This could bring a new level of viewer engagement in television. New tools from Miranda Technologies and Quest Research & Development Corp. now let broadcasters display viewer comments via Twitter and other social networking sites on on-air graphics.
“Our first system has been installed at a major New York City station, which is using the technology to display viewers’ Tweets on-air during a live daytime news show. We believe it’s the first system of its kind in the country, with viewer comments fully integrated with the station’s channel branding,” said Clinton Ash, president of Quest.
The system is based on Miranda’s Vertigo XG graphics processor and Quest’s QLive server, which is used for receiving and censoring the social networking messages. Approved comments are entered into a queue, ready to be keyed on-air in a "speech bubble" graphic.
Miranda’s Vertigo XG graphics processor is ideal for this application in view of its advanced data-driven, dynamic rendering in HD or SD. It provides highly versatile, multi-level character generation, animation/still insertion and clip playout, as well as dual DVEs and audio mixing.
The QLive social networking tool is Quest’s latest graphics application for local stations. Other applications in the company’s range provide data-interfacing for EAS (Emergency Alert System), school closings, elections results, time/temperature, traffic, weather, station branding, breaking news, sports and financial data graphics. Sanjay Talwani
