LED

LED systems and visualization engines are coming ever more into the range of even small broadcasters as the underlying technology and the workflows around them continuously improve. Pictured: This video wall, made to look like a big window, shows what is going on outside, and as the water rises, the window gets a crack and floods the studio. The crack, water and the sandbags are Max Reality elements. (Source: The Weather Company)

Gains in tech and drops in prices are pushing more broadcasters to adopt video walls in their studios, but stations are learning that designing a digital set also means adopting a different mindset. Pictured: This XR Studio for ServusTV in Salzburg, Austria, is driven by Ross Video’s Voyager and Lucid control system to simplify workflow. Voyager is built on the Epic Unreal gaming engine for hyper realistic rendering.

For those of you attending the 2023 NAB Show in Las Vegas, April 15-19, any boasting about bigger, brighter and better-than-ever lights is more than just hyperbole. In a pattern similar to the early days of computing, LEDs have made major strides in efficiency and color quality. They really are better than ever. Above, Creamsource’s Vortex 4 IP65 field lights are designed to handle the worst of the elements.

Video walls are getting “bigger and bigger and cheaper and cheaper,” prompting wider adoption among broadcasters who are discovering a broad raft of storytelling and set design opportunities in their adoption. Above, FX Design Group delivered the set for KHON Honolulu, which includes a 3.9 pixel pitch video wall background that stretches nearly 33 feet long and just over 8 feet high.

Video walls continue to dominate studio design trends in the U.S. with ever-broader use framed by the “warmth” of natural materials and local personality. Abroad, newsrooms have been more embracing of the virtual reality sets of which domestic broadcasters are still wary. Above, FX Design Group designed and installed the KHON Honolulu set, which features large video walls.

COVID-19’s social distancing requirements won’t have a lasting impact on studio design and trends like video walls are expanding, vendors say. But remote production has compelled them to offer simple-to-use at-home kits until COVD abates. Above, Devlin Design Group recently delivered the set for the new studio at the Tennis Channel. The set uses LED displays surrounding the studio. The Tennis Channel can use the same set for different programs since the LEDs can display “graphic wallpaper” that can be customized.

Broadcasters won’t be hampered by remote working conditions for election night 2020, and they have a bevy of new graphics and augmented reality tools to help them tell the story. Above, Broadcasters can make complex data easy for viewers to grasp through augmented reality objects generated by Brainstorm graphics using real-time data from different sources. A Punt, a regional channel in Spain, covered municipal elections, and this interactive map shows the winning party in each town, with detailed results for the seats won in each town are shown on the chart of the left side. The bars on the bottom show a rundown of all the cities, in alphabetical order, with the results in real time.