Perlego - A Revolution in Broadcast Poker

PokerStars will introduce Perlego, its latest innovation in poker broadcasting on the 16th May, at one of the side events of the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

Perlego is an automated card reading and graphics generation system, which is changing the way poker and other card games are produced and broadcast. It utilises a brand new camera technology to ensure recognition of all cards dealt to the players. All cards are supplied with a barcode, which is only visible when infrared light is shed on it. The algorithm of the program decodes this and recognizes the value and color of the given card. Of course, the system is also capable of recognizing community cards.

Perlego has been developed by Press Association Sport. The most important advantage of this new technology is, that it is not necessary to equip poker tables with multiple cameras, and the capture does not need to be manually entered into the system to have the according image rendered to it. This way, broadcasting becomes a close-to-real-time experience.

The technology will first be tested at UKIPT Nottigham, and although this broadcast will still have a 15-minute lag, this time interval could be decreased to minimal later on.

"This is a very exciting opportunity for us to test a new technology that could revolutionise the way we broadcast our live events. Our primary consideration is the integrity of the event – which is why there is a 15-minute delay on the broadcast." - said Jeffrey Haas, spokesman for UKIPT.

The broadcast will take place at the £336 NLHE side event, held on 16th May.