Archive for the ‘Virtual Sets’ Category

L.A. independent station selects Orad virtual sets

KCET-TV, the largest publicly supported independent television station in the U.S., has purchased the Orad ProSet Virtual Studio system for one of its two new studios currently under construction in Burbank, Calif.

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FX Design Group to showcase augmented reality sets at NAB

FX Design Group and DeSisti Lighting have partnered together to present an Augmented Reality Set in the DeSisti booth C6037 at the NAB Show. This Augmented Reality Set will feature a high-tech desk backed by a digital (static virtual) background designed by the FX to showcase both FX’s designs and DeSisti’s lighting gear.

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Global Regina goes HD

Using a virtual set crafted by Full Mental Jacket, Global Regina flipped its switch to begin broadcasting in HD on Wednesday.

The Weather Network selects Hybrid for trackless virtual set solution

The Canadian Weather Network has selected leading virtual studios and camera tracking manufacturer, Hybrid, for its upgrade to a 24/7 on-air virtual studio look, broadcasting in HD.

The Weather Network broadcasts nationwide in Canada and reaches an average of 9 million Canadians on TV every week. They decided to move to HD in early 2011 and wanted to combine the launch with an exciting new on-air look to enhance the viewer experience. The solution needed to be both robust and efficient and able to generate a range of stunning virtual studios out of a relatively small physical studio.

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NBC News and MSNBC pull out all the stops for the 2010 midterm election

NBC News and MSNBC continued its election coverage dominance by pulling out all the stops.

Besides having 14 anchors, analysts and reporters on set in multiple studios in 30 Rock, the two networks continued its extensive use of virtual and touch screen technology.

While the technology was new for many U.S. networks in 2008, the networks have had more time to learn and tweak, meaning a well rounded and polished look for this election.

Unlike other networks, the technology, powered by Orad, worked. The iPad app didn’t fail. The real-time virtual graphics didn’t twitch.

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Miami station goes virtual with bright pink

WSVN-TV, the Sunbeam-owned Fox station in Miami, has given its lifestyle and entertainment program “Deco Drive” a new look. See a video clip and vote in our poll after the jump.

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Global BC to debut in HD today

Global BC, located in Vancouver, is prepping to launch a new virtual HD set. The set, which uses a chroma key background for everything but the desk and riser, is set to debut today on Global National and Sept. 27 on Global BC.

The set is also used for Global National, the nightly Global newscast. Other Global affiliates use virtual sets by Full Mental Jacket.

‘Meet the Press’ creates faux bookcase for talking heads

NBC News is now sending a fake bookcase graphic to live shot locations for “Meet the Press.”

The graphic appears very very fake on air and looks extremely flat.

One better solution to this would have been to film a portion of the set, then send them the looped tape, similar to what is done with MSNBC’s news nooks. NBC also does something similar during the weekend edition of “Nightly” when they have a video loop of the studio in the background, when the broadcast is actually produced from a smaller studio with just a single camera.

CHBC-TV behind the scenes clip

CHBC-TV, a Global TV affiliate in Canada, posted this behind the scenes clip talking about the transition to a virtual set.

The set, designed by Full Mental Jacket and powered by Orad, was installed as part of a multi-year roll out for Global TV at its various stations.

Quantum Vizualization Laboratories hopes to bring VR to local stations

Formed to develop applications and plug-ins for the real-time 3D graphics market, Quantum Vizualization Laboratories recently announced its corporate launch.

QVizLabs will focus primarily on “products and services to enable live, local HD broadcasting to expand beyond the confines of current studio facilities.”

Virtual Realty solutions, already proven successful internationally and at the US network level, are being scaled by QVizLabs to the operations, manpower and budgets of Call Letter Stations across the US.

QVizLabs is working closely with the industry leading developers of VR technologies to provide stable and scaled solutions that push the technological boundaries while maintaining the reliability expected by demanding CLS operations.

Located in Charleston, South Carolina, QVizLabs will be working closely with its sister company, Trinity Systems Engineering, to provide the highest level of real-time graphics products and services to the CLS market starting in early 2011.

NewscastStudio welcomes Hybrid as advertiser

NewscastStudio is pleased to announce that Hybrid, a manufacture of broadcast production technologies, has joined our list of advertisers.

Hybrid creates broadcast technology solutions for virtual studio installations, broadcast robotic camera supports and augmented reality. For more information about Hybrid, click here.

If your company sells products or services aimed at the television news industry, NewscastStudio is the perfect platform to get the word out. Click here for details.

Chyron continues support of virtual sets

Sports Video Group has a look at Chyron and NeuroTV’s partnership heading into NAB 2010.

Virtual set technology is popular in Asia and Europe but U.S. TV productions have been reticent to rely on it due to cost and complexity. The deal with NeuroTV could change that equation has it has a trackless technology, meaning that the camera can be locked down and computers then synthesize moves like camera crane moves and pans.

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