5VREAL: EMG / Gravity Media Italy and Vodafone contribute to innovative sports analysis and fan engagement project
Combining artificial intelligence, 5G and video analytics systems to enhance technical match analysis and enrich audience engagement, the 5G Volley Reality Experience & Analytics Live (5VREAL) Project was conceived and implemented by a partnership of companies and research institutes including the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, EMG / Gravity Media Italy, the Bruno Kessler Foundation, Small Pixels, and Vodafone Italy.
As part of this project, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano recently led an experiment on systems using AI to recognise phases and parameters of volleyball games and to generate data associated with video to support the development of game tactics or to enhance fan engagement by producing real-time highlights with augmented reality graphics for inclusion in the event’s coverage.
In the experiment, conducted at the Trento Sports Hall during an event involving women’s volleyball team Trentino Volley, remote broadcast production techniques and technologies based on 5G networks played a dual fundamental role. First, they enabled the acquisition of images and their transfer to the Edge Cloud hosting AI-based systems. Second, they enabled the creation of real-time highlights and made them available for playout in the control room.
The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano led a consortium of entities and companies engaged in developing technologies to achieve the project’s goals. In particular, the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK) and UniBZ focused on developing AI-based systems for analysing game phases. Small Pixels developed and provided its AI-based technology to enhance the video quality of compressed content. Vodafone installed a dedicated indoor coverage network at the Trento Sports Hall, leveraging the capacity and flexibility of its 5G network to ensure the required performance for mobile devices located there. It also established a private network connecting these devices to Edge Computing resources set up at the MCR in Cologno Monzese by EMG / Gravity Media Italy.
EMG / Gravity Media Italy built the entire technological infrastructure of the data centre, provided its production facilities, and implemented a low-latency remote contribution and production system based on Vodafone’s 5G Remote Media Production Platform.
The complete process developed by the partners enabled the filming of a volleyball match using four cameras connected via 5G to the remote production system of the edge data centre in Cologno and EMG / Gravity Media Italy’s Nova 126 mobile unit. Alongside broadcast cameras, the event was filmed with three smartphones, also connected via 5G to the Edge Cloud in Cologno, to demonstrate the feasibility of AI-based tracking even when the event is not produced for television broadcasting.
The AI-based systems’ processing results were displayed on a tablet showing the event video and the game data extracted by the systems. Clips enriched with augmented reality were integrated into the event’s programme as highlights.
The extracted data and generated content could also be consulted post-event for game analysis to support strategy development.
5G network solution
The experiment benefited from Vodafone’s 5G network solution designed for remote video contribution and production applications, extended with an Edge Computing node at the MCR data centre in Cologno Monzese by EMG / Gravity Media Italy. To maximise performance in terms of low latency and reliability, the Edge Computing infrastructure was made directly accessible to devices enabled on Vodafone’s 5G network through a direct and virtually dedicated connection.
This approach allowed devices equipped with specific non-commercial SIMs to utilise advanced features such as network slicing, which allocates the necessary resources to ensure substantial bandwidth (especially in upload) and extremely low latency levels. These resources are essential for enabling real-time transmission of high-quality video streams over a wireless network.
Additionally, these devices enjoyed a direct and dedicated connection, almost as if there were a direct line between the indoor coverage apparatus in the sports hall and EMG’s Edge Cloud. This was made possible by the high capacity and evolved functionalities of Vodafone’s advanced 5G infrastructure.
To maximise its network’s performance for audiovisual contribution and production uses, Vodafone contributed to developing dedicated devices, acquired and managed by EMG Italy for this occasion. These devices, comparable to backpacks commonly used in the broadcast sector, represent a significant evolution as they feature superior audio/video functionalities compared to what’s currently available on the market, integrating technologies such as bonding with precise operator network integration.
As a result, wherever a connection is established in Italy via one or more SIMs, data reaches the Cologno Monzese data centre in an average time of about 15 milliseconds without traversing the internet, thus avoiding impacts on bandwidth availability and latency. The connection characteristics (bandwidth and latency) depend only on the radio access quality, which is enhanced by the terminal’s features.
During the experiment, exceptional access performance was achieved, allowing terminals to operate with connectivity exceeding 700Mb/s in download and 100Mb/s in upload, with transport latencies consistently below 20ms.
The video contribution latency, thanks to the encoding and decoding performance of the devices and the data centre systems, was consistently under 150ms, enabling any contribution or remote production activity.
Read more The birth of the 5VREAL Project: A fusion of 5G and artificial intelligence in sports
The experiment also benefited from technology provided by Small Pixels. Its software, developed in collaboration with the University of Florence and based on pre-trained AI neural networks, achieved a significant video quality enhancement with the same compression technology and available bandwidth.
This proved crucial in eliminating visual artefacts such as pixelation, noise and distortion in contributions from smartphones, optimising both streaming and real-time transmission. This enabled the use of streams generated by regular smartphones to feed UniBZ and FBK systems for game data analysis and ball tracking, as well as for all subsequent data interpretations.
The infrastructure created at EMG / Gravity Media Italy’s Cologno data centre represents a consolidated asset ready for future developments to provide new services similar to those implemented during the experiment, such as remote production, on-site wireless production, AI-based video analysis, augmented reality content generation, and more, all with the simplicity and rapid deployment enabled by 5G network mobility.
On-site wireless production
This workflow complements remote production, where control is carried out using portable devices connected to the 5G network. Typical applications include outdoor sports events that would be costly to produce using traditional methods, especially when the programme’s purpose is not solely broadcasting. For instance, a mountain bike race where the organiser aims for high audience engagement on-site via LED walls while also streaming the event.
This solution, leveraging virtualised control in the data centre, allows cameras scattered across the race terrain to send signals visualised in real time on tablets (or laptops with dedicated control panels). Here, video mixers, audio mixers, graphics, and clip contributions are managed. The programme can then be sent to the streaming platform or LED wall via a 5G device with SDI/HDMI/IP inputs and outputs.
The Edge infrastructure currently available in EMG / Gravity Media Italy’s data centre could handle up to eight multicamera events in different locations, with signals transported through mobile devices developed specifically for Vodafone’s platform.
The EMG / Gravity Media Italy platform was designed by Luca Sciotti, who has been supporting Vodafone for several years in the development of the 5G Remote Media Production platform and its mobile devices.
Commenting on the results of the experiment, he remarked: “These solutions, as they evolve alongside the coverage and performance of mobile networks, open up new production scenarios or improve existing processes.
“Consider the possibility of using these highly efficient devices in studios, where they can provide superior performance in functionality, quality, and latency compared to traditional wireless camera systems. Alternatively, think about the capability to manage an event’s production entirely on-site without the need for expensive and bulky vehicles, which nonetheless remain essential for high-level productions.”
Contribution
Among the distinguishing features of the 5G Remote Media Production platform is its ability to enable point-to-point contribution anywhere, even between high-end mobile devices of a non-professional nature.
Unlike other solutions available on the market, this platform does not require devices paired with cloud servers or other infrastructure components. Two devices and a connection are enough to exchange up to four video signals (including UHD), service communications, control signals, etc. All this is achieved with point-to-point latencies of approximately 150ms and high reliability, thanks to the dedicated network portion in use.