The visual renewal of 24 Hours, a preview of the new visual stage of RTVE

The RTVE engineering team tells Panorama Audiovisual what the visual revolution of public radio and television will be like, which materializes in new screens for 24 Hours, Territorial Centers and a decisive commitment to augmented reality and virtual production.

What was once a choice is now the way forward. Those extraordinary developments of augmented reality, present in special programs with great impact among the audience, have become central part of the visual commitment of information programs. Each television in Spain approaches this field with a range of ambition marked by its possibilities. In the case of RTVE, the bet is beyond any doubt.

The elegant renovation of the news set The 1, a display dominated by large screens and a game of reflections, has begun its expansion. Channel viewers 24 Hours They are about to see how the visual identity of the news programs blends in with the news programs of the first channel with a display of LEDs to match. The same technology is already being enjoyed by fans of the territorial information, who have already seen how information spaces adopt a new aesthetic line led by screens.

Concepts like augmented or extended reality will proliferate in an RTVE that is aware of visual and narrative value of new television graphics solutions.

The deployment of these supports will allow the landing of tools that provide new narrative languages to the information. Concepts like augmented or extended reality will proliferate in an entity that is aware of visual and narrative value of new television graphics solutions. In parallel, RTVE completes this commitment to the virtual universe with the imminent implementation of a significant number of virtual scenery in Studio 3 of Prado del Rey ready to renovate numerous public service formats.

RTVE has the mission of informing its audience, and to do so, it will deploy all the technological solutions it may have at its disposal. On our visit to Torrespaña, The RTVE engineering team allows us to discover what steps the Spanish broadcaster is taking in this field.

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Screens and more screens: why

Las LED screens They have come to RTVE to stay. At least, to medium term. It is a trend that has materialized among the main global broadcasters, which provides dynamism and versatility to the usual stoicism of the news. Furthermore, as stated by the technical area of ​​RTVE, “it increases the communication capacity and provides brand image", pillars to understand the unstoppable expansion of these supports: "We started with the study of the La 1 Newscast. Now, the study of 24 Hours and the Territorial Centers will begin to incorporate the screens and a set design in which reflections prevail."

Within a few weeks, all of these spaces will have sets dominated by LED screens of large dimensions, always adapted to the dimensions of each studio. In the case of 24 Horas, the premiere becomes imminent, while the Territorial Centers have already begun to broadcast from these new spaces after an important work of coordination its deployment: "We install the screens in two territorial centers every weekend, in a total of seven waves. In total, we have 17 territorial centers, of which three of them are integrated into the production centers of the Canary Islands, Sant Cugat and Torrespaña."

“When it comes to renewing all our territorial centers to adapt them to the high definition, we have decided to deploy the same mixers, matrices, glue electronics, cameras…and with the screens “We have done the same.”

This deployment not only helps implement that brand image, but also allows unifying technological deployment of each space: "When it comes to renewing all our territorial centers to adapt them to high definition, we have decided to deploy the same mixers, matrices, glue electronics, cameras... and we have done the same with the screens." This decision will allow RTVE to expedite each technical process y share resources both technological as creative in the event that it is necessary: ​​"Regardless of whether each center has its graphics capacity, unifying the screens, scalers and production system will allow some resources to be exchanged, unifying the graphic line of all the centers."

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The renewal of 24 Hours

In the short term, the most important visual change that RTVE will face will be the news study of the 24 Hour Channel.

For this transition, the space on the set is expanded, which has made it possible to include large screens that will dominate the content. In parallel, the opportunity has been taken to provide this Studio 2 located in Torrespaña with a augmented reality what can you do immersive productions, so that the presenter is placed, according to RTVE, “in the middle of a jungle or in the center of the dome of a cathedral.”

Key to this bet has been the use of positioning systems absolute with Mon-Sys, whose constellation based on retroreflectors allows deployments with great precision, as well as the integration of pedestals of Vinten, which incorporates positioning sensors that provide important improvements compared to other types of alternatives.

The use of augmented reality is more complicated for the Canal 24 Horas studio. The information programs will maintain their usual structure expanding its possibilities with the use of screens. Current information, highlights the technical area of ​​RTVE, makes the instant deployment of augmented reality developments for each news.

Today, “augmented reality is content that requires a lot of reflection, preparation and rehearsals on many occasions”, a time that is not always available in the context of the RTVE news channel.

La 1's news programs will continue to be the home of the most attractive augmented reality proposals, those in which positioning systems and software solutions are perfectly combined with crane movements. Scorpio to make the most of the spectacularity offered by these informative graphic solutions.

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The perfect screen for RTVE

The bidding for the screen for these spaces has not been an easy path. RTVE has analyzed each of the solutions available on the market to discover what could be the best alternative to lead the visual line of their information programs. To do this, once the RTVE technology team created the file for these screens, hired a independent laboratory to assess in a real environment the response of the screens of the main players in the industry.

What was clear from minute zero was that the quality of the screen had to be the same for each of the centers. For this reason, all of them have been tendered under the same demanding quality standard and according to the modular formats determined in the set designs, which allows visual homogeneity to be maintained regardless of the size of the screens: “It is true that in Madrid or Barcelona the screens are very large, several canvas and a more powerful computer system is required to manage these contents. In the case of smaller territorial centers, the power of these screens is done through the auxiliary buses of the mixer, so there is no specific computer system for managing screen content,” García clarifies.

The screens awarded in the tender, made up of Datos Media Technologies, were the Alfalite ModularPix Pro P1 ORIM, sistemas modulares compuestos por decenas de paneles con una velocidad de refresco de 3.900 Hz, una luminosidad de 1.800 cd/m², un alto contraste de 5000:1, una importante precisión entre módulos (<0,02 mm) y una capacidad de reproducir más de 281 trillones de colores, siempre según datos del propio fabricante español.

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The definitive criteria: angle, colorimetry, maintenance...

RTVE thoroughly studied all types of parameters to determine the technical bidding characteristics for the screens of this project. Just like him glow was not an absolutely decisive issue, since these screens usually operate at a small percentage of its lighting capacity, RTVE engineers especially valued other issues such as viewing angle, the maintainability of your colorimetry at low light capacity or, for example, its electromagnetic compatibility: “These large screens work in a television studio where there are many communications between radio stations, earpieces or wireless microphones. It is very important to take this electromagnetic environment into account, which is why we demand that these screens comply with regulations with European laboratories.”

“Perhaps there can be better screens, but with a much higher electricity consumption. (…) We are very concerned that the manufacturer of this equipment, which will be widely used, complies with all the environmental criteria”.

Other characteristics that were required in the specifications, such as type of protective resin that had or the ability to endurance Over time, some of the previous parameters improved significantly.

The management of the Technical Area does not forget a criterion that is increasingly becoming more important within RTVE: the sustainability. It is a factor to take into account in the public purchase of quality "Perhaps there could be better screens, but with much higher electrical consumption. We have looked for parameters of low electrical consumption of the screen, as well as the absence of lead residues in the soldering of the components. We are very concerned that the manufacturer of this equipment, which will be widely used, meets all environmental criteria."

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The renovation of Studio 3 in Prado del Rey (Madrid)

Apart from the renewal of the news studio screens of RTVE, which will open the doors to important improvements in the presentation of the contents, the public entity sets its sights on the capabilities of virtual space technology to continue contributing dynamism and visual appeal to your programming.

In this sense, the Study 3 of the RTVE headquarters in Prado del Rey will improve in the short term a significant number of virtual programs: “The deployment of new technological platforms for virtual sets allows us to improve these public service programs, which may have a more humble production budget, in every way.” From the technological direction of RTVE it is considered that these systems will be able to increase the format creativity, making them “richer in content, attractive and eye-catching.”

“The deployment of new technological platforms for the virtual scenery allows us that these public service programs, which perhaps have a more humble production budget, improve in every way”.

In a first phase, these virtual worlds will be built based on a green screen, although the intention of the RTVE technological team is to test the union of the chroma and one screen area, with the possibility of making multi-camera shots within one's own virtual scenery.

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Unreal Engine: RTVE's graphic bet

In search of graphics engine which will feed present and future developments in virtual scenography, augmented reality and extended reality, RTVE is clearly committed to Unreal Engine, development of Epic Games. It is an industry standard and, in fact, the muscle used by most companies that offer graphics solutions. The decision is not surprising, but the way it is applied is.

The RTVE team seeks to have workstations top-level with the aim of being able to perform “high-quality, low-latency renderings” based on the Unreal engine. For the Technical Area of ​​public television, it would be desirable to have users with a sufficiently deep knowledge of Unreal, although it is true that, today, there are different brands that develop an intermediate layer. These systems, RTVE points out, perhaps do offer more facilities or speed to operators. However, when Unreal proposes a new update, it takes time for these manufacturers to adapt the improvement that Epic Games has provided.

"And RTVE acquires a specific platform for that intermediate layer of user with respect to Unreal, the attendance is restricted, because not all producers or service companies You may be familiar with our choice.”

Another key factor that has led the RTVE Technical Area to make this decision is to give more opportunities for the content industry regarding future competition for all types of formats: "When we publish a document, there must be competition. If RTVE acquires a specific platform for that intermediate user layer with respect to Unreal, competition is restricted, because not all production companies or service companies may be familiar with our choice. However, if we provide our IT infrastructure with the Unreal system, any company can apply its own control layer."

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a future in-house

All these decisions that the RTVE team has been making go in the same direction: giving free rein to the visual creativity, relying on the possibilities that visual technology (whether with physical media or virtual solutions) can contribute to the content.

The changes will not come overnight. It is true that the implementation of screens in all production centers is just around the corner, but there are still opportunities in new formats, studies or on the sets of telesport, the RTVE sports channel. Likewise, virtual sets and the use of AR and XR will take new steps little by little with the support of the industry, as long as the public corporation itself requires it.

On the horizon, along with all these decisions, there is also a glimpse a new way. Since last year, the Spanish Radio and Television Institute has promoted a higher cycle of 3D animation, games and interactive environments: "The type of content that is addressed is directly applicable to what we are doing on television. When there is a generation of these students who can do internships on television, we would see if it is possible to incorporate them into our management or animation departments of virtual elements, working directly with the entire Unreal platform."

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez