Vizrt Teams Up With Champion Data

Vizrt has partnered with Champion Data to bring Katy Perry's state of the art Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Final pre-show performance alive with virtual reality graphics.

A powerful product of the convergence of AR broadcast graphics and live entertainment, the collaboration enabled an elevated broadcast experience for fans tuning in at home and captivated global audiences on social media.

The event saw the AFL Grand Final attract a record-breaking audience of 4 million people tuning into the show via Seven Network. Fans watching from home were treated to a blend of high-action performances from Katy Perry and supporting artists that were interwoven with a range of dynamic, futuristic galaxy-like graphics.

"Despite the AFL Final being an elaborate, live show with multiple camera inputs and extensive graphics overlays, the Vizrt tools very much enabled us to ‘set and forget’ when it came to production programming. We had such confidence in delivering Katy Perry’s production knowing that Viz Virtual Studio and Viz Engine formed the technical backbone. We didn’t need to tweak too much – whether it be for her performance or our standard game day graphics – it all came together perfectly," remarked Andrew Mott, Champion Data.

Utilising Viz Engine 5's seamless 4K Unreal Engine graphics integration, Seven Network's broadcast teams effortlessly blended augmented reality graphics into live broadcast streams, lifting premade graphics created by Katy Perry’s production team, Silent Partners Studio, in Unreal Engine.

The hybrid augmented reality production saw Champion Data push the boundaries of its existing AFL production infrastructure rather than rebuilding from the ground up. The production team utilized the same technical set up to generate both the usual Match Day graphics and the AR graphics for Katy Perry’s performance.

"Seeing the Champion Data team leverage its Vizrt set up to pull off a remarkable feat of creative graphics for Katy Perry’s show is testament to the skill, dedication and expertise of the Champion Data team. Spectacular venue-based graphics were once only reserved for select high-end projects using specialist equipment, but the Champion Data team have proved that Vizrt ecosystems can be used to unlock the same incredible results, broadening access to show-stopping graphics capabilities to everyone," added Andrew O’Neil, Head of Sports, Vizrt.

For Katy Perry's performance, Champion Data leveraged Tracking Hub and Studio Manager from its existing Viz Virtual Studio installation, a staple of its typical Match Day graphics set up for Seven Network, to feed in data from three cameras – two of which supplied mechanical tracking data. All three cameras sent data to, and were calibrated in, Studio Manager, passing on outputs to three Viz Engines on the day which enabled rendering of Mushroom Graphics Unreal-based graphics onto the live feeds.

Spearheaded by Champion Data, the project brings together expertise from a range of technology and live production and event leaders including Vizrt, Mushroom Events, Silent Partners Studio, NEP Group Inc, Seven Network and Epic Games.

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