Viz Curious Maps 9.1, geographic animation software, released

Vizrt announces that Viz Curious Maps 9.1 — the latest version of its branded mapping and geographic animation software for broadcast—will be introduced during the company’s invitation-only “Amsterdam Sessions,” from September 10th-15th in the Hotel Okura in Amsterdam. Version 9.1 represents a major upgrade to Curious Maps, which is considered the defacto standard for creating and animating electronic maps.

“At a time when breaking news can erupt in any corner of the world, it’s imperative for broadcast journalists to have sophisticated, intuitive map building software capable of integrating high-resolution global satellite imagery,” said Ran Yakir, Head of R&D Israel, Vizrt. “Curious Maps 9.1 is unrivaled in its ability to build, label, and animate all types of colorful, appealing maps so that broadcasters can effectively illustrate and convey the geographical locations and terrain impacting today’s news events.”

Viz Curious Maps 9.1 adds several essential features that make it easier to incorporate high-resolution global satellite imagery from several well-respected providers directly into the map building environment.

With Viz Curious Maps 9.1, users may now access digital satellite imagery from online services offered by Vizrt partner, DigitalGlobe. As a leading provider of high-res global imagery, Digital Globe offers an online library of tiled imagery that can now be accessed and downloaded from DigitalGlobe servers directly into Curious Maps 9.1.

This release also adds the ability to incorporate highly detailed 15 meters per pixel (m/pixel) resolution global and regional datasets—such as Western Europe—from PlanetObserver. Until now, Curious Maps customers have only been able to use PlanetObserver datasets at 150m/pixel resolution.

“Since the native 15m/pixel and 150m/pixel resolution datasets share the same natural color quality, it’s now possible to effect a dramatic, virtually seamless zoom from 150m/pixel images into closer, sharper 15m/pixel views of the same area,” said Yakir.

In addition, Viz Curious Maps 9.1 improves the system’s Curious Maps Editor (CME) by adding enhanced search capabilities and other usability updates. It also upgrades the map building process, extends support for 3rd party data and improves vector rendering performance.

By means of the Viz Curious Maps server edition, this solution provides realtime, branded map imagery to several clients embedded within Vizrt’s control applications. Templates created within Viz Curious Maps can be dynamically accessed through the Viz Trio character generator, Viz Content Pilot for template-based graphics, Viz Weather for the production and playout of advanced, realtime weather visualization , and Viz Artist for animation and visual effects creation. With this functionality, users can seamlessly create branded, animated TV maps and add them to graphics templates or insert them directly into 3D scenes.