The Briefing Room

Bergen, Norway, January 15, 2008 – NFL Network kicked off a second season with Vizrt’s powerful graphics rendering engine at the core of its insert graphics solution. NFL Network has eight Viz|Engines installed at their studio in Culver City, CA where several programs, including the network’s flagship show “NFL Total Access,” are produced. NFL Network also covers the NFL Draft and produces a variety of shows that highlight NFL action on the gridiron and off.

Two Viz|Engine renderers and one Viz|Trio CG were deployed for production of “Thursday Night Football” and “Saturday Night Football” during which eight NFL regular season games were shown on NFL Network beginning on Thanksgiving and running through the historic December 29th match up between the Patriots and Giants.

“When NFL Network chose Vizrt, they went with the same platform used by other major networks for their NFL packages,” said Jeff Heimbold, Senior Producer at Reality Check Studios, a Los Angeles-based motion graphics company who collaborate with NFL Network on creation of their Vizrt graphics. “We’ve created graphics packages for football, baseball, basketball, soccer and many other sports and in our experience, Vizrt is the gold standard for live broadcast graphics,”

For the 2007 season, NFL Network Creative Director Carlos Aguero designed the look for the NFL games graphics and worked with Reality Check Studios to create the graphics and animations in Viz|Artist. “Thursday Night Football” and “Saturday Night Football” programs are graphics-intensive, including lower-third graphics, player statistics, clock and score, passing and rushing yardage and full-screen stats. “Successful sports production means treating graphics and the associated data as critical parts of the program,” said Heimbold. “NFL Network knows that their fans are keenly interested in knowing the latest player statistic or information on a specific play. It’s much more than window dressing. It’s a way to bring NFL fans closer to the sidelines.”

Heimbold described the flexibility of Viz|Engine as a key factor in its selection. Thanks to Viz|Engine’s open control interface, Reality Check Studios was able to develop a customized front-end program that runs the game clock and scoreboard. A sports service feeds data into the program thereby ensuring that at any point throughout the game, a graphic is displaying the game time as it elapses as well as the current score. ““It‘s essential that we’re able to write our own graphics control software to compliment Viz|Trio and meet the specific needs of NFL Network. Viz|Engine gives us the easiest and most accommodating platform to accomplish that.”

About Reality Check:

Reality Check Studios is a motion graphics company known for its diverse skill set and ability to leverage technology to develop innovative graphics, VFX and animations. With a unique blend of technical and design talent, our Emmy award-winning artists create compelling solutions to meet clients’ graphic needs for both broadcast and film. As pioneers in 3D animation with over ten years of experience, Reality Check Studios has earned a proven reputation as the industry leader in producing motion graphics. Contact Reality Check Studios at (323) 465-3900, info@realityx.com or on the web at www.realityx.com.

About Vizrt:

Vizrt offers a new vision for content creation and delivery with an end-to-end solution from ingest to visualization. Our solution combines Vizrt’s true 2D/3D graphics tools with Curious Software’s World Maps and Ardendo’s asset management. Running on non-proprietary hardware, the combination of these unique cutting-edge products ensures a seamless workflow from conception to multi-format distribution. The latest addition to the Vizrt product suite is Viz|MPS for handheld devices.

Vizrt’s product suite is used by the world’s leading broadcasters including: CNN, CBS, Fox, BBC, Sky, ITN, ZDF, Star TV, TV Today, CCTV and NHK. Also, many world class production houses and corporate institutions, including both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, utilize Vizrt solutions.

Vizrt is a public company traded on the Frankfurt Prime Standard and on the Oslo Main List: VIZ, ISIN: IL0010838154. For further information, please refer to www.vizrt.com.