„Run for those who can’t“: PLAZAMEDIA supported the Wings for Life World Run, which was held in parallel around the globe last Sunday, with extensive production services on behalf of Red Bull Media House.
„Run for those who can’t“: PLAZAMEDIA supported the Wings for Life World Run, which was held in parallel around the globe last Sunday, with extensive production services on behalf of Red Bull Media House.
Ismaning, May 10, 2023
A total of 206,728 runners worldwide took part in the 10th anniversary of the run – either in the seven “Flagship Runs” in Vienna, Munich, Zug (Switzerland), the Slovenian capital Ljubljana, Zadar (Croatia), Poznan (Poland) and Kakheti (Georgia) or individually with the Wings for Life World Run app.
Worldfeed and studiofeed production “made in Ismaning”: Media production of the Wings for Life World Run with elaborate AR and XR integrations Red Bull Media House’s assignment for the Wings for Life World Run primarily involved the production of the studio feed: The accompanying five-hour studio show for the tenth edition of the Wings for Life World Run took place in PLAZAMEDIA’s new XR LED studio “briX|woRk.studio” at the AGROB Medienpark in Ismaning, which opened in February. The studio feed made partial use of images from the world feed. The world feed was composed of seven “Flagship Runs”, 21 individual camera signals from App Run events, 15 with LiveU Smart App from various individual App Runners, as well as content from numerous users. The main focus was particularly on mapping the global reach of the event: All over the world, thousands of people were running at the same time for a good cause, whether during the day or at night. Visually, this focus of the production was supported with the help of extended reality (XR) and augmented reality (AR) elements to depict the entire range – from the “Flagship Runs” to the many other runners who individually started in all parts of the world with the Wings for Life World Run app.
With the help of AR windows, all live callers were virtually brought into the studio to report on their run. In addition, an XR stage was created that represented the earth with a view from space as the starting point of the studio broadcast – in order to immerse the viewer in one of the 20 different XR worlds and to highlight the respective location where the live callers were currently running. For example, if a live caller was shown running in the AR window in Barcelona, the XR studio or LED wall were immersed in the virtual world of Barcelona: In addition to the locations, the current weather and time of day were also displayed on site – and if a live caller running at night was switched on in the AR window, the XR world also changed from day to night atmosphere. In addition to providing the studio infrastructure – with the “briX|woRk.studio” and other facilities, including control room, three cameras (two cameras on pump tripods and one crane camera), graphics AR/XR and integration live caller – PLAZAMEDIA’s production services included signal contribution and distribution, on-site production management and the infrastructure for video integration of world and studio feed. In total, more than 200 people were involved in the production in Ismaning.
Jens Friedrichs, Chairman of the Management Board of PLAZAMEDIA GmbH:
“Supporting the Wings for Life World Run with our production knowhow is a real matter of heart for us.
For the first time we are on board and were able to do our part as a service provider to make the anniversary event a great success – all in the spirit of the great goal of a cure for paraplegia.
We are very happy that our new XR LED Studio was chosen as big stage for the production of this global event and we thank Red Bull Media House for their trust.”
About the Wings for Life World Run
Once a year, the Wings for Life World Run takes place around the globe. All participants start at the same time worldwide and run either individually with the Wings for Life World Run App or together in several Flagship Runs. The best part is that any form of the run is all about being there. It doesn’t matter how well, fast or far you run, whether you’re a professional athlete, hobby runner or an absolute beginner. It is all about having fun while running. For this reason there is no traditional finish line. Instead, 30 minutes after the start, either a virtual or – in the case of the Flagship Runs – a real Catcher Car picks up the chase and overtakes one runner after another. Results aren’t measured in time, but in distance achieved. Best of all: 100% of entry fees and donations goes directly to spinal cord research. In the editions of the Wings for Life World Run that have been completed to date, a total of 1,086,988 registered participants from 195 nationalities ran, walked and rolled on all seven continents and together raised a total of €38 million to find a cure for spinal cord injury.
About briX|woRk.studio: One of Germany’s most innovative studios
“Where Physical and Digital Worlds Meet“: The new briX|woRk.studio seamlessly combines real set architecture with virtual worlds via the LED wall and can be expanded into a 360° space via augmented reality. The studio set features a 24-meter wide and 5-meter high L-shaped LED wall. The outstanding viewing angle stability enables filming the LED wall even from extreme camera angles. In addition, reduced moiré patterns occur thanks to a pixel pitch of 1.9 millimeters. Another important feature for creative use is a virtual focus, which can be used to shift the focus from a real to a virtual object on the LED wall. For development and implementation, PLAZAMEDIA is intensifying its well-established collaboration with MoSys, which, with its products “Startracker”, “Cinematic XR Focus” and “bMR”, is one of the market leaders in the industry and is constantly driving innovations with PLAZAMEDIA. Thanks to the real-time render engine (Unreal Engine 5.1) integrated in briX|woRk.studio, parameters such as time of day, atmosphere – for example sun, rain, snow or fog – are producible, reproducible at will and can be defined individually.
When it comes to planning and implementing their studio projects, PLAZAMEDIA fully supports its customers with the extensive knowhow of its teams – consisting, among other things, of production management, graphics and XR experts, production and recording technology, audio engineering, decoration and stage construction, as well as the aforementioned “green consultants” to ensure sustainable production.
Thanks to these technical and economic advantages, the briX|woRk.studio offers almost unlimited application possibilities for innovative and sustainable productions. XR technology enables customers to stage their projects and brands in a novel and resource-saving way: The spectrum ranges from film and TV productions as well as broadcasts to corporate productions such as commercials or photo shoots to on-site, hybrid and virtual (live) events as well as presentations and trainings.
“Green Production” in Munich: Regarding sustainability, the new XR LED Studio sets standards
With productions in the briX|woRk.studio that can fulfill the sustainable specifications of “Green Motion”, PLAZAMEDIA can help its clients to reduce their carbon footprint: Specially trained and IHK (Industrie- und Handelskammer; Engl.: Chamber of Industry and Commerce) certified “Green Consultants Film & TV” advise clients on request right from the start of planning and implementing their projects. The use of green power, LED lighting and also the reduction of material, cast and crew transports to the location lead to significant CO2 savings at the XR LED Studio.
About PLAZAMEDIA GmbH
Leading provider of smart content solutions PLAZAMEDIA, a Sport1 Medien AG company, has developed into a leading sports TV producer in the German-speaking region since its foundation in 1976. Today, with its roots in classic television production, PLAZAMEDIA is also an established provider of smart, digital content solutions for all media platforms. Its customers include not only public and private broadcasters, but also platform operators, international sports associations, agencies for sports rights and national and international companies.
The range of services is broad: classic OB van-based production or remote production, staging of live sports or entertainment events, state-of-the-art content management solutions, editing, archiving and target group-specific content distribution on all media platforms – with convergent solutions, PLAZAMEDIA supports customers in the digital transformation of their business models along the entire content value chain. Smart solutions for customer content: production, management, archiving and distribution – worldwide, digital and customized for all requirements.
