LONDON—Vizrt has announced details of the advanced virtual set graphics ecosystem that was used on BBC Sport’s “Pres 2” set and a home studio for BBC Sport in Salford, UK.
John Murphy, creative director and head of graphics for sport at the BBC explained that “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 5 different presenting positions and is able to house a variety of our sports output.”
The conversation used 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.
In April 2021, BBC Sport kicked off its use of the all new Vizrt ecosystem, which will broadcast a variety of sporting tournaments and productions throughout 2021, including Match of The Day, Euros 2020 and the Summer Games.
Gerhard Lang, CTO for Vizrt, noted that “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.”
More information on the latest iteration of Viz Engine and its integration with Unreal Engine is available here.
