Vizrt Integrates With NewTek’s TalkShow, Twitter Curator, and Total Traffic Television
At NAB 2015, Vizrt became the first company to integrate NewTek’s TalkShow VS-100 video-calling production system and has also partnered with Twitter to create new social media tools and the Total Traffic & Weather Network to launch the Total Traffic Television advanced traffic presentation system. In addition, the company highlighted extensive new functionality and integrations for its MAM system.
Vizrt First To Integrate With NewTek’s TalkShow
NewTek’s TalkShow system gives television studios and live video producers the ability to use Skype’s 300 million users as guest speakers on live programming in full frame HD-SDI video. NewTek’s TalkShow system for initiating, receiving, monitoring and managing video calls features a unique set of professional-level live production tools and features not found in other video calling systems. With TalkShow, customisable settings allow users to fully color correct video within the live calls. It also gives operators the ability to equalise, compress or limit audio, and adjust headroom controls for improved SDI-embedded audio quality.
NewTek’s TalkShow integrates with a variety of Vizrt tools including the Viz One MAM system which records live feeds from TalkShow and the Viz Opus and Viz Mosart studio automation for graphics and video playout systems route TalkShow’s Skype feeds live on-air. Viz Multiplay sends the live Skype video to the studio video walls or screens and Viz Virtual Studio enables video streams to be fully immersed in the live studio through augmented reality techniques. In the newsroom producers can choose which, from a number of Skype feeds, to include in a broadcast using templates in Viz Pilot. Viz Engine powers the live feed to display as an SDI signal or IP stream with real-time graphics overlays.
“Skype video is a powerful tool for people to be able to connect to anyone in the world but broadcasters have long struggled to harness this tool for live broadcast,” says Petter Ole Jakobsen, Vizrt CTO. “The great collaboration between NewTek and Vizrt has opened the door for broadcasters to be able to use Skype video live from anywhere and have it work seamlessly as part of their daily production workflow. This integration lets broadcasters bring the story to their audiences no matter where it happens.”
“TalkShow enables producers to build shows in ways that were previously not possible. It breaks down the fourth wall and makes it easy to take audience participation to a whole new level,” says Dr. Andrew Cross, president and CTO of NewTek. “We’re excited to be working with Vizrt, an industry leader in solutions for 3D graphics, video, sets and analysis. Combining the versatility of Vizrt’s solutions with TalkShow puts unprecedented creative power in the hands of producers to deliver shows beyond the imagination.”
At NAB 2015, alongside this new integration on its booth (SL2417),Vizrt also displayed NewTek’s TriCaster integrated with the latest VIzrt broadcast production tools in the What’s Next lounge.
NewTek also showcased other products integrated with Vizrt graphics and powered by Viz Engine on its booth SL3312.
Vizrt, Twitter Partner to Deliver Social Tools
Vizrt has partnered with social media platform Twitter to help broadcasters build audience engagement while gaining valuable user insights through the integration of Vizrt’s Social TV Solution and Twitter’s Curator platform. The integration was demonstrated by Vizrt on stand SL2417 at NAB 2015 in Las Vegas.
Twitter Curator is a platform built exclusively for broadcasters and media publishers that helps them to manage and engage viewers with their favourite shows and events on Twitter. Twitter created Curator to allow media and broadcast partners to manage and leverage the massive amounts of content available on Twitter. Users can gain insight from Twitter’s user generated content by using the platform’s search, filter and moderate tools. Curator allows users to search within a pre-defined set of topics around news, politics, sports, entertainment, and more, and prepare presentations of this generated content by tracking trends and breaking news. Curator allows broadcasters to start curating and access content around the most relevant conversations.
The Vizrt Social TV solution integration with the Curator platform provides broadcasters with an easy to use tool which allows them to incorporate social media content with on-air graphics and video. The integration includes access to tweets, trendlines, metrics (which includes gender breakdown and total volume) and the ability to compare insight from several streams to generate polls and hashtag battles. All content is easily visualised with interactive graphics, virtual sets, tickers and full screen graphics.
“Keeping audiences engaged has never been more important, which is why we’ve integrated Vizrt’s Social TV solution with Curator. There’s no other system that brings together audiences and broadcasters as successfully and easily,” says Petter Ole Jakobsen, CTO, Vizrt.
Vizrt, Total Traffic & Weather Network Launch T3 Advanced Traffic Presentation System
Vizrt and Total Traffic & Weather Network (TTWN) have launched T3 – Total Traffic Television, a new advanced traffic system for television broadcasters. The technology pairs TTWN’s real-time traffic incident and flow data, with Vizrt’s 3D graphics and video software, to create a seamless integrated workflow for unrivaled traffic reporting. TTWN and Vizrt debuted the new traffic solution at NAB.
To create T3 – Total Traffic Television, TTWN’s robust traffic data, a network of 800 professional traffic reporters and producers across more than 120 U.S. metropolitan areas, is integrated with Vizrt’s Viz World 3D mapping system and Viz Engine, a real-time graphics system. The new solution creates an interactive application allowing Traffic Reporters to display different map views with traffic flows, specific incidents, video and social media interactions. The solution also has the ability to create travel routes displaying current travel times and alternative routes. The result is a robust playlist of up-to-date traffic content with intuitive on-screen controls that allow Traffic Reporters to quickly present up-to-the-minute traffic information to viewers in a visually appealing way. .
“T3 – Total Traffic Television is about traffic storytelling, not just traffic reporting,” said Kevin Loftus, Senior Vice President of Operations for Total Traffic & Weather Network. “This new technology is specifically designed by traffic experts to provide television newsrooms with a turn-key workflow system able to present the most accurate local traffic information in a more visually enriched way.”
Designed to maximize newsroom workflow efficiency, T3 – Total Traffic Television integrates TTWN’s data into a newsroom’s daily production allowing Traffic Reporters to select maps, traffic flows and incidents from templates within the native newsroom control system. The traffic maps and full-screen graphics become part of the news content playlist for on-air use. T3 also works on Viz Engine-powered touchscreens in the studio and is fully integrated with Viz Ticker for constant live traffic updates.
“Traffic touches the lives of every American and this integrated solution combines the power of TTWN’s robust traffic information with the peerless visual capabilities of Vizrt. The result, is an easy to use traffic presentation which can be quickly implemented into existing newsroom control systems,” said Petter Ole Jakobsen, Vizrt CTO.
“This product is an innovative new solution for traffic reporting,” said Alice Jacobs, Vice President of News and Local Programming for WSVN, 7 News. “As the number one morning newscast in South Florida, the ability to deliver the most accurate, up-to-the-minute traffic reports is crucial. WSVN has successfully partnered with Total Traffic and Weather Network for more than 20 years to deliver traffic information to our viewers, and the new T3 product will let us do that in a more visually compelling way. We are excited to take WSVN’s traffic reporting capabilities to the next level.”
Vizrt Highlights Fifth-Gen MAM System
Vizrt also highlighted extensive new functionality and integrations for its MAM system. Vizrt recently released version 5.7 of it’s state-of-the-art MAM system Viz One. It is a future-proof investment for broadcasters to manage all of their assets. Viz One’s technology comes from more than 15 years of experience in the MAM industry and is featured in more than 200 installations worldwide.
At NAB 2015, Vizrt highlighted next-generation 4K/UHD and IP encoder and transcoder capabilities. Viz One features a video production workflow that streams IP and inserts graphics into live content up to 4K resolution. The workflow brands content easily for multiplatform distribution while not requiring any extra transcoding.
Viz One’s browser-based interface, Studio, is improved with new capabilities including truly frame-accurate proxy video. It now also supports file viewing during ingest. Studio does not require any additional plugins and includes the search and preview of subtitles as well as the ability to make simple edits to video. Studio also includes a new preview for graphics that have been stored on the video timeline.
With the ability to store and preview any content, there’s no longer a need for extensive transcoding of media and creating “house formats”. Viz One now enables users to store and preview any material in any format, easing the production of content for web and mobile.
Viz One’s Logging tool now supports high-res playback for high-res compliance and QC workflows. Other new logging features include the new segmentation mode that enables defining segments on assets and the new thesaurus metadata component that drastically improves metadata entry and search.