The secret behind football stadiums' advertising boards that's making fans scratch their heads

Publish date: 2024-06-03

Social media users have been taken aback after realising that the adverts seen on the boards surrounding the stadium pitches are different based on the channel or country you’re watching from.

A Twitter user told his followers: ”Today I learned that stadiums can have ads depending on the channel and country.”

This means that people watching the same match in France can see French adverts around the pitch, those in England can see English ones and so on.

READ MORE: We put the England team through FaceApp and the results are endearing

The special effects aren’t done by green screen but instead through the use of Virtual Replacement Technology. This tech allows different broadcasters to overlay topical adverts on top of the adverts that those sitting in the stadium can see.

The same wizardry is used to make virtual billboards and also to edit sports, such as creating the finish lines in horse racing.

Another Twitter user provided a more in depth explanation of how the technology works, writing: “The camera is mounted on a 'virtual head' which reads the positioning and alignment data.

“The lens of that camera is calibrated with the camera body and sensor, along with the software, so that the virtual software can be adjusted for any variance for offset off 'zero' when the camera was mounted.

"Think of a virtual 3D box, and they just tell the computer where to put everything relative to the camera.

"Data is fed from the camera to a computer running the virtual software. After the calibration the virtual operator will load in the graphics they have been given, created to whatever specifications.

"They then use various keys to mask out what they want and don't want the virtual graphics to appear on.”

In simple terms, the technology works with the camera to recognise where the boards are and then put ads on top of them.

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