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What are others saying about Esports in Education?

Read this review from Keith Lutz

One of the fastest-growing fields of entertainment this generation, the esports phenomenon is making competitors and investors rich while leaving the rest of us scratching our heads while we try to understand this dynamic new field of sports. Indeed, forming such an understanding is often difficult when you are at the beginning of an industry and esports is very much in its nascent stages. But the one thing that it has proven to fans and naysayers alike is that it is, in every way, a sport. As such, it is situated within a unique and particular cultural history in the West – particularly when it comes to schools. After all, tomorrow’s star football and baseball players often come out of the public school system. This is due to the often impressive programs that some schools field.

We’re talking everything from a culture of sport to a budget to back up the development and nurturing of that spirit. How will esports factor into this cultural understanding in the future? A new ebook offers us a nuanced and timely perspective on how esports and schools fit together both now and into the future. In what can only be called a forward-looking, somewhat visionary work, Paul William Richards explains in “Esports and Education,” that he hopes to “…uncover the need for a strong educational system that can help support student interest in esports” and that he writes it for educators attempting to help students excel in a field of sport in which they have a passion. He identifies this infrastructure as not only crucial for the student’s success but also as a necessity for the thriving entertainment niche itself. He does all of this, “By reviewing the history of video games in our culture and comparing academic papers on relevant subjects” to help situate his recommendations and observations within a historical and cultural context. Essential reading for educators and esports athletes alike, Paul William Richards’ offers a plan for taking esports to the next stage using the foundational platform of the school and educational system to do that.

The central connection that Richards makes between the school community and growing esports niche ties in directly with the school-to-pros pipeline found in other school sports. But it goes so much further than that. Richards makes a point to emphasize that culture and mentoring areas critical to a student athlete’s success as a healthy budget and community support are. Indeed, this direct linkage between the school community itself and esports’ future as an entertainment medium is drawn even further into relief when you consider the concept of esports clubs are a conduit for student-athletes to become professional gamers. See, here the idea of culture and community is challenged by the innovations and revolutions that esports brings with it. Local sports is often regionally confined and then, even at the highest levels, rarely an international competition. By its very accessible nature, esports means borders disappear and regionalism is less important. How do schools grapple with that when regional rivalries and local economies are somewhat reliant upon the rhythm of a local sports’ season? The answer Richards’ offers is part of community involvement and part embracing of a new concept and catapulting it to centrality and primacy.

Again, there is something of a democratic implication to what Richards advocates. Knowing that only the most talented athletes are able to take to the field to represent their school, esports is perhaps a more approachable road to stardom for “everybody else.” The ultimate goal of this approach is not to preference one over the other but to raise them both to equivalency in order to enable maximum participation on the part of students. Engaging students in a meaningful way and harnessing their passion towards future career paths is the goal of Richards’ beliefs and it is a vision that educators and esports aficionados need to notice. Or, as he so eloquently puts it, “All of the traditional values that represent the hard work and patience required to excel in professional sports apply to those who seek excellence in esports. From a perspective of acceptance and encouragement, parents and educators have the chance to find common ground that can help students excel in esports.” Immediately, Richards tackles the idea of esports being something out of the norm or “counterculture.” There is some truth to this notion, but, when situated within broader cultural trends, esports is just one of many cultural evolutions that have broadened the horizons of audiences while creating new industries at the same time.

But esports is also distinctly different from some of the previous trends he identifies such as “grunge” and “punk.” Richards delineates that esports has more immediate community and relevancy to students because of the ease of access to both events and competition itself. When educators and parents alike bemoan the lack of student engagement in schools, Richards rightly highlights this voluntary engagement – and its robust success – as a model for inclusion and community building within schools. The critical nature of sports and community to the development of young minds is underscored when Richards notes that, “Sports are in many ways responsible for helping generations of young people shape their identity. Societies from all around the world inherently understand the value of competitive sports.” In his examination of the history of the medium upon which esports is premised, Richards explains that video games themselves emerged from a kind of “counterculture” and became mainstream only within the most recent past decades.

What this means is that the platform is inherently prone to attracting people who like new and novel experiences as well as those that like to color outside of the lines. Not only are video games a major technological achievement for entertainment, but they are increasingly important in terms of cultural understanding and connection with the broader world. Richards draws this kind of growth and relevance in broad relief while using the details of economic science to underpin his arguments. He writes: “The video gaming industry has surpassed both the movie and music industry’s in total value. In 2019, the movie industry’s estimated value was $136 billion, and the music industry was almost $20 billion. The video game industry is now about to pass $140 billion dollars, a total which has almost doubled over the past ten years. Some reports expect growth from cloud-based and mobile gaming to double the industry once again by 2025 to reach an astonishing $300 billion (Lanier, 2019).” As he outlines the contours of his proposals, Richards makes it very clear that esports isn’t all fun and games. It has real benefits from both a scholastic perspective and in the development of positive life skills. He divides these two positives into two broad categories: Social and cognitive. For starters, those institutions that are pursuing the integration of esports into the curriculum are also backing it up with classes in STEM-related activities.

Richards shows how the act of playing a video gaming and competing in a video game also leads to a passion for creating video games in what can only be termed a virtuous circle of inspiration. Harnessing this cycle for the benefit of the student and the broader community is part of the appeal of esports in school. As he notes, “The North American Scholastic Esports Federation, or NASEF, now offers high school level STEM curriculums that integrate esports into English classes. The curriculum seeks out, ‘explicit connections with esports’ and builds them into an English curriculum.” Moreover, as part of his theme in distinguishing this trend from those of the past, Richards describes the reasons why esports is likely to persist as a force in the entertainment and athletics world. This mainly has to do with the enthusiastic support of the companies that make the games and consoles as well as the sheer size of the audience and community. Because of its borderless nature, esports is, by default, a global sport and competitors from around the world are eligible to watch or play – in theory. This is a fundamentally different perspective than that of say professional football or baseball where the bar to entry is prohibitively high and the qualifications thereof very well known.

Esports remains an unknown quantity, a force for change, sure, but one that many schools and organizations don’t yet understand. In the pursuit of transformative policies with regard to student engagement and performance, systems have to consider the potent impact of things like esports to help motivate students towards one of many potential life paths. Richards has introduced us to the brave new world of esports and all of its promises, but he also implores school systems and communities to exhibit equal courage when it comes to building out the infrastructure and support systems necessary to help its competitors thrive. Whether or not we are up to the challenge is a question that only time can answer.

5 Reasons To Read eSports EDU

When you think of sports, your mind likely goes to a sport with ball throwing, catching, or hitting. This association with competitive sports will most definitely start to change as esports continues to grow with a competitive gameplay type that you can do from the comfort of a chair. Video games have come a long way since its inception over 80 years ago. Now the video game industry has trumped both the music and movie industry in terms of the total value, so it’s no surprise that video games have evolved from casual gameplay on the couch to gamers traveling the world to compete in organized gameplay. The fast-pace the video game industry is moving at an unprecedented rate… But where would you even go to learn how to get started in esports in education? Is there something you can reference to get the insights into esports or how to even set up an event? Fortunately for you, “Esports EDU” covers everything from the history of esports to hosting your own esports tournament. Let’s take a look at 5 reasons to read esports EDU.

5. You, Will, Learn About The Different Types of Esports

Not only will you learn about the different types of esports, but you will learn about the different tournaments that are held around the world. The book goes into the details and examples of Player Vs. Player (PVP), First-Person Shooter (FPS), Real-Time Strategy (RTS), Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Games (MOBA), and Sports Simulation Games. Each genre of the competitive game comes with its own list of games such as popular titles like Fortnite, Mortal Kombat, and League of Legends. After taking a quick overview of the different types of esports you will take a look at an outline worldwide, regional, and educational esports leagues.

4. You, Will, Learn About Different Careers In eSports

Being an esports athlete or coach is nice, but what if you just want to be involved without being the one sitting at the monitor? Who do you think keeps things running? Someone has to organize and set things up, right? How are people even discovered? The industry now has many career paths for students to look forward to including scouts who watch games and find those who have the potential to become athletes for professional franchises. With how quickly esports is growing, it’s an industry that will have many positions opening up for work behind-the-scenes if you’re not an athlete. In fact, it’s a rapidly growing job market with plenty of revenue to cover all the promising opportunities it is opening up.

3. You’ll Read An Insider View Into esports

What better way to learn about the insights of eSports than with an insider interview with some eSports professionals? You will learn their opinions about mental agility as you age, what makes the biggest impact on eSports, and what drives the industry. There’s no better way to learn than from the professionals in the industry themselves.

2. You Will Learn How To Start An esports Club At School

Students involved with an esports club at their school have the opportunity to develop social skills, get people to participate in activities, work on your mental agility, and most importantly, build confidence. This book will cover the ups and downs of starting a school-sponsored club. You may even use the tips you’ll learn here to convince your school to start a varsity level eSports program. You will learn how to get the word out about your ambitions with the club. You might find that it’s a great stress reliever for many students who might not have the best school and life balance. You’ll learn basic organizational skills, team building, branding and marketing, setting up equipment, and everything else you’ll need to know about starting an eSports club at your school.

1. You, Will, Learn About Hosting An eSports Tournament

There’s nothing better than getting students more involved in the community than making them feel like they’re a part of something bigger. Getting students involved in helping set up an eSports tournament will help those who don’t feel very accepted in other aspects of life feel a sense of camaraderie with others who want to work towards the same goal. This is especially important in an age where social anxiety is prevalent because of social media, but it will help teach students important social skills that will help them later in life. Social development is definitely important in a society where “Synthetic Autism” is on the rise. What is “Synthetic Autism?” That is something you will learn if you pick up this book.

This book is an important addition to your repertoire of learning materials if you’re looking to get into eSports and utilizing this growing industry to develop educational skills. This book should also help educate parents on the importance of balancing video games into their child’s life. There seems to be a negative stigma attached to video games as if it were a time waster, but as long as it’s properly balanced with the rest of a child’s responsibilities, then it’s a welcome tool in their toolbox of development. This is definitely a book to read if you want to take a deeper look into the industry.

The post Esports in Education Book Now Published! appeared first on PTZOptics.

The gaming computers were provided by Helix Esports, and each computer was used to runOBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to capture the RocketLeague gameplay. OBS was used to create a picture-in-picture output with a webcam source from PTZOptics webcams plugged into each computer via USB. OBS is able to output an NDI IP video feed for each computer it is running on which it is then able to be pulled into Wirecast as additional sources over the LAN. In a similar way, the observer PC used to view gameplay from each player in the RocketLeague tournament was captured via NDI and OBS. The observer PC was used by the play-by-play announcer and the student-run broadcast as a source for viewing the gameplay at large. The production system allowed the S.A.R High School students the ability to create a dynamic esports video production using a mix of gameplay screens, player webcams, and PTZOptics cameras in the space.

The StreamGeeks Summit happened on November 8th, 2020 in New York City. The tournament featured a 3 on 3 Rocket League setup with seven computers and a production PC all connected together on one LAN (Local Area Network). There was a stage area with two students play by play announcers on camera with microphones for audio pickup. The production crew had multiple PTZOptics NDI camera available to use in order to zoom into the play by play announcers but also capture angles that show each of the gaming stations. Students from the S.A.R high school broadcast club were able to produce a 100% student-run live stream with the available video and audio sources spread across the local area network. The entire student-run production was then live-streamed to Twitch.

So where do you begin? 

Let’s start with capturing the gameplay of each player and include a webcam video feed as well. With 6 players spread out hundreds of feet from each other, the USB capture card method mentioned our basic setup would not be possible. Most live streamers do not recommend the use of more than two capture cards with a single computer. This is due to USB bandwidth constraints built-in to most computers. Instead of using expensive capture cards and video extensions you can use IP video that leverages the ethernet cabling already connecting every computer.

Each of the RocketLeague computers should be connected to a local area network as a prerequisite to hosting the tournament. A local area network or LAN is basically an interconnected system that connects each computer for gameplay with ethernet cabling using networking equipment. This same networking infrastructure can also be used to connect each gaming computer to the production PC.

In the planning stages of your Esports tournament, you will want to know exactly how many computers and devices you will have on your LAN (local area network). Most networks can handle 254 connected devices, all communicating with unique IP addresses, without advanced configurations. The brain behind your LAN is generally a piece of networking equipment called a router. A router is used to manage all of your computers and other devices connected on your network. All devices on your network will need unique IP addresses in order to communicate. This is not something you generally have to worry about and it will be covered in more detail in the included Esports Streaming Course. But for now just understand, each device can be assigned an IP address manually or automatically using DHCP. Assuming your router is set up to handle DHCP, it will automatically give any device connected to your network an IP address unless the device has already been assigned an IP address manually.

Take the above network for example. The modem providing the internet to your router is optional. If you plug a modem with internet access into your router, it will allow you to give all of the devices on your network internet connectivity. Internet connectivity is generally important for Esports tournaments, not just for live streaming but also for updating game software with the latest builds.

Connected to the router is a network switch. Network switches are used to connect devices together using ethernet cabling. As you can see there are 6 “Esports Computers” connected to the network switch. Because they are connected to the network, the router will assign each computer an IP address using DHCP. Once each computer is connected to the same local area network the RocketLeague software will automatically see each computer running the game on the network and allow the students to play the game together in your tournament. Also connected to your network you can see your Observer and Production PCs. These computers can be used to send and receive video over IP as well on the local area network. Your production PC will be receiving video from all 7 computers on your network by the end of this set up.

As you can see the video production computer is running a software called Wirecast. Wirecast is a great software for video production and the students from the S.A.R High School operating the system use it to produce traditional sports like Basketball all the time. On each Esports computer you can install a piece of software called OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) to capture the gameplay and a webcam connected to the computer via USB. OBS can be used to combine a screen capture of the gameplay and a picture in picture source of the USB webcam source together. OBS is an amazing free tool for video production and it can output an IP standard called NDI with a plugin. Once you are running OBS on each of the Esports computers you can choose to customize your IP NDI video output. NDI can be used as a low-latency video output from OBS which is used to transport each Esports computer video source into your production computer over the LAN. Because all of these computers are connected over the same local area network, all of the OBS NDI outputs can be pulled in with Wirecast over the network.

Another important part of the production connected to your LAN is the Observer PC. The Observer PC can also run OBS to capture the video gameplay and output the video via IP using NDI. The “Observer” feature of the RocketLeague software is available in almost all other competitive video games as well and it has become an important tool for play by play announcers. The Observer PC should be set up in view for your play by play announcers who will be using the monitor to do their job. Your production team should consider the Observer PC video input one of the staples of their production. Just like regular sports production you want to give the audience a good overview of the field as the play develops. Transitioning to individual gamers screens should be reserved for special occasions happening during gameplay.

Your play by play announcers will, of course, have microphones for capturing their performances. Microphones are generally used with XLR connections that can be connected to a USB audio interface. A standard USB audio interface can mix together multiple XLR microphones and connect to your production PC with a simple USB cable. The play by play announcers will also be captured via video using a camera connected to your system. In the diagram above, you can see the system has added multiple NDI capable PTZOptics cameras and the audio system for the play by play announcers. NDI cameras can output video directly to your computer without the need of a capture card. PTZOptics NDI cameras also feature PoE (Power over Ethernet) capabilities which allow teams to connect a single ethernet cable to power the camera, control the camera, and connect to their software for video.

Another IP connected device that gives students an important role in the production is an IP joystick. In this example, there is a PTZOptics IP joystick that is connected to the network which is able to operate the pan, tilt, and zoom operations of the PTZOptics 20X NDI cameras. Both the joystick and the camera can be powered over Ethernet assuming you are using a power over ethernet capable network switch. The IP joystick uses the PTZOptics camera’s static IP address to communicate. Unlike the Esports computers that use DHCP to ge their IP addresses, devices like PTZ cameras usually keep static IP addresses. You can of course control PTZOptics cameras directly inside software like Wirecast or OBS but a dedicated joystick controller can make your production easier to manage so that your student producer can focus on the production.

So that’s the basics of a simple 3 on 3 Esports tournament local area network with a broadcast setup for two play by play announcers. In the next chapter, you can dig in deeper and understand what it really takes to pull of an Esports tournament live stream like this.

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Here is a list of live RTMP streams we will have going on:

1. The Main Stage (Produced by a TriCaster TC1)
2. An IRL (In Real Life) stream with a LiveU Solo
3. The Esports Tournament (Student Run with Wirecast and OBS)

The main live stream

First of all, check out this 3D Google Sketchup drawing of the space so that you can grasp where everything is located inside our venue. As you can see there is the main stage with microphones and a projector. This area has its own live streaming setup with multiple PTZOptics NDI cameras capturing all the action on video. This setup uses a NewTek Tricaster TC1 with SDI camera connections and NDI HX video outputs as a backup. Our local area network setup (using Ubiquiti gigabit networking equipment) provides PoE (Power over Ethernet) to each camera. Each camera’s ethernet connection is also used for control using pan, tilt, and zoom. This TriCaster system will be live streaming to Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn using a cloud-based restreaming service called EasyLive. This system will also include an IRL (In Real Life) perspective provided by a LiveU Solo that we can switch to during the presentation as needed.

The Esports Live Stream

The next area of interest is the Student-run broadcast which is being live-streamed to Twitch. This broadcast will actually be covering the Esports tournament specifically. The Esports tournament is a 3 vs 3 Rocket League game which also includes an observer PC and an OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) video production machine. The students will be running a brand new Wirecast Gear which will be connected to multiple PTZOptics cameras via SDI and NDI. We will also have an OBS production computer which will be focused on the Esports game capture. Each Esports computer will be running OBS which will capture the gameplay screen and a PTZOptics Webcam. OBS will combine these two video sources (Gameplay + Webcam) and turn these into an NDI video stream available in 720p to any computer on our local area network. The observer PC will be able to show in-depth gameplay from any of the machines in 1080p by running the Rocket League client and joining the game as an observer. This observer PC will be connected to a Magewell Pro Capture HDMI to USB dongle which features a loop through option. This allows us to capture the observer PC directly into our OBS streaming PC as a webcam source and still provide an HDMI video source for our play by play announcers.

Note: We may also use NDI to capture the observer PC using NDI Scan Converter or OBS. The Magewell capture device can be used to reduce the network traffic coming into the Wirecast Gear as necessary. Each computer can only pull 750 megabits per second of video off the switch without congesting the overall throughput of our gigabit system.

The Play by Play Announcers

Play by play announcers makes the live stream more exciting. Keeping with our student-run broadcast theme we will also have students from Hofstra University on camera and announcing. These announcers will be able to see the “Observer PC” and provide commentary on the gameplay. This audio will be captured with our USB audio interface and mixed into the production which will include the gameplay audio and the microphone pickup from our team microphones. Each team will have its own LAN (Local Area Network) connected TeamSpeak setup. Therefore each team will have USB headsets connected to quickly strategize and talk together. From a production stand-point, we will also have microphones available to capture the team’s banter and cheering. Take a look at our audio setup in the following diagram to get a better grasp on the audio setup. Keep in mind that NDI video can also include audio and it will be used as optional audio inputs for our streaming systems. Each PTZOptics Webcam can provide 1080p video and audio into our NDI streams coming from each Esports computer.

As you can see the audio setup is not too complicated. We are using a Behringer USB audio mixer with six inputs. Two microphones for our play by play announcers, one microphone for each team and two audio inputs from the main house audio system. The main house audio system is being used for the on-stage panelist. At some point, as the Esports tournament wraps up we can switch to this audio feed and allow our presenters a chance to use the audio feed. Todd Conley from HighSchool.GG and Paul Richards will talk about the technology being used in this audiovisual setup during the second half of this Esports tournament live stream.

Wirecast and OBS working with LiveU

So we came up with a very interesting idea to use two video production systems in a single Twitch stream which leverages a LiveU streaming setup and a Roland video switcher. If you are unfamiliar with the LiveU LU600, this is a cellular bonding system that can send out high-quality RTMP video streams in remote locations. In our case, the LiveU LU600 is more reliable and affordable than the event venue (Dream Downtown Hotel in NYC) and therefore easier to work with. From a production standpoint, we will be connecting a Roland V-1HD to the LiveU LU600 which will allow us to seamlessly switch between the HDMI output of the Wirecast Gear and the OBS streaming setup. This is important because we can now have the students focus on the cameras and “In Real Life” production of the esports tournament. Then we can have the OBS production focus on the gameplay. This way we can have two producers working together like a DJ would have two records spinning that they can switch between. We can switch between either video feed at any time, or incorporate video outputs from either system into each. For example, the OBS production system could take the NDI video output from the Wirecast system and the Wirecast system can take the output of the OBS system. We also have the ability to switch the video output going to the LiveU and therefore Twitch instantaneously during the broadcast.

NDI IP Address Table Management

Finally, it’s incredibly important to realize a few things about NDI. First of all, every computer will have the latest NDI 4.0 drivers installed. Next, it’s always a good idea to create an IP management table that lists all devices you plan to use NDI with on your network. As you can see all of our PTZOptics NDI cameras are listed out with static IP addresses. Each camera has an IP address, a friendly name, and some notes to help our production experts know which cameras they have access to, how to access them, and finally who should take primary PTZ controls. As you can see, even though we have SDI cabling running to our Wirecast Gear and TriCaster systems, we are still giving each producer access to the IP addresses of the PTZ cameras. This way they can quickly choose a camera they would like to remotely control and confirm they have the correct camera by cross-referencing the NDI friendly names with our NDI IP address table. Furthermore, each live streaming computer system including the Wirecast Gear, TriCaster TC1 and OBS system has been given a static IP address as well. We are also, using a router with DHCP to manage additional equipment that we are connecting to our local area network. For example, each gaming PC will be set to DHCP and they will receive an IP address from our router. Since we are only sending out NDI video sources from these systems we do not require a static IP address.

With our PTZ cameras, we do need static IP addresses because we want to come prepared knowing the exact address needed to control each camera. In fact, we pre-label each camera with its friendly name and static IP address to make life even easier. A print out of this IP address table will be given to each production manager. If you have any additional questions about our Esports NDI streaming setup let us know! We love to receive questions via our Facebook page at https://facebook.com/ptzoptics.

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