Live From NAB 2018: ChyronHego Announces Integration With Epic Games for AR Graphics, Virtual-Set Solutions

Also, a recent deal with MRMC will enable use of real-time data to automate camera robotics

Today at NAB 2018, ChyronHego (Booth SL1208) announced its next solution for virtual and augmented reality. Under a new partnership, game developer Epic Games’ Unreal Engine will be integrated with ChyronHego’s family of augmented-reality (AR) graphics and virtual sets.

This will enable news broadcasters and other customers that have acquired ChyronHego’s Neon and Plutonium software to use Unreal’s rendering and real-time special-effects capabilities to add photorealistic and hyper-realistic elements to on-air virtual sets.

“We are adding the capabilities of the Unreal Engine to our existing tools,” said Jesper Gawell, chief marketing officer, ChyronHego, at today’s press conference. “Your CAMIO workflows will stay intact.”

ChyronHego will integrate its CAMIO graphic-asset–management server with Unreal Engine, including creating broadcast-specific camera movements. Unreal’s 3D-graphics engine enables producers to generate AR graphics through the templated workflows of the CAMIO Universe. Then, through custom user interfaces built with ChyronHego Live Assist panels, producers can present the AR graphics on-air using ChyronHego’s Plutonium and Neon virtual-set and robotic-camera–tracking solutions.

ChyronHego also announced that, this week, it is demonstrating the first-ever fully software-based studio production to be broadcast live from a trade-show floor. Showcasing the company’s range of live-production software products, the ChyronHego Live Studio Show, using three cameras, will run in a completely virtualized environment and will be broadcast in two parallel production workflows: as a traditional ground-based SDI production and in a private data center powered by Cisco.

The Live Studio Show offers a dynamic, real-world example of the CAMIO Universe for News Production, the company’s all-software ecosystem, which drives template-based, producer-driven workflows, using IT-based technologies. ChyronHego’s Live Compositor platform for multicamera productions will serve up real-time graphics and clips from the LyricX 3.2 graphics-creation and playout solution and PRIME 3.0 graphics platform. The production will also showcase next-generation virtual sets based on ChyronHego’s AR-graphics and robotics systems, driven by the fully integrated Unreal Engine.

At the show, the company is also talking about a deal made at the end of March with Mark Roberts Motion Control, a Nikon company, that will bring together technologies from the two brands: ChyronHego’s optical sports-tracking system TRACAB, which identifies and follows players on the field and provides instant live game-play metrics, and MRMC’s Polycam System, which enables real-time synchronized movement of multiple robotic cameras.

Said Gawell, “This opens up amazing opportunities in using accurate real-time data to automate camera robotics for live sports production.”

Although the system is in shadow-mode at the moment, the combination of the technologies will lead to development of innovative new products, as well as tracking solutions that use artificial intelligence, according to the company. This will enable more-accurate and -efficient data gathering and real-time video capture in sports production.

At the heart of the deal is MRMC’s new Robotic Pod camera system, a production tool that opens up possibilities for remote deployment of robotic cameras and has been designed to allow effortless and flexible capture of both video and stills from new and unique angles. Like the TRACAB system, the Robotic Pod can be installed temporarily or permanently in venues. At the heart of every Robotic Pod is a Nikon D5 digital SLR camera, which delivers extremely high image quality regardless of the limited lighting available in some venues. Even in a mixed-camera environment, MRMC’s live–color-control technology makes it easy to match the color output with other systems.

Using ChyronHego’s wide connections in the sports-production industry, MRMC will approach sports leagues and stadiums to further expand its business. As part of this new partnership, ChyronHego will distribute and sell MRMC automated solutions alongside selected Nikon sales subsidiaries, acting as a retailer for MRMC automated solutions to current and new customers.