Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

BBC Sport Unveils Innovative New VR Studio for Beijing Winter Olympics

26/01/2022

BBC Sport unveils innovative new VR studio for Beijing Winter Olympics By Heather McLean, Editor

Monday, January 24, 2022 - 18:35

Print This Story

BBC Sport is taking readers to the slopes with a virtual cabin on a mountainside in China for a studio

BBC Sport is unveiling a new virtual reality (VR) studio for its coverage of the Beijing Winter Olympics that will take viewers from a mountainside log cabin to a virtual ski resort, and beyond.

Rights holding broadcasters at this year's Games are restricted from being able to roam the local area with camera crews, preventing them from giving people at home a feel of the country. However, the VR studio will take viewers to the edge of a mountain range and the excitement of a Winter Olympics in all its snowy glory.

With every event you kind of learn about how you can use the technology and use your imagination to create something which is unreal

Comments Jonny Bramley, executive producer for major events at BBC Sport, talking to SVG Europe from his hotel in Beijing: We did consider whether we'd be looking at some live shots from some of the venues here in Beijing, but you actually come up with a more impressive environment if you kind of let your imagination run away and come up with something that might be your ideal log cabin in a snowy mountain environment.

We're pretty happy with the way the studio looks. And again, it's clearly virtual and we're not trying to pretend it's actually real, but it does look pretty impressive, so we can have a bit of fun with that.

Even though the footprint of BBC Sport's greenscreen studio being used for Beijing is only 84 metres square, it has managed to create a virtual ski resort an expansive studio

As the Winter Olympics is a smaller event than the Summer Games, this time BBC Sport is not utilising the large Dock 10 studio it made into its virtual Tokyo eyrie. It has scaled the VR set back to its Pres 2 studio, as it would for any other Winter Olympics.

Bramley comments: The Summer Olympic studio was in one of the large studios in Dock10. This time we are using our more compact studio, but it's bespoke. It's probably the biggest virtual footprint we've got. Being able to use it for a major event like this is actually a great use of the space. It's not a huge space but we've been very creative with our VR set design, so it's great.

Not only do we have a number of different positions inside the studio, but we've actually got various places where we can actually shoot - virtually outside. I think [the studio is] probably one of the most exciting things about the coverage, Bramley adds.

Presenters will be able to virtually report from outside' the BBC Sport studio at a ski resort

Pushing VR to the edge

John Murphy, BBC Sport's creative director for motion, tells SVG Europe: The innovative element of the studio is in the virtual design. Although the footprint of our greenscreen studio is only 84 metres square, we have managed to create a virtual ski resort and studio which has more than five different presenting positions both inside and outside. It will also reflect different times of the day and you may even spot some wildlife!

Murphy explains that the technology which drives the virtual studio is a Viz 4 and Unreal Engine integration using the Viz Fusion keyer along with the Mo-Sys camera tracking system. Unreal Engine provides the virtual landscape and rendering and Vizrt's Viz 4 and Viz Arc provide the control of the studio, including any AR.

He adds: Our studio (Pres 2) which is based at Media City, Salford is a four-camera greenscreen studio with a locked-off fifth ceiling camera which we have brought in for the Winter Olympics; it gives us a bigger viewpoint from one of the positions in the studio.

On the studio, he notes: It is a fixed studio which has been active since May [2021] and has hosted various productions. However, the Winter Olympics is our biggest event to be held in there to date and therefore we are expanding the virtual footprint of the studio.

Although the architecture of the studio is the same, we have created an extra presentation area inside, and the biggest change is that we now have three or four presentation areas outside of the studio in our own ski resort - a virtual ski resort. So our presenters will talk about going outside', but they'll actually be inside the VR studio. We'll be in the studio - the VR log cabin - then go to the downhill skiing or whatever, and when we come back our presenters can be outside' in our virtual ski resort. It's pretty cool!

Viewers will be able to see day turn into night in Beijing time, and may even see some wildlife on the slopes

Constantly evolving

As to how the Beijing studio has moved on from that used for Tokyo and how BBC Sport is constantly pushing forwards with its VR set design, Bramley says: It's definitely evolved. Tokyo was a good example of how you're not constrained with virtual reality. When you design a real set you're very much constrained by those four walls and the challenge with that is how creative you can be within those four walls. A VR set design means you've got to literally think outside of the box outside those four walls and so the scenes we had in Tokyo meant the set was the entire city of Tokyo with our little box on top of a skyscraper in the middle. This time the set is in a mountain environment and it's our own little log cabin in the middle of that.

With every event you kind of learn about how you can use the technology and use your imagination to create something which is unreal, concludes Bramley.

The BBC will broadcast more than 300 hours of live coverage across BBC One and BBC Two, with even more coverage available on a second live digital stream o
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/bbc-sport-unveils-innovative-...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

13/03/2025

TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring for VOS360 Streaming Workflows at the 2025 NAB Show

TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...

13/03/2025

DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage Platform that Empowers Video Teams to Scale Effortlessly

DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...

13/03/2025

FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Life at NAB 2025 Exhibition

FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...

13/03/2025

Ajit Pai Appointed President of CTIA

CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...

13/03/2025

NAB: FCC's 60 Minutes Investigation Is Unconstitutional, Invalid

he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...

13/03/2025

CBS Miami to Launch AR Coverage of Weather and Sports for March Madness

MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...

13/03/2025

Meet the co-founder and chief customer success & innovation officer

Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...

13/03/2025

FCC Chairman Carr Launches Massive Deregulation Initiative

WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...

13/03/2025

SDVI Integrates Rally With Spectra Vail

SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...

13/03/2025

FCC Approves Gray's Acquisition of KXLT

ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...

13/03/2025

NAB Show 2025 Exhibitor Insight: Blackmagic Design

TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...

13/03/2025

Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice

Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions. ...

13/03/2025

T-Mobile, Thales and SIMPL ease IoT deployments with a flexible and secure connectivity solution

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...

13/03/2025

Relive the Magic as GeForce NOW Brings More Blizzard Gaming to the Cloud

Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library. Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...

13/03/2025

Gaming Goodness: NVIDIA Reveals Latest Neural Rendering and AI Advancements Supercharging Game Development at GDC 2025

AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...

13/03/2025

Drop It Like It's Mod: Breathing New Life Into Classic Games With AI in NVIDIA RTX Remix

PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...

12/03/2025

Como o Impacto Cultural e Financeiro da Indstria Musical Define Seu Sucesso em 2025

O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...

12/03/2025

Cmo el impacto cultural y financiero de la industria musical define su xito en 2025

Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...

12/03/2025

Nourish Mind, Body, and Soul This Ramadan With Spotify

Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...

12/03/2025

How the Music Industry's Cultural and Financial Impact Define Its Success in 2025

Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...

12/03/2025

FAST now transcends back catalog content

More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...

12/03/2025

Viamedia Adopts ShowSeeker Pilot To Streamline Ad Workflows

GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...

12/03/2025

Mediagenix Appoints Wael Yasin as Sales Director Central Europe

BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....

12/03/2025

Omdia: Global Online Consumer Expenditure to Hit $6.6 Trillion by 2029

LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...

12/03/2025

Comcast Technology Solutions Upgrades to Interra Systems BATON Version 9

CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....

12/03/2025

Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering

Nevion announces new 400G addition to its eMerge SDN media fabric offering Brie Clayton March 12, 2025 0 Comments High-capacity switch enhances existi...

12/03/2025

DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol

DaVinci Resolve Studio Delivers Cinematic Sound for Adam Bol Brie Clayton March 12, 2025 0 Comments Feature film relies on DaVinci Resolve Studio for ...

12/03/2025

SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally Sweden 2025

SVT Leverages Ateliere Live to Pioneer 100% Software-Defined Production at Rally...

12/03/2025

Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations

Berklee Awards Fenway Neighborhood Improvement Grant to Four Organizations A total of $17,000 will be distributed among the Boston-based nonprofits. By Madd...

12/03/2025

Offering a broad umbrella for IP standards

TVBEuropes Jenny Priestley sits down with new SMPTE president Richard Welsh to discuss his aims for the organisation going forward, its efforts to attract a you...

12/03/2025

Warner Bros Belgium takes a new approach to its post production workflows

The new process has significantly enhanced operational efficiencies, with automation freeing up creators to concentrate on higher value tasks By Matthew Corrig...

12/03/2025

Another VFX company suspends operations

Jellyfish Pictures, which has offices in London and Sheffield, said it has been battling hard in the face of strong headwinds over the last 12 months By Jenny ...

12/03/2025

Bitcentral to Showcase AI-Powered Innovations for Smarter...

Visit Booth #W2213 to Experience the Latest in AI-Driven Content Discovery and Workflow Automation Bitcentral, a leader in media workflow solutions, is set to ...

12/03/2025

Jeff Lilly Named WGN-TV Director Of Technology

CHICAGO Jeff Lilly has been named WGN-TV director of technology effective March 17, 2025, according to Ric Harris, WGN-TV vice president and general manager....

12/03/2025

Survey: Consumers Want More Shoppable TV Experiences

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. A new study from LG Ad Solutions indicates that consumers want more features that would allow them to shop for products on the connected T...

12/03/2025

IP Showcase To Focus On IP, Broadcast Tech Convergence at 2025 NAB Show

BOTHELL, Wash. The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) will once again present...

12/03/2025

Comcast Boosts Internet Speeds for More Than 20 Million Customers

PHILADELPHIA Comcast announced that it has upgraded Xfinity Internet speeds for more than 20 million customers for no additional cost....

12/03/2025

Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14

Create with Maxon: Cinema 4D Fundamentals Workshop - March 12-14 Brie Clayton March 11, 2025 0 Comments Makin' Waffles with Elly Wade During Marc...

12/03/2025

Ross Video Strengthens Cloud Leadership with Appointment of Aaron Tunnell

Ottawa, Canada - March 12, 2025 - Ross Video is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Tunnell as Business Development Director, Cloud Solutions, reinforc...

12/03/2025

VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025

12 Mar 2025 VEON to release 4Q 2024 trading update on 20 March 2025 Dubai, 12 March 2025 - VEON Ltd. (NASDAQ: VEON), a global digital operator, today confirms ...

12/03/2025

Getting Set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's Ongoing Software-Based Production Evolution

Getting set for the Winter Olympics: Inside SVT's ongoing software-based pro...

12/03/2025

Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful

Seamless SMPTE 2110: A Discussion on Making the Move to IP Less Painful Leaders from Netflix, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, LinkedI, and Megapixel address ...

12/03/2025

Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptual Displays

Opening Doors of Perception: Meta's Ajit Ninan on Rethinking AR/MR Perceptua...

12/03/2025

Sky Sports Unveils Exciting Plans for 2025 Formula 1 Coverage

With the 2025 Formula 1 season set to begin in Melbourne on March 16, Sky Sports is gearing up to deliver its most comprehensive F1 coverage yet. Following a th...

12/03/2025

Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz transmission solutions

Unicanal and Trece TV revolutionize Digital TV in Paraguay with Rohde & Schwarz ...

12/03/2025

Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby Double-Header

Honoring Service, Celebrating Sport: Rohde & Schwarz UK Sponsors NavyFit Rugby D...

12/03/2025

FOR-A America Introduces Top of the Line HANABI Series Switcher at NAB 2025 Exhibition

New HVS-Q12 Represents a Quantum Leap in Switcher Design...

12/03/2025

Telespazio and ABS Expand Partnership to Deliver Tailored C-Band Connectivity Solutions for the Brazilian Market

Telespazio and ABS Expand Partnership to Deliver Tailored C-Band Connectivity So...

12/03/2025

Congratulations to all our clients who have achieved TAG certification through our independent validation

ABC conducts independent audits across the TAG programs. In the March 2025 TAG s...