SAFIRE HD PROVIDES CHROMA KEYING FOR UK'S FIRST LIVE HD VR GRAPHICS TRANSMISSION (March 2007)

Safire HD provided the chroma keying for the UK 's first ever live HD VR graphics transmission, with Sky Sports' broadcast of the Rugby Super League kick-off on 4th February.

Recommended to Sky by existing Crystal Vision customer RT Software, Safire HD was used with RT Software's live to air graphics system, tOG-3D, along with a MoSys e-Omega camera head fitted with encoders, thus allowing camera movements while the graphics remained tied to the pitch.

Mike Fredriksen, Sales and Marketing Director at RT Software, explained his selection of Crystal Vision. "It was our first HD virtual graphics project, and our first project with Sky. We wanted a guaranteed high quality chroma key solution. We also wanted to use the chroma keyer to force a Foreground graphic, too."

Crystal Vision's chroma keyers are well-known for their special live sports features, with Force FB using different levels of a key input to force Foreground and Background in different areas of the same picture. In this case Force FB was used to chroma key the team logos on to the pitch and linear key a virtual Jumbotron in front of the crowd.

Safire HD wasn't the only Crystal Vision product in use, with the High Definition video delay line, ViViD HD, compensating for the two frame delay introduced by the virtual graphics. Being a space-saving modular chroma keyer, Safire HD was able to sit alongside ViViD HD in an Indigo 2 2U frame.

Control is provided by the popular Safire Controller 2U panel and the Sky operator has found Safire HD very easy to use.

Mike Fredriksen described the quality of the keying as "superb", while Neville Smith, Executive Producer of Rugby League on Sky Sports, said "I was delighted to have stunning HD virtual graphics for the first game of the season". Sky Sports will continue to use the system to transmit the Rugby Super League over the next ten months.