Video: Ninja’s new state-of-the-art streaming studio is absolutely amazing

Red
Bull

• Tyler “Ninja”
  Blevins is the most popular professional video game player
  in the world, streaming “Fortnite:
  Battle Royale” for millions of followers every
  day.
• Portland based creative agency Roundhouse recently
  partnered with Ninja’s sponsor, Red Bull, to redesign his home
  streaming studio, outfitting it with more than $20,000 worth of
  new equipment and custom features.
• Red Bull documented the process and their new video
  reveals how Roundhouse transformed Ninja’s basement into a
  full-fledged command center.
• Business Insider spoke with Roundhouse Creative
  Director Robert Medkeff about designing the state-of-the-art
  studio.

In the era of YouTube
and Twitch,
professional video gamers rely on home studio setups to broadcast
their gameplay to the millions of viewers around the world. Most
home studios have humble beginnings, in a basement or in a
kitchen. But if a streamer becomes successful, they soon need a
set-up capable of an increasingly high level of production to
serve a growing audience.

The world’s most popular gamer, Tyler “Ninja”
Blevins, has nearly 20 million subscribers on YouTube and
became the first Twitch streamer to reach 10 million followers
earlier this year. Ninja spends about 12 hours a day playing live
on Twitch from
his basement studio and has brought home as much as $500,000 a
month through subscription fees and donations. His meteoric rise
to the top of the video game world with “Fortnite:
Battle Royale” has earned him a number of valuable
opportunities, including commercials with Samsung, an ESPN the
Magazine cover story, and an ongoing sponsorship from Red Bull.

Red Bull recently partnered with Portland-based creative agency
Roundhouse to help Ninja redesign his home streaming setup, his
primary base of operations. Roundhouse Creative Director
Robert Medkeff flew to meet Ninja
in Chicago where they discussed how to upgrade the studio and
maintain his personal flair. The agency has worked on major
gaming-related projects with Red Bull and Twitch in the past, but
designing a state-of-the-art studio brought forth a new set of
challenges. Roundhouse presented Ninja with a number of potential
plans for the studio; once the gamer chose his favorite, they
began fleshing the design out with the best possible technology
and lighting options.

The studio fills the entire basement
room.
Red Bull

“His new studio needed to inspire
creativity and support multiple types of content, and stand out
as the first gaming studio of its kind,” Medkeff told Business
Insider in an interview. 

While most of Ninja’s streams
consist of him playing at his desk, the new studio encompasses
the full basement room. The space was given a custom acoustic
treatment and has been fully outfitted with controllable, color
changing LED lighting.
 Once wall includes eight different
monitors for Ninja to host graphics or playback video from his
dedicated video server. Another portion of the room has a
dedicated analyst desk in place for when Ninja hosts friends or
steps away from the action for a bit. Four different Blackmagic
Design URSA 4K 60 fps broadcast cameras in the room are able to
see the action from every angle while a mixture of Electrovoice
and Shure broadcast microphones capture audio.

Ninja standing at the analyst desk inside the
studio.
Red Bull

Red Bull declined to share the
budget for the studio design, but the equipment alone is worth
more than $20,000. The goal of the studio is to be a one-stop
shop for any type of gaming broadcast and everything in the room
can be controlled from a digital switch board on Ninja’s desk.
Despite the big time studio upgrades, Ninja will still be using
the same custom built NZXT computer and
the free Open Broadcaster Software to stream. 

Roundhouse also worked to ensure
that Ninja’s personality was preserved within the studio. Medkeff
said the partnership between Ninja and Red Bull was balanced and
stress-free. The room was designed with Ninja’s personal branding
in mind but the space isn’t dominated by sponsor logos.

Dozens of his personal trinkets
line the room, including trophies, Funko POP figures, a
“Fortnite” pickaxe, and a signed Detroit Lions football helmet.
Medkeff said the look of the trophy wall will evolve as Ninja
adds more personal effects. Roundhouse filled the studio with a
fair share of secret features too, for example, Ninja’s dogs have
access to a small Murphy bed that pops out of one of the studio’s
walls.

The studio even has custom built space for Ninja’s
dogs.
Red Bull

“I don’t want to give away too
many things, because there are a lot of nice little hidden things
that Ninja will reveal when he streams,” Medkeff said.

While playing “Fortnite: Battle Royale” alongside superstar
artists like Drake and Travis Scott and winning major tournaments
has helped Ninja gain a celebrity profile during the last year,
he began competitive gaming with “Halo 3” in 2009. In August,
Business Insider spoke with his wife and manager, Jessica
Blevins, about how they have handled his skyrocketing career.