SBS World News launches live-to-air AR feature  

On February 5, SBS World News went live with a new augmented reality (AR) feature – a long-planned studio addition that enhances the viewer’s experience and allows our journalists and presenters to add additional rich visual elements to our trusted journalism and storytelling.  

 As Australia’s only world news service, providing the latest reports and analysis of major national and international news of the day from our Sydney studio, SBS World News is our flagship program. 

Here, Adam Mcilrick, Managing Editor of SBS World News discusses the how and why behind SBS’s decision to incorporate the technology into the long-running nightly news bulletin. 

What was the catalyst for this?  

“Fundamentally, our audience. This is about improving the viewers’ experience through industry-leading technical innovation. With more viewers than ever before consuming our products on personal devices, we’re always looking for ways to make our journalism more ‘visual’ and easier to digest – attempting to help explain complex issues, themes and, in this case, numbers in a visually-exciting way.” 

How did it come together?  

“The realisation of live-to-air augmented reality (AR) graphics in Studio 1 involved the integration of software, hardware, and content production to combine the physical set with virtual graphics. The project started three years ago with the installation of a camera tracking system, closely followed by the integration of a specialised graphics system called ‘Vizrt’ into our long-running automated news production system (Overdrive). The combination of these systems when accurately calibrated brings the AR graphics to life.” 

Why did you opt for the Augmented Reality approach and what specifically does this allow presenters to do?  

“In essence, it’s all about versatility. AR provides SBS with the opportunity to make the studio somewhat of a ‘chameleon’, representing a cost-effective option, allowing us to maximise the space whilst enabling the output of multiple programs from this studio all with their own individual branding, delivered virtually by AR without having to constantly change physical aspects of the set. This SBS World News studio is already customisable, to a point, as it’s also being used by other teams at SBS including SBS News in Arabic and Mandarin. The new AR graphics help our presenters ‘story-tell’ by providing dynamic visual assets to explain and inform our audiences, allowing our talented presenters to interact and refer to the on-screen information and bring data to life.” 

How does it improve the audience experience and aid SBS’s journalism? 

“This technology opens up different ways of storytelling and the changes rolled out on Monday night, are just the beginning. SBS’s talented in-house graphic and studio teams are already looking at other ways to deploy AR in news programs and videos to help make our journalism easier to digest and more visually appealing. AR allows us to tell complex stories in a succinct and engaging way, creating dynamic connections between audience, brand and journalism by explaining key information and data through interactive animations that captivate our interest, catch our attention and bring more of an immersive ‘experience’ to our viewers.” 

SBS World News screens nightly at 6.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand.