IBC 2010: Set To Unveil Full Slate of Updated Products, Vizrt Sports Online

At IBC this year, Vizrt (Hall 2, Stand B10) will demonstrate its full range of real-time production tools geared for original programming, sports, elections, news, weather, finance, media asset management, character generation, and online publishing and delivery. Vizrt will showcase new versions of almost all of its products at IBC 2010.

Vizrt will arrive at IBC having recently finalized of its acquisition of Adactus, a Norwegian developer of multimedia delivery platforms. With the deal, Vizrt will look to open the door to the transport and delivery of video to all types of mobile devices as well as the web. At IBC, Vizrt will demo its media asset management (MAM) enterprise solution and its integration within the news production workflow for both television and online delivery, which takes advantage of the Adactus technology.

Vizrt will offer a preview of its latest media asset management system in a box, Viz Video Hub 3. The system integrates with Adactus’ scalable content delivery platform, allowing expanded import support for many file formats. Viz Video Hub 3 sports a revamped user interface and a fundamental redesign of its core architecture. The integrated solution now manages the complete chain of ingesting, adapting and publishing content to the variety of formats and consumer terminals where the end user consumes content.

Vizrt has developed an overall, automated content adaption workflow that ensures video is optimized when distributed to relevant devices. “The big news is that we’re also doing this for graphics,” explains Petter Ole Jakobsen, CTO, Vizrt. “For the first time, the correct graphics can be inserted seamlessly to iPads, Android phones  or any other video-capable device. This solves a huge headache for all content owners. What was previously considered impossible is now easy.”

Operating in tandem with this integration, is the development of a tighter workflow for video, graphics, and online publishing, which creates more streamlined content re-use and web site creation. As one example, Vizrt will showcase its Vizrt Sports Online software package that incorporates all the creative tools and widgets necessary to get a sports website up and running right out of the box. It features a sports website template based solely on Escenic widgets, and full video, graphics and data integration. One of the first Vizrt Sports Online customers recently used the system to create a dedicated World Cup page in a matter of weeks.

Vizrt’s Online Suite integrates the production, management, delivery and distribution of digital media content. It merges newsrooms operations for print, web, mobile and broadcast.

“Video and graphics now publish seamlessly from Escenic Content Studio and automatically follow a path of optimized distribution to all devices such as iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and 1700 other mobile devices – and now include optimized graphics for all devices,” says Jakobsen. “The widget framework in Content Studio also makes it easier than ever to create new or evolve existing web-sites.”

This integration is made possible by the adoption of a common architecture within the Vizrt product platform. An increasing number of Vizrt products now support a REST (Representational State Transfer) API, such as the newest version of Viz Video Hub, making them compatible with third party products and partner products. The latest release of Viz Media Sequencer Engine, the central software component used by many standard Vizrt products such as Viz Content Pilot, Viz Trio, and Viz Weather now comes with REST API.

Vizrt will display innovations for studio and live event applications at IBC. Among the most striking examples will be a stereoscopic 3D demonstrations. Vizrt will show a 3D stereoscopy wall and a virtual studio set up that will output virtual objects, 3D stereoscopic video, graphics and effects.

“We’ll show a revolutionary stereoscopic sports production that demonstrates a significantly less expensive but improved system with greater depth,” says Jakobsen. “Adding the insertion of real 3D graphics in true z-space into a stereoscopic production is a huge, demonstrable improvement to today’s stereoscopic work.”

At IBC, there will be several demos showing the latest developments in interactivity within the Vizrt product line. This will include a new multi-touch API within Viz Engine, Version 3.3, for support of more multi-touch devices. At IBC, Vizrt will also show the scripting functionality of Viz Artist for multi-touch displays.

New versions of Viz Weather and Viz World – the new version of Viz Curious Maps client and server edition – will be among other IBC highlights. Viz Weather is a complete 3D real-time weather solution. It integrates with a broad range of weather-data providers and can trigger graphics and animations automatically. The solution is fully integrated with the new Viz World for the creation of branded high-quality maps.  The new version, Viz Weather 2.2, includes better interoperability with other Vizrt systems and enables Viz Weather pages to be played out from any other Vizrt playout system, such as Viz Content Pilot, Viz Trio, and Viz Multichannel. Vizrt customers can now use graphics initially produced for weather in other systems across the TV station. With the new Viz World, Version 10.2, producers, journalists, weather people and CG operators can use templates to produce dynamic, branded maps.