Web vs. Promi goes on air with Ventuz

German children’s entertainment program brings viewers into the studio.

Viewer participation, interactive television, enhanced TV – these are the buzzwords of the broadcast industry in the 21st century. Producers are increasingly searching for ways to elevate the audience from a position of passive consumption to active partaking.

German agency Rayd has now created an endearing and exciting format which brings viewers live onto the TV screen. After nine months of development, the project is finally on air. It is called Web vs. Promi. Ventuz is proud to be a part of it.


 


The idea of the show, which was created for the German children’s entertainment channel KIKA, is that a group of kids at home can use their webcams to compete against a celebrity in the studio in a number of computer games. Instead of using their keyboards, mouse or old fashioned joysticks, both the kids and the celebrity play the games by using motion tracking cameras.

To allow for a delay free communication between candidates and studio, Rayd established a complex system of audio, video, chat and game servers, which proved to be absolutely stable during all 15 shows.

Ventuz was used for all on-air graphics and the final composition of webcam streams and game graphics.