There is a 2002 World Championship ball on the floor and the new poster of Swiss footballers from the Tages-Anzeiger magazine hangs on a white magnet board. “Alex Frei,” says Stephan Würmlin, glancing at the folding poster, “grew up in a neighbouring village and at one time also played for FC Aesch, except he was successful.” The Basel scientist grins. Perhaps he will soon be involved successfully in the football business himself, although it will be in a battle for TV viewers’ favours rather than fighting for the ball. Würmlin and his partner Christoph Niederberger, both post-doctoral students on the staff of the Computer Graphics Laboratory at ETH Zurich, have developed a business idea that may take its place in TV stations’ production centres in the next few years.

Flying round the stadium

The product that the pair have developed is a “magic” camera. “This camera is not really present in the stadium,” says Würmlin, “it is virtual.” The magic camera is a computer program and reassembles new images from the stream of images supplied by the real cameras. The result is that the virtual camera moves TV viewers to a different viewpoint and presents images to them as if they were flying around the pitch. It also shows disputed offside positions or beautifully scored goals seen from a different vantage point. TV editors can insert these scenes as a replay when necessary. The images will look just as real is if there had been a camera at the point in question. The 31-year-old is convinced that “viewers would not accept it if they saw that the images were computer-generated.”

Cheaper, better

The method is not fundamentally new. There are competitors in the USA and England. “But our product is better," says Würmlin. Conventional systems need data from at least 30 TV cameras to produce images of this kind. That is expensive and is justified only for special games such as the English Cup Final. This is why the two computer engineer football fans set themselves the requirement that their program should need only data from the cameras already installed by the TV producers. This means that their product can also be used for ordinary Swiss Super League games.

The pair first hatched the idea late last summer, and immediately founded their own company: LiberoVision. Thus they have already sounded out SF (Swiss Television), where the magic camera aroused lively interest. “SF supported us from the very start,” says Würmlin. Thus they were given access to the production of the football transmission of the World Championship qualifying match in September 2005 against Israel in Basel in order to study what happened. “That was important to enable us to see whether and how we can implement our idea,” he recalls.

Success in a competition for young entrepreneurs

The two ETH graduates receive support not only from TV but also from the KTI, the Swiss Federal Commission for promoting technology and innovation. In the winter semester Würmlin and Niederberger took part in the “Venture Challenge” course arranged by the KTI agency “Venturelab” (1) to acquire entrepreneurial know-how and skills.

Staying on the ball: Stephan Würmlin (l.) and Christoph Niederberger can conjure up spectacular images of football matches on the TV screen with their new process for replays in sports broadcasts. large

They were successful: LiberoVision won the “Venture Leaders” prize awarded by “Venturelab” and the Gebert Rüf Foundation. This prize entitles Würmlin to complete a business training course at Babson College in Boston. Their idea also convinced the jury of “Venture 2006” (2), the joint competition organized by McKinsey Switzerland and ETH Zurich. Their project was chosen from among the ten best business ideas from among 200 entries. With their business plan they are now also participating in the second part of the competition for the best business plan. The prize-giving ceremony took place on 6 June in the Auditorium Maximum of ETH Zurich.

Euro 2008 is the dream

LiberoVision has not yet sold any licences for its product. The prototype software has only existed since mid-April. The young entrepreneurs also recently obtained permission to show images, because the picture rights belong to Swiss Television. They are still doing a lot of work for LiberoVision in their spare time. Würmlin continues to work until the year end at the latest as a post doctoral student at ETH, helping doctoral students and working on a three-dimensional video technology project, the blue-c-II. The researchers have set their sights on the 2007/2008 football season and of course on EURO 2008. “It would be a dream come true to slip into the UEFA European Football Union, but that will not be easy to achieve,” says Würmlin. This is why they want to introduce their product into a manageable market like Switzerland first of all.

However, the major European football leagues are financially attractive: Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France. Their aim is not to commute by jet from one stadium to another every weekend to control production themselves. Licensees should employ the tool independently one day. In addition the program is suitable for almost all types of sport that take place in a stadium, which includes baseball, ice hockey or basketball. “With some adjustments to the software,” is Würmlin’s reservation.

Marketability in one year

To make their program ready for the market, the pair need at least another year and above all more money. Several hundred thousand Francs, as the post-doc frankly admits. “That would allow us to become independent of ETH immediately.” They say they do not believe in the Swiss policy of thinking safely. “We prefer to do it like young American entrepreneurs: first of all raise money and invest it up front, then flat out to success.“