Telemundo illustrates geopolitics, military might with augmented reality

Spanish language “Noticias Telemundo” laid out the geography and key military facts in the Ukraine-Russia conflict using an augmented reality segment Feb. 24, 2022.

The segment featured anchor Julio Vaqueiro standing camera right of the network’s Miami studio’s home base with a virtual 3D rendering of a map of the region around Ukraine hovering over the floor.

The crisply rendered map also had a shadow effect to reinforce the floating look.

Key cities and country names were also identified in Spanish on virtual cards hovering slightly above the surface of the map and angled toward the camera, along with directional arrows indicating the movement of Russian troops.

The scene then shifted to feature a 3D model of a combat ready solider standing in front of a virtual tank and panel comparing the two countries’ military force headcounts and tanks.

Next, the tank drove off screen and a model of a white missile emerged out of the map surface, with another floating panel off to one side showing Russia’s key advantage over Ukraine in terms of its arsenal.

After this, a military plane model flew down from the ceiling. This time, the panel flew in along with the plane and appeared, at least virtually, anchored to it as it bobbed in the air, complete with animated wind gusts and a sound effect.

The AR was inserted in an area of the studio that has a more neutral background — namely of a spiral staircase, balcony and columns backed by a series of paneling and a glossy white wall with red accents. 

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Vaqueiro, meanwhile, stood camera left in front of the studio’s primary video wall, which was sporting a mostly blue collage style graphic of scenes from the invasion. 

During an earlier portion of the newscast, Vaqueiro also used the touchscreen camera left of the primary anchor area to showcase financial implications of the Russian attack.

How the U.S. networks covered start of Russia’s attack on Ukraine https://t.co/jb0shqHTZc #TVNews #BroadcastNews

— TVNewsMix (@TVNewsMix) February 25, 2022

Telemundo is a big user of AR technology, including using building’s dramatic atrium and stairway to present election graphics during 2020 and outside the building during a coronavirus focused newscast in 2021.

Meanwhile, over on Univision, the other major Spanish language network in the U.S., an augmented reality military blockade and tank were inserted briefly into a wide shot of its studio, though it wasn’t used in a full blown segment.

Univision did have a small touchscreen on a stand on hand for presenting a variety of maps explaining the invasion.