As strikers ranking first, second, and third in English Premier League goals this season, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Manchester City’s Sergio Agüero have created dozens of dazzling highlights. Beginning next month, fans, and viewers will be able to experience that trio’s shots from every conceivable angle.
Liverpool, Man City, and Arsenal—currently Nos. 1, 2, and 6 in the EPL table—have partnered with Intel to have the company’s volumetric True View replay system installed at Anfield, the Etihad Stadium, and the Emirates Stadium, respectively. The high-tech video systems rely on 38 ultra-high-definition 5K cameras to provide periscopic 360-degree replays. Volumetric video relies on cubic voxels rather than planar pixels to reproduce imagery with depth. Intel will also help produce a laser wall, which is a virtual plane that can show precise player positioning.
The immersive replays will debut on Sunday, Mar. 10, when Arsenal hosts Manchester United. Initially, the Intel True View system will only be available for Premier League matches played at these three stadiums. No agreements with broadcast rights holders have been announced—although that is expected—so, initially, the replays will be limited to each team’s self-produced content for various digital and social channels.
Defending EPL champion Man City has scored 10 more goals than any other club this season, and is known for a style of play that is “forward, attacking style and ultimately very attractive,” said Peter Laundy, the VP director of partnership planning and creative at City Football Group.
“We’re fortunate that, as result of having Pep Guardiola as your coach and the exciting young team that we have, we play a very attractive style that a number of commentators have referred to as ‘beautiful football,’” Laundy said. “Fortunate that we are to be delivering that on the pitch, I suppose mostly importantly, [then] we need to be sure we are engaging and entertaining our followers around the world.”
Laundy and former City Football Group chief commercial officer Tom Glick first saw the technology when visiting Intel’s headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., in summer 2017. They viewed some of True View’s NFL footage and immediately were drawn into its potential for their sport. Laundy said that the club strives to be a leader as a content creator and can easily see uses for True View replays in its City TV channel.
Intel has deployed True View across a number of high-profile sports and events. Most recently, the tech was incorporated into CBS’ Super Bowl LIII broadcast from Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It also has appeared in the NCAA Basketball Tournament and in Spain’s La Liga, where the system is currently installed in six stadiums, including the home venues of powerhouses FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Atlético Madrid.
“I think we can take our learnings from the country of Spain and improve, embellish, and really let our partners—Man City, for instance—put their hands in the clay with us and to build and to tailor a very specific Manchester City opportunity,” said Howard Wright, Intel Sports’ AVP of business development. “So the tech is the same, the camera is the same, the hardware is the same, but the digital storytelling can be really, really unique.”
The laser wall would seem to be of particular use in soccer when determining when a player is offsides or not. As of now, however, there are no plans to incorporate True View into the video assistant referee technology. To do that would require both league office approval and presumably uniform installation for all 20 clubs.
Speaking generally, Wright said there have been conversations with leagues about implementing True View into officiating replays and explained what he sees as its potential in that area, saying that his group is trying to bring “all the objectivity into the game and as little subjectivity as we can. When these systems are installed in a venue, it gives you mathematical certainty where the ball, where the player, where the ref, and everybody else is.”
Similarly, Laundy added that the idea is to use this tool strictly for fan engagement purposes, though, of course, the footage could be supplied to performance analysts or coaches if such a use became evident.
“Similar to what you’ve seen us do with other cornerstone partners like the Olympics, like the NBA, like the NFL, and even with La Liga,” Wright said, “we now have brand-new, state-of-the-art systems, optimized software, state-of-the-art hardware to voxelize, digitize, and personalize content from this beautiful team that plays this beautiful game.”