TWO HD CHROMA KEYERS FOR PVI VIRTUAL MEDIA SERVICES (December 2006)

PVI Virtual Media Services (PVI) is a full service media company, providing high impact advertising for sponsors - such as virtual product placements. Another area of PVI's expertise is in-game enhancements at sporting events - and this is where we come in.

PVI Virtual Media Services has recently ordered two of Crystal Vision's Safire HD, our HD/SDI chroma keyer, which is ideal for any live chroma keying application with special features for sports programming. In fact, Safire HD is so advanced that it is now becoming the High Definition choice of US Sports Technology providers.

In PVI's case, the Safire HDs will used for a number of different tasks. These include: displaying virtual player line-ups before the game, placing brand logos on the pitch for advertising purposes and showing the goal kick distance arrows on a soccer pitch – all vital components to a professional sports programme broadcast.

PVI, having visited us at the IBC Show in Amsterdam earlier on in the year, also purchased two of the Safire Controller panels, from which the chroma keyers will be controlled.

An American compnay founded in 1990, PVI Virtual Media Services was the first company to use virtual insertion technology in broadcast television, at a local baseball games in June 1995. Their first international broadcast was a soccer tournament held later that year, and ABC was the first national network to use their services, at the 1997 Sugar Bowl. Since then, all major networks have used PVI technology.