LiveU, the global leader in live IP-video solutions, today announced a landmark deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) that has brought Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) to the Pacific Islands for the first time closing a gap that had existed since VAR was first introduced to the game.
For years, the OFC had been the only FIFA confederation operating without VAR a gap raised directly with FIFA, only to conclude that traditional deployment was effectively impossible for Pacific football. Standard broadcast equipment freighted across the region faced repeated customs delays and damage at island ports, and high-capacity fiber doesnt exist across island nations like Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tahiti. Any fixed-infrastructure approach was unworkable before a ball was even kicked. When VAR was mandated for the OFCs newly launched Pro League spanning eight teams from six nations LiveU made remote VAR possible for the first time.
We were the only confederation in the world without VAR and we knew, with traditional models, it would never happen for us, said Kevin Stoltenkamp, OFC Head of Refereeing. When I saw it working for the first time, I realized this can work. Now, we can take the system as baggage on a plane and deliver VAR anywhere. For us, accessibility is everything. It's not just about technology it's about people solving problems together.
Working closely with the OFCs refereeing and technology teams, LiveU designed and built a complete end-to-end remote integration system to support the Hawk-Eye VAR platform two portable transmission kits and a centralized receiving server in the Auckland hub supporting up to 12 simultaneous camera feeds with four return feeds carrying integrated two-way referee communications back to the field. The entire system achieves approximately one second of round-trip latency between remote Pacific venues and the Auckland hub, meeting FIFAs professional standards at a fraction of the cost of any comparable fixed-infrastructure deployment.
Each LiveU transmission kit was engineered specifically for travel designed to pass through check-in as standard baggage, with every component individually weight-checked to stay within airline limits. Deployable by a single operator over managed internet connections, the kits require no freight, no permanent infrastructure, and no specialist engineers on the ground.
We needed something lightweight, portable, and capable of delivering multiple camera feeds with audio without relying on freight, said Kelvin Lewis, OFC Referee Technology Lead. Within a very short time, we realized we could transmit broadcast-quality signals across even the most challenging networks. What weve built is a low-cost, high-quality VAR solution thats unique in world football. We went from manually editing clips on a hill to delivering full VAR capability thats the scale of change.
The deployment was built so that local Pacific Island technicians could own and operate it independently. The system is simple to use you dont need to be highly technical to operate it, said Mihaly Fabian, OFC VAR Project Manager. LiveU is the heart of the system... the technology is essential to making this work.
The OFC evaluated several technology suppliers before selecting LiveU ultimately choosing it because the solution was built on LiveUs existing platform rather than a custom build. The system achieved a 100% success rate across all proof-of-concept deployments, with issues diagnosed and resolved remotely from Auckland without the need for engineers on the ground at Pacific Island venues.
The deployment has already expanded beyond the OFC Pro League deployed for the New Zealand Football FIFA Series and OFCs Womens World Cup qualifying semifinals in Hamilton and final in Auckland, a FIFA-sanctioned competition. The next deployment takes the system to Tahiti.
Chris Dredge, LiveU Pacifics Country and Sales Manager for the Oceania region, summed it up, What the OFC has achieved here is a working blueprint broadcast-quality remote VAR, deployable anywhere, with no freight, no fixed infrastructure, and no specialist engineers on the ground. The attention this has already drawn from beyond Oceania tells you everything, changing the conversation for sports organizations everywhere.
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LiveU, the global leader in live IP-video solutions, today announced a landmark deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) that has brought Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) to the Pacific Islands for the first time closing a gap that had existed since VAR was first introduced to the game. 
