalized trend, this is the organic response to the need for companies to turn to the adoption of solutions, software, methodologies and cultures that are the product of today's overwhelming technological revolution. The results of recent studies such as Cisco's IMD "Digital Vortex" show that the media and entertainment and telecommunications industries are the most vulnerable, those that are closest to the center of this revolution and those that most require companies with the capabilities to continuously reinvent themselves. This capacity is strengthened by looking at other industries, experimenting and adopting new technologies.
The important thing is to find the balance between technology and creativity, without ever neglecting the details and quality for users.
*Juan Pablo Morales Sarmiento is CEO and Co-founder of Nuevos Medios Entertainment. You can contact him through his Twitter account @JuanPMoralesS
