Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundaries With XR/AR

08/05/2025

SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundaries With XR/AR Virtual assets may someday soon be changed by voice command By Ken Kerschbaumer

Thursday, May 8, 2025 - 7:00 am

Print This Story | Subscribe

Story Highlights

There was a time when Vizrt had to do a lot of evangelizing around the role of extended reality and augmented reality in live sports or studio programming. That is no longer the case: XR and AR were two of the buzziest topics at NAB 2025. Couple that with the growth of AI in data visualization, another core aspect of Vizrt systems, and Vizrt Senior Customer Success Manager Nicholas Jameson had plenty to discuss at the show.

What were some of the key messages for Vizrt at NAB 2025?

Obviously, a lot of the news this year is around the investment in AI and focusing on AI functionality, AI features, and AI models that can help end users with their workload as opposed to just creating crazy graphics. One of the results of that is using AI with Reality Connect and Virtual Studio to allow [for example] talent to interact with AR objects and move around them or even do object tracking or telestration by just moving their arm or hand.

At NAB 2025, Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson noted a focus on AI that can help end users with their workload as opposed to just creating crazy graphics.

For workflow purposes, we want to use AI to make things like Libero and Arena and making them a bit faster and more intuitive and bringing them to the masses. Libero Go, for example, has object tracking and detection using AI, thanks to Nvidia cards that are smaller, denser, and can speed up what were previously longer processes. Viz Arena 5.5 has downstream cut detection, which smooths wipes and dissolves in camera feeds. And there are things like making virtual ads easier and cleaner.

What are some of the trends you are hearing from customers?

The consistent theme, especially from some of those core users, is more people are getting involved with AR. If you had asked me five years ago how many sports teams were doing AR graphics on a regular basis, it would be less than 10. Now there is a market of 120 teams in the U.S. alone that are ready to do AR, and they have the budget and appetite as well.

The networks - Fox, ESPN, NBC, CBS - are pushing the boundaries and chasing after AR. All of them are increasing investments, looking to make AR repeatable and available to all their productions.

Now they are looking at virtual-set extensions and doing keying without the need for a green screen, even taking those workflows to remote locations and quickly spinning up a virtual and an AR studio with keyable assets.

Where do you see generative AI helping take that to the next level?

A lot of people are trying to figure out the best way to use AI, and customers are deciding what they want to do with it. We recently put together a data center that is kind of a backbone data distribution inside the Viz Engine and can do things like creating an AI data connection in Libero that can use tracking and stats data to do things like social-media crops and push out player-specific highlights much more quickly than in the past.

Obviously, at NAB 2025, you continue to highlight virtual sets and volumetric capture, and you've been a leader in those spaces. How are those operations improving?

The new Render Pipeline we introduced in Viz Engine 5 gives more photorealism and realistic graphics with things like casting shadows and reflections. Our integration with Unreal opens a huge market for us, as everybody is building in it and playing around with it. We continue to make sure our Viz Engine renderer supports Unreal, but we also support other 3D build and render platforms, like Cinema 4D and Blender.

The name of the game, ultimately, is making sure you're getting the most out of the hardware platform, and it's all about bringing immersion to a new level. We're seeing users move back to using the Viz Engine renderer as the core render platform, and we can use Unreal so our tracking data can create a smooth look for projects in stadiums or volumetric shoots with players and things like that.

It seems like, at some point, we'll be seeing voice commands to create a virtual-studio environment.

I think so. I've seen a couple of CAD design tools that can create a CAD with voice prompts. Right now, we have the ability for on-air talent to interact with a virtual touchscreen in the virtual studio without the need to buy a physical screen. It uses hand gestures, but we're probably closer than we think to being able to use voice commands to change virtual assets.
LINK: https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/05/08/svg-sit-down-vizrts-nicholas-ja...
See more stories from svg

More from Sports Video Group

23/06/2025

Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NBC Sports, Warner Bros. Discovery, and AWS

Adventures in Live Cloud Production: Stories From the Trenches with MLB, NHL, NB...

23/06/2025

Finding the Edge: How Badger & Combes Produces Live-Streamed Coverage of County Cricket for LancsTV

Finding the edge: How Badger & Combes produces live-streamed coverage of county ...

23/06/2025

Masters of Madness: New Football Format Shakes Up the Rules of Sportainment

Masters of Madness: New football format shakes up the rules of sportainment By Adrian Pennington Monday, June 16, 2025 - 11:38 Print This Story The ball i...

23/06/2025

New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Building Near Denver

New State-of-the-Art Mountain Media Center Launches in Former Starz Encore Build...

23/06/2025

ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production Facility at Disney's 7 Hudson Square

ESPN Says Goodbye to Seaport Studios, Hello to New State-of-the-Art Production F...

20/06/2025

A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can Play

A True Test? Cricket's Growth on the Global Stage and the Role Broadcast Can...

20/06/2025

Sky Sports Goes Large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR Graphics, UHD and a Pop Up Channel

Sky Sports goes large for the British & Irish Lions Tour with AR graphics, UHD a...

20/06/2025

ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, Legacy

ESPN's Men's College World Series Finals Coverage Combines Innovation, L...

19/06/2025

SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning George Wensel Technical Achievement Award

SVG Rewind: PGA Tour Introduces Drone AR Smart Tracing, Reflects on Winning Geor...

18/06/2025

Technology Focus: Fan Expectations Drive Advances in the In-Stadium Experience

Technology focus: Fan expectations drive advances in the in-stadium experience By Jo Ruddock Tuesday, June 3, 2025 - 08:36 Print This Story For years, att...

18/06/2025

Making Connections: How Stadiums Are Meeting the Ever-Growing Demand for Data and Connectivity

Making connections: How stadiums are meeting the ever-growing demand for data an...

18/06/2025

SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at 2024 Paris Olympics

SVG Venues & Teams Summit Keynote: RWS Global Powers the Stadium Environment at ...

18/06/2025

SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League Victory Parade

SVG Rewind: Behind the Scenes of Producing Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League...

17/06/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon on Powering DTC Streams for Teams Reclaiming Media Rights

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Mercury Intermedia's Tom Richardson, Mike Ligon o...

17/06/2025

Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, Brand Measurement

Total Sports Performance from Relo Metrics, VideoAmp, Offers Next-Level Media, B...

17/06/2025

From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025

From Stage to Stream: Producing Live Esports Events in 2025 Leaders from ESL FACEIT Group, Riot Games, and more break down the latest trends By Jason Dachman, ...

17/06/2025

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS's Stefan Wistuba

Inside FIFA 2025 Club World Cup Operations With FIFA's Oscar Sanchez, HBS...

17/06/2025

Production Ambitions: Over Exposed on Making the National League Promotion Final for DAZN as Spectacular as Possible

Production ambitions: Over Exposed on making the National League Promotion Final...

17/06/2025

DAZN Brings Global Ambition to U.S. Soil With Production of 2025 FIFA Club World Cup

DAZN Brings Global Ambition to U.S. Soil With Production of 2025 FIFA Club World...

16/06/2025

Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New Production Truck

Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New Productio...

16/06/2025

Behind The Broadcast Booth, Ep. 3: Golf. My Future. My Game. Founder and CEO Craig Kirby Talks Advocacy in Sports and More

Behind The Broadcast Booth, Ep. 3: Golf. My Future. My Game. Founder and CEO Cra...

16/06/2025

The REMI Revolution Is Here: How Remote Production Technology in Esports Pioneers a New Age of Broadcast

The REMI Revolution Is Here: How Remote Production Technology in Esports Pioneer...

16/06/2025

From Super Bowl to Indy 500, New Orleans Artist Frenchy' Captures Energy of Sports Production on Canvas

From Super Bowl to Indy 500, New Orleans Artist Frenchy' Captures Energy of...

16/06/2025

NFL Films Enhances Post Studio With Dolby Atmos Audio

NFL Films Enhances Post Studio With Dolby Atmos Audio Forty-three channels of audio enable the facility to migrate to immersive By Dan Daley, Audio Editor Mo...

16/06/2025

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Storj's David Colantuoni on Expanding Cloud-Based Storage to Live Sports Production

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Storj's David Colantuoni on Expanding Cloud-Based...

16/06/2025

Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New OB Truck

Grass Valley 4K Cameras Head to Greece for View Master Events' New OB Truck By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Monday, June 16, 2025 - 2:33 pm Pri...

13/06/2025

SVG Sit-Down: Backblaze's Gleb Budman Talks Products, Partnerships, and the Growth in Cloud Storage

SVG Sit-Down: Backblaze's Gleb Budman Talks Products, Partnerships, and the ...

13/06/2025

SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup The Most Ambitious Thing We've Ever Done in the U.S.'

SVG Sit-Down: DAZN's Walker Jacobs Calls Streaming the FIFA Club World Cup ...

13/06/2025

New Sponsor Spotlight: Vecima Networks' Paul Strickland on How Improving QoE for Sports Fans Can Deliver Real ROI

New Sponsor Spotlight: Vecima Networks' Paul Strickland on How Improving QoE...

13/06/2025

Pitch Perspective: Where's Next for Specialty Cameras in Soccer?

Pitch Perspective: Where's Next for Specialty Cameras in Soccer? Leaders from Sky Austria and ACS discuss the possibilities of camera placement pitchside B...

13/06/2025

Premiership Rugby Final 2025: Vintage Clash Between Bath and Leicester Gets Full TNT Sports Treatment with AR, RefCam 3.0 and Player Mic

Premiership Rugby Final 2025: Vintage clash between Bath and Leicester gets full...

13/06/2025

Premiership Rugby Final 2025: TNT Sports Gears Up for Bath vs Leicester Battle with Huge Uptick in Season Audience Views

Premiership Rugby Final 2025: TNT Sports gears up for Bath vs Leicester battle w...

13/06/2025

NCAA Men's College World Series: ESPN Adds Two-Point SupraCam, Invests in Nearly 100 Mics to Enhance Audio

NCAA Men's College World Series: ESPN Adds Two-Point SupraCam, Invests in Ne...

12/06/2025

The 125th U.S. Open: Golf Tournament Stimulates Innovation in Sound

The 125th U.S. Open: Golf Tournament Stimulates Innovation in Sound Drones are a growing part of the action By Dan Daley, Audio Editor Thursday, June 12, 202...

12/06/2025

Virginia Tech's Evan Ellis on the Continued Growth of the Award-Winning HokieVision

Virginia Tech's Evan Ellis on the Continued Growth of the Award-Winning Hoki...

12/06/2025

Bouncing Around Wembley: DAZN on its Editorial Thrust for the National League Promotion Final at Wembley

Bouncing around Wembley: DAZN on its editorial thrust for the National League Pr...

12/06/2025

Intense Journey: Bringing the Production of the National League Promotion Final to Viewers with DAZN

Intense journey: Bringing the production of the National League Promotion final ...

12/06/2025

The 125th U.S. Open: The Tourney Returns to a Totally Revamped Course as USGA Focuses on World Feed

The 125th U.S. Open: The Tourney Returns to a Totally Revamped Course as USGA Fo...

12/06/2025

The 125th U.S. Open: NBC Sports Rolls Out Massive Production-Tech Arsenal To Cover Overhauled Oakmont Course

The 125th U.S. Open: NBC Sports Rolls Out Massive Production-Tech Arsenal To Cov...

12/06/2025

The 125th U.S. Open: NBC Sports' Tommy Roy Talks Oakmont Eccentricities, Drone Tracing, and Covering All 156 Players

The 125th U.S. Open: NBC Sports' Tommy Roy Talks Oakmont Eccentricities, Dro...

11/06/2025

SVG Cloud Production Forum 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

SVG Cloud Production Forum 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY Learn about success stories of production in the cloud, the latest in public vs...

10/06/2025

HBS's Tim Stott on a Host Broadcaster's Role in the Digital Media World

HBS's Tim Stott on a Host Broadcaster's Role in the Digital Media World By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital Tuesday, June 10, 2025 - 9:32 am Prin...

10/06/2025

Piracy Poses Biggest Threat to Sports Media Industry's Finances

Piracy poses biggest threat to sports media industry's finances By George Bevir Friday, June 6, 2025 - 08:01 Print This Story Illicit streaming is t...

10/06/2025

InfoComm Show 2025: Audio Is Main Attraction at Show Typically All About Installed AV

InfoComm Show 2025: Audio Is Main Attraction at Show Typically All About Install...

10/06/2025

Behind the Creative: How TMRW Sports Took TGL From Concept to One-of-Kind Golf Property

Behind the Creative: How TMRW Sports Took TGL From Concept to One-of-Kind Golf P...

10/06/2025

North Carolina's Ken Cleary on GoHeels Productions Producing Its 1,000th Live Broadcast for ACC Network and ESPN

North Carolina's Ken Cleary on GoHeels Productions Producing Its 1,000th Liv...

10/06/2025

ESPN's Tim Corrigan Reflects on 18 Years at the NBA Finals Front Bench

ESPN's Tim Corrigan Reflects on 18 Years at the NBA Finals Front Bench By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Tuesday, June 10, 2025 - 1:21 pm Prin...