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Automobile Association Animates Traffic
In Europe for RTE
Britain’s premier supplier of traffic information uses World Maps to provide up-to-the-minute animated traffic maps for holidaymakers in Europe
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Every summer, holidaymakers in Ireland who plan to travel by car to continental Europe can tune in to AA Holiday Roadwatch, a televised traffic and travel bulletin that provides the latest information on where to expect jams and hold-ups.
This useful bulletin, broadcast every week for a 10-week period by Ireland's national broadcast station RTÉ, is produced for the Automobile Association by High Wire, one of the country's leading post-production companies.
Dublin-based High Wire creates TV programmes, commercials, music videos and corporate programming for a wide variety of clients including Frontier Films, Louis Marcus Productions, Mint Productions and Rumble Films. The company provides key services such as on and off-line editing, subtitling, graphics and effects.
The facility has been producing AA Holiday Roadwatch for the past five years, but this year - thanks to Curious Software - it was able to introduce real innovation to the bulletins by incorporating animated maps.
Mark Quinn, High Wire's managing director, explains: "AA Holiday Roadwatch takes the format of a TV weather forecast, with maps changing and animating every five or six seconds in line with the presenter's script. The presenter is shot blue-screen at 8am in the morning and from there it's straight to editing to meet a deadline of 4pm delivery to RTÉ. Transmission takes place at 6.30pm."
"For the past five years, we have produced these bulletins using static map templates, which were created in graphics with text overlays inserted during editing. However, this year the AA was looking for a total revamp of the bulletins, so we started by looking at ways in which we could use broadcast-standard animated maps."
RTÉ was already using Curious World Maps, in its news room and when Quinn saw it, he knew he was on the right track. "We discovered that we could stylise our traffic bulletin maps so that they looked and felt like the AA's own road map Atlas. This worked a treat and the AA were delighted."
Rory Gavin, High Wire's graphic director, got to grips with the new software in days. "The AA bulletins now have tailor-made maps for each destination,” says Gavin, “and the amazing thing is that, because the information is up-to-the-minute, we get all of details at 10am and the bulletin is ready for its broadcast slot on RTÉ at 6.30pm that evening."
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