IBC 2017: Vizrt, Infront roll out Viz Eclipse for 2017-18 football season

Vizrt and Infront rolled out the first version of Viz Eclipse for the 2017-18 football season. Viz Eclipse is the pioneering tool that allows sports rights holders and broadcasters to virtually replace field-side advertising boards. The unique and non-intrusive technology utilises a fully software and image-based approach, and therefore, does not require any modifications of the cameras or the boards on site. Vizrt will show Viz Eclipse at IBC 2017 on its booth (7.A20).

Infront is exclusively distributing Viz Eclipse as part of its sports services portfolio, enabling rights holders to regionally tailor and streamline their marketing and commercialization of sports events on a global basis.

“Infront is always looking to be at the forefront of industry innovations and together with our partner Vizrt, we are now introducing the next disruptive market innovation. Viz Eclipse is a game changer in regards to how our partners can monetize their rights, enabling them to sell inventory regionally and allowing brands to deliver targeted messages,” says Claude Ruibal, Executive Director Digital Production and Sports Solutions at Infront Sports & Media AG.

“We tested Viz Eclipse live during a major football tournament this year and the performance was remarkable,” says Stephan Würmlin Stadler, Chief Product Officer, Vizrt. “The positive feedback from the tests and the maturity of Viz Eclipse lead to the first installation at VfL Wolfsburg, a German Bundesliga club, that begins this 2017-2018 season.”

The non-intrusive technology of Viz Eclipse gives content owners the ability to insert region-specific ads into television feeds. This generates new revenue streams for rights holders through additional regional advertising sales. Additionally, the virtual board content can also be created interactively based on the most powerful real-time graphics engine in broadcast, and thus adding an additional dimension to the targeted marketing.

The initial focus of Viz Eclipse is on soccer and it can be applied to matches in any stadium with perimeter advertising boards. The entirely image-based technology provides maximal flexibility and is minimally invasive for the integration in any broadcast setup, without requiring any modification to the boards nor camera. Viz Eclipse can be fully operated out of the studio, while still having the full flexibility of replacing static or LED boards. Operations based in the studio help to further optimize stability, facilitate and standardize workflows, and maximize failsafety and redundancy.