XD Motion supports France Télévisions on Coupe de France final

XD Motion provided its X fly 3D for both the French Cup Final and the League Final

XD Motion has revealed that it was recruited to help the host broadcaster of the Coupe de France, France Télévisions, with its coverage of the 2020 final between Paris St Germain (PSG) and St Etienne on 24 July.

The game, won by a goal to nil by PSG, was the first match to be held at the Stade de France in five months, following the COVID-19 lockdown.

France Télévisions engaged XD Motion to provide its X fly 3D for the French Cup Final and repeated the request a week later on 31 July for the 2020 League Cup final, the Coupe de la Ligue, between Paris St Germain and Lyon.

Due to COVID-19 health and safety restrictions, the Stade de France, could only allow 5,000 spectators to view the Cup Final instead of its full capacity of 80,000.

Health and safety concerns extended to the broadcast crew, including XD Motion’s technical team. All staff were required to fill out COVID-19 questionnaires prior to being granted access to the stadium. Once inside, each team member had to remain in the centre of a four-square metre area so as to keep a one-metre distance between themselves and any other person.

France Télévisions used two OB trucks, rather than one, for each match to allow staff to socially distance during the production.

Benoit Dentan, chief executive officer at XD Motion, said: “Our technicians had to prepare the X fly with numerous, very restrictive rules that were in place due to the virus, wearing masks permanently. Restricted zones where the teams were located were 100% closed to any access for our technicians, which was part of what we had to manage during the installation.”

XD Motion has also announced that, as part of a series of augmented reality (AR) R&D trials, the company helped to successfully ‘teleport’ a TV presenter from a Paris studio to a set in Toulouse where she was able to co-present a dummy TV show live, making use of 3D objects as she did so.

The production test made use of two robotic ARCAM cameras with all movement, timing and frame synchronisation and control work done from Toulouse, using a combination of fibre and 4G for transmission. Several camera tracking technologies were combined to complete the test, each feeding into a real-time 3D graphics engine that generated the AR and gave the impression that the presenter had been teleported to Toulouse.

One of the tracking systems used was ‘Easy Track’ which is said to be capable of producing AR using any type of camera including a dolly or a Steadicam.

The so-called LARP demo was completed in conjunction with Videomage, the French studio and post-production house, and Avant Garde Imaging. The other partners were Master Films, Ventuz and SolidAnim.