
Al Arabiya creates massive augmented reality U.S. election set posted: 04/01/2017
The augmented reality graphics displayed results for the 2016 U.S. election using a 9200 square meter map and 30 meter tall graphics
One of the largest news channels in the Arab region, Al Arabiya, part of the Middle East Broadcast Channel group, wanted to cover the U.S. election in a way that reflected the impact the election has on the Arab world. They also wanted to be able to explain the complexity of the election in a very clear and memorable way for their viewers. To achieve this, Al Arabiya partnered with Vizrt and SpiderCam to create the world's largest augmented reality (AR) set used in a live news production.
During the past elections, we made use of immersive graphics with live data, but for the 2016 US Elections, we thought bigger, says Al Arabiya's Head of Graphics, Fadi Radi.
For 2016, Al Arabiya took their election show outdoors and used the MBC building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as a backdrop for a giant virtual videowall, and the Dubai Media City lake as a platform on which to place various other immersive graphics, such as maps, dynamic 3D models, comments from social media, and live election results.
MBC's team of designers worked in Viz Artist to design the election graphics as immersive objects. The sizing and positioning of the graphics had to be estimated, since the physical set-up would not be in place until four days before the election.
Spidercam typically installs their camera rigs in stadiums where existing support structures are in place, but for the Al Arabiya election coverage, the venue was a public location with the camera operating above a large lake. Lacking any natural structures around the lake to mount the winches to, temporary cranes on one side of the lake, and trusses mounted on the roof of the MBC building on the other side of the lake, were used to provide the anchor points for the system.
Another challenge was the outdoor location itself. Although rain was unlikely in Dubai at that time of year, the potential for high winds in such an exposed location that could interfere with the stability of the camera system was always a risk. However, on the night, the weather conditions were favourable, and the stability gyros built into the Spidercam system were more than capable of handling the prevailing weather conditions. The production went very well with stable camera shots and high quality tracking data throughout the production.
Vizrt has been working with Al Arabiya for over ten years. When approached to take part in a project of this scale it was obvious that the best resources needed to be allocated to ensure that the coverage went smoothly. Viz Virtual Studio engineers were on site to test the system ahead of the the election night and work with Spidercam to calibrate and test the tracking systems. The Vizrt system comprised of a single Viz Engine to generate and display all of the live election graphics in real-time. Spidercam provided live tracking data that was processed with Vizrt's Tracking Hub to accurately control the graphics during the live presentation.
Al Arabiya has a track-record of thinking big, but this concept is on a completely different level, said Ian Davies, Regional Manager of Vizrt Middle East. When I first heard about the project, it was clear that it was going to be a visually stunning production, with Al Arabiyas talented team of designers producing graphics for such a beautiful outdoor location, but I think the results surprised everyone by being even better than we had imagined.
Davies continued, Given the high profile nature of the event, it was critical that the right resources were provided to support Al Arabiya, so Vizrt supplied the latest and most powerful Viz Engine for the project, plus specialist technical resources to help ensure that everything went smoothly. I think the results speak for themselves. This was truly a world-class production that raised the standards for everyone.
The result was a visually stunning AR presentation that gave the viewers detailed insights in the historic U.S. election.
Al Arabiya election coverage by the numbers:
150 people involved from Al Arabiya, Vizrt and Spidercam
Complex 3D models with up to 80 million polygons
9290 square meters of augmented reality graphics over Dubai Media City lake
2025 square meter videowall in front of the MBC building
55% of total viewers in the Middle East watched the election on Al Arabiya
82,000,000 Al Alabiya social media followers
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
18/11/2025
Independent media across Central America are operating under intensifying financial pressure, yet there is a clear appetite for models that can sustain both ind...
18/11/2025
NBA Debuts New Comms Infrastructure and Systems for RefereesTwo-phase rollout is intended to improve game flow, enhance officiating accuracyBy Dan Daley, Audio ...
18/11/2025
Platinum White Paper: How Aggreko Delivers Certainty For Broadcasters On The Wor...
18/11/2025
Kiswe Extends DTC Products With Kiswe Core Cloud-Based Tool for Distributing Con...
18/11/2025
Spanish Basketball Federation partners with ScorePlay to power digital transform...
18/11/2025
HBS selects BBright encoders and decoders to connect ST 2110 live production wor...
18/11/2025
Ashes to Ashes: Inside TNT Sports' hybrid and maverick' production plan...
18/11/2025
SVG All-Stars: Mimi Fotopoulos, Director, Talent and Production Operations, Tenn...
18/11/2025
SVG LIVE! Conference Explores the Tech Side of Sports and Entertainment ConvergenceLive sports and music productions increasingly share gear and infrastructureB...
18/11/2025
LPGA Ups Its Production Game in 2026 With 50% More Cameras, SSMO's & Drones,...
18/11/2025
ESPN's Dunk the Halls Real-Time Animated NBA Game Set to Return for Christma...
18/11/2025
By Jessica Herndon
When Chilean filmmakers Diego C spedes and Giancarlo Nasi ar...
18/11/2025
Earlier this year, we announced the BAPE x SPOTIFY x SYNA by Central Cee (aka Cench) capsule collection, a collaboration that blends sound, style, and street c...
18/11/2025
Our mission to make Spotify the ultimate home for all things audio continues. St...
18/11/2025
SGL Carbon and the renowned Link ping University inaugurated an advanced coating...
18/11/2025
CANBERRA, Australia, Nov. 18, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) has launched a new, next-generation software device called NETCASTER - the NETwork Contr...
18/11/2025
Pictured are L3Harris ISR President Jason Lambert and Waleid Al Mesmari, EDGE President-Space & Cyber Technologies, signing with Carlo Igniades, L3Harris Region...
18/11/2025
During October, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 23.7%, a marginal shift of -0.8 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YUMI...
18/11/2025
Broadcast Builds On Lead Over Cable, Driven by Football and Drama Programming Ga...
18/11/2025
CINCINNATI E.W. Scripps has issued a statement responding to news that Sinclair has acquired approximately 8.2% of the outstanding class A (non-voting) shares o...
18/11/2025
TYSONS, Va. Tegna has announced that its shareholders have voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed $6.2 billion merger with Nexstar Media....
18/11/2025
NEW YORK Short-form vertical video has exploded across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, but a new survey commissioned by Media.net, a provider of ...
18/11/2025
SHENZHEN, China DJI today unveiled the Osmo Action 6, an all-in-one action camera featuring a variable aperture with a range from f/2.0 to f/4.0, the company...
18/11/2025
In the high-stakes world of film sound, there's no room for second chances. When an actor whispers a line with the weight of an entire scene, or lets loose ...
18/11/2025
Sonnet Technologies is having a sale on a selection of popular products, including a Thunderbolt 4 dock, an eGPU chassis, SATA and M.2 SSD PCIe cards, and mor...
18/11/2025
Amagi, a cloud-based SaaS technology solutions provider for broadcast and streaming TV, today announced the launch of 4Fangs, a new Free Ad-Supported Streaming ...
18/11/2025
Women In Media (WiM) announces its honorees for the 2025 Holiday Toast. The annual celebration recognizes legendary creatives whose work uplifts and inspires th...
18/11/2025
Cinematographer Adam Newport-Berra ( Good Fortune , The Bear , Euphoria ) emerged from the 2025 Emmy season with a statuette celebrating his Outstanding Cinem...
18/11/2025
Atlanta-based gaffer and lighting programmer Quinton Thomas brings the same practical, problem-solving instinct of a board op to every set he walks onto. With a...
18/11/2025
Suitelife Systems, a division of NFB Consulting Group, headquartered in California, has announced the appointments of Charles Sotto as Director of Media Technol...
18/11/2025
Sound Director and Audio Product Manager Scott Kramer has built a career around shaping stories through audio, guiding projects across film, television and stre...
18/11/2025
iWedia, a global leader in software solutions for connected TV devices, announces its participation at the APAC TV Summit 2025, taking place November 18 20 in B...
18/11/2025
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) is proud to announce the launch of Flair Bridge, a groundbreaking solution that redefines how operators control MRMC's in...
18/11/2025
Over the summer, world famous musician and rapper Drake continued the rollout of his new album Iceman, by live streaming the second and third episodes of a seri...
18/11/2025
KEIZER, Ore. Municipal broadcaster Keizer City Television, K23 TV, has deployed four Telycam PTZ cameras to upgrade the visual quality of its live meeting cover...
18/11/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. NBC Sports and Peacock have announced that they are working for the second consecutive year with the National Football League, EA Sports and Gen...
18/11/2025
LONDON A new Ampere Analysis study finds that familiar franchises are successfully driving kids' TV consumption on Netflix and that the streamers big bet on...
18/11/2025
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. TV viewers continue to find it challenging to find relevant programs in the fragmented universe of streaming content, according to new findings...
18/11/2025
20 Bob Dylan Songs That Reflect a Legacy of A-Changin On the heels of Bob Dylan receiving a Berklee honorary doctorate, we take stock of one of the most singu...
18/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and MILTON expand partnership, unveiling new RF spectrum monitor...
18/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz presents multi-purpose R&S NGT3600 high-precision dual-channel p...
18/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and ELT Group: Towards a Global Strategic Partnership Across All...
18/11/2025
Wuppertal November 18, 2025
Tisman Service Expands Rental Offerings with Riede...
18/11/2025
Today, Microsoft, NVIDIA and Anthropic announced new strategic partnerships. Anthropic is scaling its rapidly growing Claude AI model on Microsoft Azure, powere...
18/11/2025
AI agents have the potential to become indispensable tools for automating complex tasks. But bringing agents to production remains challenging.
According to Ga...
18/11/2025
DJ Carey: The Dodger starts Monday 24th November at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Pl...
17/11/2025
EA SPORTS Madden NFL Cast to Return Thanksgiving Night With Immersive, Data-Driv...
17/11/2025
Behind the Broadcast Booth: Impact Ventures' Greer Christian on Building Her...
17/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Sportradar's Brian Josephs Talks Peacock's Powerful Perfor...