The Switch - News

The Switch Supports First 4K Transmission of Xbox 2017 E3 Briefing

LOS ANGELES—June 27, 2017—Sunday June 11, marked a technical milestone for The Switch in supporting Xbox in broadcasting their annual E3 Briefing from the Galen Center in Los Angeles, for the first time in 4K Ultra-High Definition on Mixer, Microsoft’s new live game streaming platform.

To help deliver Mixer’s 4K Ultra High Definition transport requirement, The Switch utilized a portable Switch node on-site at the Galen Center transmitting back to Xbox headquarters (HQ) in Redmond, Washington.   The production truck on-site delivered four (4) 1080p/29.97 quadrants which were each delivered 1:1 protected to Redmond. In addition, the encoding team in Redmond relied on The Switch to provide JPEG-2000 HD primary and backup paths to Xbox HQ, as well as a return path from Redmond to the Galen Center, and made the event available to other recipients at its Los Angeles Switch.   The Xbox E3 Briefing was viewed both live and via Video-On-Demand (VOD) by millions around the world.

Hosted by Phil Spencer, Head of Xbox, among others, the Xbox E3 Briefing unveiled Xbox One X, a device Xbox is calling “the most powerful console in the world” and showcased Xbox games which take advantage of the processing power of Xbox One X, which is set to launch on November 7, 2017.

“We’re thankful to all the fans who were able to join us throughout the week of E3 on Mixer, whether it was for the main Xbox E3 briefing which was broadcast in 4K for the very first time, or for any of the other great streams that were broadcast from the show floor throughout the week — it was a fun week celebrating all things gaming on Mixer!” remarked Mixer Director of Marketing, Jenn McCoy.

After the briefing and throughout the week of E3, The Switch also provided continuous E3 support solutions for Xbox, both from the Galen Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center, continuing to enable technology and gaming fans near and far to stay involved in the fun through the Xbox Daily: Live @ E3 show, which aired throughout the week on mixer.com/Xbox, where VODs from the week are now available.