Robycam flies indoors with the International Swimming League

Robycam, a stabilised cable suspended camera system and provider of augmented reality (AR) visual graphics integration, developed by Movicom, helped to deliver state of the art visuals to the International Swimming League’s inaugural event in Indianapolis and will do for the the following event in Naples this weekend, in conjunction with Girraphic graphic services.

The Robycam four-point cable camera system with stabilisation and tracking capability has been wowing audiences in Europe and Asia for many years, providing dynamic and innovative camera angles to directors and producers of live events. Robycam now brings its unique technology to the US.

The system will be in place for seven ISL competitions over the next several months, four of which will take place in the US, including the grand finale at the Mandalay Bay Event Centre in Las Vegas on 20 and 21 December.

The Robycam’s compact design and small footprint makes it ideal for indoor and small venue operations. Compact winches can be installed vertically even in very confined spaces, still providing enough pulling force to maximize working height for the camera and achieve an extremely small drop angle of 4.5º.

“ISL wants to be a cutting edge sports project and definitely wants to deliver unique viewer experiences, which no one has seen before. With Robycam’s technology that is possible. The Robycam camera system contributes significantly to our idea of storytelling. Technology doesn’t have to just serve technology; it must add to the live narrative. Robycam helps us do that,” said Arnaud Simon, responsible for content production and media distribution for ISL, CEO of in&out stories.

The International Swimming League is a new professional competitive swimming format. Altogether, seven competitive meets are taking place in 2019, four in the US and three in Europe.

The league was designed to meet the evolving demands of swimming sports fans, broadcasters, and athletes. The International Swimming League combines elite team sports performance, live entertainment and worldwide multi-platform fan engagement.

As well as providing 360 event video, bringing viewers into the swimming sports action in an innovative and immersive way during the actual ISL swimming races, the Robycam camera system was used in conjunction with Girraphic’s VizRT broadcast design services to create three-dimensional graphics for scores, athlete standings and program bumpers. Using built-in Robycam tracking data for live AR the broadcast team was able to utilise the space at the Natatorium on the campus of IUPU Indianapolis as a backdrop to a futuristic and engrossing visual experience for viewers.

Commented Nathan Marsh, CEO of Girraphic: “Girraphic had a great experience integrating Vizrt virtual graphics into the ISL’s coverage of their brand-new swimming league. We had the pleasure of working with the team at Robycam utilising their cutting-edge cable camera system. We offered up a vast array of augmented virtual info graphics in the live coverage.

“The client’s wish to use the AR with such a high frequency was greatly assisted by the Robycam system’s ability to prerecord flight patterns and play them back live,” added Marsh. “This eliminated the potential for any pilot error and allowed our graphics operators to know exactly when to trigger their graphics. Also, it was a huge help to the production’s ability to ensure such a high paced broadcast was able to keep in time as they rolled through events. It was a fun event and we are looking forward to seeing how far we can push the coverage of this new format forward with all our new colleagues at the ISL.”

The ISL broadcasts will be available live to viewers on Eurosport, ESPN, Claro Sport and other networks around the globe.