Bringing the best of the action from the US Open into a COVID secure remote studio environment, to deliver game-changing new reality for sports broadcast coverage

Since Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, Eurosport and WL have collaborated extensively to evolve and refine the Cube’s design and innovative features with a view to the viewing experience for Tokyo 2020. Informed with the learnings about what had worked as intended and where further development was needed, the team reverted to the drawing board prior to designing the new version, which was then built with a footprint of just 3.5m x 3.5m and housed within a fully COVID secure studio at WL’s HQ. One of the major technical overhauls was the graphics workflow, which was re-designed to be a lot more streamlined and render-engine agnostic enabling content to be produced in a wider range of real-time engines. This allowed a brand-new, dynamic, and lifelike set to be built by Dimension using the Unreal Engine, with additional layers of content seamlessly added from other engines where necessary. One of the Cube’s physical walls was removed to expand the studio, vastly improving the camera angles and sight lines available. Added virtual set extensions, powered by disguise XR, made it possible for the camera to operate beyond just the realms of the LED environment. Multiple remote contributors, including regular Eurosport expert Mats Wilander, were virtually transported into the studio via video conferencing platforms and positioned within the environment as if they were physically present. Eurosport also wanted to utilise the United States Tennis Association’s green screen facility located at Flushing Meadows to teleport the athletes into the Cube for post-match interviews with Barbara. Transcending the capabilities of green screen alone, the Cube’s LED video technology fully immersed Barbara in her surroundings – with the video screens making the virtual world visible. This enabled natural engagement with all remote participants, as if they were next to each other in the real world. Another feature of the Cube’s new design was the seamless integration of lighting for the real and virtual worlds. This allowed the lighting operator to control both the in-studio lights and the lighting within the virtual set, as though they were one and the same, further merging the boundaries of reality.