Innovation

Project: Sgorio, S4C

Creative Challenge
Build an information processing structure able to receive live match data from a complete raft of football matches including; Barclays Premiership, Championship, Football League, Conference and the Welsh Premiership. In addition, build a bespoke vidi-printer for a five-hour outside broadcast live sports programme.

Creative Solution
Initially we utilised web servers and web services to handle the processing of complex, changing data in an XML format. We then developed custom software to collate, translating, transferring the information via satellite to our own outside broadcast graphics team. From this we were able to provide the relevant data straight to the vidi-printer the production team were using on-site at the live outside broadcast.

Outcome
Retained by Sgorio to provide the same service for S4C for the 2013-14 football season.

Analysis

Project: US Elections, BBC News

Creative Challenge
Provide live touchscreen analysis graphics for the BBC's main coverage of the 2012 US Presidential Election. The production teams were based in Washington and London and we were working with a technical team and graphics production team in the election studio in Washington.

The touchscreen was a Giant iTab which the presenter was controlling on set, the key aim was to provide a sophisticated array of live data and statistical updates throughout the night as the state-by-state returns came though of the Presidential race.

Creative Solution
Building on our extensive experience of providing live election graphics and touchscreen graphics in particular, we developed a graphical interface on a Vizrt system. Taking data from the BBC’s own election data supplier and converting it into understandable visual data for the UK and Global audiences.

Outcome
The system worked perfectly throughout the six-an-a-half hour programme which was broadcast on BBC1 in the UK, BBC America and across the globe on BBC World News. Agfx aims to work with the BBC again on forthcoming UK and international elections.

Streaming

Project: Iath Fyw, Welsh Government

Creative Challenge
Provide a live streaming service for a major Welsh Government conference held at Aberystwyth University to discuss the future of the Welsh-language. The event organisers also wanted to provide not one but two live streams of the main plenary session – one in Welsh and a translated feed in English.

Creative Solution
Using our own fast-deployment satellite truck agfx-2 we set up the live feed for the all-day conference utilising our own mobile uplink. We used two different content delivery systems to carry each of the live streams.

Outcome
The streaming was carried live for six hours in total on the Welsh Government website, as well as being relayed on other sites as well.