23 TECHFEED Augmented Reality
tracking data supplied by Stype including a Steadicam, a PTZ cam and a camera on a 40ft jib. “This methodology is fantastic for narrative-driven AR experiences and especially for elevating live music events,” he says. “The most challenging aspect of AR is executing it for broadcast. Broadcast has such a high-quality visual threshold that the technology has to be perfect. Any glitch in the video not correlating to the CG may be fine for Pokemon Go on a phone, but it will be a showstopper – and not in a good way – for broadcast.” Over 200 million viewers have watched the event on Twitch and YouTube. “The energy that these visuals created among the crowd live in the stadium was amazing,” he adds. “Being able to see these characters in the real world is awesome.” PRO WRESTLING GETS REAL The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) enhanced the live stream of its annual WrestleMania pro wrestling event with augmented reality content last April. The event was produced by WWE, using Brainstorm’s InfinitySet technology. The overall graphic design was intended to be indistinguishable from the live event
INFINITY AND BEYOND: Brainstorm’s Infinity Set creates photorealistic scenes in real time, even adjusting lighting to match the virtual sets
staging at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans The graphics package included player avatars, logos, virtual lighting with refractions and substantial amounts of glass and other challenging- to-reproduce, semi-transparent and reflective materials. Using Brainstorm’s InfinitySet 3, the brand name for the company’s top-end AR package, WWE created a range of different content, from on-camera wrap-arounds to be inserted into long format shows, to short self-contained pieces. Especially useful was a depth-of-field/focus feature, and the ability to adjust virtual contact shadows and reflections to achieve realistic results. Crucial to the Madrid-based firm’s technology is the integration of Unreal Engine with the Brainstorm eStudio render engine. This allows InfinitySet 3 to combine
the high-quality scene rendering of Unreal with the graphics, typography and external data management of eStudio and allows full control of parameters such as 3D motion graphics, lower-thirds, tickers, and CG. The virtual studio in use by the WWE included three cameras with an InfinitySet Player renderer per camera with Unreal Engine plug-ins, all controlled via a touchscreen. Chroma keying was by Blackmagic Ultimatte 12. For receiving the live video signal, InfinitySet was integrated with three Ross Furio robotics on curved rails, with two of them on the same track, equipped with collision detection. WWE also continue to use Brainstorm’s AR Studio, a compact version which relies on a single camera on a jib with Mo-Sys StarTracker. There’s a portable AR system
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