ChyronHego Unveils Virtual Set, Touts Sports Wins

LAS VEGAS — Graphics supplier ChyronHego introduced at the NAB Show a new graphics-rendering system for augmented reality graphics and virtual-set creation, Fresh, which fully integrates Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) rendering engine with ChyronHego’s software.

The Fresh system is designed to achieve more photorealistic images than previous systems because the graphics, including text and titles, are all completely integrated into the Unreal scene. The new system is also fully compliant with ChyronHego’s template-based Camio asset management system.

Previously, ChyronHego had two engines available in its virtual set product, its original rendering engine and the Unreal option, explains Chyron CMO Jesper Gawell. That led to complexity, because the gaming engine was essentially an add-on.

“We don’t think going forward that’s going to be the solution,” says Gawell. “This makes it easier.”

ChyronHego is hopeful that Fresh will help boost virtual set sales in the U.S. market, which has been slow to adopt because many customers says it “it still looks fake,” adds ChyronHego CEO Marco Lopez.

In its more traditional graphics business, ChyronHego has enjoyed several high-profile wins in the past year including powering the studio displays for NBC Sports’ Football Night in America and creating a new graphics platform for CBS Sports’ coverage of Super Bowl 53.

The company also signed a big deal with the Dallas Cowboys for a complete 4K upgrade of the ChyronHego-based arena graphics systems at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, a project that is nearing completion.

The core ChyronHego system at AT&T Stadium is its Click Effects Prime integrated graphics toolset, which will eventually be used to drive clips and graphics to every display within AT&T Stadium in conjunction with ChyronHego’s LyricX, Paint and Virtual 1st systems. The first LED display to be upgraded under the project was the Cowboys’ “LiveFX Endzone” board, which went live with 4K video clips and graphics last season.

For the 2019 season, all Dallas Cowboys cameras will record in 4K and Click Effects Prime functionality will be expanded to larger numbers of displays. When the project is complete, Click Effects PRIME will deliver 4K graphics to every display in AT&T Stadium, including a massive center-hung LED, two levels of ribbon boards, gap boards over the four entrances, and more than 3,000 smaller screens.

The Cowboys are also upgrading to the latest versions of the LyricX graphics creation and playout solution, Paint telestration tool and Virtual 1st “down and distance” football graphics system.

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