A web-based application that provides rich analytics on past and planned events, along with a sophisticated reporting system that provides data, images and video highlights of virtual events with agency/broadcaster- and brand/advertiser-based feature sets and access controls. In addition to centralizing all required information in one location, this system can save a great deal of time and effort that would typically go into creating and managing post-game reports and visuals.

The analytics and reporting system pulls in data from a variety of sources in the platform such as the Event & Content Management system and from the live renderers that produce the virtual feeds to combine both as planned and as run data to provide a highly accurate data set that can then be explored and shared.

A crucial feature of any virtual advertising system is the ability to accurately mark an area that is to be placed/replaced, key it if it is likely to be occluded by moving objects and track it in real-time as the camera moves around. The performance and reliability of a virtual advertising systems keying and tracking is critical to its utility and commercial value.

There are a handful of different technologies available to provide keying – chromakey/luma, non-visible light and AI software-based. Each has strengths and weaknesses depending on the environmental conditions that surround the match (indoors, outdoors, surface types, colours and so on) and their cost/complexity to deploy in professional sports productions. One of the major differentiators of the Supponor platform is was built to support all three approaches – in a mix-and-match format to maximize quality across the broadest range of sporting environments using the most appropriate techniques.

Launched in 2021 through the integration of cutting-edge augmented reality overlays and utilising Supponor’s battle hardened broadcast integration platform. Supponor AIR^® dramatically enhances the value of media and marketing rights for mass-audience sporting events for sports rights holders, their brand sponsors and broadcast partners. A fully software-based end-to-end platform, Supponor AIR^® relies on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and computer vision to deploy virtual advertising on any surface, in any sport, and in any weather condition. Commercially and technically proven, Supponor AIR^® provides football leagues and clubs with a flexible and powerful marketing tool to continue positioning themselves at the forefront of technical innovation, but also to enhance their commercial inventory and provide those valuable sponsors and brand partners with targeted and global reach into local markets.

With Supponor’s AIR® technology proven to deliver the industry’s best keying/masking capabilities, Supponor no longer markets, uses or deploy its DBRLive technology, which was based upon non-visible light, in certain markets including the USA, Germany and Italy.

One of the key differences between the Supponor platform and more traditional graphics-based systems is the ability to operate outside of the main production chain, downstream from the production mixer. This is made possible by Supponor’s integrator component, which can support multiple concurrent production environments (e.g. when multiple broadcasters cover the same event) and is also independently scaled from other parts of the live video chain. It can be deployed at the venue or in a remote facility.

Integrator automatically verifies whether each video frame presented in the production mix is from a camera to be virtualized and uses our AI system to automatically detect and separate production graphics, greatly simplifying the integration requirements of each production/broadcaster.

Supponor’s renderers produce highly realistic modified feeds with the appropriate virtual advertising inserted. These can output a range of technical formats, from linear SDI to streaming OTT. Any number of output feeds can be produced by scaling out the number of renderers. They can also be deployed at the venue or, more typically, in a remote facility or distribution centre. The renderer supports UHD 4K, HDR and the BT.2020 colour space (in addition to HD). Renderer includes both manual and automatic bypass modes in the event of issues and because the entire Supponor live video chain operates in parallel to the main production, bypass can also be invoked at anytime by the production itself – unlike alternative solutions that operate inside the production and so are harder to isolate if things go wrong.