Sanfrecce Hiroshima Football Club uses their Facebook page to stream all live home games. We asked Mr. Masato Miyagi and Mr. Kenichi Nakamura of Mix, Inc. about the equipment used for live-streamed programming, and how they use it.

Live Streaming from the Stadium Before and After the Game

Miyagi: Sanfrecce Hiroshima and TSS Production produce and stream live from Edion Hiroshima Stadium, the home field of professional soccer club Sanfrecce Hiroshima, every home game is played to Facebook Live.

When the starting players are announced, a magnetic board is used to describe the lineup, and there's also a post-match analysis. The program is centered on play, and also shows the stadium before the match and sometimes has spur-of-the-moment guests, making it a supporter-centered production that they can enjoy.

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A Selection of Equipment Easily Set Up Even in Tight Spaces

Nakamura: We stream from a location in the stadium that has limited space, and so it's important to use equipment that's as compact and also as easy to set up as possible.

Miyagi: We don't use equipment permanently installed in the stadium, but instead load it in and out every time a J-League game is played, so from the start we wanted to use a single all-in-one unit instead of a combination of multiple devices. We tried out a rental of the Roland VR-4HD and thought it ideal for this kind of streaming, so we decided to adopt it.

Straightforward Operation – Operable by Anyone

Miyagi: During soccer season, we cover multiple matches, and so having equipment that many different staff members can operate also makes scheduling easier.

Nakamura: With the VR-4HD, you just turn on the power to the unit and you can keep track of the video and audio using the built-in monitor, so you can make quick adjustments when the on-site conditions change, which is a great advantage. A great example that you hope doesn’t happen often is you look and there's no video or the mixer doesn't respond, you can quickly pinpoint what device or connection is at fault and identify the problem, which is great.

An it's not just streaming – at event venues you often need to be set up and ready in as little as one or two minutes. I think that the all-in-one design of the VR-4HD provides the streamlined setup advantages.

Importance of Being Able to Use It As an Ordinary Audio Mixer

Nakamura: It's important for the separate video and audio functionality to be integrated in a single unit so that they come together as a stand-alone device. With professional audio equipment, that's a given, but there needs to be a headphones jack, and you have to be able to monitor each channel. This kind of attention to detail is also an important consideration in product selection.

Also, during the program we use a notebook computer when sending out the video content, and the ease of manipulating the input/output buses, including for HDMI audio, makes it quite handy.

Today's Viewers Mainly Use Smartphones

Nakamura: A large portion of our audience views the matches on their phones, so this is what our streaming resolution target is set to. Our current encoding is set to 720p, but the USB output on the VR-4HD can handle up to 1080p, so down the road we can chose a higher-resolution for streaming according to content and objectives of the event.

Touch-panel Operation Enables Use in a Greater Range of Situations

Miyagi: The unit can be controlled using the touch panel, so I think in the future we might adjust the settings to allow clients to operate the unit themselves, and maybe put the unit to use in tight spaces so there isn't even any room for an external monitor.

I'd like to keep expanding the usage methods to bring them closer to the applications our clients envision in a wide variety of settings, including events like wedding receptions and seminars.

Use by permission.
Text: Takashi Iwasawa (Batta Nation). Composition: Editing Department of PRONEWS Co., Ltd.