Fox Sports Australia Utilizes the Stype Kit

Augmented Reality for NRL Season Program

Stype kit is a camera crane add-on which connects the automatic aiming and focusing technology with augmented reality and virtual studio sets making it the most advanced trackless 3D virtual studio and augmented reality system on the market. Best part is - it comes at a price point which is ten times lower than more known world competitors.

"To use a classic crane a minimum of  two operators are needed. One person moves the crane arm while the other moves the camera head and sets other parameters. Ideally, to adjust the focus would be good to have a third person. For someone to be able to produce technically and artistically correct movements with the crane it takes years of practice and experience. It is not easy to manage an expensive camera that is located on the crane arm with length of 3-4 meters (crane is modular and can be extended to the desired length, up to 12 meters for Stanton Jimmy jib), at the same time make sure that the subject is in the frame and focus and do it every time without error ." explained StypeGRIP's founder and head of R&D Stjepan Čajić and added: "here we saw a lot of room for improvement and automation of the process. Our system, the Stype kit, enables automatic targeting and focusing of the subject in space and does so with always equal precision, which means a 100% utilization of shots. Augmented reality was the next logical step because the Stype kit can surgically precise determine the position of the camera in 3D space. The position is sent to the render engine  which then merges realistic sets with computer-generated objects and animations.'

advertisment

Quality of this product was recognized in Australia, where Fox Sports bought the Skype kit due to the fact they wanted to give viewers something new and exciting. They bought the rights for national rugby league season, one of the most watched sports there. Looking for an ideal solution was Director at Fox Sports Australia, Paul Slater, who was looking for a system that will allow insertion of computer animation and elements into the existing TV set for their rugby broadcasts. His visit to the IBC show last year - the world's largest gathering of companies and professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and news - did not bring the desired results.

"With Viz we looked at some very, very expensive solutions around that do this data tracking and then we stumbled upon Stype which essentially attached a data tracking mechanism to an existing Jimmy Jib crane which in itself the Jimmy Jib crane is an industry standard. The possibility that Stype kit provided us along with  extremely low prices put us in front of a simple decision. And we've been really surprised and really happy with how well it worked and everybody who sees it is amazed by its results. In addition, the price is ten times lower than the competition, and there are additional options that we did not expect."

advertisment

Although this collaboration is so far the highest recognition for boys from Croatia based startup StypeGRIP it is certainly not the first. They won the gold medal for the best invention at the British Invention Fair in 2010, and last year TV house MBC1 from Lebanon used Stype kit for creating augmented reality in its very popular show "Hourouf aw Aloof" with over 140 million viewers.

advertisment

Stjepan Čajić, head of R&D announces some new products: "We are continuing with the development of products that will bring novelty to TV and film market and you will be able to learn more about it in a few months."


Related Videos:
http://youtu.be/d8ktVGkHAes

http://youtu.be/reqmiGN7q1U