July 2, 2020
Ross Video Partners with Rec4Box and Lűz Studio for Canada Day Special Broadcast
Ottawa, Canada, July 2nd 2020 – Every Canada Day (July 1st), a TV special is produced and transmitted by Canada’s national broadcasters and seen by millions of viewers around the country. This year, Canadians from coast to coast were invited to take part in an array of virtual celebrations to express their national pride, resilience, and unity during this most challenging of periods.
The annual TV extravaganza always features the best Canadian variety acts, both established and up-and-coming, but yesterday’s show also featured a technology first: the first time that the Canada Day show has used Augmented Reality (AR) as part of its workflow. To make this happen, show designers Lűz Studio and production partners Rec4Box turned to Ross Video and, more specifically, the Voyager graphics rendering solution. Based on the Unreal engine from Epic Games, Voyager enables content creators to produce hyper-realistic animated graphics for virtual studio or augmented reality applications. In terms of yesterday’s show, the producers used Voyager to bring an additional level of creativity to the presentation of the various acts, with animated graphical elements being integrated into the physical sets to make each performance even more visually impressive.
Jonathan Fortin, CTO at Rec4Box, is pleased with the results. “Voyager from Ross is a cutting-edge solution that is being used for the world’s most high-profile awards shows and live productions, and we knew it would be an ideal fit for the Canada Day event. We’re extremely proud to have played our part in bringing this visual feast to TV viewers across the nation on this important holiday.”
Matthieu Larivée, Creative Producer and Partner at Lűz Studio, points to the power of the technology. “With this technology, which is mostly used in sports events, we were able to put on an interactive show and a virtual decor allowing all artists to be brought together, from coast to coast. The augmented reality allows us to convey a whole range of emotions and create a unifying event, dealing with the current context.”
David Ross, CEO of Ross Video, is proud of his company’s contribution. “Ross may have offices around the world, but our headquarters are here in Ottawa and it’s very gratifying to be able to contribute to a program that is seen by so many Canadians. I’m really happy that our solutions helped make this year’s Canada Day program extra-special, and I hope everyone enjoyed the show as much we did!”
The full Canada Day broadcast is available to watch online here.
Ross Video – High Impact, High Efficiency Production Solutions
Ross powers video productions for billions of global viewers daily with the industry’s widest range of high impact, high efficiency production solutions. Ross makes it easy to create compelling news, weather and sports broadcasts, engaging material for sports stadium screens, entertainment shows and rock concerts, educational institutions, legislative assemblies, corporate applications and inspiring content for houses of worship.
Ross solutions have impressed the audiences and marketing partners of NBC Sunday Night Football, Eurosport, BBC World, Google YouTube Space London and China’s eSports powerhouse VSPN. Ross delivers an unrivalled range of products and services comprising virtual studios, real-time motion graphics, cameras, robotic camera systems, production switchers, video servers, infrastructure and routers, social media management, newsroom systems and mobile live events.
Ross Video Media Contact:
Stuart G. Russell
Senior Communications Manager
Tel: +44 7827 019494
Email: srussell@rossvideo.com