SYNOPSIS

The LCP Television channel of the French Parliament called on The Seed for the conception, development and production of the real time graphics animation of the results of the last French legislative elections. The dynamic 3D map of France was broadcast live from the set at the Parliament with election results from the 577 districts integrated directly via the AFP news wire. After midnight the graphic representation of the results continued in automatic mode.
The production of the graphics entailed the following steps:
- Feasibility consulting of the design within the budgetary restrictions
- Definition of the technology and production work plan
- Conception and realization of the graphics broadcast live by the channel
- Interfacing the AAASeed software with the specific set-up to allow real time management of the data flow from the news wire
- Installation of the graphics hardware and software in the LCP broadcast control unit
- Live graphics animation from the set with presenters and guest commentators from 8:00 pm to midnight. Supervision of the automatic animation from midnight to 7:30 pm.


The method
The journalist in charge of the results on the set has access to a program that displays the results as they arrive over the news wire on an interactive 3D map of France. By navigating on the map with standard interfaces (mouse, keyboard, menus) the journalist builds a broadcast list of the results. This list allows the journalist to control the order of the districts and the manner in which the dynamic map sweeps over the map during live broadcast.

Constraints:
Adapting the technology to the charter of a journalistic TV station: simplicity, clarity, legibility, continuity and balance with web based content.

Sequence of events:

Each sequence begins with a map of France.

- A zoom on a region follows with the appearance of the borders and the name in the middle.

- This is followed by a zoom on the department with the appearance of the borders. The name of the region moves to the upper left hand side.

- Follows the district with the department name replacing the region name in the upper left hand side. The number of the district joins this heading to form the full name of the district.

- The results from the district then appear from the center of the district as two or three banners.

- On the cue from the broadcast control or at a given time lapse in auto mode the results disappear. Two events can then take place: if the next district is in the same department we move directly to the district and its results. Otherwise the program zooms out fom department and pans over to the next dpartment to zoom in on the district. A zoom out to the entire map of France is possible at all times and can be cued directly from the set. For the broadcast of the second round of the elections a graphic visualization of the different party results can be cued at all times from the set.

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CARD-index TECHNIQUE

The team of the project:

The team
Emmanuel Mâa Berriet-> Project and technology manager
Christian Cesbron-> Production director
William Petiot -> XML news wire integration and network management
Francis Aïati-> District outline and animation
Jean-Philippe Lançon-> Technical director and set manager for LCP


Material Used:

4PC's + 1 spare + 1 server