Augmented graphics (AR) for TV and newspapers

Augmented reality (Creative Commons)

I was recently asked to give a presentation to a group of editorial staff in various European business newspapers. They invited me to say something about “Why augmented graphics makes sense?”. As I am employee of a company developing real-time graphics solution for TV, among other things, it was with reference to the tools developed by my company the response was given. It became clear during the conference that most of the newspapers would like to be able to deal with video as well as a live TV-station, but there are financial and technical limitations that prevent them from being so. There is however not that many differences on why AR makes sense whether you are a TV-station or a newspaper. In the end, it is about presentation and storytelling using graphics and video.

The reasons we gave why augmented does indeed matter are summarized below. I have purposely avoided to sort them out of importance as this varies greatly from setting to setting.

1. Augmented graphics is a very good visual way to explain a complex task
   There are many cases, such as finance graphics or a bypass operation, where graphics is an ideal companion to easily explain the viewer how a particular thing works. It does not have to be augmented to be able to explain such situations, but it connects the presenter with the graphics closer than a full-screen or an overlay graphics do, which does have an explanatory effect.
2. Easy to use technology these days
   Producing AR graphics used to be very complex, demanding a lot of highly expensive gear, weeks or months worth of services to set this up, and then a high degree of fragility to make it work on screen as intended. These days, it is still relatively expensive for a high level production, but it is much simpler to set up and achieve the intended results. The simplicity is going to be further improved going forward and traditionally the cost for software and hardware to achieve this will also decline.
3. Great flexibility
   One of the key challenges for anyone working in TV is to define exactly how things are going to develop from project start to project end. Using VR or AR gives you a degree of flexibility which allows for rapid changes, sometimes all the way until on-air time.
4. Easy multi-use of facilities
   Studio space is quite expensive and both VR and AR gives the user a potential to present several different shows from the same space and hence save cost in building fixed space studio elements. VR done right can also be a very useful presentation tool.
5. Augmented gives a natural interaction with the audience
   As the real life scenario and presenter is kept as an important part of the presentation, the interaction from a presenter to the audience is kept alive when comparing AR to VR. With AR, you often can be less rehearsed in the studio as the reference world is still there, unlike a green screen environment in the VR world. Less rehearsal adds number of possible presenters and reduces cost to use it.
6. Google and Facebook have released technology frameworks which makes it easier for developers to create new business applications
   The biggest enemies for the broadcasters are probably Facebook and Google as they take their advertising revenues, but in this case, the large technology companies assist them in their choice of technology. The introduction of ARKit from Apple in the latest iPhones makes AR a consumer commodity tools and the development of apps for AR will explode. The media companies need to be part of the cycle and will be forced to introduce AR concepts for the big screen as well as online.
7. Virtual reality (VR) is a bit out of fashion these days and augmented provides the best of both worlds
   VR brings the actual world into a virtual world, whereas AR is inserting virtual reality into the real world. “Keeping it real” is a relevant aspect to the media houses. Many editors will largely prefer to have a virtual insertion into a world that looks and behaves real, compared to a full virtual environment. There are however large differences culturally and regionally on the use of VR. AR is newer which is likely why the use and approach to it seems generally more in consensus across the board.
8. Fewer broadcasters use full screen graphics anymore
   These things happen in trend cycles, but the 2017–2018 trend is to avoid full screen graphics if one is able to. They will still exist for certain content, but the trend today mainly results in a partial overlay of graphics on top of a video, making for more interesting visual compositions of real and graphics.
9. Huge amount of spending goes into augmented reality, making it accessible also outside the core media market
   An expected 83$ billion market value by 2021. Making use of augmented in areas such as travel, fashion, shopping, art displays underscore how AR is quickly changing the ways to engage with the customers*. This is a hugely under-explored area that will have marketing and sales people go crazy over the next years. Augmented reality gives new marketing arenas for everybody, including the newspapers.
10. It is always impressive!
    There is no point in hiding this: A nice AR production is always impressive and attracts audience simply based on how it looks (even if the content may be poor).

References:
* https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/mobile-disruptor-of-the-year-augmented-reality/510150