The British and Irish Lions rugby squad taking on reigning World Champions South Africa in an upcoming summer tour was recently announced via live stream, across multiple global broadcast networks. Global integrated marketing agency, CSM Sport & Entertainment produced and directed the full show and appointed technical solutions specialist White Light (WL) to deliver the broadcast services, via their SmartStage® extended reality (XR) studio in London.

Working in close collaboration with FRAY Studio, a custom set was created using the Lions’ digital assets and imported into the Unreal Pre-Visualisation tool. This enabled the creative team to see exactly which shots could be achieved and make changes as needed to sponsor logos and other content, in advance of the live show.

WL’s strategic partner SFL captured outside broadcast footage from Cardiff, which included the full-body teleportation of the Lions team captain – Alyn Wyn Jones, into the SmartStage® environment for interviews.

Fraser Carr-Gomm, WL’s Gallery Manager comments: “On the day, we managed the studio floor ensuring that everything ran to schedule, as well as managing the streams to multiple broadcasters, social media platforms and live transmission recordings. An onsite editor was creating segments to be sent out to press and broadcasters and pushed live immediately after the announcements were being made. Virtual press conferences with the captain and coaching staff were conducted over Zoom and everything was seamlessly integrated into the SmartStage® extended reality (XR) studio, where presenter Lee McKenzie was hosting in-person.”

Adam Shapland, Associate Director at CSM said ‘The delivery of the squad announcement is a hugely significant moment for sport in 2021 and a world first for any rights holder. It was fantastic to be able to work with The British and Irish Lions to bring this to life and show the world what the future of live experiences and events can look like for the next generation of fans. CSM and White Light’s expertise and knowledge in this space, coupled with the excitement and anticipation of rugby’s most prestigious tour, made for an unforgettable squad announcement. And there is much more to come!’

The team announcement was broadcast via 40 worldwide sports networks, across six different streaming platforms and reached up to 100,000 concurrent viewers.

To find out more about and SmartStage®, please visit: www.SmartStage.tech or contact us

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