ITV Sport’s coverage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is centred around its new virtual presentation studio in Ealing, West London, with any unilateral coverage of the matches in Australia and New Zealand being produced remotely.
The virtual studio hub, first used on Six Nations Rugby coverage earlier this year, is the heart of the output, supplemented by a small reporting team down under.
ITV Sport’s Sarah Nurse, programme editor, and Rachael Jackson, senior producer, spoke to SVG Europe on the eve of the tournament, to outline how things will roll during Australia and New Zealand 2023.
‘We are doing a remote production for the Women’s World Cup’, says Nurse. ‘We’re producing everything from Timeline’s Ealing Broadcast Centre (EBC) using our green screen studio. We have a full studio set up with VT and gallery and studio all in one place, and we are bringing in the world feed [from Host Broadcast Services] for all matches and a number of ISO sources which we select according to our editorial needs’.
Studio Presentation
For the pre and post-match, and half time, presentation and analysis, ITV’s green screen studio at the EBC will be ‘re-skinned’ virtually for the tournament, as Jackson, explains:
‘Our AR studio is green screen and designed to offer us separate backdrops, including a seated studio position, promo corridor and balcony area. AR graphics can be applied to provide player profiles, head-to-heads, maps and more’.
‘Our studio graphics emulate the FIFA toolkit, which is very stylised and colourful, with indigenous and Māori inspired patterns. The AR screens in the studio are multifunctional and offer us the ability to place footage in the screens behind our studio presenters and pundits, so you get a great feel for what is happening within the stadiums, whilst keeping our studio team in vision. The AR studio gives us a lot of flexibility’.
The virtual studio is built in Unreal Engine and controlled using Brainstorm. It is operated by MOOV and features a physical desk and multiple live VR screens. AR graphics elements can be added, also created by MOOV, with tracking done using Mo-Sys Star Tracker. The studio features three pedestal cameras and a jib, on which most of the AR graphics land.
ITV’s output will differ depending on the kickoff time in the UK. Pre-7am will be commentary only (with commentators calling the action ‘off tube’ from Ealing). Post-7am, things ramp up.
Nurse says: “We have the studio wraparound, from the virtual studio, with half an hour build-up for most matches and 45 minutes for England and for the opening game of the tournament. We will have a minimum of two guest [pundits] plus the presenter.”
