Live From NAB: Chyron Looks to ‘Engage’ Viewers with Second Screen Offerings

Chyron kicked off the Sunday morning press conferences at NAB by diving head first into the second-screen and social TV pond that promises to be so popular at this year’s show. The company highlighted its new Engage second screen/social TV platform (co-developed with ConnecTV) and announced the launch of Shout, a stand-alone software application that enables broadcasters to bring Twitter feeds live to air.

And with live sports generating as much second screen and social buzz as any programming on the tube today, it is no coincidence that Chyron see the sports production market as a chief landing spot for both Engage and Shout.

“We think that sports [customers] are going to be a huge taker of this product,” said Chyron President and CEO Michael Wellesley-Wesley. “We already have a very good footprint in sports where they use a lot of our traditional systems. The ability for fans to easily connect via SMS messaging or Tweets is already in place for those sports customers. We have just smoothed that workflow [with Engage and Shout]. You do not need to hire additional people to do it because it fits right into the regular sports graphics workflow.”

Taking BlueNet to the Second Screen
Engage allows broadcasters to integrate second screen, social media, and social TV data into live TV broadcasts through existing Chryon’s graphics systems and BlueNet workflow. Producers can automatically create elements like call-to-action graphics, info-graphics, and tickers using social and poll data.

“If you build that technology into the BlueNet workflow, then producers can take advantage of social TV and second screen technology all within their normal routine workflow,” says Chyron VP and CMO Bonnie Barclay. “That is key.”

Engage integrates ConnecTV’s second screen app with Chyron’s broadcast graphics platform, allowing networks to automatically create on-air survey, prompt an instant vote, and chat on ConnecTV. The poll results quickly loop back on air for display on TV, as well as on ConnecTV, simultaneously. The TV graphics drives users to ConnecTV, where they can interact with the TV poll, the results of which will then automatically appear on both screens with info-graphics.

ConnecTV’s social platform lets users instantly sync on their iPad, Mac, or PC (Android devices and smart phones coming soon) with whatever show they are watching on television.

In addition to ConnecTV, Chyron’s Engage partners include never.no (providing synchronized companion apps and participation TV technology), Vibes (text, Twitter and Web voting technology), and Mass Relevance (curation platform licensed to resyndicate Twitter content and data).

Throw Your Tweets Up and ‘Shout
On the Twitter front, Chyron’s new Shout software application gives one or more users the ability to monitor, select, adjust, and route social media conversations to broadcast graphics systems either for on-air playback or for storage as data files.

Different staff members can view content and moderate the same playback list simultaneously, allowing users to add, remove, and authenticate multiple social media accounts, each of which has its own playback controller, playback-style settings, and filters, as well as an automated find-and-replace feature that defines words and phrases that will be automatically replaced with new text. Operators also have the ability to create multiple application-wide moderator messages that act as customized posts.

Shotbox, MediaMaker, Odds and Ends
Chyron also pushed two new products it released in March: Shotbox and MediaMaker.

The Shotbox app allows iPad users to control scenes within the Chyron’s Lyric graphics creation and playout software. Shotbox for Lyric displays icons associated with specific Lyric messages, and during a live event, the iPad user can simply click on the appropriate icon to trigger playout immediately on air.

MediaMaker is the latest in Chyron’s CAMIO newsroom workflow product line. It uses Lyric file-based rendering to create graphics for use in editing applications including Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro. By equipping the editing suite with the Chyron BlueNet™ workflow, including Chyron’s LUCI template fulfillment and Axis World Graphics content creation and order management system, MediaMaker gives video editors and graphic designers access to the same graphics and animations that are being used live on the air.

At its booth (SL1510) will also highlight the latest enhancements to its end-to-end BlueNet workflow, as well as the Channel Box2 branding and promo system, Axis World Graphics, and Lyric PRO grahics creation software.

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