Over the past few years, the BBC has embraced virtual technology as part of its coverage of major sporting events.
From the split-level studio for the 2020 Olympics to last year’s open air studio at the Brandenburg Gate for UEFA Euro 2024, the broadcaster has embraced the possibilities virtual production offers.
The same can be said for this summer’s Women’s Euro 2025, with the BBC working with broadcast partner Sunset+Vine, virtual set company Lightwell and Toby Kalitowski of BK Design Projects to create a virtual set based at MediaCity in Salford.
The project is using BBC Sports Studio 1, a greenscreen studio with an approximately 9.5m x 9m footprint. It has a green floor and green walls along three sides.
“In terms of physical green screen walls, there are three,” Jim Mann, creative director at Lightwell, tells TVBEurope.
“However, we have created a 360-degree virtual space within which we have a selection of free-standing screens. Primarily, there are three in the main presentation area, left and right of the talent and on the reverse. There is then a screen for separate analysis in the downstairs area. However, we can increase or lose screens within the studio depending on the editorial.”
Mann worked alongside
For the Euros, the creative team wanted a presentation space grounded within a virtual Swiss landscape, and began by creating a simple square volume with a glass perimeter, capped by a vaulted roof that references the arcs and circular segments of the tournament logo. “The vaulted roof was always timber and glulam, so the supporting structure of Swiss Larch beams and columns, with steel cross-bracing, evolved out of that,” explains Mann.
Originally, the idea was to have the studio ‘floating’ on a Swiss lake, surrounded by mountains, but that was changed to move the virtual pavilion to the side of a mountain pasture, overlooking the lake. “Relocated to the mountainside, the vaulted roof arch helped frame the view of the mountainous Swiss landscape and so rather than rely on photography, we opted to build a virtual reproduction of a section of the landscape around Lake Lucerne.”
“The aim of the design was always to create a sense of geographical context for the broadcasts, by embedding the virtual set within a credible representation of the Swiss landscape. Major sports tournaments are as much about the country and culture that hosts them as they are about the sporting spectacle,” adds Mann. “We were never going to create a Swiss chalet – I studied architecture at The Bartlett, so my design sense is grounded in a much more contemporary palette – so alongside a more modern structure, the landscape itself became a significant component of the overall design. Creating an expansive virtual world goes a long way to establishing that sense of location, but it’s also a lot more fun and interesting to explore as a designer.”
Prior to the tournament’s kick-off the team carried out multiple tests, including studio sessions in advance of the technical rehearsals prior to broadcast. “The design was developed inside Unreal Engine, and that project was then loaded into the Viz engines attached to each of the cameras in the studio,” explains Mann. “Initially, we focused heavily on camera angles and performance. We plotted the resulting camera positions and used those for virtual testing, thereby ensuring we were applying detail where it is most appropriate.
“Studio testing is also the best scenario for testing performance, because it’s often the only time that all of the constituent parts of the virtual production such as virtual set, tracking, keying, graphics, etc are brought together and making simultaneous demands on the render engines.”
It doesn’t matter how much you test technology; there is always the possibility that something could go wrong, especially when using powerful software and hardware. “The harder we push the system to deliver improved quality of lighting, materials, detail, etc. the more likely we are to encounter the technical limitations of the new features,” admits Mann. “We work closely with the incredible team at BBC Sport to find solutions and workarounds to these problems so that once a project goes live, it runs smoothly and efficiently. You can’t have the ambition to create a studio structure within a recreation of the Swiss landscape, complete with over 100,000 trees, all rendered with real-time lighting and reflections, and not encounter a few bumps. Fortunately, BBC Sport are a mature and experienced client within the virtual world, and understand this process well.”
Inside the studio, there are four main cameras, three pedestals and one jib, all using Mo-Sys StarTracker for virtual tracking. “We then have a small, very basic camera within the lighting grid which is there to capture the skeleton frame of the stand-up presenters,” adds John Murphy, design director at BBC Sport. “This is so we can utilise the Vizrt Reality Connect plug-in, which then uses the data of the skeleton to produce realistic shadows/reflections on the floor.”
The studio has no LED screens, just monitors for presenter visual feedback and a projector monitor onto the green screen wall for the presenters’ reference when they are interacting with the virtual screen.
One virtual studio operator is responsible for keying, AR and general live operation of the studio, working alongside the BBC’s “VR implementation and graphics guru” Andrew Bowker. “He gets everything ready regarding the Unreal model and all of the AR elements so that it is ready to go for live,” explains Murphy. “Then there is our key on-site support engineer David Ryan who helped get the studio ready for the tournament and is on hand to fix anything that may go wrong technically.”
The BBC has implemented an overall creative brand for the Women’s Euro, derived from the broadcaster’s marketing campaign, which helps illustrate and add colour to the studio. “We then have analysis graphics via Piero, which are used to help viewers understand the tactical analysis. Also, we have various AR elements in the studio for player imagery, data templates and a map to locate where the matches are being played.”
Often, virtual sets are used for one tournament and then the broadcaster moves on, but Mann says the Women’s Euro design could easily have an extended life. “Revisiting the scenery to add snow would be fun,” he says. “In principle, changing the exterior landscape could make the design suitable for a sport located in any geographical region or climate…except maybe one with a termite problem.”
