The Israeli 2019 election promised to attract a huge amount of attention in both Israel and around the world, and Israeli broadcasters sensed the moment and prepared for a big night.
Three of the Israeli broadcasters decided to leave their day-to-day studios, and set up external studios for the event. Channel 11 placed its studio just along the Jerusalem old city walls. Channel 12 repeated its success from the 2015 elections and placed its main studio at the front of the Israeli Parliament. Channel 13 came up with a huge studio in the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Channel 20, i24NEWS and 33, aired from their studios with a brand-new election looks.
The common denominator for all six broadcasters in Israel for this election coverage was the heavy use of Vizrt technologies supported by Segev Sport (Vizrt’s partner in Israel).
Using Vizrt for on-air graphics, video walls and for AR proved to be a great choice for all. Idit Nuriel, Channel 11 Head of Production, said “It’s the first time we are doing AR and we did wonder whether or not the high-profile election night should be our debut, but it went smoothly and we are very happy, no doubt we are going to use Vizrt AR system for our day-to-day news telecasts.”
Channel 13 used Vizrt graphics for the first time for its video walls and AR. “It was clear to us that we had to do something fresh and big and Vizrt with Segev Sport was our first choice. The telecasts were a great success. The use of both the AR and the dynamic walls have exceeded our expectations” said Amonn Barkai, VP for Production, Channel 13.
The election team at Channel 12, headed by Avi Atias, Senior VP for TV, had to come up with something new. After having success in their 2015 AR production at the Israeli Parliament, they had to show their strength this time.
“We had to come out bigger and stronger, and with the help of Vizrt and Segev Sport, we accomplished delivering our vision of an amazing multi-AR show with the use of Live Drone AR graphics covering the entire Parliament front. We received unbelievable feedback from colleagues all over the world”, Avi Atias said.
The use of Live Drone AR was first suggested by Segev Sport few months prior to the elections. After testing the technology and verifying its reliability for such a high profile telecast, the team at Segev Sport was convinced that this could be done. The AR production for Channel 12 used five Viz Engines with three drones.
“It worked beautifully” said Nir Waidman, Segev Sport’s CEO. “No doubt that Viz Engine and Viz Virtual Studio gave us the reliable and amazing infrastructure that we needed for such a challenging telecast. The Live Drone AR production will be used a lot in the future as it’s a huge upgrade for any telecast”.
