BBC Sport’s green screen studio comes alive viz Vizrt ecosystem

When BBC decided to convert a small studio space at the Media City in the UK into a green screen space and home studio for BBC Sport, the British broadcaster turned to Vizrt to provide an advanced virtual set graphics ecosystem.

Utilising Vizrt’s new Viz Engine 4 with its integrated Unreal Engine 4 render pipeline and Fusion Keyer, coupled with the Mo-Sys StarTracker 6-axis optical tracking system and set designs from BK Design and Lightwell, BBC Sport’s new cutting-edge system is bringing British sports fans access to sports all year long, Vizrt reported.

In April 2021, BBC Sport kicked off its use of the all new Vizrt ecosystem to broadcast a variety of sporting tournaments and productions, including chosen programmes from Match of The Day, Euros 2020 and the Summer Games. BBC Sport was able to provide audiences with dynamic graphics to accompany sporting analytics and highlights during the show, as well as creating visual stories for viewers. 

BBC Sport is utilising the Unreal Engine 4 as an additional render-blade within the Vizrt controlled workflow, supporting multiple inputs and ‘physically based rendering’ (PBR). Vizrt’s Fusion Keyer provides a further layer of engagement and realism, particularly to virtual sets and augmented reality graphic elements, bringing the power of the latest graphics technology into familiar Vizrt broadcast workflows.  

John Murphy, Creative Director and Head of Graphics for Sport at the BBC, said, “With the virtual design and rendering technology, we now have a studio that has five different presenting positions … and is able to house a variety of our sports output.”