Broadcast Graphics · Themes and skins
Choose it once, every match inherits it
A theme is the whole graphics package: scoreboards, break graphics, lower thirds, player cards, sponsor frames. It is chosen at competition level, not match level, which is the single decision that makes a season look like one season rather than thirty-eight Saturdays.
Where it lives
Competition, then every match under it
You do not pick a theme when you create a match. You pick it when you create the competition, and every match created under that competition inherits it. A competition cannot exist without one: theme selection is a required step, not an optional polish pass.
That is what stops the drift. Nobody can accidentally put a different scorebug on round nine at a suburban ground, because there is no screen on which that choice exists.
What a theme carries
The whole package, not just the scorebug
Match graphics
Scoreboards and the match information overlays that sit on screen through play.
Break graphics
What fills half time and the pre-match window, where most of the sponsor value actually sits.
People
Player graphics, statistics displays and lower thirds for the events that need a name attached.
Sponsors
The branded frames and sponsor graphics that make the broadcast worth selling.
Full frames and transitions
The pieces that carry the production between states rather than sitting over play.
The style itself
The overall visual language, which is the part a viewer registers without being able to name it.
Skins
Same layout, different colours
A skin is a colour profile inside a theme. It changes overlay, text, background and element colours and nothing else: the layout, the structure and the set of graphics stay exactly as they were.
That separation is deliberate. Reskinning a competition is a safe change, because the thing being changed cannot break the thing that was signed off. Changing the theme itself is the bigger decision, and it behaves like one.
Worth knowing before you change either: a theme change applies to matches created afterwards, and matches that already exist keep what they had until their overlays are refreshed or recreated.
Two systems
Off the shelf, or built for you
Inbuilt themes
Pre-built packages designed by LIGR with selectable skins, driven from the standard Control Room, with advertising handled by ad set allocation across competitions, clubs and teams. Nothing to design and nothing to wait for.
Rive themes
Custom graphics designed in Rive and wired up in Fuse. On import, Fuse detects the file's exposed inputs — text, images, colours, numbers — and those become bindable to league, competition, match, team, player, statistic and event data.
The choice is not really aesthetic, it is operational. An inbuilt theme gets a competition on air today. A Rive theme is the route when the on-air look is part of the rights deal and has to be exactly what was signed off.
Common questions
Answered, from the product
Can different matches in one competition have different graphics?
No. A theme is assigned at competition level and every match inherits it. Separate looks need separate competitions.
What is the difference between a theme and a skin?
A theme is the whole graphics package: layout, structure and every graphic in it. A skin is a colour profile within that theme. Skins change colours only.
If we change the theme, what happens to matches already created?
They keep the theme instance that was active when they were created until their overlays are refreshed or recreated. A theme change applies cleanly to matches created afterwards.
Do we have to design anything to get started?
No. Inbuilt themes are pre-built with selectable skins, so a competition can be on air without a design cycle.
What does Rive add?
Custom design. Graphics are built in Rive and configured in Fuse, where the file's exposed text, image, colour and number inputs are bound to live competition, match, team and player data.
Why are no graphics appearing on the broadcast?
Graphics reach the stream through an overlay, and the overlay has to be assigned to that stream and enabled. The overlay takes its design from the competition's theme.
Go deeper
More on broadcast graphics
Fuse
Where a Rive theme gets bound to live data and its control variables are exposed.
See FuseControl Room
The live interface that calls these graphics to air during a match.
See the Control RoomOut-of-the-box themes
The inbuilt packages, rendered from the production files, sport by sport.
See the themesReady to elevate your sports broadcast?
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