SBS World News launches new AR feature
SBS World News has debuted its new augmented reality (AR) visuals, in a new approach to news and storytelling for the public broadcaster.
The live-to-air AR graphics featured last night in the commodities segment of a World News bulletin, with plans to integrate the technology more broadly over time.
Managing editor of SBS World News, Adam Mcilrick said the AR graphics were an “industry-leading technical innovation” that would improve the viewer experience.
“With more viewers than ever before consuming our products on personal devices, we’re always looking for ways to make our journalism more ‘visual’ and easier to digest – attempting to help explain complex issues, themes and, in this case, numbers in a visually-exciting way,” Mcilrick said.
The project has been a long time coming for SBS, with a camera tracking system installed three years ago in one of its Sydney studios, later followed by the integration of specialised graphics systems ‘Vizrt’ into the broadcaster’s production system.
Mcilrick explained that the AR approach would make the SBS studio more versatile, providing a cost-effective way to maximise the studio space across the output of multiple programs with individual branding. Through AR, this branding can be delivered virtually without having to change the physical aspects of the set.
“This SBS World News studio is already customisable, to a point, as it’s also being used by other teams at SBS including SBS News in Arabic and Mandarin. The new AR graphics help our presenters ‘story-tell’ by providing dynamic visual assets to explain and inform our audiences, allowing our talented presenters to interact and refer to the on-screen information and bring data to life.”
He continued: “SBS’s talented in-house graphic and studio teams are already looking at other ways to deploy AR in news programs and videos to help make our journalism easier to digest and more visually appealing. AR allows us to tell complex stories in a succinct and engaging way, creating dynamic connections between audience, brand and journalism by explaining key information and data through interactive animations that captivate our interest, catch our attention and bring more of an immersive ‘experience’ to our viewers.”
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