Horizon: Coronavirus Special

With a lot of current projects on hold, we were able to help the BBC Science team with a special Horizon programme on Coronavirus – using our Kontact™ Telestrator.

For the show, the team needed one of the presenters to control video sequences herself, as well as draw on them to illustrate the points she wanted to convey. To do this we were able to provide them with our Kontact™ Telestrator system. The video below shows it in use.

The system gives a full broadcast output over HD-SDI to the gallery, while also providing a set of custom controls and realtime video feed to the presenter on an iPad (or other compatible tablet). The operator for a presenter is very simple, and requires only a few minutes for familiarisation. Tools are provided to draw lines, arrows and other shapes, as well as transport control for video.

Before the show an operator prepares all the video sequences in a web-based interface. During the recording, specific sequences are sent to the presenter’s interface, ensuring only the relevant content is ever available. All of this can be done either via an on-site network, or via the internet if required. Changes can be made on the fly and pushed directly to the presenter remotely.

On site we were able to help with the production of some of the video content, either by resequencing some of the provided clips, or stitching a series of clips together into a single sequence, all done in After Effects. This rapid turn-around of content is critical in shows which have tight shooting schedules.

Please contact us if you’d like to know more about our telestration system, or other projects where you think we could help.