Chroma key specialist Reflecmedia has announced the installation of its ground-breaking chroma key product, Chromatte, into a number of national and international sites for French broadcaster TF1.
Designed specifically for LC1, TF1’s continuous rolling news channel, Chromatte will be installed in the following locations: Rome, London, Washington, followed by New York and finally Moscow.
The multi-site installations comprise of both bespoke (custom sewn) and off the shelf versions of the Chromatte fabric and dual (blue and green) LiteRings, and are intended for permanent use within the foreign sites to more easily enable the reporting journalist or presenter to be keyed against live video prior to transmission via satellite.
The sort of benefits Chromatte can bring are amply illustrated by a recent regional installation at ITV Central studios in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, UK, where studio size meant that back projection wasn’t possible. As the Chromatte material has the unique feature that creases in the fabric do not effect the key, a custom-made drape was designed to be simply pulled into place when necessary and also cover the floor – thus giving the production team the capability of using full body shots. In addition, a panel of Chromatte has been set within a frame into which a corporate background or image can be keyed, depending upon the required shot. The studio set-up boasts both green and blue LiteRings to be used on ENG type cameras, which also carry Autoscript prompters.
Andrew Trythall, Senior News Director, ITV Central News, commented: “We needed a large image display solution for our studio where restrictive space meant back projection was not an option. With two LiteRing units providing the screen illumination we can achieve very convincing results from two camera positions.”
