NBCLX, part of the NBCUniversal family, was founded as an online network in June 2019 and has the millennial audience firmly in its sights.

“Our audience cares about context, not just bullet-point headlines,” noted Tim Carista, APC director at NBCLX. “We want to give them in-depth storytelling and we use our virtual set to help do that.” 

A variety of virtual set packages were created for NBCLX

A variety of virtual set packages were created for NBCLX

The NBCLX studio in Dallas features a traditional physical set but also has a green-screen area that’s powered by Ross Video. “I knew that we wanted to have virtual sets as part of our studio,” commented Meagan Harris, NBCLX news director. “A big part of our brand is authenticity. We wanted the network to have a very normal and authentic voice, and we wanted to do some truly fun stuff with the virtual area.”

In order to achieve that aim, NBCLX worked with Rocket Surgery, Ross Video’s in-house creative and professional services division, to create a variety of virtual set packages that significantly enhance NBCLX’s visual storytelling.

The studio features a range of Ross solutions, including the Acuity production switcher, XPression graphics platform, Furio camera motion system and AcidCam cameras. In terms of the virtual studio element, control is handled by Lucid Studio and the visuals are rendered using Voyager, Ross Video’s photorealistic graphics rendering solution that is based on Unreal Engine from Epic Games.

“We want to do things that absolutely grab people’s attention and look different so that people walk past a screen and say ‘whoa, what’s that?’,” said Carista. “The visuals go along with great storytelling and that’s what really captures our audience’s imagination.”

“Ross Video has embraced Unreal Engine for many years, using the very latest storytelling technology to produce dynamic and impactful visual content that enhances the broadcast experience,” said Bernt Johannessen, broadcast industry manager, Epic Games. “People worldwide are already familiar with the exceptional games created using Unreal Engine and we’re excited to see Ross using the tech to help realise NBCLX’s mission to inspire and inform a next-generation audience.”

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