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Dimension
Same teams. Same skills
New combined powers.
A mixed reality Avatar experience on a scale never seen before in sport.
Bringing the world of video games to broadcast and fan engagement, Sky Sports and The Hundred used our MetaStar solution to create hyper-real avatars of cricket’s biggest stars, enabling world first mixed reality broadcast and interactive mobile AR experiences.
Bringing the players to the fans
In the build-up to the launch of a brand new cricket tournament, ‘The Hundred’, the English Cricket Board (ECB) and Sky Sports unveiled exciting hyper-real avatars of the favourite players, to be used during the broadcast of The Hundred, and available to fans through the Sky Sports app and The Hundred app, as an AR experience.
Ground-breaking avatars powered by MetaStar
The player avatars were created using MetaStar, Dimension’s hyper-real avatar solution, which provides authentic digital doubles that can be driven by either mocap data or animated.
Shout out to our friends at Target 3D for the mocap goodness.
Putting fans first: TV and Mobile
Using the avatars during the live broadcast editorial gives the analysts a creative and innovative way to explain and explore the techniques used by the cricketers.
The AR mobile experience housing the avatars – built by Arcade – is all about making cricket more accessible and interactive, and allows fans to interact with the avatars via The Hundred app and Sky Sports’ digital platforms.
"We are so excited to present this incredible technology to our viewers. I have every confidence the avatars will become one of the most popular aspects of our storytelling."
Bryan Henderson | Director of Cricket, Sky Sports
"The creation of our hyper-real avatars will bring fans and players together on an unprecedented level. Imagine having a virtual Heather Knight, Saqib Mahmood or Ben Stokes showcasing their skills in your home – it’s incredibly exciting."
Alison Crowe | Director of Digital and Data, ECB
Back with a bang in 2022
The ECB Hundred avatars returned for the 2022 tournament, in broadcast, through the 'Meet the Players' AR portal and now in Topps Cricket Attax AR.
The set of collectible cards let fans bring to life all The Hundred stars to demo their signature skills in 8thWall's WebAR (video courtesy of Arcade).