Antena 3 TV

Virtual Reality Elections

Brainstorm has partnered with Antena 3 since its very beginning. Already in 1993 the weather virtual set was a relevant accomplishment, as it presented in real time 3D worlds, complex animations with continuous camera movements, etc. A show so advanced that could still run effectively even today, because of the intense usage of the virtual reality and its advanced graphics. This collaboration meant the democratisation of Virtual Reality in live shows, in real time.

This collaboration extended later to other shows such as the first virtual set on the presentation of “Shows from the Distant Earth” with Mike Oldfield. Later, in 1996, the coverage of the general elections was done with Virtual Reality and live on-air 3D graphics, and shows such as “Desesperado Club Social” and “Espejo Público” had made intensive usage of the Brainstorm toolset to achieve a distinct image and fully exploit the possibilities of today’s audiovisual technology.

The year 2011 was a convulsive year in Spanish politics, as in a matter of months the country faced both local, regional and general elections, what meant that, in practice, almost any political position could change its holder, as it happened in many cases. This, along with the interest of most of the audience in the process, meant that the coverage of those events were a first level informative event to which the broadcasters had to give the importance required. Antena 3, the oldest private television channel in Spain, just finished an important refurbish of its News installations.

According to Jesús Lozano, Image and Production Manager, they looked to “create an open space, directly communicated with the more than 90 persons of the News department, and at the same time flexible enough to create various environments while optimizing the space”. This flexible set, located at the very heart of the newsroom, consist of different multifunction revolving circular podiums that could include the presenter’s tables, coupled with giant, wall-sized LED screens that provide different still and moving backgrounds to the set.

The proposal to the News director to produce the elections programs contemplated the utilisation of all the possibilities of those spaces to “create a new way to cover the elections”, adding value and spectacularity. The idea was to increase the use of technology to add value to the real-time information, avoiding empty brightness while building up a rich speech that provides detailed data presented in a format accessible to all audiences and built around the data itself. The co-ordination between the News direction, program managers and technical department is essential in this project, and they were all finely aligned in the concept and final production.

The final concept contemplated a set with powerful visual scenery that used all the space available in the News set taking the most out of it. Visually, the scenery conception required all graphics to be clearly seen, providing all the information and supporting the presenter that also interacts in real time with the continuously changing data. Also, interactive and virtual graphics were prepared for the wall screens as supporting data. The program used on 3 main set stages, apart from the external connections:

• Presenter space, with 3D Augmented Reality graphics.

• Virtual graphics displayed in the giant LED wall screen.

• Debate space, an expert panel table supported with virtual graphics of Augmented Reality displayed on the table.

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