Singular.live becomes first cloud-based graphics platform used by ITV

Singular.live has become the first cloud-based graphics platform to be used by ITV, powering the graphics for ITV Wales’ coverage of the Welsh Assembly elections in May.

Live election broadcasts require fast, accurate and up-to-date data. For the 2021 Welsh Assembly elections, ITV Wales used a new Singular feature – Data Streams – which is purpose built for high frequency, high volume and low latency data. Data Streams with JS Data Nodes, created by the ITV team in Singular, enabled live election data to be delivered in JSON format, for immediate display as graphics. As a consequence, the majority of the overlays were automatically updated.

The ITV team used SVG maps of the region to display how the electorate voted and ITV Wales were able to manipulate these using composition scripts within Singular. This allowed the team to isolate any area within the map with the latest relevant data. The data was constantly and automatically updated through the Data Stream workflow, something made possible by Singular’s Composition Scripts. These enable the addition of fully customisable control through JavaScript layers from directly within the Singular Composition without using the Graphics SDK or any external hosting.

“The building, linking and updating of the custom overlays worked with ease, allowing for a more time-efficient and stress-free production,” commented Keith Jones, technical support engineer, ITV Wales. “Overlay composition build and data delivery was much easier than using traditional systems. Being an HTML5 cloud-based solution, Singular provided easy access to the graphics wherever they needed to be seen.”

“Three of the main benefits Singular drives are its ease of use, efficiency and flexibility,” said Andrew Heimbold, CEO of Singular.live. “These have shone through in the exciting results of this project. It is fantastic to see Singular used for the very first time by ITV, amid a very high-profile event. This is a great vote of confidence by a major broadcaster and we are very happy the platform was able to deliver peace of mind for this election broadcast to the ITV Wales team.”