I had the absolute pleasure to work on BBC Election 2024, and more specifically on most of the real-time 3D graphics alongside some exceptionally talented colleagues (Steve Mantz, Tony Sinclair, Ammar Zuhair) , including both augmented reality set extensions and the exit poll reveal for Studio B in London’s Broadcasting House, but also Jeremy V.’s famous swingometer and other XR graphics in Cardiff’s Central Square building.
The Cardiff project was unique as it featured a blend of traditional chroma key, XR virtual production using an LED volume, and a frame-multiplexing LED capable of sending different images to different cameras, but also allowing for Jeremy Vine to have his own “presenter” view, which allowed him to see the various graphics he was presenting, but also let us hide some useful guides and hints which were not visible to the audience.
We also tried to create a seamless blend of the virtual elements and the real building, to show off the scale of Cardiff’s Central Square office.
Another first was we blended HTML graphics with 3D Virtual Graphics (bet you didn’t know that the “battleboard” was a giant web page fed over NDI…), with thanks to the HTML team Max Blaber, Héctor Manteca, Seán Óg Cafferkey and David Hughes.
Also huge thanks to Nick Davey and Sue Vágó for giving us the chance to do this, Oli Powell, Andrew Harris and Alex Kessling for their spot on design guidance, Billy Hooke, Alastair Campbell and Chris Cook for their stellar direction, Sam Woodhouse and Benedict Watt for their wealth of editorial knowledge, Harrison Castle and Aidan Flanagan who without them we would not have been able to do this (literally), and Charlie Kitcher for managing the whole thing. Lastly a big thank you to everyone who worked on this, from the BBC team, the nations designers who all contributed back to the national programme, and to all the external suppliers and contractors, it’s been a pleasure!
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