Sky Sports Uses Vizrt Graphics Systems for Successful 4K Ryder Cup Golf Trial

The 4K trial follows the Sky Sports’ 4K test carried out at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. To enable the Ryder Cup coverage, Vizrt provided two 4K-compatible newly-released v3.7.0 Viz Engines with Matrox DSX LE3 4K SDI video cards and the Viz Trio character generator to Sky Sports to generate and deliver the on-screen graphics.

“We weren’t doing a full production, just showing selected holes, so we only used a small percentage of the graphics during the main show. That said, pretty much everything we tried from our Vizrt HD graphics worked in 4K straight out of the box,” said Phil Madge, VFX supervisor at Sky Sports.

Keith Lane, director of operations at Sky Sports, said: “With around 12 hours of live golf each day, the Ryder Cup gave us and our technical partners a great opportunity to look at 4K closely and test the best ways of working in this new format. We were pleased with how well the Vizrt and Matrox workflow performed when outputting at a higher resolution.”

“4K is the next key step for our industry and we’re really excited to have been involved in this test with Sky Sports,” said Gerhard Lang, Chief Engineering Officer at Vizrt. “It’s a learning curve for everyone, but having successfully delivered graphics for 4K broadcasts at both the Ryder Cup and World Cup, we’re extremely confident in our Ultra HD solutions.”

Sky Sports also used Vizrt tools to provide a full 3D graphics workflow for its regular Ryder Cup broadcast. This included three Vizrt systems, two of which were used for the live graphics presentation including an interactive screen, and the third for creating augmented reality graphics in the onsite studio.

About Matrox Video:
Matrox Video is a technology and market leader in the field of 4K, HD and SD digital video hardware and software for accelerated H.264 encoding, realtime editing, audio/video input/output, streaming, A/V signal conversion, capture/playout servers, channel-in-a-box systems and CGs. Matrox's Emmy award-winning technology powers a full range of multi-screen content creation and delivery platforms used by broadcasters, telcos, cable operators, post-production facilities, live event producers, videographers and A/V professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976, Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

About Vizrt:
Vizrt provides real-time 3D graphics, studio automation, sports analysis and asset management tools for the broadcast industry - interactive and virtual solutions, animations, maps, weather, video editing and compositing tools. Vizrt's products are used by the world's leading broadcasters, including: CNN, CBS, Fox, the BBC, BSkyB, Al Jazeera, ITN, ZDF, Star TV, Network 18, TV Today, CCTV, and NHK. Furthermore, many world-class production houses and corporate institutions such as the London Stock Exchange use Vizrt systems.