Since October 2010, wTVision has dominated surf events all around the world. The company’s dedication to the live broadcasts of such historic events engaged the worldwide audience.
From Hawaii to French Polynesia, wTVision accompanied several competitions in their never-ending search for the perfect wave, using SurfStats CG, its software dedicated to surf. Responsible for data integration and management and the graphics playout operation, the software keeps the relevant data permanently on the screen. Being always ready to take on any broadcast graphics assignment on a service basis, wTVision has complete solutions for all major surf events.
During all these years, the company’s values have conquered important clients like ASP/WSL with whom wTVision works since 2010 and is the official graphics provider since 2014, when the broadcast rights were bought by WSL, having covered all the events including the World Surf League, Big Wave Tour, US Open, Australian Open and the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing.
About the collaboration with WSL, Jason Rem, WSL Executive Producer commented : “It has been an incredible partnership and we appreciate what wTVision and its team have done these past two years to elevate our broadcast graphics to a level never seen before in surfing.”
With the knowledge and experience in offering turn-key solutions, wTVision supports a large number of live events each year, allowing fans around the world to enjoy surf competitions without having to travel to the distant corners of the earth.
According to Jason Rem’s opinion, “The wTVision team has shown unparalleled dedication in helping with the creation and execution of our graphics package for the WSL tour. Their operators work very hard to not only execute graphics, but also add value by understanding our sports”.
The true is that all of this dedication and hard work enabled the company to develop a great application that can be used in different environments, allowing a single operator to manage everything, which optimizes the costs of logistics. This operator always makes sure that all data is entered correctly and manages data scoring, guaranteeing that the system is working properly, and also launches all the graphics. Being extremely portable and adaptable, SurfStats CG allows our specialized operators to go anywhere in the globe to cover any event, turning a graphics coverage on a “one-man-show”.
We all know that due to its popularity, surf is being practiced worldwide, promoting the appearance of a specific culture marked by its lifestyle. The act of riding an ocean wave while standing on a surfboard has been covered by all areas of technology. And wTVision is always riding on the crest of the wave to keep up with this online and digital age. This technological development opened up new possibilities to communicate with the consumers, and virtual advertising, for example, had a strong influence in making live attendance more attractive to sport fans.
By creative integration of the brand and product into a TV show or program, highly visual and rich impact is reached. With its virtual system, wTVirtual Ads, wTVision provides a powerful selling tool that is used in live productions like surf events.The company high skilled professionals use advanced 3D software and their creativity to produce memorable advertisements and richer experiences to all TV viewers. This system allows to promote the competition sponsors as well as to sell space for advertising on live events, creating new means of revenue.
Advances in technology also had a profound impact on sport performance analysis, improving the quality of feedback to players and providing spectators with more accurate information. Sport events are always looking for new technologies that will inspire and fire the enthusiasm of their audiences.
Being here to stay, social media and digital technologies establish the connection between a sport and its lifestyle, offering opportunities for more innovation and creativity, increasing its number of fans. In fact, technologies strongly influence surf experience, affecting both its production and consumption.
Today, surf spectators want more than simply watch the surfers and once this expressive sport action takes place in the water and the fans are far away from the arena, the introduction of new technologies helps to capture the genuine athlete experience.
When asked about the social platforms’ role in live broadcasts, Alex Fraser, wTVision Chief Technical Officer, said: “For extremely long online coverage of sports like a surfing championship event that spans for several hours, social media plays a crucial role in keeping the event lively and one to one interaction with commentators deepens the connection with the audience in ways not possible before.”
About wTVision latest surf projects, this summer from July 6 to 17, the company provided on-air graphics to J-Bay Open, held in South Africa and after that, between 25 and 31 July, to Vans US Open of Surfing, in California.
Next is Billabong Tahiti Pro, that also promises to be quite an event, from August 19.
All in all, during the first seven months of this year, wTVision covered 23 events in 8 different places.
