Ncam Implements Camera Tracking System For Match TV

Ncam, in collaboration with Vitec Videocom, has implemented its camera tracking system for Match TV, the new Russian broadcaster.

The studio provided a unique set of challenges for Ncam which were comprehensively solved through on-site development, refining the product to meet the needs of all users.

Match TV is a sports broadcaster, and built a studio in Ostankino, Moscow to provide the anchor for live events from across Russia and around the world.

"The designers chose a distinctive look, employing translucent and reflective plastics, a black shiny floor and highly reflective walls. This was coupled with multiple LED video walls, and lighting set to create lens flares," explained David Stroud, senior product specialist at Ncam. "The way that our system works is by forming a 3D map from many points of high contrast in the scene, and using that map as the reference for camera moves. With so many dynamic reflections there were very few high quality points to track from. The whole studio space was used, with four permanent stages in a 30m x 20m space, accessed dynamically by a 13m technocrane.

"We started by tilting the witness camera bar up by 40˚ to look at the lighting grid," he said. "The next challenge we faced was that we were detecting significant flicker from the LED lights: not visible at 50 frames a second but clearly visible at the shorter exposure times required to track fast motion. Part of our on-site development was to fine tune our detection algorithms to cope with this. In turn that goes into our core software, making the system even better for all our users."

In the past augmented reality – adding convincing computer-generated elements to a real scene – has been expensive and cumbersome. Cameras needed either precision mounts and mechanical tracking, or references needed to be incorporated, both calling for time-consuming alignment routines and recalibration as well as large capital investments. The Ncam technology provides an affordable route to very high precision camera tracking with zero set-up time and six degrees of freedom: X, Y and Z camera position; pan, tilt and roll, allowing the camera to be used on any mount, Steadicam and handheld. Because it tracks points of high contrast it can be used in a studio or on location.

(CD/LM)