MixTV, a new and exciting British technology depending on NVIDIA® Quadro™ graphics hardware, will be used for the first time by the BBC during its live studio analysis of the incoming results from the General Election on May 5. With MixTV, the interaction between the presenters and computer-generated graphics far exceeds anything that has been done before. So, for example, 3-dimensional charts of breaking results could be put onto the discussion table and passed around during the live studio discussions.

The visual effect of this 3D technology will be similar to that of Princess Leia’s SOS message in Star Wars, or perhaps more accurately the virtual Faberge Egg in the recent film Oceans Twelve.

MixTV processes the video signal from the studio cameras and provides target-tracking data to a separate system, tOG-3D, also from RT Software. This system creates the actual 3-dimensional computer-generated graphics that are then overlaid onto the camera footage in the correct position. As the graphics will be showing results that are just in, the challenge is to produce high quality graphics in real time. This is achieved by the combination of powerful graphics processing hardware from NVIDIA® and well-written software from RT Software.

Such is the sophistication of the tOG-3D system that it takes additional camera feeds to add reflection effects to the scene, providing a quality of graphics that is unrivalled in the industry.

The real-time graphics rendering technology behind MixTV is powered by NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000 and Quadro FX 4000 hardware, delivering the fastest performance and the highest quality graphics for professional 3D applications. NVIDIA Quadro technology enables RT Software to deliver the high resolution visuals required for this kind of real-time TV application, and more importantly, delivers this in a solid and stable environment which is critical to live TV broadcasts.

To find out more about MixTV:

- Call Mike Fredriksen today and get a technical paper on tOG-3D and MixTV .

- Make sure you are watching the BBC’s coverage of the General Election on 5th May.

- Drop an email to mike@rtsw.co.uk and receive a press release on the 5th May that will include screenshots of this impressive technology in action.

- Come and see MixTV and tOG-3D in Battersea when the new VR studio is opened in July