LED walls, virtual floors and AR politicians to engage audiences like never before as part of broadcaster’s comprehensive election night coverage.
The hub of Sky’s Election Night is Sky Studios’ Studio 4 commonly used for Monday Night Football (MNF), Formula 1, NFL and boxing. Described by Ben Fisher, Head of Sky News Studio Output as “a 360-degree immersive space making a brilliant canvas for storytelling and data,” he explains that “as soon as we saw it on air we thought, hang on a minute, this is built for an election.”
Zonal marking
Sky News has split the studio into four zones. The large curved LED which acts as the backdrop for MNF will be the main presentation space for anchors Kay Burley, Beth Rigby, and Trevor Phillips, with Andy Burnham and Ruth Davidson as pundits. This will feature a screen dubbed the ‘window to the world’, featuring a mosaic of live feeds from 102 constituency counts.
The central zone is referred to as the ‘disco floor’, filled with a giant virtual map of the UK populated by results through the night. Ed Conway, Sky News’ Economics and Data Editor, will head this analysis zone and be able to call up AR characters such as MPs Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt.
“One of our big reveals on the night is we’ve made a life-size AR model of Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer,” Fisher says. “You know when you see AR footballers appear to walk out and make a gesture? Well, we got [the party leaders] to do that while they were in Grimsby for our leader’s debate on June 12.
“We’ve made a full-size 360 model of them. Their eyes will follow you around the room, the camera can get up close and personal. They’ll pop up variously through the night...
You are not signed in
Only registered users can read the rest of this article.
Camerimage: “The time to be afraid of AI was two years ago”
The festival of cinematography remains political with the rise of AI and gender equality bubbling beneath the surface.
.jpg)
Content Everywhere: Disruptive forces in 2025, from AI to ROI and SGAI
Looking back over 2025 to date, it’s clear that AI continues to widen its role in the Content Everywhere ecosystem, and many companies are becoming more discerning about how and where the technology should be applied to streaming and video technology. Clearly, there is still much more to come, and much more to learn, but what have recent developments taught the industry to date?
Scalable broadcast tech provides backbone for Esports World Cup Festival
Tasked with producing the festival side of the 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Vanguard engineered a multi-venue broadcast workflow built on Blackmagic Design infrastructure to handle weeks of continuous live programming.
Touch the future: Immersive video will soon make its presence felt
As XR devices become more accessible and 6G wireless systems emerge, we’ll move from simply watching video to stepping inside it.
Securing the media supply chain: Protecting trust from lens to cloud
Today’s rapidly evolving media production technologies have enabled a new wave of creative workflows. With them comes a tsunami of corresponding infrastructure vulnerabilities.
