Perfect pitch for Hungary’s live Eurovision Song Contest selection show

zLense, a specialist provider of a standalone real-time depth sensing and modelling platform to the film, broadcast and gaming industries, was involved in transforming viewer experience during the live finale of The Song, a national selection contest to select Hungary’s entry into the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest.

Based on viewer voting, the X-Factor style national competition culminated in a live showdown which aired on Saturday 28 February. Broadcast live on Hungarian public television, The Song, a show that traditionally attracts the highest audience ratings and outperforms all other national public TV programmes, once again proved a huge hit with the viewing public.

To maximise viewer participation and deliver a truly ‘in the moment’ social interaction that resonates with viewers, Show&Game Productions, the prime-time TV production company responsible for bringing The Song to the screen, utilised the zLense solution to create the ultimate companion experience for viewers who tuned into the competition finals.

“We wanted to connect the live audience with remote viewers, displaying real-time selected viewer submissions to the show’s official Facebook and Instagram pages to give fans an opportunity to participate as they watch,” said György Koós, director and co-owner of Show&Game.

During the live show, hosted by Hungarian TV presenter Csilla Tatár, it was up to viewers use televoting to pick a winner from the four super-finalists who had won through previous semi-final and final selection rounds.

Putting real-time CGI into the hands of the production team, zLense’s solution required no special studio modifications to enable the augmented reality simulations and visualisations that made the delivery of social media and results infographics visually exciting and immersive for viewers.

During the show the zLense production platform enabled the image-processing needed to embed on-screen high quality real-time graphics during the show’s green-room segments hosted by The Songs co-presenter Levente Harsányi who also fronted the companion aftershow broadcast Dal+. Adding a new dynamic to behind the scenes ‘vox pop’ style interviews with contestants as they waited backstage for the voting public’s final vote, viewers were able to view results as they unfolded and zoom in on social media feeds and breaking news items.

“This demonstrates the power of the zLense proposition in action, adding a totally new dimension to live coverage that engages viewers and spices up live events. The flexibility of our platform meant that Show&Game was able to bring their concept to fruition quickly, effectively and easily to present news updates and data to the show’s audience in a meaningful visually enticing way,” said Bruno P Gyorgy, President of zLense.

Show&Game is currently collaborating with Zinemath, the company responsible for the development of zLense, to create new television formats that utilise the visual benefits offered by zLense.