Poland’s nSport gets virtual with Red Bee Media

By Kevin Hilton
SVG European correspondent

Polish broadcast ITI Neovision has bought Red Bee Media’s Piero virtual graphics analysis system for its sports channel. The channel, nsport, becomes the only TV service in the central European country to use the software.

Piero technology places footage of real players into a virtual stadium so that play can be viewed and analysed from different angles as animated sequences. In this way tough decision for the on-field referees can be judged easily by the commentators and viewers.

Commenting on the purchase Grzegorz Plaza, head of nsport, said,”We will be the only TV station in Poland to have such an advanced graphics system and are very pleased that our viewers will be able to benefit from a graphic solution that is already used by the BBC and SkyItalia. When this system is used to analyse ‘play’, new details that cannot be seen normally will be revealed about seemingly simple situations. Our programmes that use Piero will therefore offer a whole new perspective on games.”

ITI Neovision is the sixth broadcaster this year to adopt Piero, which was developed by Red Bee Media from an original concept by BBC Research and Development, which collaborated with BBC Outside Broadcasts to develop a graphics system for BBC Sport. The system is currently being used by SkyItalia, Hong Kong Cable TV, Globo in Brazil and ITV, as well as the BBC.