Anybody who has watched professional soccer may notice that a number of advertisements on the field are solely meant for the television audience. Most fields have advertisements painted near the goal, which appear 3D only to those watching from home.
Vizrt, a real-time graphics company, is raising those types of advertisements to the next level, as they have just developed the Viz Eclipse, a system that digitally replaces field-side advertisement boards.
So, viewers of a sporting event in America may get a completely different marketing experience than those watching in Europe, as advertisement boards on the side of the field are to be digitally altered for each specific region.
Vizrt is no stranger to this area of sports graphics and marketing. Their Viz Arena is responsible for much of the television graphics in professional soccer, from the yellow line denoting the offside line to virtually inserted advertisements. The Viz Arena was even used during this year’s NBA Finals, as the NBA’s broadcast center graphically inserted a Harbin Beer logo onto the court for their Chinese CCTV feed.
Of course this new Viz Eclipse is marketing genius, and it will surely draw a significant amount of attention. But, there is something to be said of the charm that comes with switching on a foreign sport and looking through all of the different advertising boards.
It also begs the question of how far we are to take augmented reality. Will fans of a sport have to physically trek to the stadium for the true experience?