Software used to generate graphics in BBC News reports

wondering what software is used by the main news providers to do all the graphics in their report packages.

watching the news at ten on bbc one I notice that these little stings they did for things like the 'spending cuts' packages the extended tails on the 'P' and 'T' are to big by about a pixel and are in fact quite crude.

so in addition to the software used for such things, how long are the graphic designers given to come up with these things?

VizRT is used for live captions.

Quantel is used for most in report graphics. Although I think network are using VizRT Artist.

A lot of the network graphics are now done in After Effects / Cinema 4d...

Live Graphics are usually rendered on VizRT - though some Astons are still in use.

Some simple graphics are added in edits using Quantel QEdits (and Quantel have a long history in TV graphics dating back to Paintbox, Harry, Henry, Hal etc.)

Most more "produced" graphics - including some stuff loaded into VizRT as templates will be produced in Photoshop/After Effects on (I think) Macs.

In years gone by it was pretty much all Aston/Paintbox/Hal with a bit of Charisma and Edifis/Abekas.

Anyone know what happened to the VizRT roll out that was meant to happen? Seems to have been scrapped.

I think it's on hold (though how official that is I'm not sure). Some regions got it, incluing Cambridge at their new centre, but it's proven to be a swine to use on a day-to-day basis by all accounts. While it's great with rendering predefined sequences, or sequences from templates, designing stuff on it from scratch is apparently extremely technical and requires specialist knowledge. Most regional centres rely on multi-skilled staff, working here one day, working there the next, so I believe viz has become something that's been left to render defined sequences and that's it. Bit of a waste really.

Back to the original question, in English Regions in hardware terms, there is a reliance on Quantel for graphics (high-end QEdits have most of the functionality of an old Paintbox built into them), there are some Hals soldiering on and a few Collages and Pictureboxes for Still Store playout. Pixel Power's Clarity is used by two or three of the smaller centres - it's a reasonable design and playout tool and can handle live video for squeezes and/or overlays. Many regions have Astons (Greens and Motifs generally, with one or two Mottos and older) for lower-thirds, though some full-frame graphics can come from Aston too as they're generally automated by the BBC's BigTed system and can be called up as and when required. All of these bits of kit come with bespoke software - mostly with their own operating system (though Clarity is Windows based and I believe the newest Astons are too, shock horror).

In standard software terms, Photoshop is used a fair bit (though more for online than TV), VizRT's Curious Mapper for Maps and Adobe's After Effects in regions that can afford it.

As an After Effects user, it would be interesting to see how they have the "templates" setup for the graphics. Being a post-production tool, it can't be used for the Live output, but the dynamic elements like text, with the entrance and exit timings and effects.

I haven't much experience of AE but as I understand it they use aeps to define sequences which are then tailored to the actual requirement. As an example, they set up an aep with 15 blank candidate names to list those standing in a seat you've just feature on a package and, for balance, you need to follow it with a list of all candidates standing... I think they use AE in the design process then Viz generates the rest...

Until Aston 7 all of the Aston boxes were effectively bespoke devices with custom graphics hardware, custom CPUs and custom software/OSs. The Aston 7 is effectively Aston software running on the same PC hardware platform as a Brainstorm 3D VR box I believe - and I think running under Windows. There are also some Linux-based boxes running with PC hardware - like the TOG system previously used by BBC News prior to VizRT.

Very easy - you just keep everything in the one folder and work from there. That way you can easily transport stuff from one machine to the other.

Anything that's a template - you'd just open up and replace the relevant graphic and then render with the default settings already there. There's an AE template for all the title sequences in English Regions / WNA, you just replace the clips and the text at the end!

BBC North West got it in the 2007 revamp I think? They were able to create animated name straps from 2007 and the whole graphics system seemed much neater.

Surely those that have VizRT are able to animate the straps in the same way as the nationals? So why don't they?

Yea, and with post-production it is easy, however the issue with After Effects is that it doesn't have a proper templating system, and is it rendered out as an alphaed VT, or alphaed image sequence, and then overlaid in edit, or is there a specific workflow where it is all rendered through AE? And would Lambie-Nairn or BBC News's graphics team produce a single "template" and pass it round?