Pixel Power, the innovative supplier of broadcast graphics and automation solutions, have provided the hardware and software for ITV, the UK’s leading commercial broadcaster, to create a striking new branding identity for ITV2. The never-before-seen look creates random idents that continually change, a move which relies on the unique core functionality of the Pixel Power Clarity.
ITV installed Clarity 3D units in 2013, as part of a complete refresh of its on-screen looks which saw a common look and feel across all its channels. This was based on a core OSP (on-screen presentation) kit of graphics and styles, designed in and powered by the Pixel Power hardware.
As part of the repositioning of ITV2, ITV Creative worked with its freelance presentation consultant Simon Davis and design house ManvsMachine to create a new concept. The result was the concept of random change in the idents. A large number of dynamic animations – toasters, hammers falling on to clocks, and a traffic jam of jam jars amongst them – are stored on the Clarity for playout, and the system picks clips from a number of them to create unique idents.
“Pixel Power kit is integral to this,” said Davis. “Using the in-built scripting functionality my coding partner and I designed an algorithm that essentially cuts and splices together different edits of longer scenes. The algorithm is clever enough to know what it has selected, and will not play the same scene back to back.”
Using a page template in Clarity, the ident vision and audio is assembled and played out live. “There are more than 300,000 possible combinations,” Davis added. “ManvsMachine calculated it would take 36 years to watch them all on TV.”
James Gilbert, CEO of Pixel Power, added “This is a brilliantly inventive application of our automated transition logic. Clarity was designed to be able to play out frame accurate sequences of content in a graphics template. What Simon and the team have done is to come up with a really clever way of selecting them. It is going to be a stunning piece of branding which is sure to get the whole industry talking.”
The power of Clarity, the quality of its graphics and the flexibility of its animation can be seen at IBC2015. Pixel Power can be found on stand number 7.A31.
