The first televised General Election results were in 1950. Since then, television coverage of the General Election has increased, evolved and – certainly in the last few years – become a contest between the broadcasters!
The broadcast industry thrives on big national events like the General Election. Every SNG crew and sat truck disperses across the UK to help bring live pictures (and sound) of the results to people’s homes, whilst the shelves in every broadcast hire company are left bare!
General Election 1950 BBC coverage
This year’s Election television coverage was impressive to say the least. Jeremy Vine skipping merrily around a massive green screen set resulted in some astonishing virtual reality graphics for the BBC’s Election results coverage. Powered by Vizrt, the virtual reality production was a masterpiece of creativity and technology – using a camera tracking system and a multi-camera set-up comprising of 16 cameras. Interestingly though, in terms of the viewer vote, Sky News won the Election over BBC News.
General Election 2015 BBC coverage
Connectivity also played a huge part in this year’s Election coverage. The BBC had 120 outside broadcast feeds while over at Sky News they had 150 incoming feeds displayed on a scrolling video wall. The changing face of broadcast connectivity and transmission over the last few years has ushered in a new era of cellular broadcasting. Quicklink and LiveU both played their part in this year’s Election coverage, making all those outside broadcast feeds possible.
General Election 2015 Sky News broadcast coverage
So we’ve gone from some rather shaky cardboard graphics in 1950 to an immersive virtual and augmented reality in 2015. Any ideas what the next UK General Election will bring?
General Election 1950 BBC coverage
General Election 1955 BBC coverage
General Election 1959 BBC coverage
