Augmented reality (AR) graphics are set to feature heavily in the penultimate and final Formula E races of the season in Berlin and London, respectively, which both take place in July. The championship has recently invested in kit that was tried, tested and used live in the 2025 Jakarta E-Prix, which took place on 21 June, by host broadcaster, Aurora.

With the new AR kit from Mo-Sys and Ncam acquired, Aurora’s team, alongside those from the respective AR manufacturers, set to quickly creating, developing and testing the graphics so they could be used in the live Jakarta E-Prix broadcast.

“We’re going to do a lot more of this, much more three dimensional. I think we want to be a lot more bold, like the American style of broadcasting”

In Indonesia, on TX Day -3 in Jakarta the Aurora crew was busy building and testing the AR camera tracking systems in the TV compound on site. On TX Day -2, the AR cameras were deployed into the field and calibrated with Mo-Sys providing tracking remote support from London, and on TX Day -1, Al Kamel, the timing provider for the championship, worked on the graphical element placement and keying into Unreal Engine, and Aurora tested and approved the results, ready for live AR utilisation on the race weekend.

In Jakarta, the first race where Aurora was able to use the new AR systems and graphics, AR systems were placed on cameras 2, 12, 15 and 16. An Ncam engineer, Anna Masko, was onsite, while Mo-Sys engineers dialled in to support the ground crew.

Tests and decisions

The Camera 2 position, using an AR system from Mo-Sys, was looking down the home straight. Speaking to SVG Europe from the TV compound in Jakarta, Westbury Gillett, executive director for the FIA Formula E World Championship at Aurora, says: “Normally, I would have the AR graphic on our Camera 1, which is slung under the bridge. But – and this is one of the things we’re learning now – because there’s pedestrians walking over that bridge, the bridge slightly bounces; we’ve got a stabilised lens on that camera, and the AR doesn’t work on stabilised lenses, so hence I can’t put it on that bridge.

“It’s a lot of compromises that we’re trying to work around. So the AR camera is on Camera 2 instead.”

The remote camera operator for Camera 2 was Vincent Eijpe, using a pan-bar camera system with a Canon 46x lens. The AR GFX operator was Lucas Mermet, and the Mo-Sys engineer was Joe Daniels. This camera’s possible AR graphics were Laps to go, Final Lap, and Finish.

At TX Day -3 when SVG Europe spoke to Gillett in Jakarta, the team was still working out exactly what graphics would be shown on Camera 2, with choices including 3D text in the sky and fake LED graphics.

For Camera 12, which also used the Mo-Sys system, the choices at TX Day -3 were between a jumbotron in the sky or a big screen lower down on the corner. After tests and decisions, the big screen won through so the crowds on the grandstand were not hidden by a graphic.

Onto Camera 15 and Camera 16, these were using the Ncam system in Jakarta, keyed onto the track itself. Both were set up on the same corner; Camera 15 was on a four metre high scaffold, operated in person by Alex De Bont, with Paulo Molino as the AR GFX operator. Both camera’s AR options were Attack Mode and Driver Avatar. And Camera 16 on a 15 metre hoist was operated by James McKenzie Robinson, with Molino also on graphics.

Bold graphics

Notes Gillett: “A lot of what we’re doing is allowing us to use the budget to get some really funky, cool editorial graphics out of this to entertain the viewers, but also we can utilise the kit to put partner sponsors and logos and stuff in places that are, maybe, hard to reach and expensive to do.”

On the Hero Driver Pole Position graphic, which was also used in Jakarta, Gillett says: “We’re going to do a lot more of this, much more three dimensional. I think we want to be a lot more bold, like the American style of broadcasting.

“I think sometimes in Europe we’re quite conservative in our approach, and I think in broadcast it is the same. But you’re seeing a lot more of this bold style of graphics coming in. Aurora specifically is very keen on doing this type of stuff and across E1, these projects where we’ve got a lot of virtual graphics and keying over the water, and you’ve probably seen SailGP and stuff. So we’re using a lot of the AR now to story-tell,” Gillett concludes.