Watch Global TV’s Live Election Night with Bannister Lake Chameleon

Chameleon For Elections

Election night is one of the most important events for television broadcasters. You want to be absolutely correct when you call races. Watch how Global TV used Bannister Lake’s Election Module for three Canadian Provincial Elections and the 2020 US Federal Election. In this video, Global TV’s Gerry Belec, Director of News Technology & Operations and Laith Jadua, Global’s Graphic Technologist explain how they used Chameleon Election software for all their graphic displays including Broadcast L-Frame’s, Touchscreen, OTT channels and the Global News web site.

Bannister Lake Drives Global Television’s Coverage of Three Canadian Provincial Elections On-Air and Online

Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that it played an instrumental role in the production of three recent Global News provincial election specials. The company’s Elector software was used by editorial teams in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick to track results, make race calls and manage full frame graphic and ticker playout. Bannister Lake also provided custom software development services creating interactive web widgets. The web widgets were used to visualize results on on-set touchscreens that allowed analysts to navigate through various provincial ridings and pinpoint election results. In addition to results data, the widgets included other contextual datasets including demographics and historical voting outcomes. A second set of widgets were created and fully integrated into the GlobalNews.ca website providing users with access to election results in a fully interactive format that could be accessed by any device.

“We have a longstanding relationship with Bannister Lake and having them add their expertise to our online election coverage not only improved the overall web experience, it created a strong sense of consistency across both our properties”, said Gerry Belec, Director – News Technology and Operations, Global News.

Global took full advantage of Bannister Lake’s HTML5 capabilities and integrated election results data directly into VizRT graphic engines that populated regional L-bars. Bannister Lake’s election data was also incorporated into Global’s News’ social media distribution efforts populating graphics announcing breaking election news.

“Our election solutions are completely agnostic and work well on any graphic engine and as our web widgets demonstrate on any device. For broadcasters using various products to reach their audiences both online and on-air, we offer exciting new ways to tell the election night story.”, said George Hentsch, President, Bannister Lake.

The Global Television Network and its parent company Corus Entertainment use Bannister Lake solutions in a variety of innovative ways. In addition to election coverage, Bannister Lake’s Chameleon data aggregation and management solution powers L-Bar graphics for both the network’s regional morning news shows and for its over the top news channels. Chameleon also powers an extensive digital signage network with localized news, weather, sports and other data-driven content.

Broadcast Graphics Expert Phil Carmichael Joins Bannister Lake

Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that broadcast graphics industry authority Phil Carmichael will be joining the company as Director, Sales and Marketing. Phil brings decades of experience to the role in a number of capacities including product management and as a demonstration specialist. Phil began his career at CBC Calgary as a broadcast technician before focusing on broadcast graphics. As a graphic designer and operator, he specialized in sports production and worked on a wide variety of high-profile events including the Stanley Cup playoffs, Major League Baseball and the Olympic Games. Phil moved on to become a product specialist at Chyron where he worked closely with a variety of customers helping them gain a deeper understanding of both the products and associated workflows.

“We are pleased to have Phil join our team and explore new opportunities. He is well known in the world of broadcast graphics and uniquely brings experience from both an operator perspective and from a pre-sales angle”, said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.

“I have been impressed with Bannister Lake and the Chameleon product for many years and am excited to join their efforts to bring more real-time data capabilities to broadcast graphics. The company’s dedication to product development and custom data solutions is needed in the industry and I look forward to contributing to Bannister Lake’s success”, said Phil Carmichael.

Bannister Lake’s flagship data aggregation and management product Chameleon plays an important role in broadcast, digital signage and over-the-top. As audiences’ demand for real-time data continues to increase, Chameleon provides producers with new opportunities to enhance storytelling with data visualization, improve production workflows and create exciting new business opportunities.

CustomWeather and Bannister Lake Form Partnership to Create New Business Opportunities in Broadcast and Digital Signage

Bannister Lake and CustomWeather  announced today that they have entered into a partnership to develop joint business opportunities and enable users of Bannister Lake’s Chameleon software to incorporate weather data from specialized weather company, CustomWeather, Inc. CustomWeather is an industry-leading weather data provider featuring forecasts for 85,000 global locations in 95 languages, providing high-resolution forecasts from its proven forecasting model, the CW100.

Bannister Lake’s Chameleon product is an innovative real-time data aggregation and management solution used throughout the broadcast and digital signage industry to power and populate graphic templates. The solution drives news tickers, election results, financial data, wagering, and other editorial applications. Chameleon is also used for on-air branding applications, controlling and populating snipes, bugs, promos, and “coming up next” boards. Chameleon’s RESTful API allows data to be reformatted and strategically distributed to broadcast graphic engines, as HTML5, and be integrated into mobile applications.

 “Bannister Lake’s Chameleon software offers a novel way for us to expand our reach in the broadcast and digital signage market,” said Geoff Flint, President and CEO of CustomWeather. “Our superior weather products combined with Bannister Lake’s expertise in managing real-time data and custom development offers tremendous value to their customers.”

“CustomWeather is an ideal partner for Bannister Lake. Weather data is an important data source for our customer base and CustomWeather’s accuracy and assortment of data products provides an attractive offering for both the broadcast and digital signage market”, said Georg Hentsch, President, Bannister Lake.

Both CustomWeather and Bannister Lake will actively pursue opportunities that leverage each others expertise in creating real-time data and custom software solutions. As data specialists with strong development skills in database, APIs, and applications, Bannister Lake designs, builds, and implements solutions that utilize editorially relevant data sources, such as CustomWeather, to engage audiences and attract advertising revenue.

Bannister Lake Completes Chameleon Integration and Custom Development Project at RFD-TV

Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that it has completed a major project for popular agribusiness and rural lifestyle channel RFD-TV. RFD-TV is owned by Rural Media Group, INC. (RMG). RMG properties include The Cowboy Channel and Rural Radio Sirius XM channel 147. The Nashville based cable network provides viewers with extensive daily coverage of commodity markets and other business news of special interest to the farming industry.

RFD-TV required Bannister Lake to oversee a number of upgrades including, the transition to a new data provider, integration of real-time data into updated graphic engines, create and power graphic tickers, and design and build a custom application allowing on-air talent to select, edit and control graphic playout.

Bannister Lake acted as the liaison between data provider Barchart and the channel to ensure that RFD-TV journalists were receiving the financial and editorial content required. The development and project teams at Bannister Lake worked closely with both Barchart data experts and RFD-TV engineering staff to ensure that RFD-TV’s data calls worked flawlessly. The Bannister Lake financial application provided news anchors with visibility into real-time commodity pricing and the ability to quickly create graphical financial charts and tables. Anchors would then use the application to generate graphic playlists and take the lists to air without incumbering the control room.

“Bannister Lake provided RFD-TV with an innovative way to take real-time data from our data provider and give our editorial teams the control they needed to customize that content,” said David Mitchell, Chief Technology Officer, RMG. “In addition to generating and populating tickers, we dramatically sped up our production process by running the entire graphics workflow from the anchor desk.”

The financial application also included a sponsorship management component that allows RFD-TV to schedule and execute sponsors’ logos associated with specific graphic boards. The solution automatically generates logs to reconcile logo exposure with advertising sales. This solution provides a more efficient workflow, while managing new revenue opportunities.

“We are pleased to see RFD-TV embracing Chameleon and our custom financial software solutions. The project represents what we do best, reading and ingesting complex real-time data sources and providing producers and editorial teams with the tools they need to disseminate that content to audiences as efficiently as possible”, said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.

In addition to powering tickers for RFD-TV, Bannister Lake also created tickers for The Cowboy Channel. The 24-hour television network is dedicated to western sports including bull riding, roping, reining, and barrel racing. Chameleon plays an instrumental role visualizing results, standings, and event schedules.

Bannister Lake Provides Election Results Data Services and Graphics for the 2020 Jamaican General Election

Bannister Lake announced today that its election solution was used to cover the 2020 Jamaican General Election. In partnership with Jamaican production company Phase 3 Productions, Bannister Lake supplied Chameleon software, graphic design, and data integration services. Phase 3 made the election graphics feed available to its media partners including the Jamaica Observer newspaper who incorporated the graphics as part of its online coverage of the election.

Phase 3 played an integral role, adding candidate headshots, co-ordinating data with the Electoral Office of Jamaica and acting as the liaison with end-users. Phase 3 is the island’s most popular provider of television production services and has a great deal of election experience.

“We are always trying to raise the production bar when it comes to covering our national elections. Chameleon allowed us to create very sophisticated graphics under a tight deadline and generate a feed we could share with clients. We hope to work with Bannister Lake on future data related events”, said Delano Forbes, CEO, and creative director at Phase 3.

Bannister Lake developed a custom reader for the Jamaican election data feed and was able to test and implement the solution in a few days. The election campaign only lasted 20 days creating tight deadlines for both Bannister Lake and Phase 3.

“The Jamaican election project came together quickly. Our years of experience working on Canadian elections came in especially handy since Jamaica has a similar parliamentary system. Phase 3 was a great partner to work with and was integral to meet the tight time constraints”, said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.

Bannister Lake’s Chameleon data aggregation and management product includes a powerful general-purpose election software solution. The solution is specifically designed to manage any kind of election style: US presidential, congressional, state races, first past the post, majoritarian, proportional, parliamentary, in addition to referendums, propositions, or down ballot races such as DA, school board or city council. This is possible because of a unique design approach Bannister Lake has taken. The election solution is organized by a combination of “contests” and “choices”. A contest would include specific areas or offices up for election while choices would list the parties and candidates participating in the race. It is this simple but unique approach that allows the product to have the flexibility to address any kind of election or polling situation.

US Election Data Expert Drew McCoy of Decision Desk HQ to Host Special Bannister Lake Webinar

Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that election data expert Drew McCoy will host a special webinar aimed at producers, reporters and analysts covering the upcoming US elections. The webinar will take place on Tuesday, August 25 at 2:00pm eastern. Drew is president of election results and data collection and reporting service, Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ). In his role at DDHQ, Drew is responsible for all aspects of DDHQ’s election, business, and editorial operations.

The systemic changes in the organization of US elections forced by COVID-19 will have dramatic implications on the flow and reporting of results data. Drew will be discussing what election production teams can expect regarding the dissemination of official results and how this will impact coverage planning, making calls, timelines, and other potential challenges facing the election system this November.

DDHQ is at the forefront of technical innovations that leverage the changes in how voters have been casting ballots, election officials report results, and how outlets, particularly online platforms, consume and publish election night results.

“We’re pleased to be joining forces with Bannister Lake to inform production teams everywhere about the extraordinary changes in store for election data reporting this November”, said Drew McCoy, president, Decision Desk HQ. “It’s crucial for anyone covering the elections to understand the implications and anticipate how their work will be impacted.”

Bannister Lake’s Chameleon data aggregation and management solution reads election results data from providers such as DDHQ and the Associated Press. Chameleon provides media organizations working on any platform with a powerful tool to track and analyze election races, make calls, and create and manage graphics populated with real-time results data.

“The upcoming US elections will be unprecedented in terms of ballot counting and the distribution of results. From both a software and a data perspective, both Bannister Lake and DDHQ are well prepared to handle the dramatic changes in results reporting and this webinar featuring Drew will help our clients produce the best coverage possible’, said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.

DDHQ began operations with the 2012 U.S. presidential election. In 2014 DDHQ gained national attention by being the first election service to call Dave Brat’s upset win over then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in that year’s GOP primary. Recently DDHQ has experienced rapid expansion providing election results and related data to outlets such as Buzzfeed, Vox, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, Business Insider, and many others.

To register for the webinar please visit: https://bannisterlake.com/webinar-registration/

Broadcast Graphics Expert Phil Carmichael to Host Bannister Lake Real-Time Data Webinar

Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that industry expert Phil Carmichael will host a 30-minute product education webinar that will specifically look at various methods to integrate real-time data into graphics engines. The webinar will explore how Bannister Lake’s Chameleon plays an important role to streamline real-time data workflows and open new visualization possibilities for broadcast graphics professionals. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, July 22 at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific.

Phil Carmichael is a recognized industry authority on the broadcast graphics production and workflow process. He is a former graphic designer and operator for the CBC who was actively involved in sports production. He is also a former pre-sales specialist for ChyronHego.

Broadcasters turn to Chameleon to provide a complete, stand alone, real-time data solution that covers all their requirements including news, sports, financial, elections, traffic and more. The same solution provides a comprehensive on-air branding solution which includes bugs, snipes, promos and coming up boards. As the industry struggles with identifying new revenue opportunities, Chameleon provides new distribution outlets for real-time data including OTT, digital signage, information channels, special events and online. With elections only a few months away, Chameleon provides an easy to use election system alternative to integrate results directly into graphics engines, HTML5 or NDI.

“Real-time data has always kept audiences engaged but aggregating and managing that data and integrating it into graphics engines has often been challenging. Chameleon streamlines that entire process and provides a new approach to data-driven graphics”, said Phil Carmichael.

The webinar will explore the various content types Chameleon works with and how they integrate into today’s most popular graphics engines. As a platform agnostic solution, Chameleon can be used by any broadcaster or by producers working online. Carmichael will demonstrate how Chameleon powers real-time tickers, and full frame graphics incorporating up-to-the-second news and information content.

Real-time data provides producers, engineers, and management working in broadcast, and streaming media with unprecedented ways to tell stories, leverage automation, and expand their reach. Please join Phil Carmichael and Bannister Lake to learn more about these exciting opportunities. To register for the webinar please visit https://bannisterlake.com/webinar-registration/

Bannister Lake Announces Partnership with Traffic Camera Data and Service Provider Vizzion

Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today it has entered into a partnership with Vancouver-based traffic camera data aggregator, Vizzion.  Vizzion is an industry-leading traffic camera data service featuring over 64,000 traffic cameras in 43 countries. Working with over 200 national and regional camera partners in more than 600 markets, Vizzion provides visual verification of traffic flow, traffic incidents, and weather-related road conditions. Through an exclusive partnership with one of North America’s largest internet-connected dashcam companies, Vizzion also supplies imagery from on-vehicle cameras across North America.

Bannister Lake has developed and implemented a data parser for Vizzion data that incorporates traffic camera feeds and mapping into its industry-leading Chameleon data aggregation and management solution. Using Chameleon, clients will be able to strategically isolate specific Vizzion camera feeds and add them to their on-air displays. Clients can also leverage Chameleon’s BLADE RESTful API to strategically distribute traffic cameras to a variety of endpoints including online, mobile, OTT, and web widgets.

Vizzion’s traffic camera content compliments Bannister Lake’s already existing real-time transit data feeds, creating a valuable transportation information solution for viewers. Chameleon clients can create and distribute a wide range of regional, local, and hyper-local information services by combining transportation information with editorial content such as local news, school closings and events calendars.

“Real-time traffic is an important content source and having access to Vizzion’s vast database of camera sources promotes a valuable editorial and business opportunity for Chameleon clients. We look forward to working with Vizzion as they continue to develop their products and services”, said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.

“Bannister Lake’s Chameleon solution provides an innovative way to extend Vizzion’s reach to different platforms. The addition of our traffic camera database to Bannister Lake’s data sources will provide Chameleon users working in both broadcast and digital signage with a great way to connect with audiences and advertisers”, said Sean Beaudoin, Account Manager, Vizzion.

Bannister Lake is committed to creating software solutions that fully leverage real-time data. By fully utilizing its expertise in development, databases, APIs and applications, Bannister Lake creates solutions that engage audiences, attract advertising revenue and leverage automation.