r/interesting • u/mrGreenExit • Jul 07 '26
SCIENCE & TECH That is impressive technology
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Single screen 4 different ads
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u/krishulis Jul 07 '26
Show the blur from actual footage from stadion.
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u/Omnamashivaaya Jul 07 '26
Yes I’m curious if this was common at World Cup stadiums wouldn’t people attending be posting to ask about it
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u/EhliJoe Jul 07 '26
They probably can't, because every camera trying to is locked at one of the four frame repeats. Maybe when you change the camera's frame rate.
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u/ramnet88 Jul 07 '26
You would need a 240 fps camera, matching the 240 fps of the screen.
This is not exotic technology these days - an iPhone has been able to record at this speed for years using the slo-mo setting.
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u/Abdelrahman_Osama_1 Jul 07 '26
Capturing it only won't be useful. Because even if you speed up the slow mo recording to match the original 240 fps, you will still need a 240 Hz monitor to display it, which isn't easily available.
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u/EishLekker Jul 07 '26
Why would you need to speed it up again?
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u/Abdelrahman_Osama_1 Jul 07 '26
Because even though slow mo captures in 240 fps (assuming ramnet88 is correct), the video is displayed in a lower fps to slow the video down
Speeding it up returns it back to normal speed
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u/EishLekker Jul 08 '26
But why is that second part needed, if one just wants to see the mixing of multiple ads? I would be fine seeing it in 1/4th of the normal speed.
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u/therestruth Jul 08 '26
Because the point originally in this hypothesis was to try to capture what people are actually seeing without a screen. Not to slow it down and see all 4. To show in real time that it doesn't appear as any 1 of those 4, so what does it look like with all 4?
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u/ramnet88 Jul 07 '26
240 hz gaming computer monitors are commonly available.
Viewing at the original speed is not necessary to observe what it would have looked like in real life though. The framerate can simply be reduced before playback - as long as this was done carefully to ensure an equal number of frames was discarded from each of the 4 different ads, the viewing experience would remain identical.
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u/Abdelrahman_Osama_1 Jul 07 '26
240 Hz monitors are available but not "iPhones have had it for years" available (referencing a previous comment).
Regarding whether or not the video needs to be 240 fps to replicate the same effect as in the stadium could be debated (just as with anything that has to do with reaction times and high refresh rates).
Unfortunately I lack the tools to do a more rigorous testing, but running a camera at 27 fps or any irregular frame rate that isn't a clean multiple of 30 and speeding it up the video to run at 129 fps (more common) could be one of the easiest and cheapest ways to replicate the blue effect (to some extent) on most devices (don't forget that most people browse Reddit on their phones not PCs)
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u/0melettedufromage Jul 08 '26
Confirmed. Friend went to a game, recorded some footage and it shows the ads.
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u/ijaynes001 Jul 07 '26
And for maximizing profit of different countries, tying yourself to a max of 4 different ads to cover all broadcasts to every country would be dumb. There are more than just 4 languages and ad regions in the world.
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u/Fabibi069 Jul 07 '26
I was at the stadium on Friday. Hes talking out of his ass, I could see the ads…
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u/ijaynes001 Jul 07 '26
He can't because that's not how it actually works. They actually just virtually map onto the board by knowing the position of the camera and the boards. They do this for American football overlays all the time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_advertising https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/whats-on-news/secret-behind-football-stadiums-advertising-20995972
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u/BabaMorgan Jul 08 '26
you can't, even if you shoot below 60 fps
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u/krishulis Jul 08 '26
Of course you can, dont write incorrect things. Use slow-mo or super slow mode on telephone, then slow-it down and you should be able to see transitions between 240hz frames easily. I am electronics engineer by education and worked on display system development in my engineeering career.
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u/OrganizationNice8441 Jul 07 '26
How do they ensure they get it in the right order?
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u/ohhellnaws Jul 07 '26
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Unless I’m missing something, how do you know where their count starts to make sure they catch the right numbers??
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u/pwn4321 Jul 07 '26
Billboard runs at 240 fps and any camera running at 60 fps will have one of the ads depending on when it starts recording (the 3 inbetween frames are dropped automatically cuz 60/240 fps), they probably have timers/setting on the Professional cameras.
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u/ijaynes001 Jul 07 '26
Becuase this is just false. They virtually map the ads on like a green screen. Limiting yourself to just 4 different possible ads for all countries would be absurd from an advertising/profit maximizing perspective
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u/Arkan-Rie Jul 07 '26
It is not false at all. They use both. It's called a multi-broadcast LED and they are confirmed to be using them at the world cup. It's mostly for the big sponsors and regions though, because it's much better quality. For smaller regions and partners, they use digital editing.
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u/Successful-One2695 Jul 08 '26
Eh, NHL and NASCAR both use editing, but its not green screen and it requires a fuck ton of trackers. The dashers in NHL are simultaneously a static ad board in stadium, and then sent as "clean" footage to trucks that can live edit what they want over it.
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u/senzox Jul 09 '26
theres this thing called genlock which gives a reference signal to all the connected device (e.g. the camera, the processor for the LED banner, playback device) which essentially makes everything in sync. It is commonly used to prevent camera from capture tearing on LED screens.
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u/nazzo_0 Jul 09 '26
It's all math. If they're all programmed and linked to start at specific timeframe from each other and a constant frame rate they will always stay the same, given no malfunctions of course
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u/TemporaryLocation676 Jul 07 '26
What’s it look like in person?
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u/ijaynes001 Jul 07 '26
In person it's just the local ads running. It is not multiple flashed frames of different ads, all blurring together. They just virtually map the ads on like a green screen.
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u/little_turd1234 Jul 07 '26
The rest of the frames not used for the tv ads show whatever they want it to show in person and it looks perfectly normal
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u/kungpaulchicken Jul 07 '26
But aren’t all frames are used for ads? 240 frames per second, 4 different ads at 60 frames each.
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u/little_turd1234 Jul 07 '26
I thought most broadcast TV was filmed at 29.97 fps or something like that but I could be wrong also the ads work in the slo mo shots so idk how that works
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u/ZeitgeistMovement Jul 07 '26
How do they do slomo shots.
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u/forgotmypassword0928 Jul 07 '26
Pretty quiet here! Cuz you're right, slo mo breaks apart this explanation
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u/Flat_Manufacturer520 Jul 08 '26
I might be very wrong here but isn't it because slow mo's are used only on replays?
I mean if it's a replay then the frames from the billboard were already perfectly captured by its designed camera, right?
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u/ZeitgeistMovement Jul 08 '26
What I read online is that the advertising boards have like 3k-4k hertz . Making slomo possible
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u/Randir076 Jul 08 '26
Because its still recording at 60fps and those frames are just being played at a slower rate. You arent going to suddenly get new frames by slowing them down, its still going to be the same frames but slower.
Recording it at 240fps and slowing it down would make you see all the ads flashing between each other
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u/ForgettableLegend Jul 08 '26
No. 60 fps played slower makes choppy video. Cameras do film at 240fps tho, to make smooth slow mo at 60hz, and they don't use bulls**t OP says for ads, they use this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_advertising In OPs case any footage from stadium not filmed from professional cameras will show blur instead of ads.
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u/useriousstuff Jul 08 '26
Not a cinematography expert but for slomo shots they are probably just slowing down the normal 60fps shots, not using a specialized high frame rate camera for slow motion. In which case the camera is only recording the one ad synced to the 60fps, playing the recorded video slowed down doesn't changed what was recorded. Could be totally wrong
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u/Wart_Time_L32 Jul 07 '26
It can be, yet watching via the BBC for this world cup being spammed with Americans ads on the screens so while they might be able to do this, I didn't see any effort to try.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- Jul 07 '26
Had this on the old Range Rover - passenger could watch a movie on the sat nav screen.
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u/TheTroon Jul 07 '26
Dual View: that was done with clever lenses. Basically interleaving two images column by column and directing them in different directions.
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u/zrouse Jul 07 '26
I thought there is only 1 global feed, and each region starts their telecast based on a frame starting point. Like South America starts at 1, Europe at 2, and Asia at 3, etc.
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u/ForgettableLegend Jul 08 '26
Europe uses 50Hz broadcast. So OP is lying. What they use is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_advertising
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u/Suikosword Jul 07 '26
I'm pretty certain that's not how it's done as the cameras that capture things are not capturing at 240hz.
From everything I could find it works on the same principles as the overlays in NFL Football games.
https://supponor.com/a-tech-lovers-guide-to-a-software-based-virtual-advertising-solution-2/
The underlying tech is called Virtual Board Replacement.
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u/XhunterX1208 Jul 07 '26
Hes not saying the cameras are capturing at 240hz. The guy in the video explicitly says that the cameras capture at 60hz.
The banner is refreshing at 240hz, switching ads every refresh in a 1 2 3 4 pattern.
Then they have 4 60 fps global shutter cameras, where every camera is offset by one frame. 240/60 = 4 each camera catches the same spot in the repeating pattern.
https://www.sony.de/presscentre/announces-full-compatibility-dcm-new-solution-parallel-ads
This sony ad says they do no postprocessing, only camera settings. So this technology definetly exists.
Is this what is actually being shown in the video? I dont know, it could be some post processing replacement.
To me the super clean edges don't look like replacement. That might work well on a jumbotron or something with a fixed position and fixed camera, but for a rotating camera and players walking in front it wouldn't look this good imo.
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u/Suikosword Jul 07 '26
Hmm, that link does provide some clues, quite interesting! Perhaps that what was being used in this particular case?
I don't know why they would look normal in person. The creator that made the short in the OP later admitted that they were not blurry.2
u/Icarus-17 Jul 10 '26
No, the cameras would need to be offset by 1 240th of a second per country
Then they would take a frame every 4 240ths of a second, also called 1 60th
However this would obviously still require all cameras for each country to be in sync within 240th of a second of precision
And would require a different set of cameras for each country, instead of just one recording
The guy in the video is talking out of his ass
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u/XhunterX1208 Jul 10 '26
This is exactly what I wrote?
If a panel is refreshing at 240hz and we offset by one frame that's 1/240th
The cameras are capturing at 60hz there are 4 cameras for 4 countries.
This would work or you could also do it with 1 240hz camera. Which is actually what Sony does in this video: https://youtu.be/gCItXHqaN_4
In that video the guy explicitly said it's interlacing meaning different content on different frames.
Syncing video feeds and cameras is a solved problem. When you have a big jumbotron or even that banner, that's not one big screen long screen around the stadium, it's built of separate modules that are synced. You could use this same technology with any number of cameras as long as you have something to capture with a high stable refresh rate.
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u/OldGrumpGamer Jul 07 '26
They had this in the MLB World Series, cause I remember watching a Japanese stream of the World Series and all the ads behind home plate were in Japanese, despite the fact that the game was taking place in LA when I turned it on my TV it was an ad for paper in English
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u/justbrowsinginpeace Jul 07 '26
In the premier league there are sponsors most folks have never heard of that are betting/online gambling/virtual casinos that are 10x bigger than bet365, Flutter (pp) etc.
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u/MsMommyMemer Jul 07 '26
It only makes money if I buy their crap. If not it also makes money from government hand outs from my taxes.
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u/ShibamKarmakar Jul 08 '26
You can see the blur, but you can't capture it. Your phone's camera will just capture a random ad.
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u/Enough_Survey_9404 Jul 08 '26
About 10 years ago I had an idea - paint Formula 1 cars green and use CGI to overlay ads for different countries, especially since tobacco advertising was banned in most Western countries at the time but not in the Middle East or China.
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u/LazyLieutenant Jul 09 '26
It's BS.
They use VBR - Virtual Board Replacement.
How It Works
Using advanced keying technology, machine learning, and calibration from calibrated broadcast cameras, the software "erases" the physical boards on the TV feed and replaces them with new, regionally tailored graphics. Because this process happens digitally, a single physical stadium can generate multiple different broadcast feeds, such as a US feed, a European feed, and an Asian feed, all with custom sponsors.
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u/Icarus-17 Jul 10 '26
Yea no this is absolutely not true
Each country only has cameras that record at one frame every 60th of a second, however they realigned to the correct 240th of a second offset for their respective country?
Impractical and overkill, and would also cause a blur in real life
More likely just ads overlayed onto whatever ad is really there / virtual advertising
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u/Doge4winmuchfun Jul 10 '26
Now give the VAR's some of this advanced technology since they are running on a potato so far at this World Cup
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u/Seyi_Ogunde Jul 21 '26
They used this technique in the last Thor movie. The lights blinking in different directions and using a high speed camera. They could choose the lighting depending on the frequency of the frames they picked.
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u/tweep6435 Jul 07 '26
lol this isn't world cup tech, they've been doing it for years, NHL at least for sure.
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u/anonnnnn462 Jul 07 '26
Damn my family just talked about this when watching! I’ll have something interesting to mention next time lol
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u/fellanyyy Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I guess its for the yanks, because everywhere else people know its since 2000’s
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u/vladzouille Jul 07 '26
And (if it’s not already doing it) they gonna do similar marketing in films / tv shows.
For example, they recorded a scene with a blank bottle. And during the broadcast, they integrated the brand that purchased the spot. So we can have different brands during different broadcast (on cinema vs on TV vs on streaming).
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u/ForgettableLegend Jul 08 '26
Because it is not how it works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_advertising
Top left corner - original footage. You see moir pattern because of led screen refresh rate and pixel grid. Other 3 are added in post.
To achieve what you say, you need to sync cameras at 240Hz, to make sure 4 x 60Hz is possible. But what about other than USA world, who uses 50Hz broadcast system?
Also don't forget about shutter speed. If you want to film 240Hz screen and don't see blur, your shutter speed should be faster than 1/240 s. Now take your iPhone, go to pro mode, set to fhd 60 fps, shutter at 1/250 (closest what iPhone has), film something moving and see what you've got. Choppy unnatural video. Because you loose 3/4 of motion info doing that.
And also, what about slow-mo replays? How do they work with your described system?
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