Let the games begin; with the Winter Olympics earlier this year, the World Cup set to begin in Japan and Korea later this month, as well as the 2008 Olympics to be hosted in China on the distant horizon, broadcasters are, understandably, quite preoccupied with sports. (Sports Broadcast).(Brief Article)

Sports coverage has become one of the fastest growing and competitive areas of broadcasting, a fact that seems to be fuelling an explosion in new production technology. But while viewers demand that each anguished expression and throbbing temple is captured on screen with crystal clear precision, increasingly what they see during half time is far from real.

This partly explains why despite the perceived downturn afflicting television worldwide, virtual technology specialist Orad saw a significant boost in sales in the three months to last November, especially in Europe and South America--and the demand is expected to continue.

"According to Kagan World Media, total sports rights expenditures in Europe are expected to grow from US$3.3 billion in 1998 to $7.5 billion in 2008," says Avi Sharir, Orad's president and CEO. Most observers anticipate a similar expansion worldwide.

Orad's particular growth areas are in virtual advertising, sports graphical overlays, play simulations and analytical replay tools, based on recent R&D efforts in the run-up to the forthcoming FIFA 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan (May 31 to June 30).

The superimposition of virtual advertising onto the pitch or even across existing perimeter billboards is a style issue where audience reaction is sharply divided along regional lines. Northern Europe is in the vanguard of the anti lobby, while elsewhere, broadcasters welcome the extra revenue stream these placements provide.

For instance, Mexican Telecom specialist Genetix has signed a four-year contract to supply virtual ads for live events to several Mexican broadcasters using Orad's market-leading IMadGINE system, in which Orad will receive percentage of advertising sales.

Last year, US sports graphics company Sportvision supplied the first virtual billboard system ever used on the hallowed World Series baseball games, featuring the ability to differentiate ads shown to the US domestic feed on Fox and the global feed produced by MLB International. Broadcaster ESPN has since announced it will use the system on all Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts throughout the 2002 Major League Baseball season.

More recently, sponsors' messages were inserted into the international telecast of April's West Asian Games in Kuwait City--including for example a corporate logo on the goal sides during football matches and on the floor in hand-ball--using the Epsis Virtual Imaging system from Symah Vision of France.

As well as real-time advertising and sponsorship tools, Symah's product range includes on-air graphics, enhanced reality, 3D analysis and media management, all working on standard NT platforms with proprietary software and parallel computing hardware. The …