Brainstorm filled Madrid's Puerta del Sol with a virtual audience during the Spanish Television Chimes

Thanks to technology InfinitySet It was possible to integrate the audience virtually into Puerta del Sol (Madrid), allowing a celebration of the Chimes more similar to that of other years.

Despite strict compliance with health and safety measures due to the pandemic, Ana Obregón and Anne Igartiburu were very accompanied on the last night of the year in the special program of Spanish Television Chimes thanks to the technological innovation of Brainstorm which made possible a celebration more similar to that of other years.

The technology of the Spanish company was decisive for public television to be able to solve the main problem that threatened the broadcast of the New Year's Eve Chimes and was able to celebrate last New Year's Eve with joy, warmth and the contribution of citizens. The public channel gave viewers a live broadcast that did 'magic' across the screen, virtually filling Puerta del Sol with attendees in Madrid.

Both anonymous citizens and some of TVE's most recognized professionals were present virtually at Puerta del Sol to celebrate these holidays with viewers and share their dreams and hopes for 2021.

For security reasons the production was not done live. Post-production in real time was chosen with InfinitySet to be broadcast as a live fake during the gala. First, seven moving shots were recorded at Puerta del Sol, which were subsequently tracked to be able to superimpose the videos sent to TVE from their homes by celebrities, health workers and the general public who wanted to be a virtual part of the celebration. Thanks to the Brainstorm algorithm, it was possible to integrate 150 audience video signals from three different sources.

Enrique Cotillas, deputy director of infographics and graphics at TVE and director of the project "for TVE it was a challenge to include our audience in a Puerta del Sol that this New Year's Eve would be empty. To do this we asked our viewers to send us their images to include them virtually on camera and crane movements in an empty space. The challenge was ambitious, from a technical and logistical point of view, for the Image Directorate and the technical team of TVE, but thanks to Brainstorm, which has done the tracking and integration, allowing us to fill people in Puerta del Sol as if it were a large videoconference meeting, and Shots who helped us in the creative part, following the work of the Christmas campaign that they did for us previously, the result has been magnificent.”

Cotillas adds that "it has been a job against the clock and full of setbacks since Puerta del Sol is never empty, only at certain times in the early morning when it is empty of people and before the cleaning services come in, but Brainstorm's technology has allowed us to get a very real image of people celebrating the Chimes with TVE in Puerta del Sol, which was the challenge we had set for ourselves."

Thanks to technological innovation, among other things, the retransmission of RTVE's La 1 led the audience data of all national and regional networks with an average of more than 7 million viewers, gathering up to 13 million at the time of maximum audience, and obtaining a 33% screen share.

https://youtu.be/ruATJ5pbiyw?t=704