BBC Sport builds real-time virtual studio for Tokyo Olympics coverage

BBC Sport commissioned a real-time virtual studio for its coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021 after a pandemic postponement. Designers Toby Kalitowski (BK Design Projects) and Jim Mann (Lightwell) pitched an open-sided timber pavilion overlooking a virtual Tokyo cityscape; sports and events graphics specialist Moov was brought in as integration partner to build and operate the virtual production. The original plan was to run the studio from the International Broadcast Centre in Tokyo. As the pandemic disrupted travel, BBC Sport relocated the production, unbuilt set and all, to Dock10's studios at MediaCityUK in Salford, while keeping the Tokyo-pavilion design. The finished set was a multi-level rooftop studio wrapped in a live-rendered virtual Tokyo, and ran on air for close to 24 hours a day across the Games. Five tracked cameras used Mo-Sys StarTracker tracking, feeding Brainstorm render engines; the virtual set was built and composited in Brainstorm's InfinitySet, with Unreal Engine rendering the environment. Mo-Sys and Moov both reported the illusion was convincing enough that some viewers believed the presenters were on location in Tokyo rather than in Salford. The production was shortlisted as a finalist at the 2021 Broadcast Sport Awards.