Blackmagic Design Hits a Bullseye on Production of the Soft Darts Professional Tour Japan

Blackmagic Design products were used for the live production of Soft Darts Professional Tour Japan, including ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K, which has become the center of the tour’s live workflow. Production included shooting, recording, streaming to YouTube, and video distribution throughout the venue of games performed on the main stage, and was also done using ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, Micro Studio Camera 4K, HyperDeck Studio Mini, and Video Assist 4K.

Soft Darts Professional Tour Japan is a popular dart tournament that brings in professional darts players from around the world to compete in front of a live audience. Tokyo based production company KOKOROX was hired to produce each live event and manage live YouTube streaming.

To record every moment of action, two Micro Studio Camera 4Ks were installed on the main stage and for shooting players and dart boards. Feeds from the two cameras were sent to the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K for switching and graphics insertions, and then delivered to monitors around the event and captured for live streaming. Each camera also included a HyperDeck Studio Mini for recording each event, along with a Video assist 4K to record a separate clean feed with embedded sounds.

“ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K was introduced because it can create various screen layouts with Super Source. In darts live distribution, various captions such as score and player name are displayed. It is very convenient to save the caption created by Photoshop in the ATEM’s media pool. With the ATEM it is very easy to overlay subtitles without adjusting keying settings,” says Shuta Moriguchi, Video Producer of KOKOROX. “We also use the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K in combination with an ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, which lets us use macros. As soon as the athlete throws the darts, the camera control settings are set in the macro so that the camera is closer to the darts. All of this makes it possible to deliver live video without missing an important moment, since it can be intuitively switched on the panel.”

Two Micro Studio Camera 4K are shooting player and dartboards at fixed points,” he continues. “In sports shooting, it is important not to disturb the competition. The camera must be compact and able to withstand long time shooting, and the Micro Studio Camera 4K is a camera that meets these conditions. The tournament was held for half a day and the camera steadily moved for those 12 hours.”

One of the features of the ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K KOKOROX found most useful was the ability to control the two cameras through ATEM software control.

“The situation at the work site is always different as we go around the venues in Japan,” says Moriguchi. “With Soft Darts, we were shooting with only the lighting at the venue, so color adjustment function is essential. It is very convenient to control the focus and zoom of Micro Studio Camera 4K with ATEM software control. Adjusting colors with software is very useful.”

“Blackmagic’s products are compact and lightweight, so it is very convenient for us to move to regions in Japan according to the event. By unifying it with Blackmagic products, the range of workflow in live production has expanded,” he concludes.