Reports & Services | 3D Graphics86

3D Graphics for the Hockey Night in Canada

The hockey matchup between the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs, long-time rivals in the NHL, was aired live from Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Dec. 11, 2010. The Chyron systems allowed the CBC to incor-porate a dynamic 3D score bug and other gra-phics with 3D objects and animation in this landmark broadcast.

The Score Bug | CBC planned for the event well in advance, sending its lead operator to

CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” has led ho-ckey coverage in Canada for nearly six deca-des, and at the end of 2010, the program un-dertook Canada’s first 3D hockey telecast. The broadcaster used two HyperX3 on-air graphics systems from Chyron to package its hockey graphics for the 3D environment, integrate them successfully into the broadcast work-flow, and provide a visually striking 3D view-ing experience for audiences across Canada.

shots on goal, power play timers, out-of-town score updates, promos, and other stats.

While the Chyron HyperX3 system already supports graphics playout in 3D, we helped CBC redesign its existing graphic elements into 3D elements and then reconstructed the network’s messages in 3D. The resulting real-time 3D object animations, lighting, and tex-tures really enhanced the graphical look and impact on-air.

Lyric PRO 8 enabled us to create engaging 3D graphics. Planning the actual incorporation of 3D graphics into the live 3D sports event presented us with a less-familiar challenge. Watching a sport like hockey televised in 3D is almost like watching an actual game through a window. Adding 3D graphics to this scene takes some practice and knowledge. Under-standing this, the network hired a stereogra-pher from 3ality Digital, and we worked with him to place different types of graphics cor-rectly in 3D space to ensure the viewing expe-rience was superb.

Placing 3D Graphics in 3D Space | The look and feel of graphics floating in the Z space is critical. If a handheld camera is in a low po-sition while shooting hockey players on the ice, and a fan’s head comes into the shot, it shows depth. If, however, the operator puts a “super,” such as the player’s name, on screen at the same time, it doesn’t look right. To the human eye and mind, it seems that the graphic should be between the head in the foreground and the player on the ice. Avoi-ding this kind of situation requires care on the part of camera operators and graphics operators, as the sudden intrusion of ele-ments in the foreground can really throw off the viewer.

We found that adding graphics to shots in the commentary box also required special attention. Due to the space constraints of the booth, the play-by-play guys were shot at close range with a wide-angle lens, with the large expanse of the arena behind them. Each commentator had his hands crossed on his lap, and we saw that when we added a super – such as a commentator’s name – it looked as though the graphic should be po-sitioned between the commentator’s hands and his body. Controls in Lyric PRO 8 allow operators to make those changes, so it was an easy problem to fix in rehearsals. When the announcers were put on air during the game, their name supers looked perfect in front of their hands.

Chyron’s New York facilities to help identify the type of graphics required and ensure that they could be delivered in stereoscopic 3D through Chyron systems. Among the gra-phics that CBC wanted displayed in 3D was the score bug. Because this bug normally is created through another system, Chyron de-livered a plug-in for our Lyric PRO 8 software that yielded that same capability, supporting not only the score and game clock, but also

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If done well, the positioning of graphics in the Z space makes for a great effect when shown in the 3D environment. They positioned cutouts of hockey players and other objects in the Z space against an animated background, and the com-bination was striking when animated in 3D.

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Phil Carmichael was a Chyron operator and designer for the CBC in Calgary and Edmonton from 1982 to 1995. He worked very closely with CBC Sports in providing on-air graphics for many sporting events such as “Hockey Night in Canada,” the CFL on CBC, and the Winter and Summer Olympics. He joined Chyron in 1995 as a product specialist for the iNFiNiT! line of products and now is vice president of pro-duct marketing for Chyron. Although his main job today is in marketing, he conti-nues to work closely with news and sports broadcasters across the industry.

In a 3D Broadcast Graphics have to floatIn contrast to HD productions that use edge-to-edge graphics and score bugs, the CBC 3D production very purposefully did not use the-se types of graphics. The on-screen positioning must allow graphics to float, rather than anchor to one side of the screen or another. Knowing these issues, we helped CBC change some of the graphics accordingly. Because the scorebug is on the screen almost all of the time, we adapted it to float at the top of the screen.

Lyric PRO 8, combined with the scorebug ap-plication, provided a great deal of freedom in enhancing animations. In fact, CBC was able to add elements to the scorebug just before the start of the game. They brand their telecast with the CBC logo on the bug, so when it is off-screen during replays and other promos, the network branding is lost. With this being

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Canada‘s first-ever 3D hockey te-lecast, the CBC wanted to main-tain its brand presence on-screen at all times. With that goal in mind, the CBC team made a small change just prior to the game, ad-ding a transparent CBC logo that would appear when the scorebug animated off. This kind of flexibi-lity was an added bonus for CBC, and the extra bit of branding throughout the broadcast helped to reinforce the CBC identity not only for Canadian viewers, but also for those in the United Sta-tes watching via Comcast cable services.

One HyperX³ for Playout of the Scorebug and one for Full-Frame Graphics | CBC was able to integ-rate 3D graphics playout into its usual hockey broadcast workflow without making any real changes to operations. For the playback operator, the shift to a 3D te-lecast had a negligible impact on workflow. The operator recalled scenes the same way he does for regular HD broadcasts, and when he played to graphics to air, the Chyron software did the work in producing the 3D stereoscopic display. The network used one HyperX3 system for stereoscopic playout of the scorebug and a second system for all full-frame graphics and lower-thirds.

Thanks to advance planning and our experience with live 3D broadcasts in the United States, as well as the flexibility of our Lyric PRO 8 software and the po-werful real-time playout capa-bilities of the HyperX3 system, we were able to support CBC’s successful 3D hockey broadcast. The network pulled off the first in what promises to be a long series of 3D hockey broadcasts in

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Canada. At the Heritage Outdoor Classic at McMahon stadium in Calgary on Feb. 20, 2011 CBC car-ried out the second 3D broadcast where the Calgary Flames hosted the Montreal Canadians.

Within many broadcast facilities the Chyron HyperX3 on-air gra-phics system plays a key role, and our work with CBC demonstrates that those broadcasters already working with the system have

the means – through a simple change to their hardware set-tings – to launch stereoscopic graphics playout when the time is right for them.

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