Viz Trio – how it works

No doubt, Viz Trio is perfectly capable of working as a stand-alone application. But as its name suggests, it is often used as a combination of three products. First, there is the Viz Trio client itself. It allows you to control the video output and to make fast changes to your content, whenever needed. Then there is Viz Engine, which is the real-time 3D rendering software that delivers the animation in HD SDI video or as a DVI digital output. Finally, there is Viz Artist. While it is not a part of Viz Trio per se, most broadcasters choose Vizrt’s design application to create the real-time 3D animations that Viz Trio will play out.

More content - less work

A regular problem TV Producers face is how to present the same news or sports results cost-effectively across various channels or even for different shows on the same channel. Today, Vizrt has devised a way to deliver multiple graphics looks using a single CG and one set of data.

By building different variants of the templates it is easy to re-use, for example, the financial statistics from the Six O'clock News for the Nine O'clock News, each time with the appropriate look for that program. Likewise, a live weather forecast for the news channel can be rendered and then an entirely different looking forecast, with a different map style, can be generated immediately afterwards for the sports channel. For the Trio operator the change simply takes one mouse click.

Look-Ahead Transition Logic™

Look-Ahead Transition Logic is another ingenious Vizrt invention. It always makes sure that the Viz graphics system performs optimal transitions between existing and new graphics elements, whenever a new page is taken on air. For instance, imagine a clock running constantly in the lower right hand corner of the screen showing the duration of a football match. Somebody scores and a lower-third results graphic is needed fast. Normally the operator needs to remember to take off the clock first, put up the lower-third score, take that off and bring on the clock again. Four separate actions to remember. With Transition Logic, the Trio operator can forget about the clock. When the score result is needed the operator just brings on the lower-third and the clock conveniently moves out of the way, further up the screen. When the result is taken off, the clock elegantly drops back to its former position. Only two actions needed and nothing to remember. And the clock stays in view all the time.

Easy scripting for designers

Viz Trio includes a simple built-in macro language that designers can use to customize further the way graphics are rendered. A two-day course on how and when to apply pre-written scripts will have any experienced Viz designer creating complex-looking graphics. Ready-made examples are available at all stages for a huge variety of functions. So rather than sitting down to learn an entirely new language, Viz scripting is like a fast and easy way of using a language phrasebook to make the best of any situation. With Viz scripting and Trio, even the best Viz designers will find they move up rapidly to a whole new level of graphics excellence that would be impossible to achieve without it.

Showing off the numbers

Naturally, Viz Trio dovetails well with all the other Vizrt applications. Viz Artist 3’s Visual Data Tools (VDT) for example. This really useful plug-in displays numerical data charts like bars, graphs, lines, pies and so on by figuring out the very best way the chart should look, relative to all the other data in the chart. And it doesn't take a degree in rocket science to figure out how to operate it: great-looking animated 3D charts can be created in the same way as ordinary spreadsheets and with a consistent branded look. In fact, you can even leave it alone to present the numbers from automated data feeds and XML databases without any manual intervention.

Cost-effective branding consistency

The Viz Trio NLE plug-in provides a useful way of extending your branded live graphical “look” into edited highlights programs. Avid, Quantel and Apple’s FinalCut Studio can access Trio templates to change text, images, and 3D objects, as well as scale, position, or change the duration of an animation. And it can be done extremely cost-effectively by using a frameserver, which shares valuable rendering resources amongst groups of NLE suites in a highly intelligent way.

Adding video clips to your graphics

Use of video is a major feature in Viz Trio and operators can fill out graphics templates with video files directly from a Viz Video Hub database in just the same way as they add images or text. As an extra feature, as soon as an operator finds the clip they are looking for, they can edit it directly within Trio using Vizrt's own built-in NLE system.