With Careful Use, Virtual Sets A Strong Tool

While virtual sets and augmented reality can bolster newscasts, industry insiders warn that the high-tech visuals can also detract from local TV’s primary asset — content — if it’s not used correctly.

“Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should,” said Kathy Mosher-Boule, a design consultant who most recently helped WKBN, Media General’s CBS affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio, augment its newscast with features like virtual monitors. “Everything you do should have a value and a purpose.”

Speaking Tuesday at TVNewsCheck’s annual NewsTECHForum in New York, Mosher-Boule said using virtual sets or augmented reality “a totally new way of producing news,” and whether — or how — to tap the technology is very market-dependent.

While viewers in some markets may be able to handle bold moves like virtual sets (talent may literally stand in front of green screens), others, in places may be better suited for a more “blended approach,” she said.

WKBN, for instance, still broadcasts from a traditional news set, but includes the use of virtual monitors and storytelling graphics, particularly for weather and sports, she said.

Jason Effinger, Gray Television’s SVP of media and technology, has a similar take on the technology. He said that with 47 news-producing TV stations, Gray has no steadfast rule about augmenting newscasts with virtual features.

“We take into account what they want to do in 47 very different markets,” he said, which includes managing “the demand of what the local folks who live there are expecting because we are doing the news for them.

“The people who are watching us count on us,” Effinger said. “There are a lot of flashy things you can do but it’s all about the content and all about the viewer at home.”

Gray stations have started incorporating augmented reality features where appropriate, with sports reports topping that list. “Virtual is a great opportunity,” he said, adding that the technology can, for example, transform a morning show set to one more conducive for an evening newscast.

Yet the process, Effinger said, has certainly been one of trial and errors — graphics covering anchors and the like — showing that TV stations run the risk of making their talent “look silly” by getting it wrong.

“Once you pull that news anchor out of the next and put them in one of these environments, watch out,” he said.

Meantime, Dennis Milligan, news director WBTV, the Raycom-owned CBS affiliate in Charlotte, N.C., says viewers have easily adapted to his use of a virtual set, which started in November 2014. 

Today, Milligan says he still broadcasts from a traditional set, but bounces back and forth to a virtual set for special reports and the like.  He also layers broadcasts from the traditional set with virtual features, like monitors and weather graphics.

“It gives the illusion of being in a gigantic studio space, he said.

“I have yet to get a phone call from someone complaining,” which he considers a sign of success.

 “What we hoped would happen with the virtual set has happened.”

To listen to a recording of this panel session, click here.

Read all of our NewsTECHForum 2015 coverage here.