3-D graphics on GMA7 create buzz among viewers

A day after the May 10 elections, presidential front runner Sen. Noynoy Aquino was in his hometown in Tarlac but television viewers saw GMA News anchor Mike Enriquez interviewing him as if he were inside GMA Network's Eleksyon 2010 studio in Quezon City.
The projected image, which appeared as a hologram to television viewers, was made possible through digital effects that allow an isolated, full-body image of a person in a remote site to seemingly get beamed into another location, in this case the GMA studio. Initially called a hologram, which spurred a spirited online debate about its definition, the network later started calling the technique a "hologram effect" to avoid any confusion with the cinematic or science-fiction version. Launched during the Eleksyon 2010 coverage on May 10, the technology added a new dimension to GMA’s reportage by allowing viewers to see the news anchors and their interviewees engaged in face-to-face interaction, instead of the usual split-screen images normally employed on television. GMA's Program Manager for News Michelle Seva said the technology is just one of the tools that the network used to deliver extensive coverage of the first automated elections in the Philippines. "It's a new way of presenting news," she said. “As a network, we always try to go a step further and that technology is just one step." On the first day of the marathon election coverage, the hologram effect made its debut when GMA news anchor Mike Enriquez interviewed GMANews.TV Editor-in-Chief Howie Severino about voting-day feedback on the web. Severino's full-body image was seen on the studio floor talking to Enriquez but he was actually in another location in the studio. When asked how it feels to be “beamed," Severino described it as “creepy" and similar to an “optical illusion." After live test runs with Severino and actor Richard Gutierrez to see if it would work properly, the technology was then used for reporters in the field. Lei Alviz reported live from the Pope Pius Center in Manila, Tina Panganiban-Perez from the Comelec operations center at the Philippine International Convention Center, and Jiggy Manicad all the way from Shariff Aguak in Maguindanao. Other interviewees whom television viewers got to see as holograms on GMA News were Governor Vilma Santos-Recto, who was in Batangas, and Congressional candidate and boxing champ Manny Pacquiao, who was in General Santos City. Digital graphics company Vizrt created the visual effects technology that GMA News and Public Affairs is using in its news programs. “It is what you call a real time 3-D graphics effect," explained Nicholas Chan, Systems Specialist of Vizrt. “Basically, we set up a green cloth and we get a person to stand in front of the cloth. The image [is shot] by a camera and is transmitted to GMA and fed into the Vizrt software called the ‘Viz Artist’ to generate the figure that appears on screen," Chan said.
Vizrt first used the technique for Cable News Network (CNN) during the US Presidential Elections in 2008. However, CNN employed a different setup using circular colored tents that had several cameras pointing at the subject in the middle. Chan said this creates a three-dimensional effect, but the complicated setup is not advisable for everyday news coverage. Science museums have long used holograms, which are simply two- or three-dimensional recorded images, of talking people in their exhibits. But there is no technology yet that allows direct communication between a holographic image of a person and a live person as depicted in science fiction films such Star Wars. What is currently available are technologies that approximate or approach that ideal, and Vizrt is one of the tools that are capable of creating a “whole drawing" that make it seem like a person is talking to a hologram. Some people call this technology telepresence, but Chan said it is so new and flexible that no one has really coined a “proper" term for it. “There are so many buzzwords associated with it. It just shows the flexibility of the software," he said. For now, what matters is that it has generated a lot of interest among television viewers and provides news networks a wider audience, said Seva. And in the prolific online chatter about the new technology, some viewers saw it as it is, just icing on the cake of content. "Hologram man o hologram effect o virtual presence, ang mas importante ay kung sino ang nakapaghatid ng (balitang) patas at mabilis, na walang pinoprotektahang kandidato noong eleksyon," said Facebook user Jelmer Villanueva Bergado. with a report from TJ Dimacali/YA/HS, GMANews.TV