-- --
SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE:
The broadcast and media technology industry sectors are enormous, covering everything from cameras and studios through to network technologies, post-production services and live streaming video. Last year we saw incredible advances, with the wider availability of machine learning and Augmented Reality (AR). These developments promise a new wave of automated production processes and the upward rise of virtual studio technology.
Augmented Reality and virtual studio technology changed the face of broadcast television in 2019, through the creation of virtual objects within a live studio environment. We saw photorealistic representations of football players during a match build up or a journalist standing in digital representations of parliament as voting occurred during an election. This year, thanks also to the rapid development of 5G technology, will see AR being used more in studio setups, especially in the sports broadcast environment with the 2020 Olympics on the horizon. Virtual set solutions, powered by games engines, proved a big draw for the live broadcast as well as the scripted broadcast markets. The fusion of games-engine renders with live broadcast has taken virtual set solutions to another level with photorealistic 3D graphic objects appearing indistinguishable from reality. The technology is not only being used in existing studio set-ups, but is spurning new growth in the studio facility market worldwide.
One example is dock10, United Kingdom's leading television facility housing ten television studios offering a wide range of production services, who recently chalked up a new milestone with its latest virtual studio capability. dock10 called in Zero Density, providers of the cutting-edge product Reality Engine, to power the brand-new 4K UHD virtual studio housed in MediaCityUK and used by shows such as BBC Sport's landmark show Match of the Day (MOTD). The soccer show draws around seven million viewers each weekend and BBC Sport has gone on-air with said virtual studio capability as of August last year. MOTD2, Football Focus and Final Score will also broadcast in the same virtual studio. The studio has five Reality Engines deployed on five cameras (three pedestals, one crane and one railcam).
Founded in Istanbul in 2014, Zero Density is an international technology company dedicated to developing creative products for the broadcast, augmented reality, live event and eSports industries. The founders, who shared a common background in broadcast and media, came together on a mission to use their creativity to develop innovative virtual production solutions for live broadcast. The company's headquarters remain in Turkey, but the company now has an extensive network of clients all over the world. Zero Density offers the next level of virtual studio production with real-time visual effects. It provides Unreal Engine native platform, Reality Engine, with advanced real-time compositing tools and its proprietary keying technology, Reality Keyer. Reality is the most photorealistic real-time 3D Virtual Studio and Augmented Reality platform in the industry.
Another adoptee of Zero Density technology is Sky News Arabia (SNA), who have employed the latest virtual and augmented reality technologies as part of a massive editorial and technical revamp aimed at staying at the forefront of news reporting.
Sky News Arabia (SNA), a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Media Investment Corporation (ADMIC) and Sky Limited, recently completed an editorial overhaul with a fresh line-up of presenters and a special selection of digital-only programming. The revamp saw the launch of one of the most advanced newsrooms in the region, with the addition of a brand-new wing that is now home to Studio B, a 400sqm studio boasting the UAE's largest chromakey background at 15x11m. The large chroma area gives the broadcaster ample room to use a lighting grid for keying objects in positions where the presenters are on the VR set. The facility also includes an outdoor landscape set designed for the morning show. In the US market, Zero Density partnered with The Weather Channel Television Network to be a virtual studio technology provider for immersive mixed reality content late last year. The Weather Channel chose the latest technology to create awareness among its audiences with visually-striking disaster scenarios. Zero Density's hyper-realistic graphic renderings and Hollywood-level visual effects are used to communicate the vital message of the channel to their audiences more effectively.
Virtual studio technology doesn't necessarily mean that studio floor space is no longer required. Media giant Sky announced in December 2019 that is to build huge new film and television studios near the existing Elstree production site just outside London. As the battle between Netflix, Amazon and other streaming services intensifies, the need for more VR and AR studio space has also grown. Sky Studios Elstree will become the European production base for Sky and NBCUniversal, which owns Universal Studios, as both are owned by the US pay-TV giant Comcast. Sky says the studio complex, which it hopes will also become a base for other companies' projects, will result in £3bn being spent on TV and film productions in its first five years. The company has made the move to develop its own production base as the UK increasingly faces a squeeze on studio space, as TV companies, film studios and the streaming giants pour billions into making new content. Sky Studios Elstree will have 14 stages, the smallest of which will be 1,800 square metres, with enough space to shoot several films and TV shows at the same time.
Television broadcast of the Olympic Games has, over the decades, become a showcase for new technologies. Virtual reality (VR) and 5G innovations will add val
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
-- -- 
