Sharp eyed football fans have been puzzling over why the digital advertising boards that face the pitch in stadiums show different advertisements depending on the channel or the country the viewer is watching from. My London reports that the anomaly came to light after fans compared different social media posts. 

The technology allows broadcasters to show more targeted ads that will have the greatest impact in the audience. This means that language barriers can be overcome and viewers can see ads in their native tongue. It also means that the adverts will be more culturally and demographically relevant to the audience.

The trick is made possible courtesy of Virtual Replacement Technology. This makes it possible to overlay different content as it is broadcast, so that different audiences see different and more relevant content.  

A tech savvy Twitter user explained: “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.”

They added: “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.”

By ensuring that the virtual content is optimised for the target audience, advertisers and broadcasters are able to get the maximum return on their investment.

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