Vizrt Delivers Advanced Virtual Set Ecosystem To BBC Sport

Vizrt, the home of software-defined visual storytelling solutions, supplied advanced virtual set graphics to BBC Sport that helped convert a simple studio into its “Pres 2” set and a home studio for BBC Sport in Salford, U.K.

John Murphy, BBC creative director and head of graphics for sport, said: “We had a small studio space at Media City which was not being used as much as we would have liked so we decided to convert it into a green screen space. With the virtual design and rendering technology we now have a studio that has five different presenting positions and is able to house a variety of our sports output.”

Using Vizrt’s new Viz Engine 4 with its integrated Unreal Engine 4 render pipeline and Fusion Keyer, coupled with the Mo-Sys StarTracker 6-axis optical tracking system and set designs from BK Design and Lightwell, BBC Sport has a new cutting-edge system.

In April 2021, BBC Sport kicked off its use of the all new Vizrt ecosystem to broadcast a variety of sporting tournaments and productions. Productions include chosen programs from Match of The Day, Euros 2020 and the Summer Games — providing audiences with dynamic graphics to accompany sporting analytics, highlights during the show and creating exceptional visual stories for the viewers.

Gerhard Lang, Vizrt CTO, said: “Vizrt was proud to participate in BBC Sports’ celebration of the UEFA Euro 2020 championships and the amazing summer games, and for us the BBC set stands out both in looks and functionality. With the hybrid Unreal 4-Viz Engine 4 studio we were able to solve many challenges for the BBC. The studio provided an operator friendly workflow that enables content change and provides viewers with meaningful information throughout the show.”

According to Vizrt, “with seamless integration, Unreal Engine 4 is easily utilized as an additional render-blade within the Vizrt controlled workflow. This breakthrough development supports multiple inputs and ‘physically based rendering’ (PBR). It also improves performance plus delivers a wide variety of photorealistic capabilities. Vizrt’s Fusion Keyer provides a further layer of engagement and realism, particularly to virtual sets and augmented reality graphic elements, bringing the power of the latest graphics technology into familiar Vizrt broadcast workflows.”