Gray Television is preparing to introduce virtual set technology at some of its stations
Originally published by TVNewsCheck
Gray Television Inc. will roll out combo virtual-hard news sets at a small number of its television stations in the third quarter, the first step in what may be a much wider deployment throughout the station group, says an executive level technologist at the station group.
This has been in Gray's target for some time because we really see the application of this technology in our medium and small markets, says Jason Effinger, Gray Television SVP Media & Technology for the TV broadcast group. It gives us a tremendous leg up.
The broadcast group owns and operates TV stations in 44 markets. A total of 76 stations are affiliated with ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox.
Gray began a serious evaluation of the hybrid of hard and virtual sets, augmented reality and immersive graphics about 18 months ago.
The station group wanted to find new, flexible ways to customize local content in a way that engages viewers, says Effinger.
I believe this will be an important evolution in our content presentation - supporting content with the right graphics and right set to deliver more and more details to the viewers of our newscasts, he says.
We are like many [broadcasters] in the United States that are really diving in [to virtual sets, augmented reality and immersive graphics], he says.
Adopting virtual set technology will put Gray in the company of a growing number of U.S. broadcasters including stations as small as Morris Network's WXXV Gulfport, Miss. (DMA 160); group-owned stations like Media General's WKBN Youngstown, Ohio (DMA 113); broadcast networks; and numerous cable news outlets.
While Gray is getting on the virtual set bandwagon with its rollout of hybrid news sets, there will be limits, says Effinger.
We believe there has to be a visual balance for the viewer of what's real and what's not, he says. The virtual needs to support the content, augment what is going on with that content - not get in the way.
Gray has been evaluating three separate approaches to using virtual set technology in conjunction with hard set elements.
The first involves the use of a Ross Video Furio camera tracking system and Vizrt's Viz Virtual Studio and Viz Engine renderer.
In the Omaha market, we will be launching with full camera tracking capabilities, Effinger says.
The beauty of a robotic camera system is it provides accurate tracking data for virtual so that you get great registration when you combine the real and the virtual elements, says Bruce Takasaki, Ross Video's marketing product manager for robotics.
It also means that when you do a pre-set recall - in other words if you frame a shot, store it in a memory within the system and then recall it through your robotic control system, the camera goes back to exactly the same positon every time.
Furio combines encoders on the track; the camera support lift; the head to detect both pan and tilt; and the lens into a data stream that is sent to the Vizrt Engine - the real-time 3D graphics processor responsible for rendering the virtual portion of the set.
Broadcasters can economize by relying on a single engine, sending data streams for each individual camera to the real-time graphics processor as a newscast cuts between different cameras, says Isaac Hersly, president of Vizrt Americas.
An alternative, which Gray has chosen, is to assign a Viz Engine to each camera used for the newscast, he says. One engine per camera is the optimal working environment. With that approach, when Camera One is on air, you are seeing the virtual environment. Because you have an engine on Camera Two, you can dissolve to it, or do a take, but you will have a preview.
Having multiple Viz Engines also builds in redundancy that ensures a newscast won't be forced to be telecast with a visible green screen in the event the engine fails, he adds.
The second approach removes the camera track on the studio floor and robotic movements from the equation.
In this case the cameras are stationary with the exception of pan, tilt and zoom - and perhaps elevation, Hersly says.
In this setup, a Viz Engine renders the virtual set background in perfect synchronization with a switch between cameras to give you the effect that the background is moving to match the perspective of the live camera, he explains.
When it is done correctly, the approach creates a very elegant transition and saves the expense of a camera that is physically tracking on the floor of the studio, says Hersly.
The third alternative is similar to a traditional chromakey of a meteorologist presenting weather maps with the help of a green screen, except in this instance the background is rendered in 3D, Effinger says.
Gray already has deployed the weather-like chromakeying type of virtual set at some of its smaller stations, such as KNOP North Platte, Neb. (DMA 209). However, adding the 3-D environment via the Viz Engine means we can do it a lot better now, Effinger says.
At least initially, Gray is likely to deploy all three approaches at a handful of its stations, he says. For competitive reasons, Effinger declined to identify the exact number of stations and markets where Gray will initially deploy the hybrid sets.
The type of hybrid set each station gets will depend in part on the size of market served. If the launch proves successful, Gray will definitely and aggressively [be] moving toward the first two alternatives, Effinger says.
They will not be for every single station in the next 12 month, but that does not mean we are not engineering for that in the future, he says.
Augmented reality, which can make a small set look far bigger, is particularly interesting to Gray, Effinger says.
When you get into medium and small markets, we a
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Gray Television is preparing to introduce virtual set technology at some of its stations
