Sky Italia to use Piero Technology for World Cup

Red Bee Media's Piero system, the first technology of its kind that enables better analysis of sports games, has been sold to Sky Italia and will be used in the broadcaster’s World Cup coverage.
Piero enables viewers to see 'play' from angles that can not be captured by cameras.
The Piero technology transposes pictures of real players into a virtual stadium, where it is possible to view and analyse play from different angles in animated sequences. Offside, forward passing and other offences can be seen from the best angle for analysis - even if the play has not been captured at this angle.
Sky Italia plans to use Piero in its football coverage on an ongoing basis and first used Piero on April 18 2006 in its coverage of the Champions League semi-final of AC Milan versus Barcelona.
Andy Townsend, Design Systems Manager at Red Bee Media, said: "We are thrilled to be working with Sky Italia. They have a real appetite to make the most out of their World Cup footage - new and from their archive. Piero is the only graphic system of its type with a seemless transition from real images into a virtual stadium. The Piero graphics can be integrated with match statistics to create an inclusive package for in-depth tactical analysis."
As well as giving the ability to view play from different angles in virtual stadiums, Piero also features the ability to track players across the grass and place pointers and badges on the pitch in 'live' video. It can also be used to place virtual advertising in real footage or virtual stadiums.
Piero is operated using an easy-to-use touch-screen interface, which programme presenters and pundits can operate on-air. It allows them to draw directly on the pitch, even with a moving camera, and can switch between real and virtual views at the click of a button.
The Piero technology is named after Piero della Francesca, one of the great artists of the early Italian Renaissance who also wrote treatises on geometry and perspective and was one of the first to apply the techniques to painting.
(GB)