With Unified IO Sports Platform for XR Tools, Vizrt Charts Course for the Future Launch is intended to future-proof' development of live virtual graphics By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Monday, October 11, 2021 - 12:40 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Today, more live sports productions are in UHD and HDR than ever before, and broadcasters are increasingly keen to produce graphics natively in these high-end formats. At the same time, sports broadcasters have embraced IP-based workflows to enable virtualized and remote production models. With these trends in mind, Vizrt has launched a unified IO sports platform to serve as the backbone for future development of its live-virtual-graphics tools.
This unified IO is our future-proof [model] that all our sports platforms are now being built on, says Richard Einstein, senior global product manager, sports, Vizrt. It's a major technical change because we had to change the heart of the whole [ecosystem]. That has now allowed us to use the same combined platform for all the sports solutions and, in the end, allows for more flexibility, scalability, reliability, and simplicity for future developments. And it's a much tighter integration to the overall Vizrt ecosystem.
Last week, Vizrt released its XR Venue real-time virtual-enhancement solution for sports, which features Viz Arena 5 and is built on the new unified Matrox-based IO platform. XR Venue joins XR Playbook, which launched earlier this year, on the IO platform. XR Venue and XR Playbook are part of the Vizrt Extended Reality Suite (available through a Flexible Access subscription), which offers a full toolset of AR (augmented reality), VS (virtual set), Video Wall, mixed reality, and telestration.
With the unified IO sports platform, XR Venue or XR Playbook users can more easily adjust to changing production requirements. According to Einstein, with both tools based on the same IO as Viz Engine, users will be able to take advantage of Vizrt's latest developments for live virtual graphics more quickly and more easily.
We're now using the same IO as Viz Engine, which means that any developments [can be applied] across the whole Vizrt ecosystem, he says. If the Viz Engine team is working on anything new - such as tighter integration with Unreal Engine or more-centralized production workflows - we have much greater access and shared code to use for each other's mutual benefit than in the past, when we had to repeat a lot of developments [for each platform]. It will be a lot more efficient going forward, and we can provide the customers with more flexibility and new features much faster.
The unified IO offers more flexibility and scalability to produce either upstream at the venue or in a downstream workflow at the studio and a flexible choice of playout: fill and key or a composited video signal for specific production workflows. The output can be added directly on top of the program feed to the mixer as a separate source, which benefits workflows and output quality of high-class productions.
XR Venue also supports native UHD and HDR formats and workflows, allowing producers to create data-driven graphics and additional content for any sports coverage in UHD and HDR.
One of the biggest motivators [to develop] the IO sports platform was [to be able to support] the latest video formats like HDR, UHD, and 1080p, says Einstein. We had some limitations on the previous platform, but XR Venue and XR Playbook can [operate] in native HDR and UHD and also can [support] IP video formats and future video formats. For many of our customers who had already moved their productions to UHD, HDR, or IP workflows, this was a must-have.
XR Venue and XR Playbook supports SMPTE ST 2110 IP-based video (it will also support NDI in a future release), which opens the door to virtualized and remote production workflows for XR Venue and XR Playbook. This allows more flexibility and mitigating physical limitations like hardware dependencies or budget restrictions.
In addition, hardware for XR Venue is now consistent with regular Viz Engine hardware, such as the newly certified Dell R7920 for compact setups.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/07/2026
Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...
06/07/2026
Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development
Brie Clayton July 6, 2026
0 Comments
The strategic new appointment supports...
06/07/2026
Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve
Michael Cioni July 6, 2026
0 Comments
This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...
06/07/2026
Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith July 6, 2026
0 Comments
Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...
06/07/2026
Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...
06/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...
06/07/2026
Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...
06/07/2026
Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work.
This year's ...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
05/07/2026
We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture -Zac Fields, Fox Sports, SVP of Graphic Technology and Integration...
05/07/2026
Browser-based and desktop apps available
Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
02/07/2026
BLAST, a competitive entertainment company focused on esports, has announced more than $133 million in revenue for 2025, representing more than 40% year-over-ye...
02/07/2026
Riedel Communications has announced official SKAARHOJ panel support for SimplyLive production workflows, enabled through the SimplyLive 2.1 release. The integra...
02/07/2026
The Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic has deployed LiveU video-over-bond...
02/07/2026
Gravity Media USA has announced the appointment of Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development, effective July 1, 2026. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, Bosto...
02/07/2026
TwelveLabs, a video intelligence company, has announced $100 million in Series B funding co-led by NEA and NAVER Ventures, with participation from Amazon, Radic...
02/07/2026
The Pro Padel League (PPL) has announced a broadcast partnership with USA Sports that will air five PPL championship matches on CNBC during the 2026 season, the...
02/07/2026
LiveLike, a digital fan engagement platform, has announced eight confirmed FIFA ...
02/07/2026
Cobalt Digital has received Future's Best of Show Award, presented by AV Technology at InfoComm 2026, for its blueCORE family of standalone signal processor...
02/07/2026
Synamedia has announced the appointment of Dr. Tzvi Gerstl as Chief Executive Officer. Paul Segre, who has served as CEO for the past six years, will transition...
02/07/2026
The Esports Foundation (EF) and Sony Group Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration for the Esports World Cup 2026 (EWC), taking place in Paris, Fra...
02/07/2026
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. ( Z') has announced exclusive broadcast and digital rights for the Bundesliga in India for five years, beginning with the...
02/07/2026
An effort uniting News, Sports, Local, and Telemundo, the 50+-camera live produc...
02/07/2026
Zoey Deutch, John Slattery, Ken Marino, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, and Ben Wang appe...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
With Unified IO Sports Platform for XR Tools, Vizrt Charts Course for the Future Launch is intended to future-proof' development of live virtual graphics By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
