At NAB 2016 on the Vizrt booth (#SL2417) Astucemedia, a leading provider of creative and technical services and data will unveil the latest version of its Astucemedia Data Platform (ADP) for Sports—a powerful, full-featured solution that simplifies the often complex process of creating and managing visually pleasing live broadcast graphics infused with real-time data feeds.
The ADP for Sports puts broadcasters at the helm of a reliable, open, software-based workflow that simplifies the process of generating live TV graphics integrated with real-time data feeds from STATS, OPTA, and other sports data service providers.
At NAB, Astucemedia will demonstrate its system’s data-driven graphics capabilities—including modules tailored to the unique needs of soccer, football, basketball, hockey, golf, tennis and motorsports.
“Live sports telecasts rely heavily on graphics to quickly and clearly convey the big data viewers immediately need to know to fully enjoy the game or event they’re watching. To be effective, these graphics must present voluminous statistical information in a visually appealing way that engages viewer interest and reinforces channel branding,” said Alexandre Leclerc, President of Astucemedia.
Designed as a modular environment, the platform automatically ingests data as it streams in, and populates pre-designed, customizable graphics templates with the key information to be presented. The platform leverages custom plug-ins, created by Astucemedia, which seamlessly integrate the platform with graphics software from Vizrt, such as Viz Trio and Viz Content Pilot, as well as ingesting and managing dynamic assets within the Viz One media asset management system.
Astucemedia will also highlight its platform’s seamless data integration with another Vizrt system, Viz Libero, a 3D virtual sports solution used to generate live 3D replays, novel game perspectives and sports analysis.
“With our portfolio of custom Vizrt plug-ins, our data platform is now able to capture valuable in-game data—such as scores, goals, player statistics, leaderboards, team standings, heatmaps, formations and more—and integrate it within the live graphics displays generated by Viz Libero,” said Leclerc. “Users are completely free to use, modify, repurpose and monetize these graphics anytime, any way they wish, because they own the rights to the assets.”
At the Vizrt booth, Astucemedia will also demonstrate interactive broadcast graphics created especially for soccer coverage and analysis. On-camera presenters access the interactive graphics by using an on-set touchscreen display to call up graphics containing any information they may need—from the ADP—that illustrates the story they want to tell their viewers.
While many broadcast customers already use technology from Vizrt and other graphics companies, Leclerc added, “Our data platform goes above and beyond to make integrating real-time data into live sports graphics a much simpler, more accurate and reliable process that’s up to the challenges posed by even the most demanding live sporting events. We are not only simplifying graphics creation, we’re improving workflows considerably.”
The complexity involved with real-time data-driven graphics has been taken care of by the ADP for Sports’ smart design and underlying technology. Customers can begin creating sophisticated graphics displays on day one without any need to write their own code, yet still have the flexibility of changing the logic and creating custom code.
Everything they need for user-customized graphics creation is right there—including the data ingest, external-APIs, intelligent template logic, plugins, live data monitoring web terminal, and data publishing to various platforms. This self-contained, flexible, open ecosystem also drives multiple visualization platforms, such as broadcast graphics engines for mobile and 2nd screen apps, making it extensible and future-proof.
ADP for Sports also features a Motor Sports module—an exclusive, real-time auto racing application—that ingests and processes live, in-car telemetry and timing data from the series, such as NASCAR, INDYCAR and MotoGP and others, as well as the data provided by the racetracks where the events are held. This data can be seamlessly integrated with posts from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms.
“We are working in partnership with Panasonic to provide spectacular, big-screen data-driven graphics for the upcoming Indy500 Centennial, as well as for various races at the Texas Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway,” Leclerc said. Astucemedia collaborated with Panasonic on a series of races during 2015, including the Indy500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Crown Royal’s Jeff Kyle 400 race at the Brickyard.
Besides the Astucemedia Data Platform for Sports, Astucemedia also offers ADP modules dedicated to the creation of data-driven graphics for U.S. elections, financial market data, weather, social media and news.
Astucemedia’s data platform is the culmination of its more than a decade of experience providing world-class creative and technical expertise and data management software. The company also provides a full range of creative design services performed by a talented team dedicated to creating fresh, trendsetting broadcast graphics, templates, and channel branding imagery that bring visual concepts to fruition on-screen.
