Graphics company MOOV explains how it rolled out the BBC’s new impressive virtual studio space at Wimbledon

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The BBC’s Wimbledon 2021 coverage comes from a new virtual studio, as unveiled today.

The studio was created to augment existing eye-catching views over Wimbledon with a number of additional virtual positions.

Graphics company MOOV is responsible for the virtual studio, working together with BBC Wimbledon to enhance the viewer experience. MOOV has worked with the Wimbledon team for more than 17 years.

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The virtual studio was created using Mo-Sys’s camera tracking system StarTracker, the Brainstorm Infinity-set, and Unreal technology.

MOOV co-founder Nev Appleton told Broadcast: “The virtual studio was the most complex we’ve installed to date. We had to deal with difficult elements such as the green of the courts out of the windows, to ensure this wasn’t treated in the same way as the green screen of the studio. And, generally, matching the physical set with the virtual space is very difficult, compared to just having a complete green screen space to work within.”

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“It’s not a huge studio, and we’d worked on an AR layer in previous years, to extend the possibilities of how you can present from there,” he adds. “But this year we’ve completely refreshed is as a space developed for a virtual studio. With the virtual layer, it’s effectively tripled the size of the studio compared to before. We have five cameras within the space – 2 peds, 1 crane, and 2 PTZ cameras on the roof. We’ve been working on the installation of the virtual studio for the last three months, with the design going on for longer. We built all the hardware off-site, creating three racks of virtual production kit.”

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CREDITS

Wimbledon virtual studio

Client: BBC Sport

Virtual Studio Production: MOOV

Studio Facilities: Arena

Set design and build: Scott Fleary

Virtual studio Design: Toby Kalitowski, BK Design Projects; Jim Mann, Lightwell

Lighting Director: Dave Gibson

John Murphy, creative director, motion at BBC Sport, added: “This has been a hugely collaborative project between the BBC and MOOV – we required a studio that would be flexible and adaptable to allow us to create a unique Wimbledon experience for our viewers. We have worked alongside MOOV for several years now, so we had no hesitation in collaborating with them and relied on their expertise and knowledge to deliver a truly immersive and innovative virtual reality studio.”

Broadcast also spoke to Ron Chakraborty, lead executive, major events at BBC Sport, about the virtual studio at Wimbledon 2021. A podcast of this conversation is below.