TVE New Year’s Eve

TVE, including virtual revellers in social distancing times

Brainstorm was key to assisting RTVE to resolve the main problem that threatened the broadcasting of their ‘Twelve Chimes to welcome in the New Year’ program. With pandemic restrictions forbidding the large gathering typically congregating in the Puerta del Sol on New Year’s Eve, technology allowed the celebrations to go ahead for the enjoyment and entertainment of those virtually present as well as the large number of viewers who tuned in. So, with the help of Brainstorm, Spain’s public broadcaster provided viewers with a “live” broadcast that brought «magic» to their screens, by filling the Puerta del Sol with virtual revellers and personalities.

In spite of the need to strictly comply with health and safety measures, the well-known celebrities, Ana Obregón and Anne Igartiburu, took part in this RTVE special program, which, thanks to Brainstorm’s technological innovations, it was possible to celebrate in a simulated spectacular fashion to the usual event on New Year’s Eve. Thanks to Brainstorm’s algorithm, some 150 video feeds of the virtual attendees were integrated from three different sources.

According to Enrique Cotillas, Deputy Director of Infographics and Graphics at TVE and director of the project, «it was a challenge for TVE to include our audience in a Puerta del Sol that would be empty this New Year’s Eve. To do this we asked our viewers to send us their images to be included in a virtual way in camera and crane movements in an empty space. The challenge was ambitious from a technical and logistical point of view for the Image Management and the technical team of TVE, but thanks to Brainstorm, who did the tracking and integration, allowing us to fill the Puerta del Sol with people as if it were a big meeting by videoconference, and Shots, who helped us in the creative part following the work of the Christmas campaign that they did for us before, the result was magnificent”.

To know more about this project, please download the case study.