Quidich's augmented reality production reaches new heights with AJA KONA 4 and GEN 10

Quidich Innovation Labs develops with AJA and Vizrt an innovative drone-based virtual reality production solution.

Audience engagement has never been more crucial for sports and entertainment providers than in today's digital age. As modern consumers prefer personalized and interactive experiences across digital platforms and devices, augmented reality (AR) is quickly becoming a preferred storytelling tool in the live production community.

Getting ahead of this trend, the technological pioneers of Quidich Innovation Labs have developed an innovative drone-based AR production solution to serve a range of clients in the sports and entertainment space, from the Indian Premier League to the Men's Hockey World Cup, among others.

Leveraging industry-standard hardware, such as video and audio input and output cards AJA THERE IS 4 and HD/SD sync generator GEN10, the Mumbai, India-based team delivers memorable, interactive audience experiences that drive repeat business from customers.

Rahat Kulshreshtha, Founder and CEO of Quidich, states that "When we created Quidich, drone technology was relatively nascent and a rare commodity in India, as most aerial cinematography was done by helicopter. We saw the opportunity to use this technology to make live production from the sky much more affordable and efficient, and we got to work, developing drone systems to capture aerial images of cities, stadiums..."

“Then AR technology came on the scene, which we knew could add a whole new dimension to live production, and we saw our next big evolution,” he adds.

Spatio, the drone-based AR production solution the Quidich team has developed, allows them to build graphics for live streaming that can interact with the movement of the drones' cameras in the air.

Workflow

For each client's production, cameras installed on the drones capture aerial images in 1080i full HD, which are sent to a base station on the ground and then to a studio. There, the video images are fed into three workstations with AJA KONA cards and fed into a graphics system Vizrt, where the Quidich team adds effects augmented reality in real time to improve the game's narrative.

The final result is sent to the control room and then distributed directly to the public around the world. He AJA Software Development Kit (SDK) It allows Spatio to integrate the output into your workflow in real time and AJA's GEN10 provides synchronization, so that all video signals can be genlocked.

Consistency is essential for all Quidich productions, which can be a challenge when you are covering multiple matches simultaneously. “We often deploy multiple teams at the same time and take pride in ensuring a quality standard,” adds Kulshreshtha.

“Our AJA team plays an important role in this – we can always count on them to keep our systems running smoothly and the quality of our output consistent, even when working with different teams across a wide range of geographies.”

Kulshreshtha concludes by stating that "in addition to these advantages, the AJA SDK is accessible and intuitive, which makes our daily lives a lot easier, and the AJA support team is extremely reliable. They are responsive and quick to resolve any issues in a timely manner, and there is nothing more valuable than that in the live production business."

En 2021, Quidich también planea elevar el nivel de calidad de los contenidos que puede ofrecer a los clientes con la producción en high dynamic range (HDR) supported by the conversor HDR/WCG en tiempo real AJA FS-HDR.