Eurovision Media Services (EMS) – the business arm of the European Broadcasting Union – showcased a live demo of their latest remote graphics solution during the 2018 SportsInnovation Conference from 08-09 May at the ESPRIT Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany.

To maximise the reach and exposure of their events, sports federations need to personalize the audience experience. One of the main challenges for major events with international broadcast coverage has been working out how to adapt the language of TV graphics to improve fan engagement and make the content more accessible to audiences in any region of the world.

Until recently, the only way to achieve some level of TV graphics personalization was to produce several signal versions at the origin and transport them separately to rightsholders – a costly and complex operation. 

The latest solution for remote graphics developed by EMS allows sports federations to adapt TV graphical overlays for different geographies to get closer to key audiences and maximise the event value for sponsors and partners.

"Working closely with sport federations and managing their content well, we understand their ambition to address audiences around the world as well as global brands. Rather than imposing a common version of the sports programme on different regions, they would like to get closer to the viewers by using local languages, units, and regional sponsors," said Michele Gosetti, Head of Global Sales at Eurovision Media Services.

"We transmit one single feed across multiple geographical zones and insert personalized graphics at the destination, as the live signal from the event arrives to rightsholders." he continued.

Over the two-day event, EMS gave clients exclusive access to see the remote graphics solution in action. Three live football matches held in the ESPRIT Arena provided an opportunity to demonstrate technical solutions in conditions which are very similar to real live sport production environment. Visitors could see the original TV graphics in German replaced by Spanish, Russian and Chinese versions.