KCTV5, the CBS affiliate in Fairway, KS, serving the Kansas City, MO, and KS, market, recently began broadcasting the station’s nightly newscasts in HD with all graphics powered by Vizrt software.
Three Viz Engine real-time renderers installed in the station’s control room power the graphics created Viz Trio 2-D/3-D character generator. The graphics are used for all the station’s lower-thirds, full-screen and opening graphics, as well as interstitials. KCTV5 also relies on Vizrt software for sports graphics production during broadcast of Kansas City Chiefs football games and for other special live events.
According to station art director Chris Rohach, KCTV’s upgrade to HD and use of Vizrt software has elevated the look of the station’s news and programming. The station showed off its new graphics look during coverage of last month’s 2008 U.S. presidential election results in high definition, he said.
Election night went smoothly, due in large part to the Viz Engines handling all full-screen election results, Rohach said. Specials and night news content “is now on par” with the look of network graphics, he added.
In addition to basic CG functionality, the Vizrt software offers KCTV’s operators a set of advanced features to build complex graphics. Viz Trio enables connectivity to multiple newsroom systems and integration with nonlinear editing systems. KCTV’s newsroom workflow is enhanced by Viz Trio’s context switching on graphics and Look-Ahead Transition Logic.
Besides the high-quality look of the station’s graphics, Viz Engine’s ability to perform and render 3-D animations in real-time is a significant benefit at KCTV, Rohach said. That’s particularly important in news production, when deadlines are tight.
“There have been times I’ve started to create an animation just one hour before the broadcast,” he said. “Gone are the days of pre-rendering animations.”
For more information, visit www.vizrt.com.
