Revolution in real time
Sep 1, 2007 12:00 PM, BY PETTER OLE JAKOBSEN
Live broadcast graphics accelerate and proliferate.
Technological advancements in graphics creation software and processing hardware have impacted the volume and quality of graphics that broadcasters can generate for live programs as well as the very way they work.
In the last 15 years, the broadcast industry has experienced a revolution that has transformed the viewing experience by enabling a virtually unlimited creative palette and dynamic eye candy effects.
To fully appreciate how dynamic the live broadcast graphics business has become, look at the equipment 15 years ago. The first live graphics systems were limited to relatively simple moves like spins, warps, flips and page turns. In addition, early versions of character generators did just that — generate characters onscreen.
An entire control room full of equipment, including the production switcher, DVE, CG and still store, needed to be pressed into service to create sophisticated, multilayered looks — especially for live sports telecasts. Or graphics packages had to be outsourced to post houses and boutiques that charged stations an hourly fee to build all the graphics roll-ins and channel branding pieces broadcasters needed.
Real-time 3-D animation
In Norway, TVN’s new virtual sets feature behind-theshoulder graphics with text images and tickers.
While the term live broadcast graphics refers to push-button triggering of real-time graphics during live applications, such as newscasts, sports, elections, concerts and award shows, a good deal of the work takes place in advance. Graphics must be designed and in some cases rendered; 3-D animated elements need to be imported from 3-D animation systems; and other post-production finishing may be needed to give the graphics an enhanced, polished look.
In just a decade, the CG has grown to become a live graphics system, and many of the high-end models now incorporate 2-D, 3-D, HD, SD, animation, production and delivery tools in one system.
The 2-D systems dominant in the 1990s — many of which were designed to give the illusion of a 3-D look — have yielded to real-time, 3D-animated graphics systems. Real-time 3-D animation is fast-becoming the standard for live graphics for broadcast news and sports.
Increased reliability
In the 1990s, broadcast customers still relied on dedicated, proprietary graphics systems because they thought they were the only way to get sufficient processing power to render live broadcast graphics. When Windows-based systems first appeared, there was justified distrust in their reliability, as people feared they would crash in the middle of a live show.
Today, most live broadcast graphics systems are PC-based, and the high-end models have proven their ability to deliver enough processing power to handle real-time output of multiple channels of 3-D animated graphics, text, video and audio, in HD, SD, or a mix of the two.
Automated for efficiency
Features are being built into high-end live graphics systems that are intelligent enough to adjust the position of one graphic on the screen to make room for a new graphic. This capability is intuitive enough to adjust the composition on the fly without an operator's manual intervention.
As a result of these advances, broadcasters need fewer operators and gear during a live show, which means that they can lower production costs without compromising production standards. Also, broadcasters view the ability to distribute their branded content to multiple outlets as critical for broadening their audience and generating new revenue streams.
Distribution to multiple outlets
Today's live graphics systems can handle a wide range of resolutions and formats, including wide-screen HD, 4:3 SD, Web formats and even the scaled down display requirements of a cell phone.
We're moving into a world where the multilayering of graphics, and the positioning of foreground and background elements, will be a function of the target display device. While today graphics are composited in the production control room and sent out as part of the broadcast signal, in the future, graphics elements may be sent separately to different devices — such as the set-top box (STB), PC or cell phone — where they would then be rendered on the fly into a single, multilayered composite as the image displays.
Also, some of the graphical elements can even be customized or personalized at the point of delivery for the particular display medium or viewer's interests, location or demographics. Broadcasters may find that this is a simple way to generate new revenue streams without changing their business models.
Distributed creativity
The broadcast workflow has also been irrevocably changed. Compared with the days when a graphics artist could sit at an expensive workstation and design the graphics, journalists and producers can now actively participate in the graphics creation process.
As graphics creation software has become detached from the processing hardware, such as the rendering engine, the creative process can move to less expensive laptops, desktop PCs and newsroom computer systems networked across the station's operation.
People can now do what they do best. Graphics artists can concentrate on creating an innovative graphics look that can serve many graphics needs at that station or network and ensure that channel branding remains consistent.
| Want to use this article? Click here for options! |  |
