LiveU has announced a deployment with the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) that has brought Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) to the Pacific Islands for the first time. The OFC had been the only FIFA confederation operating without VAR, with traditional deployment deemed impractical due to customs delays, lack of fiber infrastructure, and freight logistics across island nations including Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, and Tahiti.
LiveU designed and built a complete end-to-end remote integration system supporting the Hawk-Eye VAR platform. The system consists of two portable transmission kits and a centralized receiving server in an Auckland hub, supporting up to 12 simultaneous camera feeds with four return feeds carrying two-way referee communications. Round-trip latency between remote Pacific venues and Auckland is approximately one second. Each kit was engineered to pass through airline check-in as standard baggage, deployable by a single operator over managed internet connections.
“We were the only confederation in the world without VAR – and we knew, with traditional models, it would never happen for us,” says Kevin Stoltenkamp, Head of Refereeing, OFC. “When I saw it working for the first time, I realized – this can work. Now, we can take the system as baggage on a plane and deliver VAR anywhere. For us, accessibility is everything. It’s not just about technology – it’s about people solving problems together.”
“We needed something lightweight, portable, and capable of delivering multiple camera feeds with audio – without relying on freight. Within a very short time, we realized we could transmit broadcast-quality signals across even the most challenging networks. What we’ve built is a low-cost, high-quality VAR solution that’s unique in world football. We went from manually editing clips on a hill to delivering full VAR capability – that’s the scale of change,” says Kelvin Lewis, Referee Technology Lead, OFC.
“The system is simple to use – you don’t need to be highly technical to operate it. LiveU is the heart of the system… the technology is essential to making this work,” says Mihaly Fabian, VAR Project Manager, OFC.
The system achieved a 100% success rate across all proof-of-concept deployments, with issues diagnosed and resolved remotely from Auckland. The deployment has expanded beyond the OFC Pro League to the New Zealand Football FIFA Series and OFC Women’s World Cup qualifying matches. The next deployment is in Tahiti.
“What the OFC has achieved here is a working blueprint – broadcast-quality remote VAR, deployable anywhere, with no freight, no fixed infrastructure, and no specialist engineers on the ground. The attention this has already drawn from beyond Oceania tells you everything, changing the conversation for sports organizations everywhere,” says Chris Dredge, Country and Sales Manager, Oceania, LiveU Pacific.