tv2 norway turns to Vizrt for local election coverage

TV2 Norway, the commercial television station in the country
has employed a customized Vizrt package to power graphics and manage incoming
data during its recent community election coverage. Viz|Content Pilot content
management and Viz|Artist 3.1 2D/3D real-time animation and visual effects
software both contributed to taking TV2’s recent election coverage to a new
level of visual sophistication.

TV2 Director of News and Feature Production, Peter Ocskay,
said that as the station’s mission was clear when planning the presentation of
data from 400 communities. “We already knew how powerful our Vizrt graphics
solutions were, and we really wanted to push the envelope this time around,” he
explained. “We wanted to make our election coverage extremely user-friendly and
easy to understand. Vizrt software products helped us put our anchor in control
as a storyteller throughout the whole evening.”

The live coverage lasted for sixteen hours. Ocskay said TV2
used an interactive touch screen to display each updated poll number as it came
in. Using maps, figures and various party-specific icons, the show host could
pinpoint the polling place, go to the live report, take in the information and
assimilate it into the graphics in real-time. As the coverage began, TV2
decided to highlight 65 communities and pinpoint developments there. As the
night progressed, the show producers and graphics artists employed the Vizrt
software workflows and graphics generators to add an additional 20 communities to
the overall voting picture.

The sheer volume of data and images that needed management
during TV2’s marathon coverage of the 2007 local elections required a high
powered rendering engine and an organized workflow. More than two million
voters cast their ballots to determine the political leadership of
Norway’s
townships and counties for the next four years. TV2’s coverage also included
live reports from 24 different locations and offered real-time updates on the
latest polling figures as they occurred. TV2 used Vizrt’s powerful rendering
engine, Viz|Engine to control text and image editing, as well as changes in
real time to all graphic elements and animation effects during the election
coverage.

“What we did during the last election has never been done
before in
Norway,”
Ocskay continued. “As head producer, I was stationed at one desk and could
easily be connected with each live shot location throughout the night.
Everything was set up in such a streamlined manner. I was able to keep my host
informed and continue to plan our next move at least three steps ahead.”
The ability to make changes online and respond immediately
when developments warranted was essential to TV2’s mission to make the election
coverage meaningful for their viewers. Ocskay added, “We weren’t just
presenting facts and figures – our coverage was fluid and interactive with our
audience. We helped them understand what was happening as it happened.”

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