From Orad press release:

“In the virtual studio concept, we saw an opportunity to reduce costs and enhance on-air presentation at our local stations, while maintaining local editorial control and high quality newsgathering,” said Carol Darling, Senior Vice President Engineering and Technical Systems of Canwest Broadcasting. “The virtual sets have not only improved the look of our most popular news show, Global National News, this approach has also enhanced our local market presence by providing consistent, high-end on-air presentation at our smaller stations.

Technical Team

Applied Electronics:
Paul Stechly, pres.;
Donnie Gallant, virtual set specialist;
Keith Treble, robotics;
Kim Edmonds, install. sys. mgr.;
Paresh Premjee, news sys.

Global TV:
John O’Connor, VP, tech.;
Gerry Belec, proj. leader virtual and graphics creation;
Glen Altwasser, proj. leader for install. oversight;
Geoff Franklin, video content interchange;
Chris Mapes, virtual set tech. advisor

Orad:
Andrew Wojdala, VP, R&D;
Ofir Benovici, VP, bus. dev.;
Arek Sliwinski, sr. R&D programmer;
Mike Paquin, tech. support eng.

Links:
Broadcast Engineering project page

Orad Awards press release

The Instigators, a weekly show that features NESN’s hockey experts debating the hottest and most controversial issues in hockey, is shot in high definition (HD) to take maximum advantage of the set. The set was designed to evoke the feeling of a sub-stadium locker room. It includes a foreground virtual desk and is capable of staging any number of different set ups and camera angles.

FMJ creative director Ronen Lasry worked closely with NESN design director Tony Saia on the set design and managed all the lighting and final implementation work of the HD set in the Brainstorm virtual studio system.

“It was great to work with the creative team at NESN again,” said Lasry. “The high impact visuals and tone of the show is tailor made for a virtual environment.”

“We had a great experience working with FMJ in the past and knew they would be the right people to help us accomplish what we set out to do for The Instigators,” said Saia.

Full Mental Jacket is the world’s leading design company creating virtual sets and real time graphics for news, entertainment, simulation and corporate training applications.

NESN is owned by the Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins and is delivered to over four million homes throughout the six-state New England region and nationally via DirecTV and Dish Network. The definitive home for New England sports programming, NESN is the television home of the Red Sox and Bruins and is the top rated regional sports network in the country. The network and its website, NESN.com, produce award winning content including, NESN SportsDesk a daily sports news program, over 100 NESN University college sporting events annually and distinctive Original NESN Entertainment (ONE) productions.

FMJ combined some signature hard set pieces from Suze Oram's previous sets with new virtual elements and cleaner minimal design.

New desk designed by John Casey, i.e. Design Events Inc.

Orad Hi-Tec Systems Limited (Symbol: OHT), a world-leading provider of real-time broadcasting graphic solutions, and Full Mental Jacket, a world-leading design company creating virtual sets and real-time graphics for news, entertainment, simulation, and corporate training applications, today announced an integrated solution providing captivating virtual set designs based on Orad's powerful virtual studio platforms.

The integrated solution consists of a library of pre-designed sets to be used with Orad's virtual studio solutions, thereby providing broadcasters with state-of-the-art virtual studio sets available for immediate use. Orad and Full Mental Jacket's integrated solution has already been used for headline events such as the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and by such leading broadcasters as Canada's Global Television.

Avi Sharir, CEO and president of Orad Hi-Tech Systems, said, "The integrated solution enables broadcasters to benefit both from Orad's expertise as leading broadcast graphic solution providers and Full Mental Jackets' expert design capabilities."

"Having worked extensively with Orad in the past, we're delighted to continue and strengthen our partnership," said Ronen Lasry, creative director at Los Angeles-based Full Mental Jacket. "We look forward to providing our award-winning creative services on Orad's state-of-the-art virtual studio platform to their varied customers."

# # #

About Full Mental Jacket

Full Mental Jacket is the world's leading design company creating virtual sets and realtime graphics for news, entertainment, simulation, and corporate training applications. Full Mental Jacket owns and licenses a growing library of award-winning 3D real-time virtual sets to small and large broadcast clients around the world. These sets can be highly customized and are ready to be delivered in a range of formats and systems. For more information, visit www.fullmentaljacket.com.

About Orad Hi-Tec Systems

Orad Hi-Tec Systems is a world-leading provider of real-time 3D broadcast graphics solutions including news, channel branding, sports production and enhancement, elections and special events, virtual studios, and virtual advertisement. Orad's compelling solutions streamline production workflow, enhance viewer experience, and improve production value. Founded in 1993, Orad is a public company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (OHT). For more information, visit www.orad.tv.

read more about the show and the project on Broadcasting & Cable. Excerpt below:

At CNBC, Virtual Sets Move from Specials to Flagship Suze Orman Show

Tech Also Used for 'Business Nation' and 'Business of Innovation' By David F. Carr

The use of virtual sets, in which digital graphics are used to paint a set design on the screen, is becoming increasingly common at CNBC.

After being tried out on limited run series such as Business Nation, The Business of Innovation and ‘Collaboration Now,’ in 2009 the technology will be used in the production of The Suze Orman Show, said Gary Kanofsky, who championed the use of the technology at CNBC. “The headline is that the technology has matured enough that we’re using it for one of our most important flagship shows,” he said. When interviewed at the end of December, Kanofsky was preparing to leave his job as Director of Digital Production and Broadcast Technology after a decade of work at CNBC, which he joined as a producer in 1998.

Read full article here

Show times link here

Virtual Sets Finding Their Niche

Maturing Tech Wins Acceptance, Particularly for Feature Programming By David F. Carr

Adoption for local TV news programming is rarer so far, although an ambitious project leveraging virtual sets at Canada’s Global Television could catch the attention of larger station groups. For Global TV, the technology is part of a grand plan to digitize the production of a national newscast, plus 14 local news broadcasts, with control room operations centralized in four regional production centers. By placing anchors on a simplified set with a green screen background, the control rooms are able to mesh live video with unique computer generated backgrounds for each station prior to broadcast. And because it’s digitally generated, the set looks good in high definition at a lower cost than it would take to build a comparable hard set at each location.

Ronen Lasry, owner and creative director at Full Mental Jacket, which designed the virtual sets for Global Television, sees compelling economics for this setup, noting that “the cameras are all on robotics, so the cameras, the production, some of the writing, and the virtual sets are all done remotely at these broadcast centers. So all you have to have at the local station is a green screen and a desk, one engineer, and a host, with a few local stories worked in.”

read full article here

After researching their options, Fox Soccer Channel’s producer decided on a virtual set as the best way to bring their wish list into reality. "FSN is a fast paced, highlights driven sports program that caters to a soccer crazed fan base, the hour is simply jam packed with highlights, scores and news from the international soccer community. The set simply has to keep up with the content and we decided early on that Virtual was the way to go. Full Mental Jacket delivered a VR product that met these demands" said Gerry Belec Director, Technology and Design Global Television

The set utilizes numerous video screens, exciting graphics and space for live commentators to react to on field action as games and highlights are presented. FMJ Creative Director Ronen Lasry designed the space using the network’s colors of gold, silver and brown and arranged components in order to take advantage of Fox’s trademark rapid-fire graphics.

“Fox has pioneered a look that makes informational programming interesting to watch”, said Lasry. “I wanted our work for the Soccer Report to reflect that overall sense of visual urgency.”

The new FMJ set is flexible from a production standpoint, allowing anchor teams to expand beyond their traditional two and three person configurations. The set includes areas for both desk centered and stand up reportage, plus foreground elements that can be moved quickly to create dramatic shots and angles.

About FSR
The Fox Soccer Report brings you the best soccer news and analysis from across the globe seven nights a week. The Report airs Monday through Sunday at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT.
link

About FMJ
Full Mental Jacket is the world’s leading design company creating virtual sets and realtime graphics for news, entertainment, simulation and corporate training applications.
fullmentaljacket.com

More details to follow.

More information and show times can be found here: link.

From Tapestry International site:

In a star-studded ceremony at Lincoln Center, Tapestry International Productions was awarded an Emmy in the Outstanding Children’s Series category for “Greatest Inventions with Bill Nye.”

“Bill Nye is incredible. It is an honor to work with him,” says Executive Producer Nancy Walzog, “the Emmy is icing on the cake.”

The series was shot in Hollywood California and posted in Tapestry’s New Jersey facility. “Using state-of-the art green screen technology, we send Bill Nye to the moon, inside the human body and back in time,” relays Supervising Producer Karen Carlson. “We also showcase kid inventors to see what the future holds.”

“The show is big fun. We see how human ideas became concrete… and other molecules, as well,” adds Nye, sporting his signature lab coat and bow tie.

link to Tapestry International site

From the article:

The institute also uses the virtual set to give programs like its "Live Response" panel discussion show a network look.

Article Link

Update:
Another article on http://governmentvideo.com discusses how NTPI used virtual studio to create a highly polished and professional broadcast production despite studio size limitations.
link

More info to follow soon.

recent local virtual studio launches featuring FMJ virtual sets include: Red Deer, Lethbridge, Victoria and Halifax

article link: Global TV begins next phase to air news from virtual sets

Article Excerpt:

China's two most popular stations, CCTV1 and CCTV2, are relying on an Orad ProSet HD virtual studio system tasked with integrating multiple live and file-based video feeds. Based on Orad's signature HDVG (high-definition video graphics) platform, ProSet affords unmatched power and robustness to ensure that even the most complex sets run reliably. CCTV has also deployed Orad's 3DPlay, interfaced to the official Beijing Olympic Broadcast (BOB) database, in conjunction with the company's 3-D controller and integrated with CCTV's Sobey news system.

Article Link