Sky Deutschland Deploys Ncam Tech

Sky Deutschland has selected real-time camera tracking technology by Ncam as part of its live coverage of the German Bundesliga football championship.

The technology will be used to generate augmented reality graphics in support of its coverage.

Recently, Sky announced that it has signed a new four-year extension to its Bundesliga rights package – commencing with the 2017/2018 season. The deal will see Sky broadcast 572 live matches per year from the Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2, and again rely on Ncam's augmented reality solution to generate studio and pitch-side graphics.

Last season, the Sky Sports and Sky Sports News production department of the German media company was solely responsible for providing the coverage of 612 Bundesliga matches and used Ncam's camera tracking technology. The broadcaster faced the challenge of having to generate coverage from pitch level instead of working with a dedicated Bundesliga studio.

Ncam's camera-agnostic lightweight sensor bar attaches to virtually any type of camera to track its movements using real objects in real time. This enables the camera to move freely in all locations while generating a continuous stream of precise positional and rotational information to feed Sky Deutschland's Vizrt graphics engine.

"This way of working limits the introduction of new technologies, of course," commented Alessandro Reitano, VP Sports Production at Sky Deutschland. "However, Sky Deutschland was able to fix the Ncam device onto the Steadicam camera stabiliser mount, to bring our Bundesliga coverage to the next level. We really appreciate Ncam's strong interface with our Vizrt graphics environment and its easy integration into our graphics workflow. We can now use the Ncam system not only on Steadicam, but on other types of camera systems, which retains the same level of workflow integration."

Ncam was used on Sky Deutschland's Match of the Week coverage, particularly during the pre half-time and post match show.

"We were the first German TV broadcaster covering the Bundesliga to use Ncam on a Steadicam mount. We believe this technology really puts us ahead of our competitors and gives football fans a highly stimulating visual experience in terms of advanced graphics," added Reitano.

www.ncam-tech.com

(JP)