The discussion Online roundtable «Broadcasting 2022. UAE Pro League: Vertical productions, VR, AR, and beyond the 16:9».
The discussion Online roundtable «Broadcasting 2022. UAE Pro League: Vertical productions, VR, AR, and beyond the 16:9».
Roundtable participants include:
Malek Doughan, Marketing and commercial affairs director of UAE Pro League;
Jamal AbdulNasser, TV Broadcast Operations Manager of UAE Pro League;
Paulo Alexandre Albuquerque Resende, Senior TV Director of Live HD / Abu Dhabi media company;
Talal Al Hammadi, Associate director – Outside Broadcast of Live HD / Abu Dhabi media company;
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour, CEO and Founder of Sponix Tech;
Rahat Kulshreshta, Founder and CEO of Qudish.
The discussion will be moderated by Ammar Hina, Broadcast & TV production director at UAE Pro League.
Ammar Hina, moderator: You mentioned that the league has exceeded 18.2 million viewership, I want to highlight that 6 years back, it was less than 3 million. So it’s safe to conclude that the number increased massively within a couple of years. At the same time, from another angle, I believe the digital aspect has improved a lot. So, Jamal, I wanted to ask you more about how you think these technologies are helping the product.
Jamal AbdulNasser: We apply these technologies shown in the video not only to give the best to football fans but also to appeal to the younger generations. Technologies like virtual reality, for instance, are quite uncommon in a typical football production.
LIVE HD & UAE PL Partnership/Cooperation
Moderator: Thank you, Jamal. If I may, I would like to direct that question to the main partner that Pro League has within this discussion. Mr. Talal, how do you think these technologies are improving the product.
Talal Alhammadi: Improvement and development of the product is something that can never stop. For instance, in the case of 4K production, the way it is currently is not how it started. Through additional ideas, elements, and special requirements, the use of these technologies has seemed to evolve to provide various solutions thereby improving the product. And I believe we did it together with the help of your crazy ideas.
Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Talal. Paulo, from your point of view as a Director, how do you think the additional elements have added value to the product?
Paulo Alexandre: I would say that the tricky part that we ought to remember when adding these ideas and elements is that we are doing football and in football, there are rules to follow. The aim is to implement these ideas so as not to replace the key elements of the match but rather to complement them. That is the tricky part. And like you mentioned Ammar, the crazy ideas are what brought us to this level. We love these ideas, and a lot of times we have spent sleepless nights trying to figure out how it will work. But in the end, the result is always worth it. We should also not accept an idea to be the best there can be. I believe this is just the beginning of bringing new ideas.
Comment from UAE PL
Moderator: I agree. Malek, I am going to throw the question over to you. It’s a little bit tricky as well from the commercial point of view. How do you balance the implementation of new ideas with ensuring that it adds value for your commercial partners?
Malek Doughan: In all fairness, I would say that in the last three seasons, I believe that the advancement the League has experienced from a production value is much higher than the development it had in the years before -and again, it was achieved through the effort of those that worked on it. We have seen the return on the actual commercial value because now, not only do we have new products, we also have new interests and new categories of sponsors who are interested in these innovations. One very important element is that because of all the content the target audiences are currently consuming, they are becoming big critics. They all want to see beautiful shots. Whether it’s the utilization of hyper-motion, super slow-motion; or the aerial footage utilization of the robocam that was introduced in the Super Cup, the rover. All of these elements have been perceived positively. Even on the graphics side of things: utilizing the AR, VR, or virtual cheering. All of these elements would be considered crazy some seasons ago and now that they have been implemented, they are becoming the new norm. Yes, I understand that at the end of the day we are doing a football production but all of these surrounding gizmos are elevating the content and making it more appealing. We all know that at the end of the day, the more eyeballs you have on a product, the more interested sponsors will become which will lead to more fans. It’s a whole cycle. Yes, I agree with you all. There has to be a balance. We don’t want to put too much because sometimes adding too much spice may ruin a food. There’s a sweet balance and I believe we’ve reached it. We always love when our League pioneers things and we are always willing to take a chance on your ideas. You’ve proven this many times so why stop now?
WTV & MediaPro-AR, -STATS & Heatmaps Technologies
Moderator: Yes. As you mentioned earlier, the implementation of these ideas may lead bring about new fans and new connections. For example, when the first virtual test happened, 90% of the viewers were technology geeks trying to follow up on innovations rather than football fans. Moving on to André, If I may ask, what does it take to mix so many different elements under the supervision of Live HD guys and constant demands of the Pro League and also, how are your cooperations with the e-football?
André Chagas: A few years back, the only service we delivered in the broadcast was standard graphics. This is graphics with a few statistics. Since 2018, we started increasing the technological deliverables in the broadcast angle not only to keep up with the market but to find solutions. We even adopted technologies that were not used in football. The partnership with the Pro League has been both challenging and exciting. We want to give them the best experience and for them to be happy with the final product. W also want to show them things they may not know they need. As I said earlier, wTVsion started with standard graphics operations and over the years, we introduced tracking statistics where we started from a few matches in a season to one match per day. These tracking statistics started to be shown on standard overlay graphics. With AR, we not only introduced new technology we also reutilized the work that was been done with the tracking system and right now we display this data differently with the AR. So this has been a step-by-development with the Pro League and we are looking forward to what next we come up with because I’m sure this is just the beginning.
Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: This next question is for Talal. From your point of view, how do you think the running order will be with the multiple elements and experience happening within the match?
Talal Alhammadi: As Malek and Paulo have stated, the main focus should be on the football itself but personally, I think adding these extra elements is always interesting even in the Live show.
SPONIX POV Technology
Moderator: Another technology was implemented through the last three seasons and Mohammad might have mentioned that it was the first proper test on air, and I believe since day one, the feedback has been huge, especially from the fans. You told us about your company expanding businesses to Europe and many other elite Leagues. How do you think the cooperation of the Pro League happen and what were the main challenges so far?
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: The night our technology was broadcasted in the Super Cup April League was a very big night for us because it was the first time. Until that moment, the only League that had similar technology to that was LaLiga with another technology provider but they need huge installations inside the stadium: 5k cameras, specific servers, and kilometers of fibers. But using AI and machine learning, we just used the broadcast speed on that Super Cup final and the result was amazing. I remember that when you broadcasted the output during the match, after the match, the UAE Pro league Twitter account published our output and that was a huge record. If you remember, that was 110,000 views in three days. That was the start of our journey and after that, we started our contract in the region especially in Qatar with Business Sport, and recently, by the official approval of FIFA, our technology was used during the Arab Cup. FIFA has planned to use our technology for the World Cup as well. In recent weeks, we have started our we started our official cooperation with UEFA, Italian Serie A, and also with some of the clubs in Bundesliga. The main point is that we come with different sections: League, club and even broadcasters. So what we did with the UAE Pro League shaped our company and we are looking forward to more cooperation with UAE Pro-League for this technology and also the other UAE technologies. I don’t know if I would have a chance to speak about them.
Moderator: You can give a brief introduction to the technology.
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: Our first technology was the immersive technology that helps to show the breathtaking moments in matches through the eyes of the player which is very interesting for the fans as well as the sponsors. And it would be used more and more in different competitions. One of the experts recently said to me: “I believe it will be like the normal replays and the slow-motion for each goal that fans request so they can see the point of view of player scoring or passing the ball.” It’s a replay system and it should be in every broadcast feed. The second technology that we released recently, a big game-changer in the virtual advertising section is our SP board technology, our visual advertising technology. As you may know, many top leagues like Laliga and Bundesliga have been using this kind of technology for over 4 years now. But the big advantage that our new solution has is that we don’t need anything in the stadium: we don’t need billboards, sensors, staff or specific cameras. We don’t even need to have access to the main camera feed, we just utilize the broadcast feed. This means that we can bring the visual advertising downstream into a broadcast layer. Even Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Sharjah Sport can’t have different billboards in this way. In real-time, we can change the billboards in real-time and downstream with just the broadcast feed. We have some other technologies we are working on and hopefully, we would continue our great cooperation with the UAE Pro League.
Comment from UAE PL
Moderator: Sure Mohammad. Back to the first experience, you talked about the experience we had with the first technology and I remember how immensely we struggled with infrastructure. So I would like to ask Jamal about the infrastructure. As André mentioned earlier, it started with normal graphics then they implemented augmented reality and tracking systems; different changes happening with the same infrastructure. What were the challenges you faced to ensure that the infrastructure facilitating the technology should be implemented?
Jamal AbdulNasser: It’s not very easy implementing new technologies especially when you have long-term competitions like the League. We have 14 different stadiums with different facilities and requirements. For instance, in the case of dedicated internet lines, unlike any kind of broadcasting, the stadiums will not need standard equipment but special elements. I remember the first time we did the VR, it was a very complicated experience. This is usually because we pioneer most of the technologies we implement. We don’t have the luxury of learning from experience or improving on others’ mistakes.
Quidich: Buggy Cam- Super Cup
Moderator: To highlight, the first time we talked about using the buggy cam was in a football match pitch, especially when we went to Hazard. Hazard is one of the smallest pitches that we have in the country. We were in a dilemma of how to use that special camera within the match. We all hoping and praying to reach the penalty shoot-outs. When Al Jazira scored a goal, the whole crew was celebrating because finally, we were able to use the camera inside the pitch without it affecting the match. Rahat, can you tell us more about the buggy camera and the technologies in general and also your cooperation with the UAE Pro League.
Rahat Kulshreshtha: Thank you, Ammar. I think that the Pro League’s use of the buggy camera was very exciting to see. Soccer as a broadcast philosophy has been fairly conservative in terms of moving away from using camera 1 to moving cameras like this. I think that taking that leap with the buggy camera was a great innovation because what it allowed was not only saving the person that has to run around with the camera but also to give that nice low angle and dynamism as the ball is been moved around. What is added to the broadcast was a sense of dynamism because it’s a really fast game and we miss that fast pace usually because most of the cameras are on sticks so the moment you add the buggy camera to that, it can give you this interesting shots from the sides. What was interesting for us was bringing the viewer into the game but in this case, we were able to use it well for brand integration as well. The way it came in and Ammar, hats off to you for pulling that off by and for brand integration which kicked off the game. So I thought that worked really well. And specifically on the penalty shoot-out, a lot of our operators have cinema experience working in Bollywood, so just to see the nice slow move from behind the referee and revealing the penalty shoot-out happening in the back. Hats off to Jamal and all of you for making all of that happen. When we saw it on the broadcast, it really added to the whole story of the game and allowed the viewers to feel like they were right behind the action where the magic happens. For us, it was exciting to see the camera utilized to its maximum potential. Thank you for making that happen.
Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: I remember the unforgettable moment of the goal when I, Talal, Paulo, and the team discussed shooting from behind the players when they are inside the frame. It was very memorable. Paulo, can you tell us about your experience of having a buggy cam within the football pitch?
Paulo Alexandre: It was a good experience. We needed to integrate the buggy to its maximum without touching the key element of the game. So we used the buggy camera for the prematch and during the match even in Hazard which is an amazing stadium though the pitch size is quite limiting. We needed to explore in a way that we won’t break the rules of the match and everyone was anxious to move to the penalty because that is where we can show our gadgets. Yes, the buggy did an amazing job there because it gave for the first time, shots and movements that the audiences were not used to seeing. It was a special touch.
Quidich AR & Drone
Moderator: Mr. Rahat, back to you on the other technologies you have. Because as I understand, you have the integration between the drone cameras and augmented reality elements. Can you just tell us more about that?
Rahat Kulshreshtha: We’ve been working with drones for a while and these drones give beautiful shots of stadiums. We were trying to see how we could bring more storytelling into the shot, especially with a game like soccer where you don’t want to suddenly move out into a wide shot when all of the action is happening. As part of that, we built something called Spacio, which is a tracking system that allows us to track the drone movement. And what that allows us to do is to take real-time data that enable it to form this drone shot that makes it far more immersive for the audience. While you can see the beautiful stadium from the outside, you can now see a lot of graphics that are integrated with real-time data that tells you more about the player performance, score and brings about a connection from not just being only a beauty shot but a beauty shot with integrated graphics. And now that we’ve integrated with the Unreal Engine, we can do a lot of really beautiful graphics, and animations where you can see characters come in, the stadium can warp into different universes. There’s a lot more that is possible now. What we also built is the player tracking.
Using AI and computer vision you can actually track the players as well so as the drone is flying in the air, you can now in real-time on the Live show, make circles, name the players, and then pull data sources from different providers to be able to add more data. So whether speed, gaps, or distances, all of that can be shown on this wide-angle drone shot. These are the different technologies we have developed with the clear focus of enhancing the broadcast, storytelling and helping the viewers understand what’s happening on the field at such a fast pace.
WTV- AR & Drone – Supercup
Moderator: I’ll ask the same question to André because they have something similar. We tried that technology for the first time in the last Cup final and if you can, tell us more about that technology and the experience you had to utilize such technology within a football match?
André Chagas: Absolutely. We discussed our second experience in football using the drone to display AR graphics. We’ve done it before in the Spanish league LaLiga, and then we use it now in the UAE Pro League. We have a partnership with our office in India as well maybe Rahat knows it. What we did for this match was to attach our tracking system to the drone so that we can receive the footage of the drone. We were able to know the movements of the drone. The graphics know exactly the movement so it can stay physically in the correct place. For this match, we had a few matches so we were able to integrate it with the graphic software of the match itself so we can access statistics. We could utilize what we were already doing for the match itself and display it differently. So this was a good experience and one more thing to add to the list of accomplishments we have made at the UAE Pro League. We can do this again and perhaps utilize the drone integrated with tracking statistics and heat maps. I would say that the sky is the limit but it, being a drone makes it redundant. Overall, it was a good experience.
Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: It was amazing when we first saw Hazard and utilized the location aspect. Paulo, can tell us about your experience utilizing it during the match?
Paulo Alexandre: The experience was good. The drone always gives us nice shots from the venue. The challenge was about how to implement the drone with the graphics at the right time. Because at the end of the day, it is a drone and we need to manage the flight time with the positions because we need the system to recognize the position and to arrange the graphics in a good way. So we had some difficulties synchronizing these timing. One of the contributions to this challenge was the wind and its ability to derail the drone timing. We got it ready and it came out well.
Comment from Quidich
Moderator: I see Mr. Rahat smiling so I would like to have feedback on that.
Rahat Kulshreshtha: It’s always challenging to put in new technology and the hardest part is for the director especially when there are lots of new technologies. I think the way both the AR and the buggy were used during the Pro League showed the intent of the League to be able to maximize the use of technology and the vision of everyone working behind the scenes in experimenting with these technologies to bring new and innovative things for the viewers. It was great watching the broadcast from the opening show to the kickoff and just seeing all the technologies come together. It was a nice package.
Virtual Reality
Moderator: Hats off to you Rahat. André, at the beginning of this presentation, I mentioned that there was a very crazy idea which is utilizing virtual reality within the matches and doing special feeds for that. We tried it live a couple of times. It went well but it didn’t give us the proper feedback we were looking for, then we tried the video-on-demand part and the highlights packages. Can you just tell us how the virtual reality project was done by the MediaPro and the UAE Pro-League?
André Chagas: As you mentioned, this project was done by MediaPro, wTVision had only a small part to play. But I remember quite well the challenges we had on this project, we were a little bit ahead of our time the first time this idea came up. We had a lot of challenges which included connectivity. In the end, the sponsorship of Etisalat made things work out a lot faster. As far as I remember, though challenging, it was very rewarding at the end because we were able to put on solutions that added to our viewer’s experience. That made it worth the effort. wTVision’s role on that project was to create a database server where we could collect the statistics during the match on the normal broadcast. These statistics could be sent in real-time to a server, and the VR system would connect and integrate with the server and display the statistics in real-time for the viewers. So whatever we were collecting in the match, the viewer could have access to it. We also contributed to the look and feel but again it was quite a challenging project. In the end, we were pioneers of it in football.
UAE PL
Moderator: I believe you mentioned challenges. I’d like to ask Jamal more about the challenges around the pitch regarding this.
Jamal AbdulNasser: The challenges were majorly from the technical and operations side. If you remember, we had signal issues at different destinations and I remember that we couldn’t make it work at 2-3 different stadiums that we tried to work on it. The VR was a very tough project and as André mentioned, we were the pioneers. In all, it was a good experience.
Metaverse and the Future of this Technology
Moderator: Malek, over to you. As you know, technology is now moving to the Metaverse. The League started the use of these technologies and currently, other Leagues like Premier League, Spanish LaLiga is doing something similar while the League is struggling to make it happen. How do you think the change of the Metaverse will affect this?
Malek Doughan: Thank you, Ammar, that’s actually a very important question. Interestingly, in the last 6 weeks, I’ve had meetings with people trying to pitch to us the inclusion of our league in some way or form in either fan tokens, NFTs; or to be included in the Metaverse. It’s being incredible. It’s a very trending topic. Everybody wants to build on the success of what’s been done in the NBA because the sales exceeded anyone’s expectations. Not to hide this very confidential data but we are currently discussing the inclusion of NFTs whether it’s on digital rights or naming rights like something similar to Fantasy football. they are a couple of bids we have received. People are interested in acquiring our rights which again for us is a new realm. We are in the discovery phase. We want to make sure we are not underselling our privileges at a very early stage because again in the market it’s something fairly new. We are exploring the next great appetite. This helps us not only at a commercial level but also helps us with the new target audience, whether it’s crypto investors or those currently into collectibles. So the answer is Yes, we are. There are negotiations and hopefully, soon we’ll have something to disclose but we are also trying to understand from the rights perspective what’s allowed and what’s not without going into contradiction with the current rights holder. But, since we are reaching the new ITA, it’s a new right cycle, and there would be new products whether it’s a vertical production right, the rights for AV outside the region, or audio rights, there are a lot of elements we need to discuss and NFTs is at the top of that.
Moderator: The topic of NFTs was not planned but as long as it is on the table, I’ll like to ask Mohammad because they have some kind of experience on that part. Mohammad, can you tell us more about NFTs.
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: NFT section is a very important trend in the sports industry right now. There are different sections. From fan tokens which are quite famous especially in Europe to collectible videos. Recently, NBA started this section with NBA top shots, in cooperation with Dapper Labs. Also, we are in touch with some main-right holders in Europe regarding the NFT section. Because with our immersive technology, we can produce unique moments from important matches and incidents of different competitions. What NBA top shots are doing right now is selling highlights of amazing slamdunks of Micheal Jordan for example at a very expensive price. So imagine in UAE Pro League, fans can buy a unique view of a unique moment. Here, Sponix immersive technology could add value to NFT sections and I’m sure that UAE Pro League will be pioneering NFT sections in the region.
Malek Doughan: I believe that sounds like a plan for a discussion with the right holders.
Moderator: I thought so too.
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: If I may, I’ll like to disclose briefly that by April, a particular European Football League will be publishing some of their most important moments using our immersive technology. So I think from the beginning of April, many more experts will understand the potential our immersive technology has especially in the area of NFTs.
Moderator: Malek, I think you need to do that quickly before April.
COVID’19 Effect- Challenges
UAE PL- Audio Cheering Technology
Moderator: The COVID’19 shaped a new era of broadcast technologists and I believe that the UAE Pro League had a lot of comeback to the effects of the pandemic. Some of this includes audio cheering and implementing AR over the stands. I’ll like to start this part with Malek. Can you tell us about the experience of COVID’19?
Malek Doughan: For us, it’s a very important topic because we learned a lot. I think everyone viewed COVID as of course a pandemic that affected a lot of businesses. We looked at it more internally as an accelerator. It helped us look 5-10 years into the future to see what the product would look like. You spoke about the audio effect, and as I recall, we both had that chat in our first lockdown in January 2020. We pondered on what to do. We asked, “how can we integrate virtual audio?” We had a couple of meetings with service providers and at the end of the day, we derived audio tracks that we played in a very immersive manner. It’s basically someone sitting down on the bench watching the football and reacting to it. It was an interactive setup.
Not only did we get praised for it, but we also had calls from the broadcasters asking us not to stop. They said that the football matches sounded so alive. That led us into considering how we could compensate our sponsors because we were having tough discussions with sponsors who wanted to downsize. Businesses were wanting to shut down operations not to think of spending on sports. This was where we asked, “how can we utilize the stadium as an open canvas and then utilize this canvas to start putting more awareness on the brand?” This was where we started commercializing the space through the utilization of virtual augmented reality which started gaining our sponsors more value. Funny enough, when we came to discussing the renewal of sponsorship, we were in a position to ask for more so while properties were cutting out investment we basically had a nice conversation with our sponsors which ultimately renewed, paid more, and led us to land our title sponsorship with ADNOC Pro League. I think we maximized the technology in the best way possible.
Comment from WTV
Moderator: That was using the augmented reality elements at the same time. André, do you have any comment on that part?
André Chagas: Of course, we as a company had to adapt to the new world. The pandemic created new opportunities for us too. We ended up developing our AR3 which was already released but we were unable to modify it to suit the new world. It was built for crowds to fill the stadium and we were able to use it for some clients. For the UAE Pro League, the plan was to utilize the main camera stands weekly; to have different kinds of content there that can advertise Pro League, sponsorships, and festive celebrations. We had the perfect camera to utilize the AR system. At the same time, during the break in the pre-matches, we wanted to utilize the full pitch we used the AR with the heat maps which allowed us to do head-to-head players using the data collected by the tracking system and the system in the office. We used the technologies to carry out what we normally do but in a different way. It was challenging but in the end a good experience. Pro League was very happy with the result because we kept doing it even when the crowds came back.
Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: I remember the struggle the team had when collecting the audio clips to make it easy on the mixer. To be honest, I am very classic when it comes to football. Initially, I was against that part but when the result came in, and we saw everyone’s satisfaction, that helped a lot. Talal, what do you think about our struggles when we had no fans on the ground and the intervention of the virtual elements?
Talal Alhammadi: Yes Ammar, actually the virtual helped a lot. The audio engineers and the video engineers categorically will usually sort after providing their services to satisfaction regardless of whether the other section functions or not. In the case of the audio mixer, we had to listen to a series of audios even ones that were not necessary. We listened to tapes of players arguing and coaches cursing. It was not an easy task, and after the first round, we’d had enough. It was not a real sound, it was more of a compilation of garbs and many voices celebrating. For me, that was the key part. It was very impressive.
Moderator: I need to highlight that the interesting thing was that the Pro League collected special clips from old matches so it was not the same as watching a match on play station and listening to a crowd cheering that is not related to what was happening. Paulo, can you tell us about that, please?
Paulo Alexandre: It was quite challenging because it was new for us. The crowd you mentioned was not the typical crowd we were used to. We needed to change the feel and make it as close as it can get. The crowd effects are different. We allowed each game in each stadium to have a different audio cheering collected from past cheerings. So when you watch matches in successions you don’t feel like you are hearing the same thing. It was a huge help to us and I believe the viewers also enjoyed the match.
COVID’19- Comment from Sponix
Moderator: I can imagine. Mohammad, how did the pandemic affect your product and services?
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: Though it was an unfortunate situation worldwide, business-wise, we were quite fortunate. Both of the technologies we are currently implementing are remote. Even the live work we did for the UAE Pro League was purely software-based and remote. This is a very big advantage for all the right holders and the production team that likes working with technologies that fans like. It simply gives output without the integration of the production team. Even right now that they are lifting off any restriction regarding the COVID’19, there are still many of the production team that wants to continue to provide software-based productions. In the beginning, when we wanted to implement our solutions, no one believed that we could do it without being in the stadium. That’s why I mentioned that you and the UAE team supported us to do this. But now, when we implement our solutions to Leagues and broadcasting companies in Europe, gradually, they are starting to understand how easy it is to implement this remotely. Our core competency in the industry is that our immersive technology and future advertising technologies can be implemented hundred percent remotely. Also as you mentioned, especially regarding the visual advertisement, some new spaces were revealed during this situation, the fan seats, and other inventories. From my point of view as a football fan, I like to see the stadiums filled with fans and just using the other inventories to increase the revenue for the right holders.
COVID’19- Comment from Quidich
Moderator: Sure, the fans are the base of our industry. Rahat, what was the effect of the pandemic on your company?
Rahat Kulshreshtha: It was an interesting one similar to what Mohammad was saying. We got a lot of time to incubate and pause to see what we can create further. The initial few months were difficult because obviously there was no sport happening then suddenly sports started coming back. Specifically, what the buggy cam was able to do for us was maintain the idea of the “bubble” because in most of the tournaments that we worked in, the teams were in a different bubble and the camera teams were in another separate bubble. The buggy cameras were this device that allowed us to take the cameras in to be around players. We developed a hydraulic tower with the buggy so we could put mics and allow interaction with the commentators remotely. We kind of utilized this scenario to take the technology and enable more interaction that way. So the buggy camera filled in that gap of interaction between the two bubbles. It was a tough one but I think it all worked out well.
COVID’19- Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: Glad to hear that. I think those who were on-field would be Talal, Paulo, André, and Jamal. Talal, can you tell us of your experiences during the pandemic?
Talal Alhammadi: It was not an easy time. But we continued to manage all productions and requests that came to us. I believe in the first year of the pandemic, there was no production and when the time came, we had to quarantine the full team for about 2 weeks doing nothing just to keep them safe. It wasn’t an easy task especially since we don’t have enough resources to dedicate 20-30 members of our crew just to standby and make productions. And we had to test negative two or three days before the production to ensure that everyone was negative. If in a situation one person tested positive, it compromises everyone. We dealt with it and we’ve been managing.
COVID’19- Comment from UAE PL
Moderator: Jamal, from your side, how is your experience with missing a member of your crew to COVID or the struggle to get the PCR test on time?
Jamal AbdulNasser: The COVID protocol for football, though effective for our safety, restricted operations in so many ways. At first, it was the repeated tests, then after the second wave when the vaccine was introduced, there was another series of testing and vaccine. For the channel’s interview with the players, we had to adhere to the protocol by using boom mics. And till now, we still follow this. I remember a particular experience I had in the OB in Emirates club when one of the audio engineers from the production company from Live didn’t get his test. He was the manager of his team. Unfortunately, all his other colleagues tested positive for the virus. He was the only one working on the audio though he tried to manage the risk by making calls and working from his car. In the end, it worked out but the risks were high.
COVID’19- Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: I remember the last matchday of the last season when we had 3-4 productions at the same time, and then we got a couple of cases. It was upsetting for everyone. Paulo, is there anything you would like to add about your experience on that particular match day?
Paulo Alexandre: Yes COVID is a huge challenge because in the end when we’ve done our part, we can’t control the results. Sometimes the result came on time, sometimes it came late and other times it came out wrong. In this scenario, we had limited resources and we were doing a lot of matches on that same day. We put some plans in place but it was just a plan B because if we lose some guys, it would become noticeable. In the end, we were just hoping everyone had a negative result and to get the result on time because we had no control over the labs. A too early or late test was not admissible so it had to be exactly on time. It was very challenging but as usual, we always managed to bring the good out of every bad situation.
VAR System -Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: Of course. Talal, I have a question for you about utilizing the VAR system. A couple of years back we had no VAR on the field and now the VAR is a part of each match. How do you think it has affected output?
Talal Alhammadi: For me, I believe it has really added value to the output. The main point is using it effectively. Because when we take too long to make a decision, it becomes a waste of time, the players start to get cold and the viewers start getting worried at home. So I believe the technology has helped in many cases but the question of how to use it and how long do we need to use it is important. I think this season is much better than before, in the past seasons, it could take about 5 mins to reach a decision. So I believe it is adding value.
Moderator: Paulo, I will ask the same question as you. And on the subject of adding value, how do you think the extra elements like the tracking systems are affecting the output.
Paulo Alexandre: The VAR was very useful to the matches. It also helped us correct ourselves on the decisions we might have made without it. In the future, the VAR should be more open to the public. Maybe in the future, we should listen to what they are saying, or just some key points to understand better. This is done in some sports and has produced good results; people are now understanding better rather than painting the referees as the bad guys on the field. It is even beneficial to us in the terms of broadcasting. We have more prematch setups to do with the VAR because we need to calibrate our cameras and do some tests with them prior. I think it’s something that has added value to the production. For the extra elements, all elements that bring the statistics or new points to the viewers are welcomed by the production. It’s always a challenge to put them on air but it adds value.
Comment from Sponix
Moderator: As you said, there’s were a couple of challenges with the VAR. For example in the NFL, anyone in the venue was privy to the discussions and decisions concerning. They could listen and hear whats going on. I believe that might be the future for the VAR. If you can remember in 2016 when we had the first test for the VAR. It was only implemented in the second division in Brazil, everyone questioned it and now it is an important part of the game.
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: I’ll also like to add that I’m excited about the VAR system. I agree that the referee shouldn’t be the bad guy for the VAR system and it’s very good for the fans to understand that the decisions of the referee team including the VAR system are specific. I also wanted to add that one of the projects that we are working on with FIFA right now is visualizing the point of view of the referee from some specific moments during the match. It could be an added value to the VAR system. We had several meetings with the decision-makers in FIFA, the technology, innovation, and also the broadcasting department. We had several meetings which could be interesting. I think it could be very interesting to see what was the point of view of the referee at that specific moment and why he didn’t see that moment. Sometimes we have tested with the UEFA referee committee and the FIFA team and at certain times when we don’t understand the decision of the referee, we examine the eye focus of the referee to see where their focus was. And I think with the progression of the technology, the VAR system would be more interesting from a fan’s point of view as well.
Moderator: Back to the conversation you, I and Jamal had recently where we discussed the point of view of the referee, and we said it would be too much politics, and we should never think about it again. And now after four years, its people are getting interested.
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: Exactly. Because we’ve always been afraid to produce anything from the point of view of the referee for the fans unless it’s at the approval of the referee committee or the right holders especially FIFA or UEFA. And this is what they are looking at now.
Vertical Productions -Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: That’s good to hear. I remember another crazy idea we discussed which Talal immediately took a liking to. It was about the vertical productions. Talal, why did you think vertical production was a crazy idea?
Talal Alhammadi: Because it was not normal. We shot it easily. Like an everyday position if you’d prefer, which is very different from the way we did things. It was certainly crazy. We tested it once and then shot it. The challenge we had was having it shot that way, live. And I think that what will be nice is having a match on-air using the vertical setup. It certainly will be the next challenge. For me, I am not an engineer, so I don’t know how the technical department will find a solution to this but I hope there can be a way to solve it.
Comment from UAE PL
Moderator: I can imagine the struggle to even share the idea. Before I go to Paulo, Jamal, can you give us your feedback on that experience?
Jamal AbdulNasser: As you said, it was a crazy idea. But I think that’s the future. I believe that in three to five years, the main digital streaming will be on the vertical. The new generation doesn’t want to bother flipping the form. I think it was fun to watch the highlights and the goal normally, and then in vertical. The feedback of the cameraman and some of the crew showed that they didn’t have a nice experience shooting it because it was a struggle to always cover the ball in the vertical production.
Comment from LIVE HD
Moderator: We had a couple of discussions about that with the engineers and I remember that we pondered on flipping, moving, or just cropping the field altogether. Paulo, can you tell us your experience at that time.
Paulo Alexandre: It was very challenging because we had a lot of preparation and a lot of studies before we started. Interestingly enough, this is something that a lot of us in the broadcasting field internally fight against. We find it almost offensive (if I may use that word) when we see people taking pictures or recording videos in the vertical position. So we also needed to fight our principles. I remember sometimes when I was studying more about at home. I was watching a lot of videos in the vertical position, my son asked why I was watching videos vertically and I responded “Because your generation is too lazy to flip their phone, I need to do extra work to keep up with you.” But it was a good challenge because, at the end of the day, the younger generation is pushing the older generation to be more innovative.
We did two tests, in one of them, we used the same outside broadcasting that we were using in the production because it was a big OB. We divided the OB into parts and one part was used for the normal production while a few cameras were used for the vertical part. Another difficult part was to explain to the cameramen who were also from the older generation that from now on, they need to look through a narrower rectangle to catch everything. In the end, you can imagine, we started from 4:3 to 16:9 and then we flipped everything to 9:16. So all the framings were different. In the finals, we used one dedicated topic to do that but even the main concern was always to integrate the two productions in a way that we could complement them.
In the video we saw videos we saw some pictures that were not produced a hundred percent vertically, we used the sky cam. So it was a challenge to try to combine the two productions for us to have another point of view for the host production. Also, we could complement the vertical production with some of the footage from the host OB. It was very challenging for the cameramen because everything was very small especially for camera 1 because they needed to stand and there was a lot of grass. It was a very good challenge. I think the next step will be trying to use a standard. And through this, the technology can be developed to make it easier.
Vertical Production- Comment from WTV
Moderator: This is why we should always care for our fan’s feedback. Who knows? In a couple of years, we may have another shape or way of getting it done. I remember a discussion with the video engineers on how we could have output through a mobile device, telecasting…. those kinds of things. It was a difficult discussion. André, regarding the TV graphics, I remember you had a way to use the same TV graphics for two outputs: one for the vertical production, the other for the live output. Can you tell us what that experience was like?
André Chagas: What we did was because we were using a second OB to produce the vertical production, we were able to send a signal from our graphic machine. in the mixer, they were able to produce the graphics correctly, by that I mean in the middle of the screen. So you could see during the match, the full clock was always there with the timer running, and when there was a goal, with a goal squad watermark also in the correct position. In the future, I believed this will be a common occurrence. I see it from daughters, the way they consume media is completely different from mine. We have a huge TV at home but they prefer to watch videos on their mobile and iPad. I think the next challenge on the graphic side is perhaps building something specifically for this. We can use the same graphics on both so that whenever we put on the graphics, we can trigger the second machine but the graphics will be specifically for this kind of production.
Comment from UAE PL
Moderator: For the commercial marketing side, I think these ideas should be implemented to make more money and to sustain the idea. Malek, what do you think of that?
Malek Doughan: I think it’s very interesting and this is why we are going to introduce it in the ITA where we are going to launch new vertical productions. The sustainability of any good idea is reliant on how we can commercialize and monetize it. We’ve identified the fact that there is a market, there are those that are currently hooked on their devices and then the consumption on the second screen has been exponential in the last couple of years. We all predicted the disappearance of linear TV, I think it is on its way in one way or the other. The utilization of the second screen for us is an opportunity if not for vertical but also for OTT. So yes, we will be interested, we just need to start digging more around what will be the values for such products, and how we can first get a sponsor for it to be part of the field itself, maybe as a technology partner, and then, later on, be able to commercialize.
Comment from Quidich
Moderator: Maybe this is the last topic we have for the table but I will like to know from Rahat and Mohammad their feedback on the vertical production.
Rahat Kulshreshtha: I think it’s interesting that most of the discussion is about how many crazy things the league has done. It’s a difficult one because, in the game of soccer, players are either moving forward or backward with the ball, and when you are looking at 16:9, it’s always great to be able to see where the ball is going, so the moment you flip the screen vertically it becomes harder to frame. But it’s great that it was possible and looking at consumption trends, we are seeing one trend of vertical consumption and also this trend of being able to consume in complete 3D space and I think to the point of your discussion on metaverse. What’s happening now is that automatically you can convert the 16:9 feed into 9:16 and get the framing correct so that’s something that can be done to automate the workflow but also real-time conversion of what’s happening in 2D into a 3D environment. It’s really exciting to see how new consumption patterns are coming up, how new investors are driving the overall sports industry to make it more interesting for viewers and it’s great that leagues can innovate that quickly to enable all of these technologies. It’s interesting to see what happens next.
Comment from Sponix
Moderator: Mohammad, what’s your feedback on that idea?
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: As always, UAE Pro League always does amazing things. From a Sponix point of view, we’ve had some experience with the vertical output with some of our recent work with the Italian League, Serie A. For their social media, they wanted a specific format that was more vertical than one of the former works we did for Juventus and that was the first time we faced that kind of request from clients. And then, we made some developments to produce this kind of format as output however I think ninety-nine percent of the fans still love to see the match in the traditional format. That’s my point of view. From a technological point of view, we customize our solutions to be able to produce the right format for productions as well.
LIVE HD- What is next?
Moderator: It’s interesting how things go. I remember in 2007, there was a discussion about 3D telecasting, It was during the World Cup, I went in to the OB and I was amazed when I put on the special 3D glasses. It was amazing and I thought this will be the future. A couple of years after, nobody was talking about the 3D anybody, things changed, the fans didn’t like it and people like me who normally wear glasses couldn’t use two glasses at the same time. It disappeared just like Malek mentioned the disappearing of the linear TV. I believe it’s happening and it will happen and it may take some time to faze out. In general, I believe the whole world is reshaping itself and I think the best way to get the maximum benefit of the output is to follow what the fans like. Interestingly, we’ve spent two hours discussing everything around football apart from football itself. I believe it’s fascinating and people should understand that there are more than 500 people involved in making the 90 min shine on-air. As we close, I would like to go around and have a brief statement of how you think the future of the sport will be like from your perspective and that of your company. I will start will Paulo.
Paulo Alexandre: We can’t predict the future but I think the near future will involve implementing the innovations that we have, we can consolidate these innovations and create a better way to do it with a lot of space for improvement. And we will need more crazy ideas because these ideas are what push us to do more. The future will be more challenging.
Moderator: Talal, what do you say about that?
Talal Alhammadi: I think we create the future. We create and innovate things that we put out there to the world not the other way round. For me, I don’t think the challenge will ever stop.
Quidich- What is next?
Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Rahat?
Rahat Kulshreshtha: I think the short-term future is about augmented reality and the immersiveness into how the broadcast can use animation and graphics to make it more interesting. But I really think in the long-term future, what we are seeing as the big trend which is going to shift are the devices that are coming which are far more 3D and immersive in nature, content that has the potential to also become 3-dimensional where you can take the viewer right into the action to move and see from whatever perspective he likes. This is something we are working towards. That’s a very exciting project in the bags and we are looking forward to seeing how it evolves with new devices; AR and VR that are just around the corner.
Sponix- What is next?
Moderator: Mohammad, what do you see in the future?
Mohammad Ali Abbaspour: I think that using other technologies in the football world will increase as long as it doesn’t compromise the nature of the game. From the Sponix point of view, we have some great ideas and some crazy ideas and I believe that’s why we work with the UAE Pro League. For the personalizing of feeds for each of the fans based on the IP, technically we can do it right now if we have enough cloud servers. We can generation hundred, maybe two hundred different feeds from each match, it could be that a specific range of IP could have specific, customized sponsors. So I think personalizing the feeds for the fans will be a trend in the coming years. Also, we are working right now on releasing some crazy ideas of our immersive technology to show the match through the eyes of the players mixed with virtual reality in real-time. Technically, we think we can achieve this in the next two years and it will change the broadcasting of the match. You might have seen on the news that Manchester City has started something with … and also some other companies are working on that, but we have some technical proof that we can achieve that as well. I think the future of technology in the football world is very bright.
WTV- What is next?
Moderator: I will consider that as an announcement and I believe you should set up a meeting with Malek soon. André?
André Chagas: Like everyone mentioned, the future is in many of the crazy ideas we’ve discussed here. It’s going to be the new standard. Like the VAR, a lot of many international competitions have incorporated it into their sport. Whereas, a few years back, it was just a crazy idea. Of course, everything needs to be polished and improved upon. In fact, I think the new standards will emerge from all these crazy ideas. We are looking forward to continuing working with the UAE Pro League and Abu Dhabi Media, and to keep up with not only what the technology is bringing to us but also to present new things and utilizing what has been done over the years with new technology.
UAE PL- What is next?
Moderator: Jamal, what is your opinion on that? If I may highlight, we discussed one time that virtual reality can be used as a tool for checking what’s happening inside the match that watching the match.
Jamal AbdulNasser: The technology experts have already explained their part so on our own part, we’ll try our best to be up-to-date with the technologies. We’ll try new things, we’ll always be ready to be adventurous with crazy ideas. Regarding the future, I think the virtual elements will have a big role to play in the coming years. From this platform, I’d like to let you all know that we are always ready to take on any crazy or adventurous technology.
Conclusion and Final words
Moderator: I believe the word “crazy” has been used more than a few times on this roundtable. Finally, Malek, please go ahead with your opinion.
Malek Doughan: Thank you, Ammar, I won’t add to what our colleagues have explained. Instead, on behalf of everyone, I would like to thank you for a great moderation, and I also want to thank TKT for hosting us today and allowing us to have this discussion. We would love to see more of these sessions. You have conducted this session excellently. I am proud to be a part of this, and on behalf of the UAE Pro League, I would like to thank everyone in attendance for helping us dive into our League to explore the next cycle, and take bold steps together.
Moderator: I would like to say thank you to everyone for being here. For the next roundtable, we’ll be sharing the topic soon and it would be great to have you all here again. Thank you TKT. And have a lovely time.
