Rafał Szykowski

Broadcast Developer

About Me

Hi! My name is Rafał Szykowski. I am part of Generation X and envisioned my career path back in school. For over 25 years, I have been working with video content creation, television technology, and programming. I gained experience during various events, including sports, e-sports, concerts, conferences, and video productions. I started with recording and editing wedding videos, moved on to live broadcasts, designing and building studios or broadcasting vehicles, and eventually developing APIs and database applications used in e-sports tournaments worldwide.

  • Broadcast Engineer
  • Technical Director
  • Video Editor
  • Python Developer
  • Video Editor
  • Python Developer

Selected Works

25 years of work allow you to gain not only experience but also exceptional skills

By working on television, internet, and film projects, I have collaborated with many broadcasters and companies from around the world. This has allowed me to develop numerous traits and skills that undoubtedly serve as an additional asset in my work today. Many of these cannot be learned through training or courses — they come with experience and the number of mistakes made in the past.
English LanguageFLUENT
German LanguageBASIC
Problem solvingGREAT
Working under pressureGREAT
Stress resistanceGREAT

I'm available for freelance work

Latest News

  • ESL FACEIT GROUP - EFG

    Vladimir Petrescu

    Senior Director Production

    Rafal has been a trailblazer in the realm of broadcast development for esports, an essential element in medium- to large-scale productions. His innovative approach and creative problem-solving significantly expanded the possibilities for integrating game API data into broadcast systems. His ability to exceed expectations and innovate makes him an invaluable addition to any team.

    Nearly 10 years ago, my journey in the esports ecosystem began. ESL Gaming is a company where I had the opportunity to grow across various levels of the broadcasting ladder – from managing live broadcasts and overseeing connection technologies to designing installations, software, and data structures. With each passing month, ESL presented me with new challenges, taking me to different corners of the world. From small local productions to the Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang.

  • BBL

    Felipe Magosso Poveda

    Head of Innovation

    Rafal is a really creative person and when we are talking about creating solutions or integrating games and/or APIs, he can create top tier software for broadcasting live esports shows. We worked together in 2019 on a project here in Brazil and was amazing to know someone like him.

    The beginning of my journey with Python programming was the integration of the mobile game Guns of Boom. The project turned out to be so engaging that it was completed with the full involvement of the developer, which brought my software to the stage at the BBL studio in Brazil. The system performed various actions on LED screens and lighting. Additionally, the game data served as an API for the CG graphics system during the broadcast.

  • SABMARTV

    Marcin Wypior

    CEO

    Rafał is an invaluable member of the team. His knowledge and skills contributed to the creation of two broadcast vans in our company. Our latest 16-camera van is 70% his achievement. Thanks to Rafał's expertise, each production is carried out under full control, both technically and editorially. His ability to quickly anticipate and eliminate potential risks in production, as well as the calm with which he performs the tasks assigned to him, provides a sense of stability and confidence during each project. His knowledge of equipment, software, and even design has ensured that our van meets the expectations of the most demanding clients. A person with exceptional skills – irreplaceable in SABMARtv.

    The collaboration with SabmarTV spans over 15 years of continuous growth and development. In 2009, we began with our first broadcasts of speedway matches in Rybnik and Częstochowa, and just three years later, we created a mobile 3G HD-SDI streaming kit. In 2017, I designed and equipped SabmarTV's first fully-fledged broadcast van based on a Mercedes Sprinter Long. This vehicle is still in use today, covering the Badminton League, smaller speedway matches, the Women's Volleyball Extraleague, and small conferences. The Mercedes also serves as support for larger productions, working alongside a second van built on an Iveco chassis with an expandable work area. The Iveco was constructed in February 2024 and is equipped with a Dante network, SMTPE tracks, and a ClearCom communication system. The new HD3 van, which I designed and configured between 2023 and 2024, is the largest broadcast van I have ever created.

  • NOWA SCENA

    Alan Green

    VP OneTwoThree Media

    Worked with Rafal multiple times and he is the consummate professional. A hugely knowledgable expert. Always a pleasure to have him part of the team.

    Beauty pageants in my career have always been an open door. My first assignments date back to 2002 in Łódź, followed by the production of Miss Polski Dolnego Śląska from 2005 to 2009 and Miss Ziemi Łódzkiej from 2011 to 2016. I began a long-term collaboration with Nowa Scena (the organizer of Miss Polski and Miss Supranational) in 2012, which continues to this day. During this time, I have been responsible for delivering broadcast signals to multiple TV stations worldwide, creating video materials from preparations and camps, and producing behind-the-scenes content for use on social media.

  • STARLADDER

    Andrew Yatsenkoa

    Chief Strategic Partnerships

    I've been working with Rafal during my times at ESL Polska when we had World of Tanks Wargaming League live production broadcasts in 2016-2017. As a part of the broadcast team which I managed as Product Manager, Rafal has been producing English & Russian broadcasts from the offline studio in Katowice and he always delivered top-notch quality without any issues. Moreover, Rafal is very cool to work with on a personal level - always calm, humble, result-oriented and professional. I definitely can recommend having Rafal and his team to work on any esports & TV broadcast projects you are considering.

    The international organization ESL Gaming is the largest e-sports company in the world. It comes as no surprise that one of the biggest players in the gaming market, Wargaming, chose to collaborate with them. This is how my journey in e-sports began. Between 2015 and 2017, I worked as a producer, technician, and API integrator during league games in the Katowice studio and several LAN finals in Kazan, New York, and Moscow. The Russian capital was where I prepared my first advanced and complex integration between in-game data and massive LED screens on stage.

  • RECIN STUDIO

    Michal Ďurica

    Broadcast Production Support

    I had the chance to work with Mr. Szykowski as part of his production team on projects such as Drone Champions League and Intel Extreme Masters, where we did live broadcasts. He is one of the most knowledgeable people I know and has a skill set for every aspect of broadcasting. Whether it involves building a studio from scratch or managing large projects with big production crews, everything runs smoothly under his leadership. He is great at handling pressure and is a quick problem solver. On top of that, he is a very kind person and fun to work with. Mr. Szykowski is competent in what he does and a guarantee of quality.

    I started the Recin project in 2017 together with Peter, shortly after we met while building the iPolTv studio. Initially, the project involved equipping a small broadcast van used for live streaming World Poker Tour tournaments. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced me to either further develop the project or abandon it entirely. As a result, Recin e-sport studio was established in 2021, focusing mainly on small language productions and B-streams for ESL Gaming. The studio, its equipment, installation, and configuration were entirely designed and executed by me. In its first year of operation, we successfully filled the calendar with nearly 130 production days.

Get in Touch

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