The turnkey live production and streaming platform now features three models with expanded AI capabilities to automatically produce and stream 180-degree sports action from any location.
CP Communications, which provides solutions and services for live event productions, has announced the next-generation of Mobile Viewpoint’s IQ-Sports Producer (IQ-SP) family of automated live sports production systems.
Powered by AI and supporting a range of outdoor and indoor sports from football to hockey, the updated series offers several key technology enhancements and adds a new entry-level model – IQ-SP Lite – built for customers focussed on single-sport productions with one output stream.
Designed to remove the need for an onsite camera crew, IQ-SP makes professional sports production affordable for minor leagues, training camps, and universities. CP Communications is the exclusive North American distributor of Mobile Viewpoint solutions.
IQ-Sports Producer promises to capture, stream and re-publish sports events with ease, and gives players and coaches an affordable solution for recording practices and create game footage.
Mobile Viewpoint has strengthened the AI capabilities in the new generation of IQ-SP which includes the automated highlight creation. IQ-SP can automatically detect scoring plays and create individual replay clips or post-game highlight packages for publishing to social media and other outlets with minimal manual intervention, saving producers significant turnaround time, effort, and staffing costs.
Mobile Viewpoint has also added a scheduler to LinkMatrix, its cloud-based management platform, that automates game schedules in advance without an operator. IQ-SP can also now automatically monitor the onsite clock when games start and stop, and the scoreboard to provide an automated graphical overlay.
The IQ-SP Pro and IQ-SP Premium configurations also leverage Mobile Viewpoint’s IQ-xCam 180-degree cameras for high-end productions. Available with two or four 4K cameras in each housing, the IQ-xCams capture panoramic images at a full 60 frames per second for demanding, broadcast-calibre requirements.
The Pro and Premium models support additional virtual streams that can be defined within the system to follow the action of choice. Users can drag and drop varied fields of view into the image, and add overlays including scoreboard content (clock and score), sideline and goal views, instant replay content, and automatic summaries and highlights. Operators can select and analyse other streams from the field of play during and after the event.
Other new upgrades include support for an additional microphone array to augment the cameras’ built-in microphones, enabling producers to complement their exceptional video coverage with higher-quality audio.
“IQ-SP seamlessly stitches together a video from up to four 4K cameras to create the complete field of view required, which ensures that our customers can follow and capture live action of any sport with exceptional quality,” said Michel Bais. Managing Director at Mobile Viewpoint. “As well as AI following the action of the ball, sports producers have the option to seamlessly zoom into the play and maintain a very high quality of video definition, without even having to be on the field – a benefit both during and after the game.”
“IQ-Sports Producer fills an important need in the sports production world right now, particularly as a community, high school and lower-level collegiate sports return to action,” said Kurt Heitmann, CEO, CP Communications. “Importantly, the expanded line makes it possible for users of any level to deliver professional-quality sports content back to a studio using a virtual production strategy with no on-location staff required. Mobile Viewpoint’s AI innovations make all three packages winning options for virtually any sports organisation.”