To herald the European launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in 2019, video game company Activision enlisted Gamereactor to produce and deliver a special e-sports event whose workflow was based around NDI video connectivity technology and BirdDog’s encoder/decoders.Â
No one can tell it better than the experts on the field. Video courtesy of BirdDog.
Challenge
It was inevitable that expectations would be high surrounding the 15th instalment in the Call of Duty series when Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 was scheduled for 2019. But those expectations extended far beyond the game itself and meant, for example, that the online launch event had to be seamlessly well-produced and professional.Â
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To deliver this event, Call of Duty developer Activision engaged the services of Gamereactor, a Scandinavian online media network covering video games in multiple languages. The primary challenge facing the Gamereactor team was to deliver ten Playstation 4 console feeds into a live production computer enabled with vMix live video streaming software, as well as a live camera from the stage that was to be used for interviews throughout the event.
Solution
Gamereactor’s technical team faced a choice: traditional routing with SDI converters and a beefy machine, or a sleek, modern, all-IP solution.Â
With time tight and expectations high, they opted to leap ahead. For the production and live-stream, the Gamereactor team opted to base its workflow around NDI technology and a total of 11 BirdDog Mini encoder/decoders, which were designed around BirdDog’s custom NDI silicon chip.
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The Play-by-Play Solution
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- 11× BirdDog Mini units—one for each of the 10 PS4s plus one for the stage camera.
- All HDMI signals went into BirdDog Minis, then encoded over full-bitrate NDI onto a central Ethernet switch.
- A single Cat‑6 cable brought all streams into a vMix live-production PC.
- vMix handled live switching, picture‑in‑picture, overlays, and streaming—all with sub-frames of latency.
Dóri Halldórsson, who at the time of the project was a Video Editor & Content Creator for Gamereactor, explained the thought process behind the decision:
We had the option of going old school and buying a bunch of SDI converters, converting all those HDMI signals to SDI, and then getting up a more powerful computer to handle it. But clearly the best option was to embrace the future and go with NDI, which is what we did. And this approach saved a lot of headaches.
Simplified production workflow diagram.
Outcome
This wasn’t just a press event—it was a case study in IP-first live production, showing the gaming world that broadcast-grade streams don’t require broadcast-grade hardware. It highlighted how NDI simplifies multi-source workflows, fosters adaptability, and provides high-quality output without technical debt.
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Rock-solid broadcast: Zero-major dropouts.
Rapid setup: Plug-and-play with no extra processing load.
Scalable architecture: Simple to add more sources or re-route.
Mega impact: Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 set the record for Activision’s best-selling digital debut—beating even WWII
