While planning for a new visual campaign for IBC 2025, Unified Streaming Product Marketing Manager Ksenia Rabinovich came up with an idea.

Illustrate the challenges that real-world streaming platforms and media companies face, but in a playful and pixelated way.

To make it epic was Ksenia’s goal. In her imagination, streaming engineers would stand, ditch their dual monitors, and become warriors. Solutions would become sought-after artifacts. Buggy tech stacks would buffer and become beasts.

As concepts rolled in from the Unified team, veteran freelance Unified Streaming graphic artist Aram Korevaar of Studio Alarm brought to life a whole fantasy world, scintillating with humor and nuance.

Now complete, the campaign’s a fresh throwback.

Addressing up-to-the-second concerns of the streaming industry as it stands today, within a nostalgic, 8-bit universe, the retro design appeals to both the wide-eyed and the weary.

To see more, come visit us at our IBC booth 5.C68, September 12–15, 2025.

And to discover your own inner streaming warrior, take this fun, insider-y quiz written by Ksenia and Unified Streaming Product Manager Linzi McRae.

Below lies the origin story. Maybe you’ll find something familiar in the quest. After all, everyone wages the same battle: keep costs low, prices reasonable, and quality high.

Streamlandia and the Six Dragons

a command-line quest, in 8-bit

Once, faraway, in the land of Streamlandia, people felt peace and joy. Now, though, trouble rumbles. There, upon all the land, darkness and despair have descended.

Six despicable dragons have stolen Streamlandia’s life force. Known as The Stream of Streams, this source of all light and charm and goodness made everyone happy.

No longer. Robbed from its shell, The Stream of Streams has been frozen, and lies locked up at the peak of Mount Noflow, the dark nest of the Dragons Six.

These dragons are a criminal bunch.

Poh-qual is the dragon born so busted, it can barely move forward, but can usually scrub its own path backward with its feet.

Unrely is the dragon no one can depend on.

Slogro is the dragon that’s got scales, but can’t scale.

Secleak is the dragon that pirates hitch rides on.

Stuckstack is the dragon that’s low on cash at the moment.

Chyron Orthicon is the dragon made of bits of clunky, legacy broadcast gear, and whose special power is ignoring new ideas.

As the dragons dominate, Streamlandians struggle. They feel lost. Shaken. And very, very bored.

So King Unify summons folks to fight the dragons and bring The Stream of Streams back safely to Streamlandia.

Four brave knights answer the call: Paladin, Wizard, Rogue, and Jester. Each boasts different skills and powers.

‍Paladin is the Guardian of the Stream. Paladin fights for truth, quality, and reliability. Championing standards, defending best practices, and shielding infrastructure (and their team) from chaos, Paladin loves specs and documentation, and sleeps well knowing their latency is low and ethics are high. DRM? Paladin’s already implemented three. Paladin’s motto is “Protect the stream = protect the realm.”

Wizard is the Architect of Protocols. Wizard speaks fluent HLS, DASH, and a bit of CMAF, and can identify the problem without spending any spell slots (aka hours of meetings). Wizard summons smooth playback easily. And of course, they’ve already studied the latest industry whitepapers. People come to the Wizard when the stream is broken, and the Wizard fixes it with knowledge. Wizard’s motto: “I don’t cast spells, I cast manifests.”

Rogue is the Stream Hacker.  Rogue works fast, quietly, and gets things done—even if it means breaking a few rules (or CDNs) along the way. Rogue builds a working prototype for your breakfast while others are still in the kickoff meeting. The Rogue knows all the weird edge cases in streaming (because the Rogue’s the one who created them). When someone says, “That can’t be done,” Rogue says, “Hold my beer.” Rogue’s motto: “If it streams, I can make it work.”

‍Jester is the Chaos Engine with Insights. Jester asks the tough questions—usually through the form of a meme. Jester exposes streaming sins with humor. Jester’s got deep industry knowledge, but would rather make a TikTok than a slide deck. Everyone’s favorite at conferences, and the reason some vendors sweat, Jester brings to the table sharp insights and a love for keeping it real. Jester’s motto: “Just kidding… Or am I?”

Bold warriors, each and every one.

But with the existence of Streamlandia at stake, nothing’s certain. And despite being skilled and strong, the knights alone cannot beat six giant dragons.

So King Unify provides specialized weapons that only the best warriors can wield. So bright they gleam in the darkness, the four weapons are known as Packager, Origin, Remix, and Capture.

After casually mentioning that these advanced, flexible, and lightweight weapons can be used in combination, King Unify declares that if the warriors rescue The Stream of Streams as one unified team, his daughter Princess Playlist will unlock for them the ultimate weapon: Virtual Channel.

Armed with their potent devices, the brave knights begin to climb Mount Noflow. They announce to everyone they pass that they shall slay the dragons and return The Stream of Stream to the people.

But their mission is packed with peril. Their ascent's no picnic. Around every sharp crag, the knights face great danger. And obstacles that are highly, highly annoying.

Will the four warriors succeed? Or will the six sickly dragons rule the roost and keep the Stream of Streams frozen forever?