Esports is an extremely fast-growing market, it has seen tremendous growth over the past few years and its viewership has reflected this. Global tournaments with prize pools in the millions are certainly one large factor for this rampant growth, tournaments such as League of Legend’s ‘Worlds’ in 2021 boasted an average minute audience of 30 million viewers, whereas the NBA finals of the same year had less than half of that, coming in at 12 million viewers. With these extremely popular events eclipsing traditional sporting tournament viewership, it is certainly an industry to keep an eye on.

At Boxx UK we work closely with our sister company Yoyotech which specialises in esports so we can see the benefits and popularity of this industry firsthand. To quickly introduce them, YoYo Tech is the UK’s leading esports arena provider,  this includes the installation of arenas, High-end gaming PCs, peripherals, management software, and support. They also provide esports arenas to schools by working closely with the writers of the Pearson Esports BTEC. As it is an ever-growing and cutting-edge industry, the hardware it requires needs to follow suit.

(Source: New Zoo)

During esports events and tournaments, the undisputed stars of the show are the gaming PCs and peripherals that the players use, however behind the scenes multiple high-powered workstations are at play. This is where BOXX come in.

But before we get into that, let’s quickly break down the main components of an esports event. Firstly, the events are usually three versus three or five versus five depending on the game. Each player needs a powerful gaming PC and a set of peripherals, such as webcams, keyboards, and mice as well as headsets and monitors. However, most professional players will bring their own keyboards and mice to the event, reducing the investment needed.

The stadium itself will have multiple large displays on which the spectators can watch the game, just like in a sports stadium. The games tend to also be recorded as well as streamed online to audiences via platforms such as Twitch. This allows the game to be viewed by an even larger audience and has kept esports so popular whilst simultaneously allowing it to thrive during covid and beyond.

Though the question remains, how does the gameplay, audio, and camera feed appear on the big screen all at once? or how can that footage then get broadcast online whilst also being recorded? That’s all thanks to powerful workstations known as Observer and Production PC’s.

The observer PCs spectate the game and allow the user free control to view it at any camera angle they require, essentially making them in-game cameramen. The PC needs to be powerful enough to smoothly run the software at the highest settings in order to prevent poor framerate or low visual fidelity, which would greatly harm the viewing experience. This is the footage that the audience is shown, it is also used by the play-by-play announcers (also known as shoutcasters) who provide commentary and analysis on the current happenings in the game. The footage is then recorded live via programs such as OBS and the live feed is then passed on to the production PC, either via cables or more frequently NDI protocols. The ‘Network Device Interface’ is a series of video-based protocols that enable compatible devices to share high bandwidth video, audio, and metadata, used for production and broadcasting, across IP networks.

The production PC is where all the elements are compiled together, this includes the video feed from the observer PC, the footage from the players ’PCs (in case their viewpoint needs to be shown), the players’ cameras as well as the shoutcasters audio. It is then broadcast live from this PC to the internet. Running all these programs and having so much data and footage being recorded, uploaded, displayed and broadcast online takes a lot of power, hence why a powerful workstation needs to be used for both the observer and production PCs.

(Source: Riot Games / Getty Images)

As a supplier of purpose-built workstations, Boxx would be a perfect candidate to use for not only these PCs but also the ones which work on all the assets and design work for the event long before it takes place. Graphic designers, Sound Engineers, Lighting engineers, and more, are tasked with creating a range of assets and require workstations that can run their chosen software at an optimal level. We specialise in CAD therefore posters, advertising material, stage design and much more are Boxx’s specialty.

A workstation such as the Apexx S4 would excel in improving these designers’ workflow tremendously. It can be used in its PC configuration when working from the comforts of their offices, then when it’s time to travel to the event it can be rack mounted into a travel case alongside multiple other S4s for ease of transport. Not only is this safer than transporting multiple PCs in their cases, but it is also much more space efficient and even prevents needing to source high-end workstations on location if they were unable to bring theirs to the event. With what amounts to a mobile studio, the Apexx S4 would greatly aid in the production of an esports event. Providing an unparalleled balance of performance and portability.

UI elements that appear on the main screen in the arena are also a big part of the pre-production. They help the crowd understand what is happening in-game through the use of timers, which character each player is playing as, and even include things such as banners with giveaways and other forms of audience interaction. All of the above require a workstation that can run the creative programs, some larger-scale esports events will even have CAD designers 3D modeling the stage or the whole arena in order to give everyone else an idea of how it will look or be decorated. This would be an ideal task for our Apexx W series, which specialises in GPU-heavy workloads by utilizing up to 4 professional graphics cards. It would easily take on tasks of 3D modeling or creating motion graphics which would be used on the big screens to enhance the viewer’s experience.

Since so much intensive software is used in the pre and postproduction, a regular PC wouldn’t be able to run almost any of it optimally, greatly impeding the quality and efficiency of the work. So, while our Boxx Workstations aren’t designed for gaming, there are so many different areas in which they could help the esports pipeline. But their utility goes beyond esports, events in which any level of post-production is needed would be a perfect home for these versatile workstations. Including music events, festivals, awards shows, and more. And if the event is a long distance away, their durable cases made from aircraft grade alloys and an internal support beam to improve sturdiness, these machines wouldn’t bat an eye at long, frequent journeys.

So if your company is thinking of venturing into the booming market that is esports, be sure to have the right tools for the job and browse our extensive range of products at www.boxx-tech.co.uk

If you’re like a lot of folks these days, you’re working from home. But regardless of your work location, you may have questions surrounding the setup and or operation of your BOXX APEXX workstation or GoBOXX laptop. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a quick list of the most common questions posed to us and set about answering them here in order to save you the time of a phone call or email.

Let’s get started.

ANSWER: By default the camera is disabled.  To enable the webcam use the key combination:  Fn+F6

ANSWER: Please attach the WiFi antennas to the rear of the chassis. These antennas are not attached to the system during shipping.  Antennas for your BOXX workstation can be found in the media kit accessory box.

ANSWER: The majority of our BOXX systems use the DELETE key to enter the BIOS. Some of our GoBOXX MXL mobile workstations use F2.

ANSWER: This will be different for most of our systems:

GoBOXX SLM and ASRock motherboard systems use F11.

Gigabyte motherboards are F12.

ASUS motherboards use F8.

Some MXL models use F7.

If you have any problems with these keys call our support team.

ANSWER: Windows 10 installation media is available from the Microsoft website, or you may want to consider Windows 11. From January 2023 Microsoft will no longer be supporting Windows 8.1:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/compare-windows-11-home-vs-pro-versions

ANSWER: No. Integrated speakers are only available on GoBOXX laptops. APEXX desk side systems must use monitor speakers or standard desktop speakers via the 3.5” stereo mini-jack connection.

ANSWER: Drivers are available from either the website s/n lookup tool (which may not work for all systems) or on our FTP site (for which you may need to request the folder location from our Tech Support team).

Website: https://www.boxx.com/support/technical-support#serial-num

FTP is: ftp://ftp.boxxtech.com/systems/

Username: boxxuser

Password: support

ANSWER:  It’s a common first-boot error to connect the monitor to the disabled video outputs on the motherboard, rather than the video outputs on the video card installed in the system.

ANSWER:  Using a wide variety of codes, we start with the event logs and what they were doing when the bluescreen happened.

ANSWER: Windows does not report the actual CPU speed. It only reports the base speed for which the processor was initially designed. However, the overclocked speed can be checked using the free Intel Processor Identification Utility. When you run this utility, it will show the “reported” and “base” speeds, with “reported” revealing the actual overclocked speed.

From time to time, we receive an inquiry where a customer’s particular software application isn’t responding as expected, i.e., objects rotate but there is lag or it takes too long to complete a task. In most instances, this has something to do with drivers, updates, BIOS, or it’s a known bug in their application. A quick Google search on the issue will usually bring up results from software application forums.

We also get a fair number of new BOXX customers who ask, “How do I optimize my system’s performance?”

First of all, BOXX systems are shipped with a “clean” Windows installation. In other words, we don’t load your system with useless bloatware. In fact, the standard BOXX-built system is a rock-solid, stable base on which to load your programs.

Second of all, optimization is dependent upon the software being employed, so we can’t offer a general set of recommendations. BOXXlabs optimizes hardware with overclocking where practical, and we install only enterprise-class components. The software support team for the application being used may have specific suggestions, but because different programs can work quite differently, what improves performance for one program may actually reduce performance for another.

If you didn’t find your question (or answer) among these common inquiries, fear not. When you buy a BOXX product, you have the advantage of U.S.-based, legendary BOXX Technical Support, so call us at 01256 378 044 or email BoxxUK@centerprise.co.uk

We’re ready to get you back to work.

The AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO processor is a multi-core powerhouse. It features up to 64 processor cores that provide 128 threads of processing power, giving life to BOXX APEXX T-Class workstations. Along with the insanely fast Threadripper PRO processors, T-Class systems also include multiple GPUs (NVIDIA RTX™ or AMD Radeon Pro) and a large drive capacity perfect for not only professionals but students looking to upgrade and gain a competitive edge in the film industry.

The Threadripper PRO is multi-threaded and the first 64-core CPU. It transcends its competition’s highest core count and efficiently accelerates video editing, as well as render and export times. The processor enables BOXX APEXX  T3 and T4 workstations to excel for Avid and Adobe Premiere Pro (two film editing solutions used by many university film programs) as well as DaVinci Resolve. Let’s take a look Threadripper, APEXX T-class, and these applications.

The current Avid-qualified BOXX APEXX T4 is the second APEXX T-Class workstation to receive Avid qualification. The first included the first Avid-qualified AMD CPU, the first single CPU with 64-cores, and the first CPU capable of editing 8K RAW. Now, the performance found in APEXX T4 will allow you even more time to create and iterate.

You should configure your Avid workstation based on the resolution and rendering requirements of your projects. Working with 2k footage is much less demanding than higher res projects. A single-socket Avid workstation with one or two GPUs is perfect for this workflow. For 4K editing or color grading sessions, you need two or more GPUs. Decompression and compression processes demand CPU power, so heavily compressed codecs require a multi-core workstation. If you’re working on projects that require interaction with 8k resolution and beyond, then you need advanced configs—from multiple GPUs and CPU cores, to more slots for high-speed storage.

With Adobe Premiere Pro, Threadripper Pro eliminates lengthy render times, allowing users more time to create and edit. The processor increases support for different cameras, frames, and platforms, and accelerates After Effects as well as Premiere Pro. The CPU also enables real-time editing of 8K REDCODE RAW footage and with those 64 cores, you’ll experience accelerated video editing, animation, video encoding, and animation exporting.

DaVinci Resolve features both visual and audio effects in the same application and allows you to move between tasks with ease. Further, it allows users to simultaneously collaborate with designers, colorists, and VFX artists to expedite the process of collaborative post-production. The multiple cores and 4.5GHz frequency of the BOXX T-Class systems rip right through these tasks, enabling you to move forward quicker than you ever anticipated.

For all post applications, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO supports PCIe 4.0 which steadily increases performance levels and power by helping the data move faster, up to four NVIDIA RTX™ GPUs, and Samsung SSDs. The PCIe 4.0 alongside 2TB of memory allows 8K files to playback at real-time rates.

Ultimately, owning a professional workstation is like having a good camera. It’s not cheap, but you need access to both in order to succeed as a professional filmmaker. Maybe it’s time to consider upgrading an outdated or underpowered system for a BOXX APEXX T-Class workstation equipped with Threadripper™ PRO processors to accelerate your workflow—and kick-start your post-college career.

With Adobe Premiere Pro, Threadripper Pro eliminates lengthy render times, allowing users more time to create and edit. The processor increases support for different cameras, frames, and platforms, and accelerates After Effects as well as Premiere Pro. The CPU also enables real-time editing of 8K REDCODE RAW footage and with those 64 cores, you’ll experience accelerated video editing, animation, video encoding, and animation exporting.

DaVinci Resolve features both visual and audio effects in the same application and allows you to move between tasks with ease. Further, it allows users to simultaneously collaborate with designers, colorists, and VFX artists to expedite the process of collaborative post-production. The multiple cores and 4.5GHz frequency of the BOXX T-Class systems rip right through these tasks, enabling you to move forward quicker than you ever anticipated.

For all post applications, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO supports PCIe 4.0 which steadily increases performance levels and power by helping the data move faster, up to four NVIDIA RTX™ GPUs, and Samsung SSDs. The PCIe 4.0 alongside 2TB of memory allows 8K files to playback at real-time rates.

Ultimately, owning a professional workstation is like having a good camera. It’s not cheap, but you need access to both in order to succeed as a professional filmmaker. Maybe it’s time to consider upgrading an outdated or under powered system for a BOXX APEXX T-Class workstation equipped with Threadripper™ PRO processors to accelerate your workflow—and kick-start your post-college career.