Red Bee Sells Piero to Turkish Broadcaster Digiturk

Digiturk, the only digital satellite television provider in Turkey, has bought Red Bee Media’s unique sports technology, Piero, to enhance its coverage of the Fortis Turkish Cup and Turkcell Premier Super League.
Piero is the first technology of its kind that enables better analysis of sports games by allowing the viewer to see ‘play’ from all angles.
The network is the main owner of the broadcasting rights of Turkcell Turkish Super League, which is the premier league in Turkish nationwide football and the most popular sporting competition in the country. The competition is played on Lig TV, one of Digiturk’s main sports channels.
Andy Townsend, Design Systems Manager at Red Bee Media, said: “Last year, we sold Piero, across the world, to major sport broadcasters wanting to improve their match analysis and visual storytelling techniques. This year, it’s fantastic to be working with Digiturk to enhance their coverage of Turkey’s top sporting competition.”
The Piero graphic system places pictures of players into a virtual stadium where they can be viewed from different angles and analysed in animated sequences. It is the only technology of its kind with a seamless transition between original footage and views in a virtual stadium. It also enables broadcasters to show viewers offsides, passes and offences from the best possible angle – even if the play was not captured at that angle.
To form an inclusive graphics package, Piero also features the ability to track players across the grass and place pointers, badges and scores on the pitch in ‘live’ video.
It can also be used to place virtual advertising in real footage or virtual stadiums.
Piero is operated through an easy-to-use touch-screen interface, which TV presenters can operate on-air. It allows them to draw directly on the pitch and can switch between real and virtual views at the click of a button. The drawn graphics remain ‘tied-to-field’ in moving camera footage.
Digiturk Sports Services Manager Kadir Kardaş said: “Our Lig TV channel provides the coverage for the most popular games in our country. It is therefore essential that we keep up-to-date with all technology in the sports broadcast industry. Digiturk is delighted to be using technology at the forefront of the industry and we look forward to seeing the difference it will make explaining tactics to our viewers.”
Red Bee Media developed Piero from a BBC Research and Development ‘proof of concept’ in collaboration with BBC Outside Broadcasts for BBC Sport. Earlier this year Piero was also adopted by Sky Italia, Hong Kong Cable, TV Globo in Brazil, ITV in the UK, ITI Neovision in Poland and Al Jazeera.
At the International Broadcasters’ Convention (IBC) in September Piero was awarded a prestigious IBC Innovation Award for Innovative Application of Technology in Content Creation. It also received a Cable and Satellite Product of the Year Award for Best Outside Broadcast Technology or Service.
(SP)