GMA Network, a commercial broadcast television network in the Philippines, covered the nation’s recent mid-term elections, providing 28 straight hours of live coverage beginning May 13, on its flagship GMA-7 and GMA News TV news channels.
The live Eleksyon 2013 coverage garnered the most TV viewers of any Philippine network, driven in part by its innovative use of visually dynamic graphics technology from Vizrt.
GMA acquired new Vizrt graphics technology, including a Viz Virtual Studio with camera tracking hardware and the Vizrt Social TV system, expressly for Eleksyon 2013 coverage. The new systems complemented GMA's existing Viz Trio character generator and Viz Ticker 3D system.
The Vizrt Social TV system gives broadcasters intuitive social media tracking, editorial and production tools to help them manage their social media initiatives on-air and online. It also incorporates user-generated content into the traditional Vizrt graphics pipeline.
GMA built an immersive two-story 3D Viz Virtual Studio for Eleksyon 2013 that enabled GMA anchors to give their reports while walking around virtual objects, such as 3D charts. The studio was filled with expansive video projections of live feeds from GMA news teams at 47 remote locations nationwide, video packages and real-time data-driven graphics. There were also hologram effects, such as a dozen senatorial candidates appearing to stand alongside the anchor during live reports from the immersive 3D set.
The Vizrt Social TV system grabbed and converted social media content from two custom GMA Web applications for use in live TV graphics, including Kandidato Buzz Index, which sifted through Twitter and Facebook posts to determine how senatorial candidates were trending in the social sphere. The other Web application, GMA News Online's Voting Experience Poll, displayed the results of polls asking people about their voting experience. These Web applications were powered by Mass Relevance, a social engagement platform that aggregates, captures, filters and analyzes real-time social media content.
