Switching gears: Pushing OC streams to the next level

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At OverClocking-TV, our mission is this: Promote the practice of overclocking worldwide. No matter Pro, extreme or enthusiast – all sorts of OC deserve to be broadcasted. This is our only goal and nothing has changed since we started back in 2009.

Back then things were still very archaic. We used SD handy-cams to cover events, and our streams were merely music and a 360p hell sometimes only 240p video feeds. But over time, we improved and technology backed us up. Covering each year more events slowly got us access to better gear; dramatically developed our skills and this lead us to the point where we are today.

We shoot event coverages all over the world; OCTV is owner of the largest archive of Live OC video footage & picutures in the world (we have stuff dating back to the early shamino/hipro era). We stream now only in HD/FHD and even sometimes go wild with 4K video projects.

Setting a standard for live overclocking

What makes a sport or an e-sport entertaining is about how the audience can follow the live performance achieved. Overclocking in comparison to gaming has one disadvantage though. It is an asynchronous performance/result sport. The performance might happen live, but none of it, not even a live scoreboard is yet capable of displaying a truly live performance. You can still hear the shooting of victory and have to wait a minute to know what really happened.

Over the past years the “delay” got extensively reduced thanks to the HWBOT Competition Engine – but ultimately, what we want to see is the live FPS counts of that 3DMark run, watch the frequency vary and the temperatures go up and down. Why? Because this is what OC is about.

 

Last week's stream at the EOC 2014
Last week’s stream at the EOC 2014

We are working hard now since years to improve the model. HWBOT did its part of the job with bringing to us structured competition systems, scoreboards, rules and a judging framework. (Thanks to the partners supporting the site and its project)

On OCTV’s side, we are busy at developing a system to broadcast live performance – reducing costs for individuals (and event organizers) is our biggest challenge still… but stay tuned a solution is on its way!

So what is the standard for an OCTV grade broadcast?

  • See what’s happening: From multi-webcam (cheaper) to a fully-fledged Broadcast crew (expensive) – the point is to have the audience able to see from various perspectives what is going on.
  • Make it entertaining: Nobody would watch F1 or the Tour De France if it weren’t for the commentary on the sport, the history and event surroundings. There are a lot of other things to talk about on an OC livestream than just performance, scores and hardware.
  • Answer and interact with the Audience: OC is a slow sport for the most part. OC competitions still take hours if you count setup, bench to finally reach the result submission. To be present on the stream chat and answer every single question is also part of what we do. Have a question? Just ask, as simple as that.
  • Educate and make OC accessible: We always see the same faces at XOC live events some might say. Yes, it is true – but what about the 1500 people on the stream? We spend a lot of time explaining over and over again what is the point, why we compete with this and what hardware is being used. How the hardware enables the discipline? Educating each viewer on how, in his own way, with his own gear limitations can learn to fully exploit the possibilities of its gear – is also what we do.
Eye candy from our latest shoot
Eye candy from our latest shoot

What is coming for 2014 and beyond

As mentioned before, live screen sharing is our ultimate goal. It is a technical challenge that holds the live sport experience back since many years now. Many factors set limitations. Pricing being our main concerns as we refuse to make something not “accessible” to all. Hardware, and software and the increasing resolutions of 4K and more in 3D benchmarks are also posing problems in building a system than can scale and is future proof.

We are hard at work to offer to the community and beyond the best OC live entertainment experience. The MSI MOA 2014 is our next big milestone. Expect it to set a new standard.

Focusing on XOC live is one thing, but the not forgetting the live potential of the %90 enthusiast (enthusiasts/novice & rookies) that makes the community lives is even more important.

So like we use to say: Keep pushing it!

 

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