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BBC Sport and Media City studios invest in ROE Visual

BBC Sport has announced a major infrastructure upgrade at its Media City hub service studio in Salford, investing in ROE Visual’s Ruby RB1.5 wall panels and Black Marble BM2 LED flooring. The acquisition marks an expansion of a long-term collaborative pipeline that includes graphics specialist AE Live, Megapixel, and ROE Visual.

The transition from traditional green-screen environments to advanced LED-powered Extended Reality (XR) volumes reflects a broader, permanent shift in the broadcast sector. Following their technical execution during UEFA Euro 2024 and the full-LED XR environment deployed for the FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage, BBC Sport and Media City are cementing this technology as the foundation for programming, including “Match of the Day”.

The decision to invest in the Ruby RB1.5 (1.5 mm pixel pitch) and the Black Marble BM2 floor panels directly answers the physical and creative shifts occurring in studio design. Modern studio trends favor smaller physical footprints, but they still need to deliver that big, immersive “wow factor”. Surrounding a compact set with an intricate VR/XR environment allows production teams to deliver a vast, dynamic space out of a limited area.

In a smaller studio, cameras must inevitably operate close to the backdrop. To avoid visible pixelation or screen structure when captured at close range, there is a sweet spot where the 1.5 mm pitch of the Ruby series eliminates this barrier, providing a smooth, “video-like” environment. Presenters can stand directly against the screen while maintaining visual integrity on camera.

To create an immersive look and feel in the studio, the investment extends to the studio floor where ROE Visual Black Marble BM2 LED panels are integrated. “Moving into a smaller studio space meant we needed a more creative approach to how we use LED”, explains John Murphy, BBC Sport Design Director. “For this permanent installation, the BM2 panels have been customized with a bespoke surface finish - a first for the glossy BM2 - developed in close collaboration with the ROE Visual team. By combining an XR technology backbone with set extension and fast metadata exchange, we can create a much larger visual environment from a more compact footprint.”

Olaf Sperwer, Director Broadcast & Virtual Production at ROE Visual, says: “As AI-generated content becomes part of broadcast, the demands on processing and image quality are higher than ever. By choosing the Ruby RB1.5F alongside the Black Marble BM2, BBC Sport and Media City are addressing the core challenges of modern studio environments. For the first time, the glossy BM2 has been deployed with a bespoke surface finish - a unique configuration developed at the specific request of John Murphy”.

“The design intent was to harness natural reflections from the floor surface to enrich the overall studio set design, particularly when paired with darker visual content”, Sperwer adds. “This approach enhances depth and atmosphere within the XR environment, elevating the LED floor from a display surface to an active aesthetic element in the visual storytelling.”

(Photos: ROE Visual)

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