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Behind the Scenes at the US Go Congress: Tech Support

As you might imagine, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes into broadcasting games from the annual US Go Congress, whether on KGS, Pandanet, YouTube or Twitch. Most of the time, everything works, and go fans around the world can follow the top-board action from the comfort of their own homes or at work. But sometimes things go sideways. Like Thursday morning. With just minutes to go before the sixth round in the US Open Masters was scheduled to begin, and with Bao Yun and Ito Kenryo -- the last two undefeated players left -- seated at Board 1, the internet connection for the game recorder's computers and the livestream feed went dead. The E-Journal team quickly scrambled to troubleshoot the problem, find workarounds and implement backup plans. The BU tech guys were called in, cables and adapters were swapped and software settings were rapidly reconfigured. As always, the priority was to ensure no disruption or distraction for the players while working to bring the best possible broadcast to viewers on the various platforms. At home, viewers probably didn't even notice the 2-minute delay in the start of the round, which otherwise went off without a hitch. The way we like it. - Dennis Wheeler & Chris Garlock; photo by Garlock