Re: Live sports graphics package

[Ian Collister] "...Anybody know if the likes of the bbc or sky use a specific package for all their on screen sports graphics? ...the package for getting the graphics overlayed to the screen, on the fly."

I'd imagine the guys at Fox Sports -- or ESPN, CBS, NBC and the outfits Across The Pond, for that matter -- all do it the same way. Crews and production trucks need to be basically interchangable.

Well, Fox Sports made a BIG screw-up during a football game in the past week or so: they ran two different animations. There was transparency where there shouldn't have been, the talent was semi-transparent, you could see two obvious boxes for live video... a real visual train wreck. But it was very telling, and I learned something.

Such graphics packages run TWO files out of a server: one that's the animated artwork, one that's an animated transparency matte. They're combined in the switcher to create the animated graphic over video.

Using such animations, combined with triggers for switcher presets and audio files for sound effects, you can do pretty much anything you want.

Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA