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NEWS & VIEWS
July 2017
BT Sport delivers
UCL final live in VR
LONDON – For the first time
ever, football fans enjoyed the
UEFA Champions League final
in 360° virtual reality (VR). The
broadcast, available via BT Sport’s
VR application, allowed viewers to
choose between a 360° produced
programme with commentary
and graphics, or select their own
camera viewpoint.
To deliver the match in VR,
host broadcaster BT Sport worked
alongside Nokia and UEFA, Euro-
pean football’s governing body,
over a period of nine months. A
total of 12 360° cameras were de-
ployed in the National Stadium of
Wales, Cardiff, to capture the clash
between the European football
giants Real Madrid and Juventus.
Viewers were able to switch be-
tween the cameras live in the BT
Sport VR app, providing them the
freedom to watch the action from
a multitude of different vantage
points while enjoying a personal-
ised viewing experience.
Jamie Hindhaugh, COO for BT
To participate,
contact:
[email protected]
Last month, BT Sport delivered the UEFA Champions League final in VR, with
match analysis provided by footballers-turned-pundits Rio Ferdinand (left) and
Gary Lineker.
Sport and BT TV, told APB: “The
broadcast in VR has been well re-
ceived, especially by the younger
demographics, and feedback was
very positive. It has provided our
viewers with a new viewing expe-
rience, allowing them to feel as
if they were at the pitch-side or
sitting in the crowd watching the
match.”
Prior to the match that took
place on June 3, BT Sport gave
out free Google Cardboard VR
headsets to viewers in the UK. Pete
Oliver, managing director, BT Con-
sumer, explained: “We’re delighted
to be giving people the chance to
get their hands on these headsets
for free, enabling our viewers to get
even closer to the action. We be-
lieve that VR can offer our viewers
an immersive second-screen view,
while enhancing our coverage.”
Besides VR, the UEFA Champi-
ons League final was also delivered
in 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) on YouTube,
as well as 4K/UHD with Dolby At-
mos sound on BT TV. Furthermore,
BT Sport employed high dynamic
range (HDR) technology in 4K/
UHD with Dolby Atmos sound at a
private screening in London.
Hindhaugh concluded: “It’s
about getting viewers to engage
in different ways. Innovation and
collaboration with our technology
partners is core to the way BT Sport
works. Additionally, the support
of valued partners, such as Dolby,
UEFA and more, provides the scope
for us to expand technology for the
benefit of fans.”
Implementing IP should
involve all staff, says panel
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“It is actually an economic drive
for broadcasters to move to IP
because it will allow broadcasters
to utilise more commercial-off-the-
shelf (COTS) equipment, which are
cheaper compared to paying for a
baseband infrastructure.”
He also maintained that imple-
menting IP should involve all staff,
from the top to the technicians
— and not just some engineers
wanting IP.
Another driver for broadcasters
to implement IP-based solutions
is that it enables them to tap into
the cloud, said Fintan Mc Kiernan,
CEO, Ideal Systems South-east Asia.
“One of the benefits the cloud
will have for an IP broadcaster
is that they would not have to
worry about the obsolesces of their
equipment. That’s a driver, and it’s
certainly going to be a very high
jump from an SDI environment to
a cloud environment.”
And while some broadcasters
might be looking into procuring
IP-based equipment to future-
proof themselves, they also have
to fulfil the return on investment
(ROI) for their legacy SDI systems.
Hence, hybrid SDI/IP systems
will represent the best option for
many for a number of years to
come.
Stan Moote, CTO, IABM, high-
lighted that “SDI will not die, but
will slowly fade away”, and sug-
gested that broadcasters allocate a
portion of their budgets and start
experimenting IP solutions. “There
will be a lot of IP products available
in the market, and it will be good
if they could take this opportunity
to get themselves familiarised with
this technology,” he advised.
Facilitated by Shawn Liew,
managing editor of APB, the panel
discussion attracted many who
wanted to learn more about IP
and also some bystanders visiting
the Broadcast IP Inter-Op Lab next
door (for more information, turn
to page 11).
A panel discussion facilitated by APB at BroadcastAsia2017 addressed some of the
key issues and concerns surrounding the transition to IP.
Inter-Op Lab succeeded in bringing ‘legacy SDI into an IP system’
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BroadcastAsia2017, he elaborated:
“We were able to successfully
create an operational broadcast
system using a hybrid of SDI and
multiple IP standards, where we
were able to bring legacy SDI into
an IP system.
“The results of the IP Lab point
to a reassuring affirmation that
IP technology for broadcasters is
not only working, but can also be
made to work and interoperate
between different manufacturers
and standards.”
Mc Kiernan, however, was
quick to welcome the imminent
ratification of the SMPTE ST 2110
standard. “A focus on a single
standard will make it easier to de-
sign, build, deploy and manage an
IP broadcast system,” he explained.
It would appear that partici-
pants of the IP Inter-Op Lab shared
Mc Kiernan’s optimism for IP.
“The industry should move
ahead and embrace IP,” said Dyan
Ideal
Systems
South-
east Asia’s
Fintan Mc
Kiernan:
“A focus
on a single
standard
will make
it easier
to design,
build, deploy and manage an IP
broadcast system.”
Jayasuriya, managing director, Duty
Vision Productions, adding that he
would be bringing what he had
learnt from the IP Inter-Op Lab
home to Sri Lanka and incorporate
them into his IP plan.
After testing the IP workflows
at the lab, Zaw Than Oo, head of
broadcast operations at Myanmar’s
Forever Group, took heart in the
fact that his legacy SDI equipment
could still be used on the road to
IP and, with a smile, he wondered
aloud that IP may even turn out
to be easier to implement and
manage than SDI.
“The IP