In Broadcast - October 2014 - 68

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 36 - OCTOBER 2014

N E W S

InSTUDIO

Broadcast Pix Rapid CG Simplifies
Customised Sports Graphics
Sports production is hectic, but Broadcast Pix makes it easier to produce accurate graphics quickly
throughout a broadcast with its optional Rapid CG software...

By Steve Ellis
CEO, Broadcast Pix

roadcast Pix Rapid CG
a u to m a ti c a ll y i n te g r a te s
databases, RSS feeds, and custom
actions, such as scorekeeping, into
templates for customised graphics
with signiﬁcantly less manual effort.
Broadcast Pix offers two
versions - the dual-channel Rapid
CG 3 and the "light" Rapid CG
LT - and both versions work with
graphics templates created with
the built-in Inscriber CG in every
Flint, Granite and Mica integrated
production switcher.
With simple drag-and-drop
operation, Rapid CG links a
database to a template. Text and/or
graphic information is automatically
updated in speciﬁc ﬁelds within the
template, so there is no re-keying
of data. The automation process
can be applied to several templates
simultaneously, so if the score is
included on a full-screen image and
a small scoreboard in the corner
of the screen, any score changes
are automatically applied to both
graphics. Plus, Rapid CG only
operates within speciﬁc ﬁelds so
only data changes, not the templates.
Both versions of Rapid CG also
let the audience become part of the
production by connecting to Twitter
and other cloud-based data sources.
RSS, clock, and weather feeds can
ﬂow directly into on-air graphics,
and Tweets can ﬂow directly to air
or be pre-screened with a built-in
management system. Plus, action
buttons can trigger multiple tags.
Rapid CG 3 adds dual-channel
connectivity to local and cloudbased content databases, news
automation, and scoreboards. With
cloud-based databases becoming
common for sports, elections,
and other applications, Rapid CG
3 allows sports scores in league
databases to automatically ﬂow into
on-air graphics. It also adds support
for OES Scoreboard data and Webbased XML databases.
Introduced in 2010, Rapid CG
quickly became a popular option
for Broadcast Pix customers to
streamline the creation of dataintensive CG graphics. For example,

the Tampa Bay Rowdies, a Floridabased soccer team, realised the
power the convenience of Rapid
CG when it installed a Granite 1000
earlier this year.
Before the start of the 2014 season,
the team negotiated broadcast
rights for all 13 of its Saturday night
home soccer matches. The matches
were broadcast on WTTA, the
MyNetworkTV afﬁliate in the Tampa/
St. Petersburg market (DMA #14),
and streamed to the North American
Soccer League's live streaming site,
NASLlive.com. Some games were
also streamed to ESPN3's website.
With the new rights in place, the
team decided to upgrade its SD
production facilities at Al Lang
Stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida.
When the players took the ﬁeld for
the ﬁrst home game of the season
on April 12, the match was produced
in HD using a new four-camera
setup, custom animated graphics

Rapid CG 3 offers operators versatile
output options

and a Granite 1000. The graphics
operator used Rapid CG to update
the on-screen clock and scoreboard
during matches. "The system was
easy to learn to use, and is easy to
operate during
our show," said Art Dryce,
President of VideoArt Productions,
which has been providing
live coverage of Rowdies
matches since 2010.

Fast Data
Another customer, the 17,000seat US Bank Arena in downtown

A Broadcast Pix Granite integrated production switcher utilising Rapid CG
allows the Tampa Bay Rowdies to solidify home broadcasts

Cincinnati, Ohio, was built in
1975 but had not had a major AV
renovation since 1997. In 2013, the
venue upgraded to HD production
anchored by a Broadcast Pix
Granite X system. Home to
the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones
professional ice hockey team,

the arena hosts more than
100 events per year, including 36
Cyclones home games. A fourscreen, centre-hung video board
provides the most prominent view
for fans during the game, though
there are multiple small monitors
throughout the concourse, suites,
and on-site restaurant.
Rapid CG feeds score and
game clock data directly from the
Daktronics scoreboard into graphics
produced with the integrated Harris
Inscriber CG. It also manages data
from an XML feed, so lower-third
graphics can include real-time
player statistics. "It makes things
so much easier," said Jim Plummer,
Technical Director.
Beyond sports, Rapid CG is a
useful tool for streamlining coverage

of election results. Cayman 27
(CITN), a broadcast television
station in the Cayman Islands, used
Rapid CG with its Granite system to
produce up-to-the-minute coverage
of a highly-contentious election that
challenged the country's current
voting system in 2012. "For the
ﬁrst time in Cayman's history, the
results on the screen were up to
date and current - not an hour old,"
said April Cummings, Cayman 27,
News Director.
Before Broadcast Pix, election
coverage was less than ideal for
Cayman 27. "Our workﬂow before
required information to be relayed by
phone from the command centre to a
graphics operator - who could never
type the data in quickly enough,"
Cummings recalled. "In addition, the
reporter on scene was busy doing
live shots and couldn't preview the
information before it hit air."
To cover the important election,
Cayman 27 created a special table
on the backend of its web site,
where the reporter on the scene
input election data. Back at the
station, a small Java program
downloaded the .XML ﬁle, which
was linked to Rapid CG.
"Every minute, the program
checked for new data and updated it
immediately," Cummings explained.
"It minimised errors, increased our
conﬁdence, and kept viewers up
to date in a way that has never
occurred on our local TV before. Our
information was on screen before
the elections ofﬁce even had it on
their website."

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