Here’s one of the best-kept secrets regarding our recent federal election. To raise the bar on its live coverage, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation enlisted the help of Montreal-based, real-time broadcast graphics expert Astucemedia. During the elections, the CBC pioneered the use of Augmented Reality (AR) graphics for the first time on Canadian TV. It enlisted the help of Montreal-based Astucemedia, a creative and development firm specializing in the design and implementation of broadcast graphics, channel/program branding, augmented reality/virtual and real-time data solutions. Basically, Astucemedia built the Augmented Reality graphics and integrated them with the broadcaster’s real-time elections data and camera tracking. The results, which featured vivid on-screen colours, were quite visually stunning.
During the CBC’s October 19 primetime broadcast, computer-generated 3D models of the Canadian Parliament and House of Commons seemed to magically appear on the physical news set. Commentators sitting at long desks referred to the AR displays as if they were real objects in front of them. Adding to the credibility, the AR scenes tracked precisely with the live camera moves, giving viewers the proper perspective of the live 3D scene from virtually any angle.
The project, which Astucemedia began in January, was the first instance of AR on Canadian TV. Based on CBC’s preliminary designs and geometry, Astucemedia’s team used Viz Artist software to build the various 3D AR graphics. These included Seat Change, Share of Votes, House of Commons, the Parliament, and Party Standings for the top five political parties. For example, the seats in the House of Commons graphic would change colours when they switched from one party’s control to another.
During election night, whenever CBC’s Maestro in-house control application triggered a particular AR graphic to air, it also sent real-time election data that automatically populated specific fields within the structure of that graphic. This produced timely illustrations of the election outcomes as vote tallies rolled in. Astucemedia worked closely with the CBC’s development team to customize Maestro to control the playout of the AR graphics from the Viz Virtual Studio. The solution also integrated the live graphics with StypeGrip, CBC’s chosen camera tracking technology, which added to the illusion that these 3D scenes were actually real elements on the set.
Additionally, Astucemedia’s scene business logic ensured that the live data displayed by the AR graphics was continually refreshed on-air to maintain consistency with the full-screen and lower-third graphics that CBC’s Maestro displayed. On-site specialists tested the various 3D AR scenes using simulated data sets – and did make last-minute adjustments to ensure flawless integration with CBC’s workflow.
“We’re very proud of our contribution to CBC’s live 2015 Canadian Federal Election coverage featuring integrated Augmented Reality graphics,” said Alexandre Leclerc, Founder and Owner of Astucemedia, “It was both a technical and creative challenge to bring CBC’s design concepts to life, and then seamlessly interface the augmented reality with their graphics workflow, including their Maestro, Vizrt and StypeGrip technology. Working closely with CBC’s talented team, we successfully produced a visually captivating AR show that set a new benchmark for live elections’ broadcasting worldwide.”
Astucemedia is a creative and development firm specializing in the design and implementation of broadcast graphics, channel/program branding, augmented reality/virtual and real-time data solutions. The company offers a modular Data Platform that can manage various data feeds for Elections, Finance, Sport, Weather, Social Media and News. Its current clients include ABC News, CBS, NBC Universal, Fox Sports, CBC, Radio Canada, Global News, Panasonic, Abu Dhabi TV, Al-Jazeera, MBC, Saudi TV, TF1, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and many more. Astucemedia headquartered in Montreal, with a remote office in Dubai and staffers around the globe.
Astucemedia’s AR graphics and expertise helps CBC enhance its live federal election coverage
