Hong Kong: Jockey Club Reins in Vizrt for Track HD

Bettors and mere interested observers at the track don’t have to give up their HD television screens back home when they attend the prestigious Hong Kong Jockey Club, the largest horse racing facility in China. The huge facility has begun broadcasting racing events on two newly installed Viz Arena HD outdoor systems from Vizrt at its Sha Tin and Happy Valley tracks.

The HKJC carries the races in HD to each of its betting offices and adjacent to the tracks via closed circuit. Vizrt said its Viz Arena is a system powered by its proprietary Viz Engine 3.2 and Viz Artist 3.2 animation tools, as well as a Viz Video 3-D control application that enables broadcasters to superimpose static and animated 3D graphics over the live coverage of a sports event (the same system that was used for coverage of the Beijing Olympics last summer).

Vizrt, based in Bergen, Norway, said it calibrated its system at HKJC in two stages: First, camera lenses were calibrated independently from the site itself; later on-site, a second calibration is conducted in order to achieve the best match between virtual and real images. Superimposed 3D graphics can be static or animated.

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