Bahrain elections unfold on screen

Creating interactive, on-air graphics for elections is no easy task, BroadcastPro ME learns from the Vizrt team that developed a customised solution for Bahrain TV.

When Bahrain TV wanted to broadcast the country’s 2010 elections late last year, the broadcaster approached Vizrt to design its on-air look and graphics.

To provide a unique solution, Vizrt claims to have introduced interactivity to the TV station for the first time in addition to providing a traditional graphics package.

The entire package was customised for the Bahrain elections, and developed on site primarily by two key Vizrt members, senior designer Jonathan Watson, who designed the scenes for the project; and sales manager Theodore James Nuckolls, who built the templates and worked on the data integration. An engineer from the Dubai office also joined the duo at the site for upgrades and installation, and ancillary support was provided by Vizrt’s offices worldwide.

“Shaima Al Hamed, chief of Information Technology at Bahrain TV, who approached me at IBC for this project, was quite keen to get the project rolling as the elections were approaching quickly,” explains Watson, who is part of the Viz Creative Services team.

“But as is often the case with government entities, it took a while for the official PO to come through to our office. The delay was worrying because elections are the most intense of all projects we can take on but it was eventually signed off and project was delivered in time for the elections.”

Watson conceived his first designs

for the Bahraini broadcaster from his New York office, where he is based.

“I was inspired by the Islamic art

and style, the geometric patterns and architecture,” explains Watson.

“We have the advantage of seeing design styles and ideas from around

the world so I wanted to try and create

a local Bahraini brand. The idea was

to create a modern, yet traditional look that is respectful of the regional historical aesthetic. At the same time,

we had a very short timeframe to complete the project so my approach

had “to be totally focused and organised,” he adds.

While Watson worked on the initial designs, the company’s Dubai office coordinated with representatives from Bahrain TV to assess its installation of other Viz products and to see what options would be available to set up this special broadcast.

The technical challenges were many and several different factors had to be considered before delivering the final solution, adds Nuckolls.

“There are many ways to deliver election data, and they range from manual entry to dedicated election software packages. In this case, the goal was to limit the amount of manual entry to the system, but there wasn’t time or the need to get too sophisticated. So we opted to use a traditional spreadsheet as the data source,” Nuckolls explains.

Bahrain TV, therefore, had an excel sheet with the election results and these had to be manually updated by a Bahrain TV staff member.

The goal was to then seamlessly feed the data from this excel sheet into the graphics, adds Watson.

“Due to the network configuration,

the nature of the data, and the type of interactivity Bahrain TV was after, we had to create new plug-ins as part of the customised solution along with our team members from around the world.”

In all, Bahrain TV took delivery of

two packages. The first was a broadcast package that was to be controlled by Vizrt’s Content Pilot templates. The graphics list was an OTS (over-the-shoulder), multi-line banners and headlines with backgrounds.

For the full screens, the company delivered election results boards, video inserts, maps of Bahrain electoral districts, as well as some biographical boards that were linked to the maps. “This entire graphic package was designed and built on site in the week we were there. It was a full transition logic package, so the operator could take advantage of our seamless and simplified workflow. The operator could go from one graphic to another without worrying about how to execute transitions,” explains Nuckolls.

The second package included an interactive election board comprising several different elements and interactive graphics. This was built from scratch and is the first such solution to be deployed at Bahrain TV, claims Watson.

“I design and build a lot of our interactive projects for Vizrt so I was able to design and build the interactive screen graphic in about a day, with another

day of enhancements,” explains Watson.

The state-backed broadcaster also invested in an 80″ single touch display

for the purpose.

“BTV had never had a touch screen in their building until the days before the election so this was very new to them. Normally, we like to have time for testing, rehearsals and so on. But because of the tight deadline, we couldn’t do that. As the on-air talent was using this screen for the first time, their initial efforts were a bit choppy but they adapted quickly and soon used it very professionally,” adds Nuckolls.

This package included a comprehensive map of Bahrain that could transition to any one of the five electoral districts.

“The map was a beautiful satellite image of Bahrain, generated from our Viz World software. Within each district, Bahrain TV’s talent could select from four options: local images, polling stations, results per region as well as a place for miscellaneous tidbits. The interactive graphic also had a full screen video live feed. Additionally, the broadcaster’s talent could press the icon for any electoral region, and bring up the results boards. We even developed a few custom info-graphic pie charts and bar charts during the broadcast to break down the story further. Like the broadcast package, all of these elements could be transitioned seamlessly from one to the other,” explains Watson.

The existing install was augmented by two Viz Engines. As part of the project, the Viz Trio live CG solution was deployed at various locations.

“I gave the local Bahrain TV artists a basic introduction and just minimal training on the Viz Trio and they immediately grasped its simplicity and were able to operate the system on their own,” says Watson.

Nuckolls seconds that. “It was great to watch them take ownership of the project as the broadcast progressed,” he adds.

For Nuckolls, who moved last summer to Dubai from New York, the project was a brand new experience.

“Bahrain TV has been using Vizrt products for a few years, and the Dubai office has helped with projects in the past. But I just relocated to Dubai in July, and this was quite an introduction to the region. Elections are always hard work, but it was very successful,” he adds.

No doubt, there were significant hurdles to completing the project.

For instance, the data and template aspect of the project posed a significant challenge, according to Watson.

“The Excel Sheet Data Reader plug-in we were going to implement needed to be reworked at the code level to function properly within the newest version of Excel. Luckily, Ian Davis,

who heads the Dubai office, was also

the original developer of the plug-in.

So he rolled up his sleeves and helped

us develop a fix. This delayed the data part of the project. When we finally had the solution up and running, and began testing it, we noticed that there were inconsistencies with the election boards being populated. We were not getting

all the data into the election boards.

We sent the package back to NYC where we had a support team to help us out,

to take advantage of the time difference. Interestingly, the election boards and data were working perfectly in both

the Dubai and New York offices. The conclusion then was that the network we were using was not 100% reliable, combined with some possible issues

with the network security policies.

“This set us back by a few days, because we had to come up with a more traditional solution. Nuckolls and I

rigged the graphics with traditional control plug-ins and a very advanced Pilot Template to aggregate the data

and it worked,” explains Watson.

Despite that challenge, Nuckolls points out that “Bahrain noticed an improved and highly polished look and presentation to the country’s 2010 elections”.

“I hear even the king was pleased. That is how we measure our success. We came, we designed, we innovated, and we inspired,” he says.

 Vizrt was tasked with creating a look that would not just be new to the region, but also capture the spirit of Bahrain and simultaneously, appeal to local viewers.