Background
Astro, Malaysia's largest pay-TV and content group, held the Malaysian broadcast rights to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and positioned the tournament as the centrepiece of its "Home of Sports" sports line-up. The group carried all 64 matches live across three dedicated channels, 37 of them exclusive to Astro, and built a daily schedule of studio punditry, news updates and highlights programmes around the football. The match shows aired on Astro Arena, the group's Malay-language sports channel.
For the studio wrap-around, Astro chose not to build a physical set. Qatar 2022 became the broadcaster's first-ever virtual studio production, with the on-air environment generated in real time rather than constructed in the studio.
The deployment
The virtual set was designed by Astro's in-house design & motion department, part of Astro Studios, and produced by Astro Productions, the group's studio and outside-broadcast arm. Astro's description of the project is unambiguous about how much of the look was synthetic: the World Cup match shows were "executed entirely through XR designed internally at Astro Studios."
The set was powered by three Reality Engines from Zero Density — an Unreal Engine-native broadcast platform that combines video I/O, keying, compositing and real-time rendering in a single machine, so the presenters appear inside a photorealistic 3D environment as the show goes to air rather than in post-production. Zero Density's regional partner Broadcast Elements handled the Reality integration, the installation and the training of Astro's crew.
Timeline
Astro's team began designing the virtual set in October 2022. By 20 November, on the eve of the tournament, the set had been built out, integrated and tested, and was ready to go to air — a short run-up for a broadcaster with no previous virtual-production experience. The set then carried the match shows through the group stage and knockout rounds to the final.
What went on air
The environment placed the presenting team at a desk inside a virtual arena, looking out over a night-time Qatari skyline, with tiered stadium seating and Astro branding built into the surrounding architecture. Real-time 3D graphics were staged around the presenters rather than overlaid as flat lower-thirds: team flags and scorelines rose out of the studio floor, and player and tournament statistics — all-time top-scorer tables, appearances and goals — were presented on large in-set boards.
Outcomes
Zero Density reported that Astro found the experience transformative and expected it to redefine how the broadcaster executes future productions; the virtual set built for the World Cup has since shaped how shows are shot at the studio. Astro Studios continued to list XR virtual production, virtual set design and broadcast production among the services it delivers, and has applied the approach to later sports properties.
Stack
- Rendering / compositing: Zero Density Reality Engine (Unreal Engine-native), three instances, rendered on-premise in the Astro studio
- Set design: Astro Design+Motion, in-house
- Production: Astro Productions (Astro Studios)
- Integration, installation and training: Broadcast Elements
