Behind the scenes of Wimbledon’s brand new virtual interview studio

Graphic specialists MOOV created an impressive photo-realistic virtual set for post-match interviews featuring the likes of Roger Federer, Cori Gauff, Rafael Nadal and this years’ winner Novak Djokovic. Situated in media centre, the virtual set composites presenters and tennis players into a virtual interior inspired by the design of the historic club.

With limited space across the grounds, using a virtual set offers a practical and flexible solution for the tennis coverage. For this, they have chosen to use Mo-Sys StarTracker as they needed a camera tracking system that is reliable and is ready-to-go for their daily coverage. MOOV are also utilisinh The Future Group’s brand-new virtual production system Pixotope for the first time.

Nev Appleton, director and co-founder of MOOV said: “It’s really important for MOOV to continue investing in the latest and best technologies, ensuring our clients have the right solution for their project. Choosing StarTracker was a no-brainer, as we found it to be an incredibly reliable and accurate tracking solution. Together with Pixotope, which is designed with creativity, speed and flexibility in mind this is the perfect combination for our constantly changing needs”.

For the tracking, MOOV are utilising the Mo-Sys StarTracker, a robust and patented camera tracking system which uses small retro-reflective stickers that are attached to the ceiling. The sensor uses the position of the stickers to gather reliable and highly-precise tracking data, enabling the studio cameras to be moved when overlaying augmented graphics or using a full virtual set.

Michael Geissler, CEO Mo-Sys said: “We are extremely excited to be interfacing our tracking and new lens calibration method to Pixotope for the first time. We look forward to being part of their upcoming projects and pushing boundaries with it.”

In addition, The Future Group’s subscription software Pixotope offers broadcasters and graphics a unique combination of performance and creativity and is designed to streamline the virtual production process. It is the only system on the market that offers native Unreal rendering with WYSIWYG (‘what you see is what you get’) editing, providing the highest quality photo-realistic graphics that can be modified quickly.

“We’re delighted to be working with MOOV and Mo-Sys on this year’s Wimbledon coverage. Pixotope was designed for exactly these types of live ‘to air’ productions, where the customer demands photo-realistic virtual content, an ‘always live’ editing capability, and an operational interface built for speed. Pixotope is the natural result of a talented engineering team and an award-winning live events creative team coming together to produce a new type of virtual production system” says Halvor Vislie, CEO The Future Group.