CANAL+ BRINGS MOTOGP TO VISION PRO WITH BLACKMAGIC URSA CINE IMMERSIVE

  Experience MotoGP™ like never before as CANAL+ brings   a new Apple Immersive sports experience to Apple Vision Pro this September.

Manchester, United Kingdom - Friday, June 27, 2025 - MotoGP™ has always tested the limits of what audiences can see and hear on screen. For its latest project, CANAL+ set out to capture not just the speed but also the quieter moments that define a race weekend. Filmed entirely with the new Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio, the sports documentary is part of a new generation of immersive workflows for capture, postproduction and viewing on Apple Vision Pro.

Produced in collaboration with MotoGP and Apple, the documentary follows world champion Johann Zarco and his team during their dramatic home victory at the French Grand Prix in Le Mans.

It was captured using the URSA Cine Immersive camera with dual 8160 x 7200 (58.7 Megapixel) sensors at 90fps, delivering 3D immersive cinema content to a single file mixed with Apple Spatial Audio. The MotoGP sports experience places viewers in the heart of the action, from the pit lane and paddock to the podium.

“MotoGP is made for this format,” said Etienne Pidoux at CANAL+. “You feel the raw speed, and you see details you’d otherwise miss on a flat screen. It puts you closer to the machines and the team than ever before.”

To place the viewer at the center of the action, CANAL+ deployed multiple URSA Cine Immersive cameras. “We had two cameras on pedestals and one on a Steadicam,” explained Pierre Maillat of CANAL+. “The idea was to be able to swap quickly between Steadicam and fixed setups depending on what was happening in the moment. The Steadicam setup was extremely valuable,” noted Pidoux. “It made us more reactive in a fast changing environment and gave us more agility while filming.”

“Immersive video changes how you shoot,” added Pidoux. “You plan more, shoot less, and you rethink composition because of the 180 degree view, especially in tight or crowded spaces like the pit lane.” Lighting was also a consideration inside the team garages. “We added some extra light to compensate for the 90 frames per second stereoscopic capture.”

Each camera was paired with an ambisonic microphone to capture first order spatial audio, the ambisonic mics were supplemented by discrete microphones for interviews and other critical sound sources. “We recorded in ambisonics Format A for the immersive mix and channel based for other sources,” Maillat noted. “Everything was timecoded wirelessly and synced on both the cameras and the external recorders.”

A portable production cart with a Mac Studio running DaVinci Resolve Studio, alongside an Apple Vision Pro, was set up trackside to monitor and test shots in context. “This approach allowed us to check the content right after shooting and helped us verify framing while still on location,” said Maillat.

Canal+ had a second Mac Studio running DaVinci Resolve Studio and an Apple Vision Pro set up at the hotel in Le Mans to handle media offload and backups. With 8TB of internal storage, recording directly to the Media Module, the crew could film more than two hours of 8K stereoscopic 3D immersive footage on the track without needing to change cards.

Postproduction took place in Paris, where Canal+ used a Mac Studio running DaVinci Resolve Studio for editing, color grading, and audio mixing. “We could even preview the stereoscopic timeline directly in Apple Vision Pro, crucial for immersive grading,” explained Maillat.

Spatial Audio was mixed using DaVinci Resolve Studio’s Fairlight. “Initially, we planned to use a different digital audio workstation (DAW), but DaVinci Resolve Studio and Fairlight was the platform that gave us both creative flexibility and the high quality deliverables for Apple Vision Pro,” explained Maillat.

“Filming with the URSA Cine Immersive camera and viewing it in Apple Vision Pro, we found incredible moments we’d normally treat as background,” Pidoux concluded. “Cleaning the track, helmet close ups, the crowd, they all become part of the experience.”

The MotoGP™ Apple Immersive sports experience will be available exclusively on the CANAL+ app on Apple Vision Pro starting September 2025.

PRESS PHOTOGRAPHY

Product photos of URSA Cine Immersive, Blackmagic Media Dock, DaVinci Resolve Studio and all other Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/media/images

ABOUT BLACKMAGIC DESIGN

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk

