Avid Redefining Graphics

In today's media environment, competition for viewership amongst broadcasters is at an all-time high, says Ofir Benovici, Senior Director, Broadcast Products at Avid.

One way to captivate audiences is with visually stunning real-time 2D and 3D graphics for news, sports shows, elections, weather segments, and other types of broadcast production.

Following the completion of its acquisition of Orad Hi-Tec systems in June 2015, Avid now offers an extensive integrated workflow enabling media enterprises to address many of the most pressing business challenges, including attracting and retaining audiences and staying ahead of the competition. Through the deployment of innovative solutions that deliver augmented reality, unique studio enhancements and awe-inspiring 3D data-driven graphics, Avid is empowering media organisations to captivate target audiences and define their brand like never before.

Currently, more than 600 media enterprises worldwide rely on cutting-edge Avid solutions to produce graphics, live events, and sports broadcasts. With Orad solutions now tightly integrated into the Avid MediaCentral Platform under the Avid Artist Suite, broadcasters have greater choice over the tools they use and gain a more streamlined workflow to boost efficiency, minimise disruption, and eliminate interoperability challenges.

Featuring deep integration with existing Avid solutions, the Studio Suite includes industry-leading 3D real-time graphics, video servers, sports enhancement, virtual sets, and video wall solutions, helping customers to build stronger brands, keep up with 24/7 news cycles, and quickly create engaging sports programming.

Together with other layers of the Avid Everywhere solution stack, the Studio Suite helps create a comprehensive ecosystem that encompasses everything from media creation to distribution and monetisation, addressing every aspect of the new digital media value chain. It features hardware and software applications that are fully integrated with other Avid products, offering a complete solution approach that augments production capabilities for broadcast news, sports, and live production.

Maintaining a competitive edge with state-of-the-art graphics
One customer already benefitting from Avid's state-of-the-art Studio Suite solutions for virtual studios and real-time graphics is German public radio and television broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), a regional member of national broadcaster ARD.

The NDR studio in Kiel decided to invest in new tools from the Avid Studio Suite to help refresh a popular magazine program, Schleswig-Holstein Magazin, which has aired daily across Northern Germany for more than 30 years. Throughout its history, the show has retained a traditional delivery style and a classic studio layout, but its producers decided it was time to embrace new technological advances to appeal also to a younger audience.

The system comprises a revolutionary Avid ProSet core system with on-air graphics solutions. Avid Maestro helps seamlessly generate the broadcast graphics that NDR uses across its productions. Within the powerful ProSet workflow, a four-camera virtual studio system uses four HDVG+ servers for real-time 3D graphics rendering. In addition, two HDVG2 dual-channel systems allow for seamless on-air graphics, such as lower thirds, logos and full screen images.

NDR uses Avid 3Designer (the predecessor to Avid 4Designer) for authoring design, and an Avid News Producer MOS plug-in for its OpenMedia newsroom system for all editorial newsroom workflows. The MOS protocol seamlessly connects the entire newsroom system to other production environments, with the Avid plug-in acting as the bridge between these advanced newsroom systems.

A perfect match for Match TV
Russian public sports broadcaster, Match TV, relies on the Avid MediaCentral Platform and solutions from the Avid Studio Suite for the creation of world-class graphics packages for national and global sporting events. The broadcaster also recently added Avid Invictus to its extensive Avid graphics toolset in order to enhance its live sporting events.

Avid Invictus uses sensor and image-based tracking technologies to overlay any type of graphic object – including textures, clips, and video insertions – to any precise location in any live sports event. These graphic overlays include commentary, advertisements as well as sponsorship messages. The broadcaster deployed 3Designer authoring software and the 3DPlay graphics solution to deliver captivating 2D and 3D real-time brand graphics and on-screen content.

Specialising in sports and healthy lifestyle, Match TV is a Russian all-country TV sub-holding channel. In addition to Match TV, the composition of the sub-holding channels also includes 11 thematic channels under the name Gazprom Media Match. These channels already utilise several augmented reality and graphics systems from the Avid Studio Suite including 3DPlay and 3Designer, producing several types of programming, including major sports events, news, entertainment programmes, reality and talk shows and documentary series.

Image: Avid 4Designer.

www.avid.com

This article is also available to read at BFV online here, page 57.

(JP/LM)