Esports TV Network VENN Taps Blackbird for Remote Video Production

Soon-to-launch esports TV network VENN has selected Blackbird for fast and efficient remote video production. The deal is for threeyears and was brokered by Blackbird’s new US systems integrator partner, ASG. VENN’s production team will use Blackbird to remotely and frame-accurately edit, enrich, and publish a wide variety of engaging video content quickly. Content will be delivered to VENN’s 24/7 post cable network and social channels including Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Twitch.

VENN is a new kind of TV network for the streaming generation, aimed at gaming, pop culture and esports audiences. Founded by gaming visionaries Ariel Horn and Ben Kusin, VENN broadcasts live from studios in New York and Los Angeles with content distributed across a broad range of media platforms. The network’s content will span multiple categories of entertainment with original programming produced both in-house and with some of the biggest names and creators in gaming, entertainment, streaming and esports.

“VENN is launching a network dedicated to pop culture viewed through the lens of gaming and esports,” says Scott Gillies, CTO of VENN. “Launching in this era of COVID and social distancing is presenting unique production challenges.  With Blackbird, we have a new level of flexibility and it allows us to reimagine how productions should work.  We can operate remotely and rapidly create and deliver highly engaging video content for gaming fans to enjoy whenever and wherever they wish. Blackbird is simply awesome and we’re super excited about utilizing this game-changing cloud video editing technology.”

According to Blackbird, it is the world’s fastest, most powerful professional cloud video editing and publishing platform. Enabling very scalable remote production, Blackbird provides rapid access to video content for the easy creation of clips, highlights and longer form content to multiple devices and platforms. Delivering unbeatable speed and quality of editing tools and video output, Blackbird is accessed through any browser, easy to learn and needs only limited bandwidth to use.  Blackbird delivers significant efficiency benefits to any enterprise-level organization working with video.

“We are excited to add VENN to our growing list of US and esports customers and also delighted that our new partner ASG have brought in their first deal with Blackbird,” says Blackbird CEO, Ian McDonough. “ The VENN project is incredibly exciting and is a classic greenfield site where there is no legacy hardware based incumbent and the team are free to select our state-of-the-art cloud based solution. This fresh thinking makes production teams as efficient and sustainable as possible whilst being free to work from anywhere.”

Blackbird drives awareness, reach and monetization for brands in the sports, news, entertainment and enterprise sectors. Customers include IMG, Deltatre, Peloton, A+E Networks, Eleven Sports, Riot Games, Liverpool FC, the U.S Department of State and almost 50 local US news stations with TownNews.