14 April 2025 tbs.pm/83593

News Programme Branding (NPB) was launched from Studio N2 earlier in 1993.

Here, Chris Nicholls presents an overview of the facilities which have brought these improvements to our screens.

Then Jerry Clark offers us an insight into how the title sequences were computer-generated.

From ENG INF, the BBC engineering staff magazine, for Summer and for Autumn 1993

News Programme Branding was the culmination of some two years work by a team of designers, directors, operators, and programme editors. However, it represents more than just a new house-style: it provides a basic style that is common to all the BBC’s daily news output and has introduced new graphics equipment that will enable greater automation to be used for the creation of house-style graphics.

The proposals for the studio, produced by the NPB team during November 1992, required fairly extensive changes to the vision systems in Studios N1 and N2. The main element of these changes was the addition of three video effects chains to produce colour separation overlays containing studio cameras, graphics and video disc players as sources to the existing CDL vision mixer.

The proposals for the graphics, produced in January 1993, recommended the introduction of a Silicon Graphics VGX computer — previously used for 3-D animation work — for the production of standard still-frame graphics in an automated system. An additional Quantel Harriet animation system was also required.

Studios N1 and N2

Timing

Since the studios were last refurbished in 1982-4, all vision sources other than the local cameras have been asynchronous, with synchronism being restored by six decoding synchronisers embedded in the vision mixer at bank level. The requirement to mix graphics and cameras before the vision mixer made it essential to make the graphics area (previously only synchronous to TC2) synchronous to Nl, N2 and TC2.

This was achieved by equipping all three studio outputs to CAR with 360° Isophasers, removing the local DPS equipment, providing all areas with a common reference, and moving the timing of Nl and N2 into Network, to that of a late source. Isophasing amplifiers recovered from Lime Grove were installed in N1 and N2 to ensure complete synchronism of graphics in all areas. Provision has also been made for later acceptance of the fourth floor Videotape Transmission Areas as synchronous sources, but further work is required on the fourth floor to provide suitable references and working practices.

The Studio Set

This consists of a semi-circular desk behind which is a full-height illuminated screen. The screens are rear illuminated by fluorescent tubes with high frequency dimable ballasts controlled from the lighting desk. The screens can be changed to allow the different programmes to have individual identities.

Desk effects

The NPB style requires the presenters to sit at a desk with graphic inserts occupying only part of the background. The graphic insert is required to appear to be behind the presenter but in front of the backing. The method chosen to ensure that the presenter was in front of the graphic is Colour Separation Overlay (680) using the blue of the backing to generate the key. There are however complications.

The first is that the graphic insert is not necessarily wanted everywhere that the backing is blue; it is often to one side of the presenter. Secondly there are areas of the backing where the graphic is wanted that are not actually blue and will not generate a usable key signal. The Breakfast News and Nine backings have orange areas and the One and Six have almost white areas. These problems are overcome by using a three-level (black, grey, white) “Mask” signal that modifies the key signal. Firstly the key signal has its negative excursions removed. These all represent non blue colours and is particularly relevant to the Breakfast News and Nine backings. Secondly the Mask signal is added to the clipper potential and the result passed to a conventional key clipper.

The photograph on the left shows presenter Martyn Lewis with graphic insert. On the right is the mask signal required to control the keying. The grey area allows CSO keying where the presenter’s shoulder is likely to overlap the graphic. The black area forces the graphic through regardless of the backing and the white area forces the presenter and backing through.

The net result is that where the mask is grey, normal CSO is allowed. Where the mask is black, the background (graphic) is forced through regardless of the CSO key and where the mask is white, the foreground (the presenter and backing) is forced through. The masks can be either generated digitally using two D&ED DOGs each containing four patterns each, or can be stored on one of the four Sony Videodisc players installed in each studio. The graphic inserts are generated to register accurately with the mask positions and size.

Three identical desk effects chains have been provided. These allow rapid cutting between the two presenters and also inclusion of a wide-angle shot featuring both presenters, all with different graphic inserts.

A fourth effects chain, in N2 only has been provided specifically for the title sequences. It includes a single-channel Questech Charisma with a live background and key channel. It is used to key a small area of picture containing a live studio camera shot of the real presenters into the computer generated view of a studio, and to accurately track the motion contained in the animation so that the presenters appear to be part of the animation.

The computer animation is played from a Sony videodisc player. A second player can be used to provide a travelling matte that accurately registers with and tracks the animation, and defines the area of the animation that is to be replaced by the live studio camera. The two disc players are cued in synchronism by the Charisma via a Personal Computer.

Cameras and Robotics

View of the real Nine o’ clock News set. Note the floor monitor showing the presenter plus graphic insert.

The cameras and mountings in N1 were replaced at the end of 1992. The work to replace the N2 cameras and mountings was carried out at the same time as the NPB work.

A total of ten Thomson 1647S lightweight camera heads and triax basestations have been provided. These can be distributed as required between N1 and N2 up to a maximum of six in either studio.

The camera remote control system has been provided by Radamec EPO. Five fully-robotic RP2 pedestals and five remote pan, tilt and height systems on Fulmer pedestals have been provided. All the systems have full control of lens and camera control functions. If demanded by equipment failure or production requirements, the remote controls can be disengaged and the pedestals and heads manually controlled.

Graphics

View of the virtual computer-rendered model studio with the real presenter
matted in. Only the real presenter’s desktop immediately in front of him is real.

There are six graphics lines to each news studio from the fourth floor Graphics area. These are sub-selected within the studio to four “caption lines” (a bit of history) which appear on the vision mixer and the desk effects system. In addition, the desk effects systems have direct feeds of two SlideFile main and preview outputs.

News Programme Branding has brought the Silicon Graphics VGX power series computer into the production of routine daily graphics. One machine has been moved into the fourth floor GR1 graphics production area and is connected by eth-ernet to a second machine in the first floor 3-D Graphics area. The SGI 40/310VGX computers are based on the R3000 32-bit RISC processor.

Both systems have 64 MB of memory and have a processor clock frequency of 50 MHz. The operating system is Irix (the SGI dialect of Unix), and the VGX option signifies a Virtual Graphics Engine. This is a hardware rendering engine that is capable of rendering in real time. A Videolab frame buffer that “Pixel steals” from the SGI graphics bus allows the full speed of the VGX render engine to reach the TV format output.

The Silicon Graphics machines run NCA Automator and Mapper software. The Automator package allows the automatic creation of house-style inset and text graphics and various animations. The Mapper package uses a proprietary world map database to produce accurate maps of any part of the world, and can even produce animated fly-in sequences with full 3-D topography.

A Quantel Harriet animation system further enhances the animation capabilities of the area.

Chris Nicholls
Project Manager Projects & Planning RES (NCA)

Courtesy of VHS Artifacts

News branding graphics

The design work for News Branding, originally referred to as “Concept News”, started in earnest in November 1992. A “virtual studio” scenario had been discussed for several months prior to this and, in close collaboration with Studio Production, it was decided to go along this route.

Following the design concept to use the BBC Coat of Arms, the first task was to form a computer model of the virtual studio. However, as a precaution against a technical failure, it was decided that a “real” studio should also exist, for use as an emergency backup. Computer modelling of the virtual studio was done in close collaboration with the real studio construction, both using the same design drawings to ensure a perfect match between the virtual and the real.

The Crest-Sides layer showing the wire-frame model, the final rendered frame and its associated matte

After obtaining high-level permission to use the Coat of Arms, the layout was digitised from the BBC Style Guide and fed into the computer. This was then used as a pattern on which to model the various elements. The model of the crest was made as realistic as possible with every element forming an individual object, even down to each feather on the eagles being unique.

In the centre of the crest is a globe. The design decision was to have the globe rotating with the camera starting very close up, pulling back to reveal the crest and, further back, the studio. As this required a very detailed globe, data was purchased from Bartholomews to maintain accuracy and detail, even very close up. To ensure later post-production flexibility, and to speed up render times, the whole crest/studio model was built up from nine “object” layers and three “reflection” layers:

Object Layers

• The globe
• The crest centre
• The crest sides
• The crest plinth
• The studio floor
• The studio desk
• The studio ceiling
• The studio lights
• The set backings

Reflection Layers

• The crest reflection
• The desk reflection
• The set backings reflection

The three reflection layers are used as a relatively quick and easy way to give the model realism, without the need for very time consuming raytracing when rendering the model. Other techniques — refraction and reflection mapping — were used on the glass objects in the model, again to obviate the need for ray-tracing during the render.

Four differing models were built, one for each of the four news programmes. To maintain a similar look and feel, the models only varied slightly but the camera movements around the model varied to a larger extent. Rendering started in January 1993 and proceeded for the next month. The largest layers — the globe and crest components, each containing about 200,000 polygons — took about 10 minutes a frame to render and the other layers up to about 5 minutes a layer.

The output from the renderer includes a matte for each frame rendered. Using this matte, all twelve layers were composited together within the computer to give the final set of rendered frames. A complete render for one programme, including compositing time, required about four days on an extremely quick Silicon Graphics super-mini computer. All frames, the individual layers with their associated mattes, and the final composited sequence, were layed off frame-by-frame onto an Abekas A66 and from there dubbed onto D1 video tape.

The final post-production process was carried out on a Quantel Henry, the main work being to slightly alter the colour balance of some of the layers and to add lighting “flare” to the scene to improve realism. For the Breakfast titles, VT clips were run through the globe during the initial camera pull-back.

The set backings for the real set were also rendered on the graphics computers. To maintain detail, each panel was rendered at a resolution of 4640 by 3712 pixels. Each frame was then transferred, via computer tape cartridge, onto a Quantel Graphic Paintbox for final colour fettling before being printed directly from the Paintbox. Ib ensure a perfect match between the virtual and the real studio backings, camera shots of the real backings in-situ in the studio were grabbed into the computer and used as a texture to wrap onto the virtual set during the render process. Due to the judicious choice of layers, this single layer could be incorporated into the title sequence with the minimum of time and effort.

By March 1993, the final titles were safely on Dl tape, and the music and voice-overs were on DAT. For day-to-day play-out, the video and audio components were recorded onto a Sony CRV, while a travelling matte in the position of the presenter’s panel was recorded onto another CRV. Software was written on a PC to coordinate the simultaneous playback of both CRVs with a Charisma move. The latter performs a DVE operation on the feed from a studio camera and inserts the resulting image into the “hole” formed by the matte in the title sequence.

Content Graphics

Design of the content graphics (boxed stills, phone comps, still & quote, histograms, line graphs, sports results etc) started in January 1993. It was decided that a Silicon Graphics computer running appropriate software could be usefully integrated into the graphics production area. Automation software was commissioned from Iontrek Pty. Written to a News Branding specification, this software — christened Flashframe — would automate the production of much of the content graphics, thus allowing designers more time to work on complex one-off graphics.

The design of the content graphics was mainly carried out on a Quantel Harriet and, as each design was finished, the result passed onto Iontrek for incorporation into Flashframe. This ensured that, should the computer fail for any reason, the content graphics could be produced, albeit at a much slower rate, on a Harriet. Simultaneously with the writing of Flashframe, another software package — christened Mapper — was being written in-house. This package would allow the very rapid production of on-screen maps to a house style. Data was obtained from various sources at various scales and a database of the entire world was formed. The software would allow a designer to “fly” around the world and produce a map of any area. Later an animation capability was added, allowing the designer to specify a beginning and end keyframe, the computer then rendering the in-between frames to form an animation in a user-specified time.

Epilogue

News Branding has now been on air for over six months. From the comments given, both internal and in the press, the launch can only be described as a great success. The realism of the virtual studio is demonstrated by remarks such as “Isn’t it at all dangerous to have that amount of glass in a studio?” and “it looks too real — you can’t tell its a computer generated sequence”. To be fair however, to the critical eye there are faults but these are minor.

Everybody involved with the project has learnt an enormous amount; new ideas, new methods of working, and the introduction of general-purpose computers into areas that have been hitherto the domain of special purpose-built hardware. Despite the large increase in complexity in the studio gallery, mistakes have been few and far between. The graphics software packages, Flashframe and Mapper, have been remarkably stable and bug-free. Development of both packages continues to increase their flexibility and overall capability. The success of these packages is demonstrated by the recent purchase of both Flashframe and Mapper by BBC World Service Television News for their re-launch due later this year.

Jerry Clark
Computer Graphics Manager, News & Current Affairs