In Broadcast - November 2014 - 61

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 37 - NOVEMBER 2014

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

N E W S

InSTUDIO

Graphically Illustrated

No longer a method of simply showing titles and credits, graphics play a major part in
television production from onscreen logo branding to augmented reality set design...

By Philip Stevens
Contributing Editor

G

raphics and their method
of display have evolved at
amazing rates over recent years.
And that has meant constant
innovations for those producing the
specialist systems. Plus we mustn't
forget the increasing use of virtual
reality graphics, either.
With that in mind, what are
the latest developments and
the challenges?
According to Pixel Power's CEO,
James Gilbert, one challenge
is finding new ways to enable
broadcasters to capture and keep
eyeballs and monetise the content,
to maintain relevance and compete

Staying Flexible

According to Gerhard Lang, Vizrt's
Chief Engineering Ofﬁcer, graphics
vendors need to be ﬂexible enough
to change their distribution
model faster than the broadcast
environment evolves. "An example
is going from HD to 4K. Graphics
providers need to ensure their
technology can scale to varying
resolutions without losing any
quality. Vizrt graphics are vectorbased so they do scale easily
between resolutions."
Viz Virtual Studio has been made
easier to use with the release of Viz
Engine 3.7. Here, a simple control
panel triggers
transitions
during the virtual
set presentation.
"We have also
released Viz
Arena 4.1, which
allows users
to produce
live
sports
enhancements
in the stadium
without the
need for tracking
equipment. It
uses imagebased tracking
that
only
requires a clean
Viz Virtual Studio includes a simple control panel that
video
feed
triggers transitions during the virtual set presentation
to apply the
with the new media / non-linear
virtual graphics."
television providers, as well as
Lang predicts a greater use of
integrate social media. "Every sort of
ultra portable VR solutions based
on laptops and expansion boxes.
programme is surrounded by social
media today. It is not just popular "You will start seeing more and more
virtual graphics being used at live
entertainment and reality television,
events all over the world."
viewers comment through social
media on everything from political
Pushing The Limits
debates to sport. To meet that need,
Augmented reality has been
Pixel Power launched an awardBrainstorm's speciality for 20
winning product called Buzz at IBC."
years, and with the introduction of
Buzz software not only looks for
Inﬁnity Set, the company maintains
relevant comments, it prioritises
it has further pushed the limits
them according to rules set by the
of VR technology. "It can cope
production. For a reality show, for
with any need from advanced
instance, it could put messages
tracked virtual sets to inexpensive
from former contestants or celebrity
trackless environments, and, most
tweets into a priority list to help
importantly, Inﬁnity Set solves the
the producers give the show a
3D graphics creation needs, as it
real 'buzz'. Equally, inappropriate
can seamlessly partner with Aston
language and other unsuitable
3D, Brainstorm's real-time graphics
comments can be deleted before
creation, CG and playout solution,"
they even reach the short list.

Pixel Power's Buzz can prioritise and integrate social media input

explains Commercial Director,
David Alexander.
Inﬁnity Set offers practically inﬁnite
virtual cameras and the industry-ﬁrst
TrackFree technology - combining
tracked and trackless techniques
in the same camera. "Inﬁnity Set
creates a 3D representation of
the live character coming from a
video feed, generating a real-time
3D volume which is continuously
regenerated, repositioned and
remapped based on the shooting
camera parameters."
Orad agrees that one of the
most signiﬁcant developments in
VR technology has been the ability
to mix tracking technologies. "To
streamline production, Orad is
introducing various solutions,
including its all-in-one production
suite especially designed for
virtual reality," reveals Orad Hi-Tec

VR affordable to any type of
broadcaster."
For on-screen graphics demands,
Orad has introduced TD Control,
which allows users to call up
different video box compositions,
assign diverse video sources to
each box, and populate it with
the correlating graphics and data,
manually or automatically. "The
touch screen gives the option
to control the software from the
user interface or directly from the
vision mixer. It enables tasks that
could not have been achieved
before like switching on-air from
eight video sources to completely
different inputs with one click of
a button. As soon as the video
box combination is selected and
the sources assigned, the preview
channel is instantly updated and
with a single key stroke the layout

RT Software tOG rendering platform allows presenters not just to control
graphics and animations from a hand held device, but also see the result
directly on the tablet without looking at their feedback monitor

Systems', Haim Halperin. "Orad's
Studio in a Box is able to manage
four live cameras, provide both
programme and preview, manage
all types of tracking technologies,
integrated chromakey and internal
delay, providing a cost-effective
alternative solution and making

goes on air."

Looking Different
Luke Harrison, Technical Product
Marketing Manager at RT Software
believes graphics play a major
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