The decision to standardise ITV's map graphics using Curious World Maps was taken after two English ITV regions - Meridian and Anglia - independently invested in the software and were able to vouch for its versatility, speed and ease of use.

Neville Booth, creative director of ITV News, says: "Maps are a vital part of our regional news programming as they help place stories in context and allow viewers see exactly where an event is happening. In the past creating map graphics was a laborious and painstaking process that gave us such poor results it was barely worth the effort. But with Curious World Maps we have found a system that works extremely well. Using this software we can quickly and easily produce and reproduce maps that are both accurate and rich in content, thus freeing up time for our graphic designers to work on more complex projects."

The software, which will be rolled out throughout the ITV News regions during September, was first acquired by Meridian in 2001. Booth, who was working at Meridian at the time, describes its impact as 'a revelation'.

"At that stage, all of the English and Welsh ITV regions were independent, " he says, "but when ITV became one unit in early 2004, we began a process of standardisation to ensure that each region had the same level of expertise, equipment and software. As Curious World Maps was already working so well in two of the regions, it made perfect sense to bulk buy the software for the entire country."

Booth adds that each region has been supplied with street data for the entire UK, not just its own area. "This is very important for news coverage that encompasses more than one region - and it also means we can shift work around between regions if one graphics department is having a particularly busy day."

Launched in 2000, Curious Software's Curious World Maps has rapidly gained a reputation amongst broadcasters for its versatility and ease of use. The speed at which maps can be created and updated makes it ideal for news and traffic reporting, as well as weather. It also plays a vital role in the post-production of documentaries, sports and travel programmes where maps are needed to set the scene or identify an area of particular interest.

The software, which last year won a Queen's Award for Innovation, gives users total creative control, enabling them to quickly and easily create broadcast quality still and animated maps of anywhere in the world. It includes built-in vector databases of the whole world comprising detailed outline data for countries, regions, states and counties. It also includes over a million place names covering towns, mountains and other physical features such as rivers, lakes and roads. Imported local data or satellite images can also be incorporated, making it simple to create in minutes an animation than zooms in from a spinning globe right down to a single building. Many top broadcasters are now using CWM on a daily basis, including the BBC, Sky, NBC, ABC and CNN.

At ITV, Curious World Maps will primarily be used to illustrate news stories, although Booth also sees a use for it in other regional programming.

"We are now training all our designers so that everyone can use the software," he says. "It's going to make life so much easier for them because they will now be able to create high quality, high impact graphics in minutes rather than hours."

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