BBC Sport has leveraged advances in extended and augmented reality to create unique virtual sets for its Berlin-based coverage of the 2024 UEFA European Championship tournament’s 27 matches.
“Being on the ground enables us to reflect the raw emotion and passion of the tournament to a greater extent,” BBC Sport Head of Football Steve Lyle explains.
The UK broadcaster notes that the Sport team were already well-versed in XR technology, with Design Director John Murphy’s Salford team extensively using chroma key technology, for example.
BBC Sport tapped German architect Jens Weber and AE Live to design, implement and operate two custom presentation areas inspired by the Grey’s City’s signature Neues Museum — and soccer, of course.
The virtual sets were designed by Paul Kavanagh Studio Ltd. and translated by AE Live’s Virtual Art Department, factoring in texture-matching and lighting shifts to maximize a sense of realism.
The custom installation features both an interior set and one on a rooftop terrace, overlooking Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, with the virtual elements adding more than 56,000 cubic feet to this BBC Sport studio.
BBC Sport’s virtual set, built in Berlin for coverage of the UEFA EURO championships and utilizing mixed-reality elements. BBC Sport’s virtual set, built in Berlin for coverage of the UEFA EURO championships and utilizing mixed-reality elements. 
BBC Sport’s virtual set, built in Berlin for coverage of the UEFA EURO championships and utilizing mixed-reality elements. 
BBC Sport’s virtual set, built in Berlin for coverage of the UEFA EURO championships and utilizing mixed-reality elements. 
BBC Sport’s virtual set, built in Berlin for coverage of the UEFA EURO championships and utilizing mixed-reality elements.
The indoor set features an AR ceiling that “virtually extends the height of the studio” while joining with LED screens that feature stylized sets and AR editorial content.
The set also includes a large, real-life window floor-to-ceiling Roe Visual Ruby RB1.9 LED panels serve as the side walls, AV Interactive reports, enabling cameras to show in-studio AR content, in particular graphics intended for “in-depth game profiles,” and a live feed of the stadiums 180-degrees opposite the anchors.
The three interior cameras are optically tracked via Stype RedSpy.
Outside, the terrace set features a floor composed of weatherized LED screens designed to look like glass windows, complete with framed panel seams, according to Roe. This set was captured by two cameras and tracking provided by Stype Follower.
BBC Sport deploys seven virtual engines to manage 56 video feeds, including nine 12G feeds broadcasting in UHD. AE Live also created a set of Unreal AR templates to be used in the physical and virtual sets. Both sets share rendering machines.
The StypeLand plugin for Unreal Engine controls all virtual workflow elements in conjunction with AE Live’s Control for Unreal (aka CUE); EURO 2024 will test this application for the first time. Notably, CUE integrates with AE Live Aether, its data management system, so statistics and other figures can automatically populate the AR templates.
The Berlin studio is manned with a minimal team on site, comprised of anchors, the production team and a dedicated AE Live virtual technician. The remainder of the OB infrastructure is managed remotely from Media City in Salford, where BBC Sport also employs seven AE Live graphics operators.
BBC Sport’s outdoor “terrace” set, constructed in Berlin for coverage of the UEFA EURO championships. 
Construction on the open-air studio in Berlin for BBC Sport’s UEFA 2024 championship coverage 
Construction on the open-air studio in Berlin for BBC Sport’s UEFA 2024 championship coverage 
Construction on the open-air studio in Berlin for BBC Sport’s UEFA 2024 championship coverage 
Construction on the open-air studio in Berlin for BBC Sport’s UEFA 2024 championship coverage
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