U.K.-based Sky News marks the start of each hour’s live news broadcast with a 3-D graphic opener called “Top of the Hour.” This opener quickly conveys what breaking news and top stories Sky News is currently following, as well as featuring video clips and screen shots from all Sky News’ online platforms — Web, iPad and mobile — as 3-D video windows.
The Viz Content Pilot, a template-based video and graphics management system from Vizrt, grabs editorial content from each of the Sky News online services and inserts it into the pre-built 3-D animated graphic in real-time, preserving their fonts and screen layouts.
“Top of the Hour” runs on both the SD and HD channels, and Viz Content Pilot automatically feeds both versions.
The resulting graphic is accessible to the technical director and producers in the control room via Viz Content Pilot and iNews. This gives them the ability to override the automatic insertion of content from the servers and embed different imagery and headlines if last-minute changes are required.
