Vizrt and never.no join forces to bring social media tools to broadcasters

11 September 2012

never.no and Vizrt Inc. announce a partnership to bring a comprehensive suite of social media tools to the broadcast industry. These tools engage the audience while providing broadcasters the means to take full advantage of this new source of content and user data.

With the partnership between Vizrt and never.no, broadcasters now have the tools to embrace social user generated content (UGC) and integrate it easily, flexibly, and seamlessly within Vizrtgraphics and multiplatform distribution workflows. Together, Vizrt—the world leader in real-time 3D graphics and never.no—the world leader in social TV solutions—are bringing to market an unmatched end-to-end solution for merging social media into the existing automated broadcast production pipeline.

With never.no technology, broadcasters can monitor, filter, approve and harvest—tweets, SMS, MMS, RSS feeds,  Facebook posts — all kinds of content cascading from the many new social media platforms.  They can build playlists or carousels of select social content they want to push to air. The never.no user interface empowers broadcasters with secure editorial control over what social media content they aggregate, post or use on-air.

Managed chaos

The data is then cultivated by never.no in a form that makes it easier to incorporate into the data-driven 3D graphics Vizrt products. Never.no tools integrate within newsroom computer systems, such as Avid iNews and AP’s ENPS in the  Viz Content Pilot interface, so users won’t have to refer to a separate never.no user interface or leave their primary application to work with never.no social data tools.

During a live show, broadcasters can instruct viewers to post their comments on the station’s Facebook page, Tweet on a specific hash-tagged topic or respond by other means and then harvest those responses. They can generate tickers of Twitter comments, put Facebook posts in a graphic, create pop-ups, show online poll results—and use the content any way they want—to integrate them within on-air graphics or push data-rich displays back to the second screen or to social platforms.

Spot what’s hot

As part of never.no’s interactive “TV. Mobile. Social. 1Framework,” broadcasters can use “word clouds” to determine and analyze what’s trending right now on Facebook and Twitter, or other social platforms, and report that timely insight back to its increasingly dual-screen users. Social buzz can generate very valuable market research for honing business strategies—like setting advertising rates, identifying viewer demographics or making changes to programs, products, or services.

Perhaps there’s a particular keyword that’s popping up everywhere, such as the name of a star athlete, celebrity, or politician. never.no’s “What’s Trending” toolkit can identify that emerging trend. Word clouds also put social buzz into context, such as geographical differences or time progressions.

For example, comments posted by people as they are affected by a terrible storm that’s passing through a region, or political comments by geographic location as polls close nationwide on Election Day. This data can be harnessed and placed onto maps in Viz World to give a perspective of where the events are taking place.

Automated workflow

Vizrt’s product portfolio hasfeatures and functionality to enable broadcasters to employ social content on the air, whether it’s from iPhone’s (iOS), Androids, iPads (tablet PCs), SMS or RSS feeds, among other data streams.

There are also tools allowing broadcasters to push content to social networks to elicit viewer response as well as promote and publicize their programming and brands. For example, Viz MultiChannel, Vizrt’s channel branding tool, will help broadcasters update Facebook and Twitter pages automatically. It will automatically post information like programming notes and schedule changes to the station’s Facebook or Twitter pages as secondary events defined by the traffic department.

Other Vizrt products—including the Viz Trio character generator and Viz Content Pilot, a template-based live graphics system—can also integrate virtually any kind of social content—such as Skype video calls, Word clouds, tweets with hash-tags and/or geographical tags, and Facebook posts—into graphics and scenes. Viz Virtual Studio can incorporate social content into immersive 3D sets. Viz Ticker can scroll the information across the screen.

The editorial staff never sees the station’s login information. Since they can only update and retrieve the data, this solution is a very secure part of the established broadcast workflow.

Immersing social content into graphics and programs builds a loyal audience, which in turns boosts station revenues, especially if the viewership is comprised of the much sought-after younger demographic.