Red Bee Media, formerly BBC Broadcast, has sold its Piero 3D graphics technology to RTE in Ireland and C More Entertainment in Sweden.

RTE will use Piero on hurling, Gaelic football and English Premier League, Euro 2008 and Champions League football as well as certain rugby games.

It is the first time that Red Bee Media has supplied Piero for the analysis of GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) games.

C More Entertainment will use Piero to enhance its coverage of the Swedish domestic league (Allsvenskan) and the Barclays Premier League.

Piero is used by broadcasters to illustrate critical moments from football and rugby matches using 3D graphics and replay them in a virtual stadium from angles that can not be captured by conventional cameras.

It can:

  • Lay tracks of players across the pitch whilst revealing speed and distance travelled

  • Perform a virtual fly-through of the stadium

  • Place scores, text, images and pointers in 'live' video

  • Offer a choice of user interfaces

  • Place virtual advertising on the pitch

  • Provide a unique, seamless transition between original and virtual stadium

The Piero technology is continuously under development. The most recent development introduces fully flexible 3D players, enabling the 3D models' heads and limbs to be adjusted in order to mimic real life play more closely and enhance story telling capabilities.

In February the ‘moveable player' feature was introduced, allowing presenters to move players with their finger on the touch-screen from one area of the pitch to another.

Karl Stone, head of business development for Piero at Red Bee Media said: “We are able to offer RTE and C More Entertainment our most sophisticated range of functionality yet and are excited about Piero's increasing global reach”.