Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH, a full-service marketing agency specialised in targeting PC and console gamers worldwide, has produced some of the most vital and vibrant gaming and eSports events in the industry. With the demand for gaming productions rapidly increasing, Freaks 4U recently expanded its complex, building an additional three 4K studios and three control rooms. The company was looking to integrate control solutions that could both improve production quality and simplify operator workflow. With these needs in mind, Qvest Media, the project’s main technology and product supplier for 4K slow motion operation, audio and video routing, IP KVM systems, studio lighting and grip equipment, introduced Freaks 4U to TSL Products. The company integrated three units of TSL’s TallyMan TM1+ Broadcast Control and four licenses of its Flashboard Technical Display systems into Freaks 4U’s new facility.
“For Freaks 4U Gaming, the most beneficial feature of the TallyMan system has been its ability to control multiple routers, vision mixers and multi-view displays in one place, keeping all routers connected with the option to deploy an automatic update if there are any signal changes,” said Timo Krey, senior broadcast engineer at Freaks 4U Gaming GmbH. “Since we are working with a large router with 160×160 SDI channels, we need to be able to manage routing on a device with over 5,000 sources and destinations. TallyMan makes it easy to keep an overview of everything on one display and offers significant workflow improvements for the production crew.”
TSL’s Flashboard has also improved operator workflow at Freaks 4U Gaming. “With the Flashboard system, we can easily change routes and settings for the multi-view display without investing much time or having to involve a technician,” said Timo. “It also helps to simplify the production process, whilst providing a user-friendly solution with an intuitive display.”
TSL’s control systems have helped Freaks 4U to produce high-quality gaming and eSports content for its clients and audience, and the company is excited to expand the system in the future. “Not only do we create shows on site, but we also produce content outside of our studio,” said Timo. “We plan to integrate additional TSL devices in our production equipment flight case to be able to bring TallyMan and Flashboard along wherever we go. Now that we know how helpful TSL solutions are, we never want to be without them.”
Additionally, Freaks 4U Gaming plans to use TSL’s Flashboard functionality to route information and PGM (program) previews to display screens outside of every studio and control room. “Integrating TSL equipment into our studios has provided awesome results as it greatly enhances our production quality and makes configurations easily accessible for our employees by simplifying their show preparations,” said Timo. “It’s been great to learn all that TSL can bring to the table, and we will keep that in mind for additional studios in the future.”
Dan Shihata, regional sales manager for Europe, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand at TSL Products added: “Thanks to our comprehensive list of freely available device protocols, the TallyMan control system allows customers to deploy a best of breed approach for all production equipment, without needing to worry about how this impacts the cost of a central control system. Its user-friendly GUI helps develop customisable panels, which allows Freaks 4U to take full ownership of their system and they can be confident to make changes to the system when they need to, saving a considerable amount of time and money.”
