Kolkata Knight Riders streams live from UAE during 2020 IPL league
Keeping millions of their fans engaged on social media
THE CHALLENGE
Last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL2020) was one of a kind – taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) rather than its home country India, and without spectators. How does a team stay connected with their fans and keep them engaged at such a challenging time? Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) the king of digital content and social media, came up with innovative concepts to take their fans along their entire IPL journey.
THE SOLUTION
KKR wanted to create more content and live stream it on their popular social media pages. They reached out to LiveU and chose the LiveU Solo Plus device for all their live streaming on their digital platforms. They came up with new concepts such as ‘Knight Live’ – live interviews with players, ‘KKR Fan Cam’ – live streaming their practice sessions, and provided daily updates, match coverage and more. They streamed everything on multiple social media channels, which invariably helped them widen their reach and connect to fans in every corner of the world. By the end of the season, KKR had generated a fan following of around 21 million.
BENEFITS
Content acquisition and live streaming in the past was limited to cellular phones only. The use of a professional video solution like Solo, bonding multiple connections, resulted in greatly improved video quality. With everything happening over the cloud, there was no need for additional investment in the set-up. All that was needed was the camera and the LiveU Solo Plus unit. Much more creative content could be created for fans around the games (like press interviews, dressing room activities, event celebrations, travel content and more).
"The reliability of its high-quality video stream over cellular network and LRT™ technology, direct transmission to social media platforms over cloud – all this made our production process hassle-free. It allowed us to create content without any inhibitions and our fans absolutely loved it. Our team was really impressed by the simplicity and flawless functioning of the technology.”
Achint Gupta, Head of Content, Kolkata Knight Riders
