How WePlay工作室 is Transforming the Future of Live Event Storytelling

By 2032, the esports market is expected to grow to $9.290亿美元，在全球球员数量和粉丝数量的支持下，这两个数字都在继续攀升. 2023年 英雄联盟 世界锦标赛 吸引了超过6名观众.400万年. 反对

加州格拉斯谷(2024年5月2日)

By 2032, the esports market is expected to grow to $9.290亿年, bolstered by a global player count and fan following that both continue to climb. 2023年 英雄联盟 世界锦标赛 吸引了超过6名观众.400万年. 考虑到电子竞技的大量粉丝, many of whom tune in via dedicated live streams, 对于像这样的公司来说，提供符合粉丝期望的高端现场制作的压力是真实存在的 WePlay工作室. 在基辅有两个总部, 乌克兰, 和洛杉矶, 加州, the award-winning content production company fuses gaming, 来自像 AJA视频系统, 讲故事，为顶级游戏制作一流的游戏节目和电子竞技比赛体验 队伍2, CS:去, Valorant, 火箭联盟. 但, 正如WePlay所揭示的那样, there’s also a huge demand for its 人才s on live event productions like tuber奖, which its team completed a full virtual production for last year.

Hosted by Filian in partnership with 人才 management agency Mythic Talent, the five-hour event celebrated the top virtual creators online. WePlay工作室将实体制作设施和设备与广泛的虚拟制作工程和设计相结合，通过虚拟广播向全球观众展示了这一活动. “Storytelling and technological innovation drive every show we do, we pride ourselves on creating iconic content that leaves a lasting viewer impression; the VTuber Awards were no exception,” shared Head of Virtual Production Aleksii Gutiantov. “While we’d previously incorporated AR into live esports productions, this show marked our first foray into a fully virtual event managed with virtual cues; it’s the most challenging technological endeavor we’ve ever taken on.”

连接物理和虚拟环境

成功地举办了这次活动, Gutiantov从欧洲通过笔记本电脑远程管理和协调洛杉矶的制作, 使用对讲机与超过16名团队成员沟通，并精心策划了8天不间断的前期制作，以交付广播. 他的团队首先使用动作捕捉(mocap)技术创建了一个完全虚拟的菲律宾人的实时渲染，并将其融入到现场制作中. They tapped 20 witness cameras for comprehensive, 全身动作捕捉, 包括精确的手指动作, combined it with additional technology to stream facial mocap data. 

The live event stream included a vast virtual arena, but Filian's character was located on a smaller stage, encircled by a digitally reconstructed version of WePlay's physical LA arena. 确保每一个物理锅, 倾斜, focus pull translated directly into the virtual render environment, WePlay工作室’ 相机运营商 managed three cameras that were synced to virtual cameras. 然后，实际/物理场景中的摄像机操作员可以使用连接到虚拟摄像机的ipad在虚拟体育场内的各个角度之间切换, creating the illusion of using a dozen cameras instead of three.

让作品看起来更真实, WePlay工作室 connected the physical stage lights to the corresponding virtual lights, 这使得团队可以通过照明控制台激活真实环境来操纵虚拟体育场的照明环境. Video playback was also integrated into the virtual world, 与虚拟场地连接的现场活动视觉软件用于启动和控制虚拟舞台屏幕上显示的图形. AJA KONA 5 video I/O boards played a crucial role in the 12G-SDI signal chain, the final SDI feed was forwarded to an AJA 喀布3232 - 12 g video router for availability across the entire broadcast pipeline.

“Our KONA 5 cards were instrumental in allowing us to receive 12G-SDI signals, integrate them into an Unreal Engine 5 environment, 最后在SDI中合成. It’s the best product on the market,” explained Gutiantov. ”,, 我们的KUMO路由器使我们能够为像这样的大型远程和现场生产构建基础设施，并从一个设备中管理所有内容, convenient web interface thousands of kilometers away. We also love that we can save pre-programmed salvo routing configurations for SDI signals, we never have to worry about them going down; I've been working with them since 2017 on various projects, 他们从来没有让我失望过.”

 利用虚幻引擎的KONA 5

KONA 5使WePlay工作室的团队能够利用虚幻引擎的力量来创建一个全面的虚拟制作中心，能够处理12G-SDI工作流程. This allowed them to fully harness the potential of AR technology, from camera tracking to motion capture and data-driven graphics, 同时确保完美无瑕的现场虚拟制作广播，没有任何技术事故的合成. 它还允许他们从一张卡上产生超高清填充和所有已知格式的键信号, using Pixotope as a keyer for 4K with the failover features known from FHD workflows.

“The KONA 5 user interface is simple enough to understand and control, 即使在现场演出的压力下, we love that we can preview last-minute changes in real time. It also offers up to four reconfigurable I/Os, 从标清到4K, 同时支持AES/EBU, LTC, rs - 422 /谷歌价格指数, 如果我们在沙特阿拉伯或中国工作，将视频从隔行格式转换为渐进式格式的关键是什么,古提安托夫补充说. “KONA 5 really helps accelerate operations on projects like this, which requires a lot of compute power for motion-adaptive deinterlacing. 此外, 该卡的多通道硬件处理加速了计算密集型操作，因此我们可以将多个视频源合并为虚幻引擎5中的单个输出, 上/下/跨, 所有分辨率的mix/composite. These processes are essential for handling video content of any resolution, ensuring that the final output meets the broadcast quality standards.”

 满足灵活的记录需求

In addition to KONA 5 and KUMO, WePlay also leveraged a cluster of AJA Ki Pro Ultra 12G 录音机，以满足高质量的记录标准要求的项目，没有任何中断或妥协. “The flexibility and reliability of our Ki Pro Ultra 12G recorders were essential,Aleksii Gutiantov补充道. “The devices are indispensable; they allow us to support multi-channel HD recording or single-channel UltraHD, we can swap out recording media on the fly, 哪一种方便可靠, 特别是对于长格式的直播，当客户需要高比特率的超高清材料时. Plus, they continue to run smoothly for more than 12 consecutive hours.” 

建立预览基础架构

Due to the unique setup of WePlay工作室’ Los Angeles facility, 该团队开发了一个预览基础设施，包括一系列迷你转换器，以促进12G-SDI信号的下行转换，并将3G-SDI信号转发到AJA KUMO视频路由器. 使用AJA HD5DA SDI分配放大器, 然后，团队能够在所有竞技场监视器上传播预览信号，以便更直接地管理所有预览信号. 设置, 无论数据源的性质如何，它也使用SDI信号的齐射路由配置, 能够精确控制WePlay Studio提供给合作伙伴的制作视图, 人才, 相机运营商, 动作捕捉团队, the entire production crew at any moment. AJA ROI-DP DisplayPort to SDI Mini-反对verters proved a key part of this preview infrastructure design, 允许团队将计算机监视器复制到广播管道中，以管理具有兴趣区域缩放的转换.

WePlay工作室的VTuber Awards制作背后的复杂设置只是虚拟制作技术如何改变现代娱乐体验的众多例子之一. Aleksii Gutiantov说, 它带来的交互性水平为现场娱乐类型解锁了令人兴奋的新可能性, blurring the lines between viewers and the virtual worlds we create. 他指出, “WePlay is not just staying within the confines of the gaming industry; we're branching out to music and broader entertainment directions. 我们目前正处于规划和讨论跨越这些新领域的项目的早期阶段.”

WePlay工作室计划今年在洛杉矶开设一个新的虚拟制作工作室，该工作室的屏幕面积将超过2平方米,500平方英尺，带1.8mm pitch and the first-ever Pantone-certified LED color pipeline, 利用先进的倒装芯片技术，将致力于游戏和电子竞技以外的电影和娱乐项目. Gutiantov得出结论, “There’s even more exciting news on the horizon from WePlay工作室, 敬请期待更多内容.”