
Endless AR possibilities: BT Sport's Match Day Experience technical partners talk new realities By Heather McLean, Editor
Monday, November 23, 2020 - 12:41
Print This Story
Here Match Day Experience on the BT Sport App is shown in Stadium Experience
BT Sport and mobile operator EE recently announced Match Day Experience, a set of new features for the BT Sport app.
Match Day Experience brings augmented reality (AR) elements and 360-degree video to live and non-live coverage of Premier League matches for EE 5G subscribers using the new iPhone 12.
SVG Europe caught up with Jamie Hindhaugh, chief operating officer at BT Sport, along with three of its technical partners behind some of the new features - Stats Perform, Second Spectrum and Visualise - to get more detail on how the features were created and where AR is going to take viewers in 2021.
Teamwork makes the dream work
Hindhaugh comments on how BT Sport has created the new functionality: What I'm really proud of is the whole of BT Sport is taking people to the heart of the game and being editorially relevant, not gimmicky. The strength of being in sports is the community we build; it's about strategic partners.
He goes on: I think it's the combination of the products [in Match Day Experience] and really identifying from an editorially relevant point of view what football fans want, or what they can't get in the current climate, that works here. But what we've also done is everything we've built is looking forward to the full 5G roll out and enabling fans to still engage with all of these editorially relevant products, no matter where they are. This is the start of, I think, an incredible journey for all of the teams combined to really transform the experience around watching live sport.
On some of the companies involved in Match Day Experience, Paul Hunt is European executive director and European lead for football at Second Spectrum. In conjunction with the BT Sport team, Second Spectrum provides the video streams augmented with stats and graphics in Manager Mode for the BT Sport app.
Ross Tanner, Stats Perform account lead for BT Sport, helped provide the data-rich services across Opta to create visualisations for Match Day Experience; it provides data that powers the formations and attacking areas in Match Day Live's AR features.
Meanwhile, Henry Stuart, CEO and co-founder of Visualise, an AR and virtual reality (VR) production agency, has taken the stats from Stats Perform and visualised them throughout the app, such as, a stadium that you can place in your living room with all this live data , according to Stewart. Visualise also created the app's Stadium Experience, which enables the user to walk through an AR doorway as a portal into immersive content.
Other partners for the app are Sceenic, which supports the Watch Together functionality, Tiledmedia which supports the 360 functionality, and last but not least, Deltatre that integrates the Tiledmedia service into the BT Sport App enhanced player.
BT Sport's new App functionality, Match Day Experience, here shown in Manger Mode
Endless possibilities for AR
As to how the combined technologies within Match Day Experience will help BT Sport's viewers during the pandemic by allowing them to engage with sport that they are unable to attend in person, Hindhaugh says: We're taking people to the game, we're giving them match day experiences they can't currently get, and we are enabling them to socially come together. For me it's about the experience.
It's about addressing the fact that in this current pandemic, a lot of us are on our own watching a game where usually we're either at the game or we're with mates watching the game in the pub or what have you, Hindhaugh goes on. So I think [the different aspects of Match Day Experience] complement each other tremendously.
Stuart agrees: The way we see it, this is just the foundation that allows us to build these first steps. You'll see more and more impressive graphics and animations coming onto TV, either tracked onto pitches or in studios.
Stuart notes that the possibilities are endless; through AR you can have, a life size recreation of a player who stands there and you can have your photo taken next them to in your living room . He adds: Once the assets can be placed there, the possibilities are actually limitless. I think that's what's so exciting. And also the fact that BT Sport already produces so much live 360 content, as well as the prerecorded stuff that we're currently using through the portal.
You'll soon be able to just be watching the TV [at home] then put an [AR] portal down and walk through to a live view, which is on the side of the pitch, you know, and then stand there and look around with your phone. It's just an incredible way of watching the sport.
Hunt says this is all pointing to a much more personalised experience: I think that [this is about] making it more of a personalised experience. So rather being fed what's been shown for the past 20 or 30 years on television, this is a new angle. It's bringing new features and new excitement to it.
He adds: We're all different. We all want something different. We all want to see things at a different cadence. So I think this gives us now the opportunity to start looking at rather than just watching the full 90 minutes [even though] football is engaging let's face it, it's been around for 400 years it's about delivering that next level, now. I think what we're seeing here now will become very much part of the standard of future broadcasting.
Hunt notes that the different functionalities of Match Day Experience also enable BT Sport to serve existing customers in new ways as well as attract and engage new or le
North America Stories
08/04/2026
COW Jobs: Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
Brie Clayton April 8, 2026
0 Comments
Director Needed for WWII Indie Docudrama
March 17, 2026COW ...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/04/2026
Marshall Electronics introduces its latest POV camera with the new CV376 Compact NDI |HX3 HDMI POV Camera at NAB 2026 (Booth C8339). Designed for versatile 4K c...
08/04/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, enables interoperable live video workflows across multi-vendor environments, helping broadcast...
08/04/2026
Scripps Research scientists uncover new mechanism cancer cells use to survive DNA damage Discovery reshapes understanding of how tumor cells repair broken DNA, ...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA will launch a refinement to the UHK-X700 and UHK-X750 3-CMOS -in. UHD cameras in the UNICAM XE series plus two new 7-in. viewfinders at NAB 2026 in...
07/04/2026
The NAB Leadership Foundation and NAB PILOT will host a career mixer for technology students at NAB Show 2026 on April 18, 5-6:30 p.m., North Hall, Room N225/22...
07/04/2026
Audinate Group Limited and Futuresource Consulting have published results from a...
07/04/2026
Eluvio has announced the commercial availability of its Content Fabric Bucharest...
07/04/2026
Eluvio has unveiled a new architecture for video AI and an updated Eluvio Video Intelligence Editor (EVIE) ahead of NAB Show 2026. Eluvio AI runs analysis and i...
07/04/2026
The Professional Fighters League (PFL) has announced a deal with Sky New Zealand...
07/04/2026
The NBA and Enjoy Basketball, the digital media company co-founded by YouTube cr...
07/04/2026
The 4,000-sq.-ft. space in Frisco, TX, has produced live and packaged programmin...
07/04/2026
What began as a referee training tool is evolving into a powerful production ass...
07/04/2026
Manifold Technologies will announce at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C.1808) that its manifold CLOUD platform will be available as a deployable application within NEP Pl...
07/04/2026
Shaquille O'Neal, Authentic Brands Group, and TNT Sports, in partnership wit...
07/04/2026
Telos Alliance will debut the Omnia XII, a new FM/HD/DAB audio processor, at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas.
Built on a 2RU hardware platform, Omnia XII features a...
07/04/2026
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth W1701), with demonstrations, speaking sessions, and int...
07/04/2026
Synamedia will demonstrate AI by Quortex at NAB Show 2026, a framework that applies AI capabilities to video workflows on demand rather than continuously. The s...
07/04/2026
TVNewsCheck will present its 15th annual Women in Technology Awards on Tuesday, April 21, at 5 p.m. PT at NAB Show, in the Media and Entertainment Theater (W146...
07/04/2026
Akta will demonstrate its AI video platform at NAB Show 2026, highlighting new capabilities in media processing and vertical video formatting alongside its exis...
07/04/2026
ESPN and Disney have announced the launch of ESPN on Disney in Europe and select Asia-Pacific markets, bringing the offering to 53 countries and territories a...
07/04/2026
LOS ANGELES, CA, April 7, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the fellows selected for the 2026 Native Lab, the signature initiative of the ...
07/04/2026
The November 2025 YEP Newsletter highlights a recent YEP Coffee Chat, offering members the chance to connect with industry professionals in an informal setting ...
07/04/2026
The December 2025 YEP Newsletter includes a Spotlight on Emily Vail, showcasing her career journey and work in the industry, alongside Mentorship Reflections by...
07/04/2026
Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) telescope operated...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Catgut Sound Owner and Production Sound Mixer Chris Welcker, CAS, has built a career at the intersection of music and film. A former musician and composer, Welc...
07/04/2026
SDVI Corporation today announced the next generation of its Rally media supply chain management platform, introducing a redesigned orchestration engine that rep...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's leading streaming television channels, at NAB 2026 will be launching new Studio services to help content ow...
07/04/2026
Ikegami USA has chosen NAB 2026 in Las Vegas as the launch platform for new additions to its range of broadcast-quality television production equipment. These w...
07/04/2026
April 19, 2026, Las Vegas Kiloview, an innovative provider of AV-over-IP technologies, will showcase its latest broadcast IP solutions at NAB 2026, presenting...
07/04/2026
Bitmovin has announced support for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) across its playback products using HLS interstitials, enabling more advanced ad-supported s...
07/04/2026
Synamedia is unveiling AI by Quortex at The NAB show, a just-in-time AI plugin framework that applies intelligence only when needed across video processing, dis...
07/04/2026
Cuez will showcase four additions to its cloud-based newsroom, rundown and automation platform at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas, Booth N1867):
Cuez ...
07/04/2026
CueScript to Showcase Innovations at NAB that Add Mobility Options, Ease Editing...
07/04/2026
Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder
Brie Clayton April 7, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB, Barix adds SRT and RIST support to Mult...
07/04/2026
Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Soluti...
07/04/2026
Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming...
07/04/2026
Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Ope...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
07/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...