EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook: EA SPORTS Wins an Emmy

April 28, 2009

The EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook has been awarded the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award at the 30th Annual Sports Emmys which took place last night in New York City. For those of you still not familiar with EA SPORTS Virtual Playbook, continue on to view a Q&A session that sk88z recently did with Jason Parker, the developer on the EA SPORTS Technology Licensing Group who worked in collaboration with ESPN's Emerging Technology group on the exciting broadcast technology.



Alain Quinto:  What role did you play in the creation of the Virtual Playbook?

Jason Parker:  Up to this point, I have been the lone developer on the Virtual Playbook project.  My primary role is the project’s lead engineer, however I have played the roles of designer and artist as necessary.  The backbone of the Virtual Playbook technology is a camera tech called the ‘Director’ that I created as a common camera and presentation framework for our games.

AQ:  When the idea of the Virtual Playbook came about, did you have any idea it would be as successful as it has practically revolutionizing the way sports broadcasts are done?

JP:  There was no way for me to know how big Virtual Playbook could get when we first started development.  Almost all of my professional experience has been in the game industry leaving me with nothing to gauge it against.  At the first face-to-face meeting with our ESPN partners, it was mentioned on the side that nothing like this had been done before and that all of their sports programs would ultimately want it once the NFL shows using it.  They joked that they would ‘see me in May at the Emmys’.  I had no idea at the time that an Emmy nod was possible.

AQ:  Well, congratulations on the Emmy nomination.  How do you feel about having the Virtual Playbook be nominated for two prestigious awards? (Award has also been nominated to appear at the Sports Business Journal Awards in the category of Best in Sports Technology)

JP:  It is very exciting to work on a product that is innovative as both a game product and as a broadcast tool.  Having it nominated for an Emmy and a Sports Business Journal award validates what we have done and helps drive us to raise the bar even higher for version 2.0.

AQ:  Was NFL football the initial sport the tool was intended to be used for using the players in Madden NFL?

JP:  ESPN’s NFL programs were the first to express interest in using Virtual Playbook.  Once the initial prototype videos circulated around ESPN campus, interest in using the technology for other sports took off.

AQ:  It's obvious that this type of technology is transferable across our game titles and programs.  What others have used the Virtual Playbook?

JP:  Virtual Playbook has been used in NFL programming (NFL Sunday Countdown, Monday Night Countdown and SportsCenter), and in NCAA Football broadcasts (Heisman Preview and National Championship Game previews).

AQ:  What was the biggest obstacle in creating the Virtual Playbook?

JP:  Having sufficient development time has been the most notable obstacle of the project.  The first version of Virtual Playbook was more of an extracurricular project at a time when I was working as a full time engineer on a game team.  It was very difficult to balance developing Virtual Playbook features with the work load of developing a game.

AQ:  As tight as develemopent cycles have become, it is quite a an amazing feat to have created this while at the same time taking care of your regular duties.  What’s been the highlight so far when it comes to broadcasts using the Virtual Playbook?

JP:  One of the segments that went to air accurately predicted a one-in-a-million play.  The Virtual Playbook segment showed a tipped pass that was intercepted by a lineman.  The exact same scenario happened in the game later that day. 

AQ:  What does the future hold for the Virtual Playbook?

JP:  We are developing Virtual Playbook versions of some of our other EA Sports titles.  For the sports already on-air, we are tweaking the art assets and the game engine to improve the overall presentation quality of the product.  There has also been some talk about new locations and of using the technology in live broadcasts.

We wish the Jason and the rest of the team the best of luck on Monday and look forward to hopefully taking home the hardware!