Yle's Swedish language radio station X3M held its annual Red Nose Day (Nenäpäivä) charity broadcast again in November 2022. The broadcast lasted for 66 hours and 6 minutes and it set a new record for the longest radio broadcast in Finland.
This year the channel wanted to focus more on the live video stream of the event, so the stream ran for the entire duration of the radio broadcast. The graphics for the video stream were created with SPX Graphics. All the graphic templates used in the project and their data integration were implemented by Yle's own staff. Yle uses static graphics for its other visual radio broadcasts, which are played out with vMix.
Watch the video compilation (duration 50 min).
"With SPX Graphics, we created a function that automatically retrieves the amount donated via an API endpoint, so the amount grows on the screen in real-time. We were also able to pull the song titles into the broadcast when music was playing. SPX makes this very easy and automatic by eliminating the need to operate graphics manually. Our intention was to create a simple graphic that shows a wide range of content" explains Martin Huldin, Production Specialist at Yle.
"The templates used in SPX are basically web pages, so the graphics made for this project are just a snapshot of what can be done with graphics overall."
Continuous improvement
During the Red Nose Day production, the process also revealed a couple of programming errors. "We were able to fix the bugs on the fly and smoothly, even though the broadcast was running all the time," says Petter West, web developer at Yle.
"Our broadcasts have used graphics before, but this was the first time we used APIs to automate them. This project can serve as an example to others of how graphics can be easily used in radio productions."
Efficient use of resources
"We are particularly proud that our customers are using SPX as a platform to create new services by using graphics. SPX Creative Services helps to deliver customized projects, but as this great example from Yle X3M shows, our users can also develop these solutions completely independently, using their own resources and talents", says Tuomo Kulomaa, Founder of SPX Graphics.
Facts
Yle (Yleisradio Oy) is a Finnish state-owned national media company that operates in the field of broadcasting, producing both radio and TV programs.
X3M is Yle's Swedish-language national radio channel, which has been operating since 1997 and reaches approximately 22 000 listeners per day. X3M has broadcast a live video stream with vMix from the studio, since 2019. Before that, radio broadcasts were only recorded by a webcam.
Red Nose Day (Nenäpäivä) is a charity campaign organized by Red Nose Foundation (Nenäpäivä-säätiö) and sponsored by Yle. It has been running every year since 2007, and during that time has raised millions of euros. The money is donated to nine different organizations that help get the aid to its destination. Raised donations go to children's education, health, safety, and nutrition around the world. Read more about Red Nose Day
SPX Graphics is an open-source graphics system for live production. Premium support and Creative Services are available for professional users. Read more at spx.graphics.