Avid (Nasdaq: AVID) announced that numerous broadcasters embraced Avid Everywhere to enhance their coverage of Europe’s biggest football tournament, Euro 2016. By relying on Avid Studio Suite powered by the Avid MediaCentral Platform, Avid customers created eye-catching content for millions of viewers across the globe.
Several broadcasters relied on Avid’s sports graphics solutions for coverage of Euro 2016—the quadrennial men’s football championship that took place from June 10 to July 10 in France—including TF1 and M6 in France; CCTV in China, Match TV in Russia; VTV in Vietnam; and RTP in Portugal. By using Avid’s unique sports graphics solutions, these broadcasters were able to achieve stunning reality moments of this worldwide event.
National French TV channels TF1 and M6 both used Avid graphics solutions for augmented reality applications in their studios. With a wide range of Studio Suite solutions, including Maestro, 3DPlay and PowerWall, M6 showcased its cutting-edge on-air graphics capabilities during the tournament when presenter Nathalie Renoux in M6’s Paris studio appeared to walk inside a TV to speak to fellow presenter Carine Galli on the sidelines in Nice. M6 also used Avid solutions to create a hologram effect, “zapping” interviewees from a studio in the stadium to the M6 studio in Paris.
CCTV5, the sports channel of China’s national broadcaster CCTV, relied on Studio Suite solutions to power its Euro 2016 live broadcasts and special programs. Avid partner, EarthMountain Technology, provided a team of graphic designers and engineers to CCTV5 for graphic design, production and technical support services during the tournament.
Using Avid’s graphics and augmented reality solutions, CCTV5 made a highly detailed model of the Arc de Triomphe appear in the studio for the opening game, enabling viewers to “walk through” the Paris landmark. For the special program Giant Feasts, CCTV5 was able to make four off-site presenters appear as though they were in the studio.
CCTV5 also used Digital Sand Table—a professional football application developed by EarthMountain and based on Avid’s augmented reality technology—for pre-match predictions and analysis before each daily live broadcast. All 32 participating teams and their players were built into the application in advance. CCTV5’s presenters were able to discuss the game to be played that day using different colors and effects on a touchscreen embedded on the anchors’ desk. When presenters dragged the players’ names across the screen, viewers saw 3D models of the players running across the screen.
“Throughout the world, sports broadcasters relied on Avid’s game changing Studio Suite solutions for one of the world’s biggest football tournaments, boosting fan engagement and ratings through compelling content,” said Jeff Rosica, sr. VP, chief sales & marketing officer, Avid. “It’s exciting to see the stunning effects that customers like M6 and CCTV5 create with Avid graphics and augmented reality solutions, wowing millions of viewers across the globe—and sometimes even the presenters themselves.”
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More