‘STARS IN THEIR EYES’ FINALE USES PIXEL POWER

ITV’S ‘STARS in Their Eyes’ show used Pixel Power’s Graphite system for its national live grand finale.
Broadcast from Granada Television Studios, Manchester, Pixel Power’s advanced Graphite character generator and graphics system with uncompressed clip playout, was used to play in animated straps, a virtual phone board and a results sequence for the live show.
Granada’s Graphic Design Creative Director, Paul Kearton, said: “Every year we try to push the creative boundaries and design more spectacular sequences. As the show is totally live this has major implications on how we get the graphics to air. Graphite’s complete integrated tool set of character generator, still store, paint, animation and uncompressed clip playout made it much quicker and easier to put these key sequences together. Being an integrated system, all the worries about various pieces of equipment being linked together in a live situation are removed. It makes everyone’s life much less stressed.”
Granada’s requirements were for a system that could be easily integrated with their in-house Flame, which was used to create the special effects. These were then digitised with keys and stored within Graphite as 4:2:2:4, ready for live playout on demand.
The Graphite system also provided the requisite independent text layers, frame/field accurate video duration and triggering control, video transitions and 2D effects.
(CD)