Mashup Competition

It was THE gaming event at the end of the year! At the "Mashup Competition" in December 2019, professional footballers, influencers, Fortnite stars and community players battled with and against each other to collect as many donations as possible for a good cause. An event that has never been seen before in this form! The patron of the Mashup Competition was professional footballer Marco Reus from Borussia Dortmund. The competition took place at the Cinegate Studio in Cologne.

Together with blackbird eSports and Sports Total, PRG realised the event both technically and creatively. 20 player seats were provided in the Cinegate Studio Cologne. In addition, there were 80 other players who joined in the debate at home in their own four walls - including celebrities such as Timo Werner from Leipzig, Luca Waldschmidt from Freiburg and David Alaba from Munich. PRG provided a 360-degree service with rigging, lighting technology, video technology, audio technology as well as communication and streaming technology. The team was also responsible for the direction, flow and set design.

One challenge was to avoid high latency of the transmission, which under normal circumstances and a standard internet connection can easily be up to 20 seconds. Our PRG IT and streaming specialists developed a solution in advance and ensured a stable performance of only 0.5 seconds latency - a strong performance! In addition, the networking of the players was very complex, the illumination for the 32 TV cameras had to be done according to professional TV standards and at the same time be glare-free for the players. In addition, the audio situation had to bring together the game sound and the player micros at the same time. The crew around Andreas Knaak, PRG Account Manager, met these technical challenges and, thanks to the detailed and meticulous planning, were optimally prepared and ensured a smooth operation:
"The players at home received a package from us with camera, tripod and microphone sent home, everything that was necessary for this competition, including a small manual. Everything was pre-programmed and pre-configured so that each participant could easily set up and operate the equipment we provided."

For Jörn Kubiak, CEO PRG Germany, the advisory function was particularly relevant:
"We were also able to get involved here in an advisory capacity, to work creatively, to help shape the processes in a super set-up. ... With a great challenge: streaming, broadcasting, which is really important in the eSports sector."

In addition to the extensive television direction, there was another five-member direction, the so-called Spectator direction. They concentrated solely on the game content of the 100 participants playing at the same time, made a pre-selection and sent the best scenes live to the main direction. The result was stirring images and content that made a four-hour live stream an entertaining and exciting experience. With the Cinegate studios in Cologne, a location was also chosen that was ideal due to the already existing infrastructure, such as mobile trusses, power connections and the very good logistical conditions, and which supported the PRG team as a production partner with a great deal of experience.

The clients Blackbird eSport GmbH and Sports Total GmbH were highly satisfied with the technical and creative implementation of this special gaming event. And Marco Reus was also impressed with the technology he got to see at the gaming event:
"A few hours ago I came in here and saw all the technology, that's gigantic that you can set something like that up. Big compliments!"
There was gambling, hunting and shooting - the result: 277,000 euros! The money will be donated to the Toni Croos Foundation, the SOS Children's Village in Dortmund and the recently founded Sports Total Foundation.