The World Cup in France 98 made an important difference with respect to the technological deployment that was observed both in the organizers, responsible for the transmission of the event, and in the different television stations that were present.
Televisión Azteca selected a series of hardware and software tools that allowed it to reach a level never before seen in Mexico and gave it leadership for the quality of its coverage and transmissions.
The team of José Ramón Fernández, vice president of sports of TV Azteca, supported his talent and creativity in important technological resources: first, the two independent studios of the television station, at the International Media Center (CIM), in Paris, in which real and virtual sets added versatility to the production during the transmission of simultaneous matches. years.
Secondly, the Production Center, designed by Roberto Kenny, technical director of TV Azteca/Deportes, which was selected as the best, among the 120 facilities of the CIM.
The virtual protagonists
Using Orad HiTech's "Cyberset O" system, the television station combined real and virtual scenery, that is, a part of the commentary set at the World Cup was computer-generated and integrated into the real elements of the studio. Other virtual elements were embedded within the real set and vice versa, among which "Ponchito" stood out, a virtual character who interacted with the commentator at the table located on the real set.
"Ponchito", the only virtual character within the CIM, was possible thanks to a motion capture system with which the comedian Andrés Bustamante gave life to the cyberpersonage that, in turn, was generated through a Motion Capture system, integrated by the software "Typhoon" (Dream Team Inc.), to recognize the movement of the sensors; the hardware "Motion Star" (Ascencion Inc.), composed of a suit with 12 magnetic sensors whose movement is replicated by the body of the character; and the hardware "First Glove" (Dream Team Inc.), consisting of a pair of gloves with six sensors, each, which controlled, the first of them, the expressions and movements of the face, and the second, the preprogrammed effects.
Four cameras equipped with infrared emitters, with which the system detected its position and movement, allowed to place in a congruent way the virtual scenography with the different points of view. Two of them were mounted on tripods with computerized heads whose mechanisms transferred the coordinates of their position to the system. The third camera was mounted on a crane (Jimmy-Jib) and the fourth on a Steady-Cam.
The virtual set of the television station used three techniques of motion tracking: optics, by reading a reticle; the second, through infrared sensors; and the last, through computerized heads. This combination of real and virtual elements, in real time, together with the total freedom of movement of cameras, represented the technological vanguard in tools for the production, live, of television programs.
