MagentaTV will show World Cup from hybrid studio
November 14, 2022
Deutsche Telekom will air all 64 matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup live on MagentaTV from November 20th to December 18th.
DT has presented the hybrid World Cup studio at a Media Day at PLAZAMEDIA at the AGROB Medienpark in Ismaning near Munich. During MagentaTV’s coverage, this new and innovative XR LED Studio from PLAZAMEDIA will be a central element, combining real set architecture and physical media feeds with a digitally generated, virtual extension (augmented reality) in a 360° world. The centerpiece of the 350-square-meter studio set, in which four cameras realise the interplay of virtual and real elements in real time, is a 33-metre-wide and 3.5-metre-high curved LED wall. As part of its activities as a production service provider, PLAZAMEDIA GmbH will be responsible for realizing all matches of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on six channels in UHD and HD, as well as signal supervision for the entire inside production on 23 live game days and 29 production days.
The production for DT’s MagentaTV will take place on PLAZAMEDIA’s studio premises in Ismaning with an appropriate safety and hygiene concept on 2,600 square meters with six playout channels, the World Cup main studio and a complete inside production environment with uninterruptible power supply to provide the major soccer event live and on demand with innovative technology and in best quality – for the first time also in UHD HDR. The 690-square-metre main studio with its state-of-the-art features – including an LED wall from the European company Alfalite, augmented reality and virtual graphics – is creating a completely new experience, drawing viewers at home and in the studio even closer into the World Cup.
Therefore, PLAZAMEDIA has chosen an LED wall with extremely high viewing angle stability and a fine pixel pitch of 1.9 millimeters paired with the Unreal Engine from Epic Games as the real-time render engine. The Unreal Engine contains the digital model of Doha Bay in Qatar: Daytimes, swell of water and special effects can be changed at any time at one click. The studio ceiling is replaced with an augmented reality starry sky for the viewer at home. This is made possible by seamlessly integrating the Unreal Engine with Vizrt’s Viz Engine used for the AR environment. Combining the Unreal Engine 5 and the Viz Engine 5 offers outstanding workflow advantages for use in the World Cup studio, which are fully exploited by PLAZAMEDIA’s technology and graphics team. To ensure that all camera movements are being transferred to the virtual world, the position of the four studio cameras is constantly tracked and the data transferred to the render engines using Mo-Sys Startracker and Mo-Sys bMRo systems.
The 2022 World Cup is the perfect occasion for the use of PLAZAMEDIA’s new Extended Reality (XR) LED Studio, which will offer a wide range of possibilities for novel and sustainably realised productions in the future. With the XR technology, PLAZAMEDIA offers media and production companies as well as advertisers the chance to stage their brands in an innovative and resource-saving way. From broadcast/TV and film, to corporate productions such as commercials or photo shoots, to on-location, hybrid and virtual events, as well as presentations and training courses, the novel XR LED Studio provides almost unlimited possibilities to create new worlds with flexible production options and individually design the respective brand awareness.
Jens Friedrichs, Chairman of the Management Board of PLAZAMEDIA, said: “After the UEFA EURO in 2021, we are producing the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s biggest sports event of the year, for MagentaTV. We seize this opportunity to launch our innovative XR LED studio for creating completely new possibilities in studio productions here in Munich: On the one hand, regarding state-of-the-art productions combining real and virtual elements, and on the other hand regarding environmental sustainability. We would like to thank Deutsche Telekom for their great trust and the other service providers involved, such as thinXpool, for their excellent cooperation on this World Cup project.”
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