ESPNs game talk show Around the Horn, completed 3600 episodes, turned sweet 16 this week and they are incorporating a new look of the show with augmented reality (AR) which will be aired on 5 November.
With the introduction of AR, host Tony Reali and a regular change of four daily national sports media panelists will be introduced to new graphics and animations, a new logo and colour palette, a fresh musical theme, and more.
Around the Horn was first aired on ESPN in 2002 as a light-hearted competitive game show revolved around current sports topics. 16 years later, the show has been re-imagined with the enhancement of the state-of-the-art and aesthetically revamped with a purpose to make fans enjoy ESPN senior director, original content Alex Tyner expressed on the occasion.
A team of engineers, designers, integrators and technicians from ESPN’s remote production operations unit, ESPN Creative Services Motion Graphics Design and the DCTI Technology group have created a fully-integrated, three-dimensional studio environment that will result in a completely re-imagined interaction between Reali and the four daily panelists.
With the introduction of mo-sys camera tracking with Vizrt for graphics rendering, the studio will influence the AR technology to allow the show’s guest panelists to appear in-studio with Reali. And the panelist can be enlarged, shrunk, isolated and more through AR.
From his touchscreen controls, Reali will continue to mute and award – or take away – points, while now having the ability to use new social media-inspired filters to react to the arguments made by the panel.
“Augmented reality is something we’ve wanted to try for years. A show with an impeccable scoring system and an immaculately wielded mute button just beg for that type of total immersion. The technology of this studio will take the video-game element of Around The Horn to the next level while also enhancing the debate and interplay of our panel,” said Reali, who has hosted more than 3,300 shows since being named to the role in February 2004 in the official ESPN blog.
With the introduction of AR in the news broadcast, we are going witness the new era of shift for television. When sports meet AR technology it will be undoubtedly impressive budge to witness.