LiveU has deployed a remote Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) system across the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), bringing the technology to Pacific Island football for the first time and closing a gap that has persisted since VAR entered the game.
The OFC had been the only FIFA confederation operating without VAR. Traditional deployment was deemed impractical for the region: standard broadcast equipment freighted between island nations such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Samoa and Tahiti faced repeated customs delays and port damage, while the high-capacity fibre that fixed VAR setups rely on does not exist across the islands. When VAR was mandated for the OFC’s newly launched Pro League — eight teams across six nations — LiveU was engaged to make a remote model work.
Built on LiveU’s existing IP-video platform rather than as a custom system, the end-to-end integration supports the Hawk-Eye VAR platform using two portable transmission kits and a centralised receiving server at the OFC’s Auckland hub. The setup handles up to 12 simultaneous camera feeds with four return feeds carrying two-way referee communications, achieving roughly one second of round-trip latency between remote venues and Auckland. According to LiveU, it meets FIFA’s professional standards at a fraction of the cost of comparable fixed-infrastructure deployments.
Each kit was engineered to travel as standard check-in baggage, with components individually weight-checked to stay within airline limits. The system can be run by a single operator over managed internet connections, requiring no freight, permanent infrastructure or on-site specialist engineers.
“We needed something lightweight, portable, and capable of delivering multiple camera feeds with audio — without relying on freight,” said Kelvin Lewis, OFC Referee Technology Lead. He said the confederation moved from manually editing clips “on a hill” to delivering full VAR capability.
The OFC evaluated several suppliers before selecting LiveU, citing its platform-based approach. The system recorded a 100% success rate across proof-of-concept deployments, with issues diagnosed and resolved remotely from Auckland, and was designed so local technicians could operate it independently.
The deployment has already extended beyond the Pro League to the New Zealand Football FIFA Series and the OFC’s Women’s World Cup qualifying matches in Hamilton and Auckland.
Chris Dredge, Country and Sales Manager for Oceania at LiveU, described the result as a blueprint for broadcast-quality remote VAR deployable anywhere without freight or fixed infrastructure.
