Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Hundred: Sky Sports and the ECB Turn to Gamification as Cricket Is Freshened Up' for a New Audience

21/07/2021

The Hundred: Sky Sports and the ECB turn to gamification as cricket is freshened up for a new audience By Will Strauss, Editor

Monday, July 19, 2021 - 11:16

Print This Story

Player avatars for presenter analysis and a new way of displaying on-screen broadcast graphics will both be part of Sky Sports' gamified live coverage of the new family friendly' cricket tournament The Hundred which starts on Wednesday (21 July).

The Hundred is a professional franchise 100-ball-per-innings format involving eight men's and eight women's teams located in major cities across England and Wales.

With the sport looking to attract new fans, it's not cricket for dummies' but it is very much a TV-friendly format, with accessible start and end times and shorter matches, that has been devised to be more entertainment-focused and inclusive than other forms of the sport.

As such, alongside some of the world's best cricketers, The Hundred will feature a mixture of music, DJs, fan participation and more in an effort to attract more female and child viewers, attendees and participants.

Sky Sports is the host broadcaster for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)-owned competition and will show all 68 games with the BBC broadcasting 10 matches free-to-air, doing its own coverage but taking Sky's world feed.

It's been a challenge but when is innovation not a challenge? We've gone into the unknown we do believe it is a broadcast world first

The family-friendly approach will be reflected in Sky Sports' output which, in conjunction with the ECB, will use gamification to appeal to younger viewers.

That gamification comes in two main forms: player avatars that will be used for analysis during presentation elements of Sky's coverage; and on-screen broadcast graphics with a gaming' or esports' feel that have been designed to help simplify the game for viewers.

Sky Sports director of cricket Bryan Henderson, speaking to SVG Europe ahead of the tournament, explained the premise behind the tournament and what they are setting out to achieve.

Cricket as a sport is doing really well and has had some incredible moments over the last few years, with both the England women's and men's World Cup wins and some amazing international and domestic cricket, he said.

The issue though, concerns demographics. Cricket's audience on and off-screen is typically, quite middle-aged ABC1 men. And although they are an important segment, we need to engage new fans if we are going to grow and future-proof the sport. At the same time, society is evolving. People's lives are changing, people want shorter formats that are easier to understand and they want formats that are affordable to watch with the family.

Cricket has recognised this and the issues that it has in its appeal and relevancy. And so The Hundred has essentially been born out of that and our commitment to it and to growing the game.

The upshot of this from a TV perspective will be a new way of broadcasting the sport, he added. We are going to freshen things up and present things in a slightly different way

Player avatars

Created in conjunction with the ECB, the player avatars are part of the gamification of The Hundred, with Sky Sports on-screen talent and pundits due to present around them during pitch-side presentation elements within the coverage.

The avatars will help viewers to get a little bit closer to the players , said Henderson, and make the graphics more gamified and in tune with the target audience .

They were created using facial recognition and motion capture technology rather than the volumetric technique that Sky has used to great effect on its golf coverage with Sky Scope.

The decision to go with avatars rather than volumetric capture was purely practical, according to Sky Creative creative director of innovation Jason Landau, who was invited to talk to the ECB after it saw the impact of Sky Scope.

What is right for one sport isn't necessarily right for another, he said. With the cricket bowling [motion] it wasn't going to be feasible [to do volumetric]. At the same time, we'd been talking a lot about avatars. We'd seen how they were getting better in the overall look so we examined the pros and cons of doing a hyperreal avatar, and then capture the motion data. We thought it would be different but also engaging.

Using avatars rather than volumetric capture will also make it easier to re-skin if someone changes hairstyle or bat sponsor , Henderson added. Plus we can touch up hair, alter facial expressions and change things as we wish.

We were always worried about the motion capture shoots, but once the players had seen what we were trying to achieve, they really bought into it

The avatars themselves have been created using MetaStar, Dimension Studio's hyper-real avatar solution and the Augmented Reality experience created by Arcade (an immersive experience creative agency, using Unity).

Dimension Studio created the avatar faces using images from 19 stills cameras that captured a scan of each player's head. Those pictures were then animated, processed and stitched together before skin texture and detail was added.

Motion capture techniques were then used to generate the sporting action for each avatar body.

For this, Target 3D positioned 30 optical micro tracking cameras around each player. These triangulated the position of 50 optical markers that were placed on a bodysuit worn by the cricketers as they played different shots or went through their bowling action.

Motion capture gloves were also used to capture movement for bowling wrist and finger position, providing an extra level of detail.

The position of the markers was then used to calculate a skeleton that then drives the animation. The data capture session took
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/the-hundred-sky-sports-and-th...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

18/06/2026

Ratings Roundup: Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals Is Most Watched Since Jordan Bulls Era; FIFA World Cup Opens Big

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: PTZOptics Debuts Healthcare Visual Reasoning Integration with LayerJot

PTZOptics has unveiled new Visual Reasoning demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 (Boo...

18/06/2026

IBC 2026: Announces New Future Tech Ignite Initiative, Expanded Exhibitor Participation

IBC2026 will take place at the RAI Amsterdam from September 11-14, bringing toge...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026 Holds Inaugural Media Day with Product Announcements from 19 Exhibitors

InfoComm 2026 held its first-ever Media Day on June 17, providing journalists an...

18/06/2026

Info Comm 2026: FOR-A America Announces TAA-Compliant LED Display Package

FOR-A America has announced a Trade Agreements Act (TAA)-compliant LED display solution combining Alfalite's Litepix LED displays and Brompton Technology...

18/06/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 20: Cleveland Browns Kyle Millen - Run of Shows & Rock n Roll

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level have one major thing in common: the intensity and attention to detail ramps up dur...

18/06/2026

International Federation of American Football, TMRW Sports Partner on Global Growth of Flag Football

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) and TMRW Sports have an...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for KONA and Corvid PCIe I/O Cards

AJA Video Systems has unveiled Io Xpand, a Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion ...

18/06/2026

ESPN Marks 30th Anniversary of WNBA's Inaugural Game With Liberty-Sparks Broadcast

ESPN has announced its coverage plans for the 30th anniversary of the WNBA's...

18/06/2026

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff Heads to London for Union Jack Classic From Wembley Stadium

FOX Sports' Big Noon Kickoff will broadcast live from Wembley Stadium in Lon...

18/06/2026

InfoComm 2026: Show Opens With Microsoft Keynote, Media Day, and New Industry Initiatives

InfoComm 2026 opened on Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center, bringing t...

18/06/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Akta's Matt Smith on Building AI Into the Foundation of the Video Workflow

As media companies look to deliver more live, VOD, and snackable sports content ...

18/06/2026

2026 Sundance Film Festival: Local Lens

Top L-R: Take Me Home, The Lake Bottom L-R: TheyDream, Union County Free Summer Screening Series Announced Screenings for the Local Utah Community at...

18/06/2026

iamReverb gets an update

Improvements & new IR content iamReverb Audio have just launched a free update that kits their convolution reverb plug-in out with some new features and int...

18/06/2026

Two notes unveil Genome 2.0

Modelling suite gains improved captures, iOS support & more Two notes Audio Engineering have just announced the launch of Genome 2.0, a significant update t...

18/06/2026

VSL update Vienna Ensemble Pro 8

New AI assistance feature, video overhaul & more VSL have just announced the launch of Vienna Ensemble Pro 8.1 and 8.1V, a pair of major updates to their ev...

18/06/2026

The Gauge: Poland | May 2026

The average daily TV screen time in May was 3 hours and 36 minutes, marking a clear decrease of 15 minutes compared to April. This trend proved to be much stron...

18/06/2026

Gracenote and PubMatic Bring Curated Live Sports and Content-Level Deals to Programmatic CTV

Integration embeds Gracenote content intelligence, including contextual segments...

18/06/2026

AJA Debuts Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis for...

AJA Video Systems unveiled Io Xpand, a high-performance Thunderbolt 5-enabled PCIe expansion chassis for AJA KONA and Corvid video and audio I/O cards. As dema...

18/06/2026

Providius Announces Providius Direct for Faster AV-over-I...

New NVRT-driven workflow enables on-demand traffic mirroring and guided troubleshooting for AV teams, integrators, and support organizations ahead of InfoComm 2...

18/06/2026

Mavis Studio Brings New Muscle to Mobile Production on iP...

At InfoComm 2026, Mavis announced a major update to Mavis Studio, its live production app for the iPad, with new features designed to make professional AV produ...

18/06/2026

Harmonic Completes Divestiture of Video Business to Media...

Transaction Positions Harmonic as a Pure-Play Broadband Company Harmonic Inc. (NASDAQ: HLIT), the worldwide leader in virtualized broadband solutions, today a...

18/06/2026

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR Partner to Power the Futur...

ACT Entertainment and NETGEAR have announced a strategic partnership that establishes verified interoperability between NETGEAR Switches and key technologies fr...

18/06/2026

IBC2026 creates new pathways from innovation to real-worl...

IBC2026 is set to bring the global media, entertainment and technology community together at the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September, enabling industry players f...

18/06/2026

PLIANT TECHNOLOGIES DEBUTS CREWCOM FLEX THE WORLDS FIRST...

Pliant Technologies is proud to introduce CrewCom Flex , the world's first frameless matrix intercom system and the only complete matrix IP-based intercom s...

18/06/2026

XR Sports Alliance Strengthens its Capabilities with New...

The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced that a new cohort of members has joined the strategic initiative: ActionStreamer, Antigravity, Creative Artists Agen...

18/06/2026

Hollywood Filmmakers Launch AI Production Platform Cascade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

ATVA Blasts Deltavision Media for Demanding 'Egregious' Retrans Fees

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

MediaKind Completes Merger with Harmonic's Video Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

AJA Unveils Io Xpand Thunderbolt 5 Expansion Chassis At InfoComm 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/06/2026

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship

Linda May Han Oh Receives Guggenheim Fellowship The Berklee professor, bassist, and composer will use the fellowship to debut Dreams of Knowing, an interdisci...

18/06/2026

Techtel delivers Haivision live streaming system for TAFE NSW St Leonards, enabling real-world broadcast training

Techtel delivers Haivision live streaming system for TAFE NSW St Leonards, enabl...

18/06/2026

The Great Roaming Rinse

New study reveals 10 hidden data drainers costing Brits hundreds abroad - and the holiday hotspots where you could get rinsed the mostThursday 18 June 2026 The...

18/06/2026

How to watch the 2026/27 Scottish Premiership season on Sky Sports

Thursday 18 June 2026 How to watch the 2026/27 Scottish Premiership season on Sky Sports Which matches are Sky Sports showing on the 2026/27 Scottish Premiers...

18/06/2026

Sky Sale: Latest deals now on, with discounts on iPhone Air & 2.5Gbps speeds

Thursday 18 June 2026 Sky Sale: Latest deals now on, with discounts on iPhone Air & 2.5Gbps speeds The latest deals have dropped from Sky Mobile, the award-wi...

18/06/2026

FOX Advertising and Toonstar Team to Create New Opportunities for Brands in Digital-First Animation

FOX Advertising and Toonstar Team to Create New Opportunities for Brands in Digi...

18/06/2026

Arqiva secures WTA Tier-4 accreditation

Arqiva's Crawley Court and Chalfont Grove teleports re-certified at highest World Teleport Association standard 18 June 2026, Winchester, UK - Arqiva, the ...

18/06/2026

Apple announces changes to iOS in Brazil - UPDATE - Posted on 18 June 2026

Apple today announced changes impacting iOS apps in Brazil that reflect a recent agreement with Brazil's competition regulator, the Conselho Administrativo ...

18/06/2026

Sync and Stream: GeForce NOW Connects to Members' Game Libraries Across Devices

Play favorite titles from popular game libraries, keep progress synced and jump ...

18/06/2026

At Cannes Lions, NVIDIA Partners Reshape Advertising and Marketing With AI

The digital era gave the advertising and marketing industry speed; the AI era is giving it autonomous operations. For companies building next-generation techn...

17/06/2026

EVS Achieves EcoVadis Gold Medal, Ranking in Top 5% of Companies Globally

EVS has announced it has received the EcoVadis Gold Medal for sustainability performance, ranking among the top 5% of companies globally in the Technology/Mid-S...

17/06/2026

Chyron Releases Weather 2.4 with Updated DataFlow Module

Chyron has released Weather 2.4, an update to its weather suite for broadcasters and meteorologists. The release focuses on enhancements to the DataFlow module,...

17/06/2026

VSiN Launches Best Bets TV, a 24/7 FAST Channel

VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, has announced the launch of Best Bets TV, a free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel. The 24/7 channel is currently avail...

17/06/2026

Snapchat and Team Whistle Launch World Cup Creator Program Across Miami, New York, and Los Angeles

DAZN's Team Whistle and Snap Inc. have announced a creator program centered ...

17/06/2026

LiveU Supporting Broadcast and Public Safety Operations for Summer of Soccer

LiveU is providing video transmission technology for broadcasters, production companies, and public safety agencies across North America's busy Summer of So...

17/06/2026

NATAS Announces Two New Board Members and COO Promotion

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) has announced that Laurens Grant and Jacob Ullman have joined its Board of Directors. Chief of Staf...