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For over twenty years, RGLab has shone a spotlight on disruptive technologies that evolve usage, reshape viewer experience, transform content consumption, and enhance the quality of production and broadcast of images and sound at sports events — a true testing ground for innovation.
Throughout the duration of the tournament, the 2025 edition of RGLab showcased immersive and augmented reality systems for new visual experiences, demonstrations of artificial intelligence applications, and technological advancements aimed at achieving greater digital sustainability.
All these innovations were developed both in-house and in partnership with major players in the French and international tech ecosystem, working alongside France Télévisions.
RGLab became a meeting point for many professionals in the fields of digital, broadcasting, and the French Tennis Federation, as well as representatives from other sports federations. Commercial and technical partners of France Télévisions, France Télévisions Publicité, and their advertisers were also in attendance. It was a dedicated space and moment to explore emerging practices and to collectively envision the evolution of interfaces and content that could soon be offered on france.tv.
Ever More Realistic Immersion…
Among the flagship innovations this year, the Digital Innovation Department unveiled a major technological leap allowing spectators to experience Roland-Garros with unprecedented image quality and realism. This included immersive 180° stereoscopic livestreaming, captured in 8K per eye at 50 frames per second and broadcast in full 4K resolution per eye.
Thanks to an innovative projection system, the central viewing angle of the image achieved a resolution of 37 pixels per degree — equivalent to an 8K image. This content was also made available via mixed reality headsets (Apple Vision Pro), with British production company Focal Point VR* handling video capture, and French company Ateme* responsible for encoding and stream packaging.
The encoding used a technology called MV-HEVC, part of the HEVC video standard and chosen by Apple and other headset manufacturers. Rather than sending two fully separate images for each eye, this technology reuses parts of the left-eye image to construct the right-eye view. References are both temporal and spatial (left eye), significantly increasing real-time encoding complexity. However, this approach allows Ateme to reduce bitrate by 33% compared to encoding two separate streams, achieving approximately 36 Mbps. A key technical feat lies in maintaining identical image quality for both eyes — any discrepancy would cause noticeable visual discomfort.
The "Focal Point VR + Ateme" pipeline now represents a unique, innovative end-to-end solution capable of capturing and broadcasting live events in immersive high fidelity, as if you were actually there.
Jonathan Newth (Focal Point VR) and Jan Outters (Ateme) presented the solution:
In parallel, tests were conducted using more mobile and lightweight immersive capture devices. Along court sidelines, spatial videos were recorded with an iPhone and made available for Vision Pro headsets via an internally developed application by the Innovation team. These videos were enhanced with footage captured using a camera equipped with Dual Fisheye lens provided by Canon*.
On Friday, June 6, the team had the opportunity to test — for the first time in France — the Blackmagic Cine Ursa 16K immersive camera (8K per eye), capable of shooting at 90 frames per second. Tests were carried out from various camera positions on Court Philippe Chatrier, Court Suzanne Lenglen, and in the walkways of Stade Roland Garros, in collaboration with production company The Explorer*.
These experiments helped assess image quality based on intended use, while also analyzing the technical constraints of deployment and the post-processing required for exploitation. The goal is to rapidly offer france.tv audiences new immersive experiences, providing novel viewpoints of matches and the tournament.
AI Coaching and Technical Gesture Analysis
France Télévisions partnered with Norwegian startup SportAI* to showcase a technology based on artificial intelligence that enables instant 3D visualization of player movements and performance analytics. These insights can be used by tennis professionals to enhance training, but also offered to fans to enrich their viewing experience.
Throughout the tournament, SportAI’s technology — accessible via tablet and TV apps — delivered performance analyses from Roland-Garros matches. In addition, a mixed reality experience developed by the Innovation department allowed visitors at RGLab to train against a virtual player and receive technical feedback from an AI coach.
Experience presentation by Lauren Newth (SportIA)
Augmented Reality and Glasses-Free 3D
RGLab also featured an innovative augmented reality application on XReal smart glasses, developed by Swedish company Accedo*. This provided an unprecedented, interactive, and immersive way to navigate all Roland-Garros content. Matches from different courts — live and replay — were available on the portable virtual screen of the smart glasses. The interface also included a multi-screen feature with replays, stats, and an option to interact with an AI agent to personalize and enrich the fan experience. This application also explored new monetization and brand partnership opportunities.
To complete the setup, a glasses-free 3D screen provided by Samsung offered visitors access to immersive content — stereoscopic videos and real-time 2D-to-3D match conversion using the Reality Pro software included with the screen — with no need for a headset or special gear. Commercially available since May, this screen confirms the trend of glasses-free 3D displays, early prototypes of which were showcased at previous RGLab editions.
Optimized Video Compression: "Green" Encoding
Committed to innovation with a focus on digital sustainability, France Télévisions’ Digital Innovation Department testedanoptimized video encoding method in collaboration with Cutz*. A demonstration allowed simultaneous comparison between standard and compressed UHD sequences on two screens. The first used a 100 Mbps stream (AVC, 50 frames per second), while the second — with Cutz compression — achieved an average bitrate of 3.2 Mbps (HEVC, 50 frames per second). This test aimed to show the feasibility of distributing and potentially storing UHD-quality video streams with a better quality-to-bitrate ratio than Full HD streaming at 6.6 Mbps, all while reducing bandwidth consumption.
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About France Télévisions
France Televisions is France's leading audiovisual group, offering high quality, diverse and unifying programms for all audiences. The group's contents can be found on the france.tv and franceinfo digital platforms, on five national channels (France 2, France 3, France 4 (dedicated to Okoo during the day and Culturebox in the evening), France 5 and franceinfo), 24 regional channels and 9 global TV/radio/web media in overseas territories. Okoo, Slash and Lumni complement this diversified offering with programs aimed at young audiences, school children and teachers. 3 out of 4 French people watch the group's programs every week, making France Télévisions a real link builder.
About France Televisions partners
Focal Point VR is a world leader in high-resolution live immersive video. Specialising in ultra-high fidelity 360 and VR180 video streaming, the company delivers cutting-edge virtual reality experiences for live sports, entertainment, and cultural events. Its proprietary technology and end-to-end platform bring audiences closer than ever, offering unmatched clarity and immersion in real time across the latest XR devices.
Ateme is a global leader of video compression and delivery solutions, helping tier-one content providers, service providers and streaming platforms boost their viewership and subscription numbers.
The Explorers is a project aimed at documenting the full richness of our planet’s heritage using cutting-edge technology: 4K HDR / 8K HDR. Serving as witnesses to life and biodiversity, our images act as a lifeline for the planet. They raise awareness in humanity—both to nature’s wonders and to the fragility of ecosystems. Bringing you as close to reality as possible, 4K HDR / 8K HDR technology immerses you completely in natural environments. The precision of the visuals, their realism, and the color rendering make you experience the adventure as if you were there.
Canon is the first imagery brand to propose a unic solution to capture content at 180 degrees, 3D photos and immersive 8K videos thanks to the combination of Canon EOS VR SYSTEM, the dual CANON lenses and VR software. Thanks to Canon technical solution, combined with the growing availability of untethered VR headsets, Immersive VR content is easier to shoot, edit and experience than ever before.
SportAI is a B2B sports technology company dedicated to enhancing sports techniques and tactical coaching, commentary, and analysis using AI. With expertise in computer vision and machine learning, SportAI offers instant data-driven insights to racket sports federations and academies, broadcasters, retailers, and equipment brands. By seamlessly integrating with video, apps and streaming systems, SportAI provides coaches and players of all levels with actionable data, making pro-level analysis accessible to everyone.
Accedo is a global provider of award-winning software and services to optimize, grow, and evolve video streaming services. Our expert teams have helped many of the world’s leading video companies become more competitive. Our offerings range from no-code video solutions and immersive applications to complete OTT managed services, always backed by a data-driven approach and with the end-user experience in mind. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Accedo operates 15 global offices, delivering world-class solutions that shape the future of video streaming.
Cutz is the eco-responsible video encoding solution awarded the French Tech and GreenTech Innovation labels. Thanks to smart compression - based on Machine Learning - it guarantees all your videos exceptional visual quality, for higher performance while reducing costs and carbon footprint.
