Discovery Norway uses Vizrt to bring the excitement of live sports to the studio with 3D storytelling
Discovery Norway wanted to bring a new experience to fans of the Winter Games as well as fans of the Norwegian Football League. To accomplish this, in 2018, Discovery Norway moved into a new studio and looked for ways to upgrade their production systems to give them a unified workflow driven from one platform with more versatility for visual storytelling and building their own brand. Vizrt fitted perfectly into this requirement with solutions that easily work hand in hand to create a fully integrated workflow.
“They (Discovery Norway) wanted a new, fresh, modern studio, with a seamless workflow, meaning they can combine their augmented reality (AR) graphics, on screen graphics, and all the graphics on the many screens in the studio and use one platform to achieve this,” said Thomas Nelson, Global Account Manager at Vizrt.
3D storytelling brings the live game into the studio by combining branded graphics to the set floor as AR graphics, as well as to the background in videowalls with the same branded live graphics. All of the graphics are rendered in real time using Vizrt’s powerful real-time 3D graphics engine and video server, Viz Engine.
“It gives us very nice possibilities to get where we want to go, which is doing 3D storytelling as much as possible. You do AR graphics at the front, then you have the studio, and then you have the big screens, and all are used for the storytelling”
Espen Tvedt
Chief Editorial Manager at Discovery Networks Norway
Controlling the many graphics on each level of the studio production is quite simple. The video walls are controlled using Viz Multiplay, Vizrt’s video wall control system. The Viz Trio character generator controls the on-screen and AR graphics. Both systems can work in tandem coordinating graphics in the videowall and AR.
Discovery’s team of Vizrt experts have the time and capabilities to explore possibilities and push themselves further with new ideas to bring the match in the studio closer to the viewers. They also use Viz Libero to add an expert-level of analysis to the games.
A key part of Discovery Norway’s 3D storytelling is the use of AR which has become a requirement for modern studios who want to visualize their stories more clearly for audiences. AR graphics are used in every show, taking advantage of the large studio space as a canvass to creatively illustrate key topics for each game.
“I like to play with AR graphics, exploring the possibilities. They help us do a better show,” added Espen Tvedt.
When all these elements are put together, AR graphics, live on screen graphics, easily controlled content on videowalls and powerful analyses of matches on one platform, the storyteller has a large toolkit to use creatively and push the limits of compelling sports coverage ever further.
“It’s a very powerful tool to have the graphics, you don’t have to say that the guy behind you has 200 league goals or that he is 25 years old, because it says so on the graphics. It helps us, to narrow the story down,” said Carsten Skjelbreid, Chief Sports Presenter at Discovery Networks Norway.
