Blank slate
Varsity esports broadcast studio
I started with a shoestring budget and no broadcast system to build on. It's an IP-based studio: vMix, OBS and Companion over OMT across segmented VLANs, with PXE boot for the lounge's 22 PCs. Most of what I know about system design I learned here, usually by getting it wrong first.
In the chain: vMix, OBS, Bitfocus Companion, OMT, RØDECaster Pro II, Blackmagic Micro Studio Camera 4K G2, Elgato Cam Link Pro, VLAN segmentation, PXE boot
System and ops documentation →- 3
- Person crew led on 5 weekly varsity esports broadcasts
- 41h
- Airtime produced in a single month of the varsity esports season
Scroll sideways for the full diagram.
Video, outputs, audio and control are separate layers of one system.
Everything meets at the RØDECaster, so all audio is on one set of physical faders.
- Caster microphones go straight into the RØDECaster Pro II over XLR.
- Game audio rides inside the OMT streams from the observer PCs (and from the lab PC at special events), so it reaches vMix with its video. vMix sends it out on an aux bus to the RØDECaster.
- The mix returns to vMix over USB through a virtual audio device driver, taken from the RØDECaster master bus, and vMix transmits it.
- Casters listen on the RØDECaster's headphone outputs. The mixer's own routing sets what each of them hears.
Cameras and observer PCs in as OMT, one program out.
- The casting cameras (Blackmagic Micro Studio 4K G2) output HDMI into an Elgato Cam Link Pro in a Thunderbolt breakout on a laptop, which sends them to vMix as OMT. The lounge PCs have no free PCIe slots, so this is the capture path.
- Three observer PCs in the broadcast room send OMT to vMix: game or window capture when it works, full display capture when it doesn't.
- vMix is the switcher and graphics engine. It sends program to OBS over OMT.
- Fighting-game events add a lab PC with a second network adapter. It bridges the segmented lab and broadcast networks and pulls OMT straight from the player stations.
Where program goes after vMix.
- Stream and recording: OBS is the only encoder. It streams program and records it. vMix does neither.
- Multiview: a vMix fullscreen output on a GPU HDMI port drives the control-room multiview.
- Studio monitors: a second vMix fullscreen output on a GPU HDMI port carries program to the on-site monitors.
Companion drives vMix and the mixer; the Stream Deck XL runs the show.
- Bitfocus Companion controls vMix and the RØDECaster Pro II over MIDI.
- Each game title is one button on the Stream Deck XL's overlay row, and the per-game overlay and routing are automated in Companion.
- Button layouts change with context through Companion custom variables.
- The caster table has its own Stream Deck Mini through Companion Satellite.
Design notes
- No slot, no capture card. The lounge PCs are Alienware prebuilts with no free PCIe slots, so a capture card was never an option. Video reaches vMix over the network instead: the casting cameras through a Thunderbolt breakout on a laptop, sent as OMT. When OBS developed intermittent audio delay over OMT, I moved observer feeds to vMix Desktop Capture.
- One bridge between networks. The lab and broadcast networks stay segmented. For some events, one lab PC with a second network adapter acts as the video router: it pulls OMT from any of the 14 lab PCs and hands a single feed to vMix. Changing what's on stream happens at the router, instead of deep into vMix menus.
- Automate the repetitive. Every game title needs its own overlay and routing, so each one is a single button on the Stream Deck XL's overlay row, with the per-game routing automated in Companion. The caster table gets its own Stream Deck Mini through Companion Satellite.
- Mix in one place. Physical faders with all audio in one place matter more to the crew than a tidier signal path. The RØDECaster is the authoritative mixer: caster mics go straight into it, vMix sends game audio and music out on aux buses, and the mix returns on the master bus for transmission. The mixer's own routing sets what each caster hears in their headphones.
- Encoder separate from the switcher. OBS only encodes and records. vMix could do it all, but it sometimes needs a restart mid-show to clear an audio routing problem, and that shouldn't take the stream connection down with it. Either side can be restarted without disturbing the other.