BERGEN, NORWAY— WWAY-TV has chosen Vizrt to develop a trackless virtual studio to enhance its live programming.
The local ABC station in Wilmington, N.C., has replaced its hard set, aging control room and standalone cameras with robotic cameras, Viz Virtual Studio and Vizrt’s TV in a box solution to provide complete graphics-led newscasts controlled by just one operator.
The new on-air look has helped WWAY-TV to attract new audiences and improve viewer ratings.
The installation at WWAY-TV includes two 3D graphics rendering and video playout platforms (Viz Engine), an easy to use GUI (Viz Trio) and highly flexible “trackless” virtual set software (Viz Virtual Studio) all supplied and implemented by Vizrt. The Viz Trio software is used in tandem with Viz Engine to play out graphics and clips to air and as the automation dashboard.
The new studio includes four fixed Panasonic pan/tilt/zoom cameras and a green-screen backdrop upon which three basic “looks” are inserted into the main program output (for news, sports and weather). The Vizrt technology also allows live video to be inserted into virtual background monitors on set.
WWAY’s system has been running so successfully that its sister station, WXXV-TV, the Fox affiliate in Gulfport, Miss., has also installed a similar system to streamline its news production processes. Morris Network (the owner of the stations) is now looking to replicate the model at some of its other television stations located throughout Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee.
