GeekyGoonSquad - HFLAN incident
Donation protected
Hello everyone.
I am Philipp Bürkner aka "Liva" from Geeky Goon Squad.
Last weekend, we have provided the live broadcast at HFLAN Melee Edition 2019 in Paris, France.
Setup and stream start went flawless and we were about to start the very first match on stream.
Then this happened: (0:20)
https://clips.twitch.tv/FancyPhilanthropicBurritoOSsloth
As you see, right at the start, the stream goes off.
What you don't see: A loud bang on my right ear, half of the halls power going off, lights shutting down and my PC crashing in a very weird and scary way.
The PC monitor screens looked a little bit like this:
Obviously I was afraid that my PC got damaged when that happend.
Long story short, we shutdown everything and turned back on piece by piece. (After the electricians of the location got the power back on)
Fortunately, my computer was (mostly) fine. Though, after about 15-20 minutes of troubleshooting, I had to face a sad report:
Some of my equipment did indeed break:
- Magewell Pro Capture Quad SDI
- HDMI Splitter (4 port)
- HDMI 2 SDI converter
- 2x DisplayPort 2 HDMI Converter
- 3x 5v Power supply
Most of these parts are tolerateable even when they do cost a good amount to replace. But, the first item is very tragic.
The Magewell Pro Capture Quad SDI is used to capture the video feeds of my cameras and game consoles. (1080p @ 60fps)
This is a very expensive piece of equipment and got hit by a voltage spike as it seems. One of the inputs stopped working entirely. I've tested it at the event and a second time when I arrived home. It is dead.
Problem with this, this card now only provides 3 inputs.
I already lacked 1 SDI input and had to use an SDI 2 HDMI converter to connect all my cameras in a proper way. Now I lack two which prevents me to make proper use of cameras.
I will have to replace this capture card eventually which sets me back 1000€.
I would be able to replace it with a Blackmagic Decklink Duo 2 for 500€, but I originally intended to not buy this card and rather get a proper 8 channel card, the Blackmagic Decklink Quad 2.
That way I have some space to work with and being able to expand in future.
Which means, I'll have to decide for one of them.
However, I am not asking for the 1000€ to get the 8 channel card here, since I don't want an upgrade but simply getting back at where I was before the incident.
I usually do not ask for money when parts of my equipment break, for me this is normal and should be covered with my income. (event salarys, twitch subscriptions, ... )
Breaking equipment is normal, its the sad every day life of broadcast producers.
But this is too much for me to handle to be quite honest with you.
Some people suggested me to start a gofunme campain, so here we are.
If you want to help me, every buck counts. If not, it's fine.
I hate asking for money, especially when it isn't for medical or health reasons.
Thank you very much for reading this.
I really appreciate all your support (emotional as financial).
(shoutouts to everyone at HFLAN who came to me asking what happened and tried to make me feel better.)
TL;DR:
Stuff blew up, will have to replace.
I am Philipp Bürkner aka "Liva" from Geeky Goon Squad.
Last weekend, we have provided the live broadcast at HFLAN Melee Edition 2019 in Paris, France.
Setup and stream start went flawless and we were about to start the very first match on stream.
Then this happened: (0:20)
https://clips.twitch.tv/FancyPhilanthropicBurritoOSsloth
As you see, right at the start, the stream goes off.
What you don't see: A loud bang on my right ear, half of the halls power going off, lights shutting down and my PC crashing in a very weird and scary way.
The PC monitor screens looked a little bit like this:
Obviously I was afraid that my PC got damaged when that happend.
Long story short, we shutdown everything and turned back on piece by piece. (After the electricians of the location got the power back on)
Fortunately, my computer was (mostly) fine. Though, after about 15-20 minutes of troubleshooting, I had to face a sad report:
Some of my equipment did indeed break:
- Magewell Pro Capture Quad SDI
- HDMI Splitter (4 port)
- HDMI 2 SDI converter
- 2x DisplayPort 2 HDMI Converter
- 3x 5v Power supply
Most of these parts are tolerateable even when they do cost a good amount to replace. But, the first item is very tragic.
The Magewell Pro Capture Quad SDI is used to capture the video feeds of my cameras and game consoles. (1080p @ 60fps)
This is a very expensive piece of equipment and got hit by a voltage spike as it seems. One of the inputs stopped working entirely. I've tested it at the event and a second time when I arrived home. It is dead.
Problem with this, this card now only provides 3 inputs.
I already lacked 1 SDI input and had to use an SDI 2 HDMI converter to connect all my cameras in a proper way. Now I lack two which prevents me to make proper use of cameras.
I will have to replace this capture card eventually which sets me back 1000€.
I would be able to replace it with a Blackmagic Decklink Duo 2 for 500€, but I originally intended to not buy this card and rather get a proper 8 channel card, the Blackmagic Decklink Quad 2.
That way I have some space to work with and being able to expand in future.
Which means, I'll have to decide for one of them.
However, I am not asking for the 1000€ to get the 8 channel card here, since I don't want an upgrade but simply getting back at where I was before the incident.
I usually do not ask for money when parts of my equipment break, for me this is normal and should be covered with my income. (event salarys, twitch subscriptions, ... )
Breaking equipment is normal, its the sad every day life of broadcast producers.
But this is too much for me to handle to be quite honest with you.
Some people suggested me to start a gofunme campain, so here we are.
If you want to help me, every buck counts. If not, it's fine.
I hate asking for money, especially when it isn't for medical or health reasons.
Thank you very much for reading this.
I really appreciate all your support (emotional as financial).
(shoutouts to everyone at HFLAN who came to me asking what happened and tried to make me feel better.)
TL;DR:
Stuff blew up, will have to replace.
Organizer
Philipp Bürkner
Organizer
Berlin
