Vizrt, never.no To Demo Integrated Social TV Graphics Platform
Vizrt and never.no have built an integrated technology platform that bridges the broadcast TV and social media worlds. Vizrt, a leader in broadcast graphics, and never.no, a leader in Social TV have integrated never.no’s Interactivity Suite and other social media toolsets with Vizrt’s live graphics systems. As a result, this platform gives broadcasters effective tools for harvesting, managing, and presenting social media content within their live shows. And it lets them leverage their Vizrt graphics systems to display “what’s trending” in social media, and promote interactive viewer participation.
At the 2013 NAB Show, taking place April 8-11 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Vizrt and never.no will cross-promote the integrated Social TV and Vizrt graphics infrastructure. At the Vizrt booth (SL3305), visitors will see demonstrations of how this never.no-powered Social TV platform creates a vibrant synergy between the live broadcast and social media audience.
By integrating never.no’s Interactivity Suite with Vizrt’s real-time graphics technology, broadcasters can monitor, filter, approve, and harvest UGC—such as tweets, Facebook posts, RSS, video clips, and Instagrams—cascading from today’s social media platforms. They can then build playlists or carousels of select social content they want to display within live Vizrt graphics and push them to air. Vizrt’s broadcast graphics product line includes: Viz Artist for 3D graphics design, the Viz Trio CG graphics system; Viz Content Pilot, a template-based graphics system; and Viz Engine, a real-time HD video and 3D graphics compositing and rendering system.
“The social TV market is quickly becoming mature, and it’s fun to see new and interesting formats emerge, almost on a weekly basis. We’re beginning to see a new way of producing TV, quite simply. Trending and polling, using geo-located and in other ways segmented data provides new and very interesting insights, said Lars Lauritzsen, CEO of never.no. “With Vizrt, the gold standard in broadcast visualizations, these insights spring to life and become the basis of innovative storytelling. The next big paradigm shift we believe is Social TV Advertising. The potential for commercialization cannot be overstated, and never.no plans to lead the way.”
At the 2013 NAB show, never.no (Booth SL8827) will showcase numerous Social TV demonstrations so broadcasters can gain first-hand knowledge of how these social media management tools can work for them. These demos will highlight the latest enhancements to the never.no Interactivity Suite, a toolkit for creating the technical backbone of interactive broadcasts and digital marketing campaigns that leverage social media. New integrations with Instagram and Google+, along with never.no’s Sync for multi-screen advertising synchronization, and the “What’s Trending” trend discovery toolkit, are among the latest developments that make it easier for broadcasters to create a compelling Social TV experience.
Both Vizrt and never.no will demonstrate how broadcasters can use “word cloud” graphics to show what keywords are trending on Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms. If a particular keyword keeps coming up in the social-sphere, like the name of a star athlete, celebrity, or politician, never.no’s “What’s Trending” toolkit identifies that trend. Broadcasters will also see heat map graphics that enable pop-up displays of select social buzz occurring in different geolocations by selecting places on a map.
“At NAB, we will show broadcasters how our integrated Social TV platform provides an intelligent workflow that simplifies the management and display of user generated content. Without tools specifically designed for Social TV, broadcasters can quickly become overwhelmed by the volume of social media that’s being created,” said Petter Ole Jakobsen, CTO of Vizrt. “Our Social TV platform powered by never.no helps broadcasters maximize social media platforms to promote their shows and channels as well as harvest valuable data that can benefit their advertising and marketing.”
Vizrt will also partner with Zeebox to allow broadcasters and program makers to integrate interactive second screen experiences into live TV shows.
The partnerships allows votes, polls, audience metrics and other real-time audience participation within zeebox to be fed in real time into the broadcast stream for participating shows, allowing broadcasters to create dynamic new forms of interactive broadcast entertainment.
Zeebox provides viewers a unique social user experience on their mobile device to enhance programs they are viewing on television. With tools to help manage program guides, interface with social media and find out quick information about virtually anything talked about on television, Zeebox becomes a powerful source for broadcasters to interact with their audience.
Vizrt’s Social TV solution, the interactive social media visualization solution from Vizrt, brings in user generated content from Zeebox – live. This data is then visualized based on multiple parameters that give media houses a new source of content for their broadcast. Location, social media interactions including Facebook and Twitter, polls and viewing preferences can all be visualized to create a unique story.
“Our integration with Zeebox places the social interaction between the media house and the viewer directly in the hands of the viewers at home in a controlled workflow,” said Håvard Myklebust, Executive VP Products and Marketing. “With the additional integration to the Vizrt Online Suite, broadcasters have a powerful tool to maintain their content on every platform while giving the end user the best possible user experience supported by a cost-effective workflow which makes 2nd screen production affordable.”
“People have always wanted to participate in TV shows. Once upon a time viewers’ letters would be read on screen, then you could text in messages, then you could tweet at the show” said Anthony Rose, Co-founder & CTO at Zeebox. “The Zeebox – Vizrt integration takes that to the next level, providing broadcasters and program makers with a wide range of creative ways to incorporate audience participation in TV shows. From talent and games shows to news and comedy programs, broadcasters can now engage with their viewers and bring audience participation directly into the show in a way that wasn’t previously practical.”