COPENHAGEN - February 19, 2016 – JAI, a worldwide provider of high performance camera solutions, has joined forces with Tel Aviv-based Replay Technologies to provide television viewers with an innovative way to experience the most important moments in major sporting events. The revolutionary system, called freeD™ (free dimensional) by Replay Technologies, gained a new level of exposure recently as a featured component of CBS Sports’ Super Bowl football broadcast from Santa Clara, CA. CBS dubbed the system the “Eye Vision 360,” a reference to both its advanced vision capabilities and the iconic CBS “eye” logo.
The freeD system deployed at the Super Bowl utilized 36 of JAI’s Spark Series SP-20000 20-megapixel cameras mounted around the upper level of the stadium to continuously capture the action from every angle. To ensure success, Replay Technologies partnered with Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA) who provided sponsorship, as well as support with the installation of all the cameras and computer equipment.
Once installed, sophisticated algorithms were able to take the images from the array of cameras and create a complete, real-time, three-dimensional database of photo-realistic imagery. As plays were completed, the production team could use a virtual camera to move about this scene, raising, lowering, stopping, rotating, and otherwise manipulating the camera angle to give viewers the most immersive replays ever provided in a Super Bowl.
The CBS broadcast team utilized the system for multiple replays throughout the game, including the breaking of an imaginary “goal plane” to confirm one of the Denver touchdowns. The ability to spin the entire scene around in order to view it from different angles gave TV audiences an experience they have previously only seen in motion picture special effects, such as those pioneered in the movie “The Matrix.”
The Replay Technologies system was actually introduced at the 2012 Players Championship PGA golf tournament and later that summer at the London Olympic Games gymnastics event. Tennis, soccer, and basketball are a few of the other sports broadcasts where the system has been previously deployed.
Those earlier freeD implementations utilized lower resolution cameras with roughly 4,000 pixels in the horizontal direction. Now being built around JAI’s Spark Series SP-20000, the freeD system boasts more than 5,000 horizontal pixels per frame to provide the remarkable level of detail in the freeD virtual scene.
The SP-20000 color cameras also feature a built-in high dynamic range mode designed to handle the high contrast sun and shade conditions common in outdoor stadiums, golf courses, and other sports venues.
About the JAI Group
JAI is a manufacturer of high quality, industrial-grade cameras for the machine vision, transportation, sports, medical and scientific markets. Camera offerings include a wide range of spatial resolutions with both digital and analog interfaces, plus a range of innovative 2CCD and 3CCD prism-block cameras for demanding color, multi-spectral, and high-dynamic range applications.
Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, JAI has subsidiaries in the U.S., Japan, China, Finland and Germany.
About Replay Technologies
Our vision is to power the next big revolution in video by using our proprietary freeD™ technology to create novel viewing experiences. Ultimately, we believe the viewing experience of most broadcast related events, from sports to news to film, will be 'freed' from the limitation of what had been shot by physical cameras, raising both the storytelling possibilities and the user immersion possibilities to whole new levels.
We aim to disrupt the fundamental operating cost structure for broadcasting, cinema and other fields (biomedical, security, etc.) by the implementation of new viewing angles and un-manned cameras where none existed in reality. For more information, please visit: www.replay-technologies.com or www.freeD.tv.
