Here’s a story about the making of ECN Live!, Exhibit City News’ weekly webcast featuring a virtual presenter who makes one heck of an anchorman. Introducing ECN Eddie – the world’s most interesting live avatar, courtesy of CHOPS.

ECN Live! The Trade Show Industry’s Weekly News Show

Real-time animation, including automatic lip sync and facial expressions are controlled by Gary Jesch, a pioneer in performance animation, at the controls of the 3D Digital Puppeteer ™. Jesch’s software is controlled by pen and tablet as the laptop’s output is recorded directly to video.

Jesch animates ECN Eddie in real time

This virtual presenter has been performing at trade shows and special events since 2007, interacting with people in real time from a variety of screens, including LED and video projections. The talent behind ECN Eddie is Gary Jesch, a pioneer in performance animation, with a passion for telling stories in a most unusual way. He moves his audiences from behind the scenes, like the wonderful “Wizard of Oz.”ECN Eddie reports on the trade show industry weekly, with his show appearing on Exhibit City News’ YouTube.com playlist – ECN Live!

ECN Eddie – Virtual Presenter for Exhibit City News

Working with Exhibit City News Editor Zeenath Haniff and Publisher Don Svehla, Jesch receives the stories the publication is covering, and adapts them to fit the weekly program. He selects the best pictures and videos to report on items of immediate interest to the trade show industry. Because Exhibit City News is located in Las Vegas, the staff there often gets a jump on other publishers in their niche.

ECN Eddie’s priority is trade show industry news

Jesch records his “takes” for each section of the show, moving from one story to another in real time, using a special capture card that pulls each video into Premiere Pro at HD resolutions. He quickly trims each cut and polishes the sequences before exporting the entire project to a Flash format that is uploaded to the Exhibit City News YouTube channel. If necessary, he can immediately re-make and fix any problems in a matter of a few minutes, because he’s working in real time.

ECN Live! is edited with Adobe’s Premiere Pro CC

Every good anchorman needs a beautiful co-host and ECN Eddie is no exception. VirtuaLibby is also an interactive virtual presenter, performed by Dana Stamos, co-producer at CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation. With the 3D Digital Puppeteer ™ system, both these characters can appear on the same screen and can interact with each other and with the audience at the same time. Her high-resolution realistic appearance is one of her most attractive features, as well as her voice and warm heart.

ECN Eddie’s co-anchor is VirtuaLibby

Svehla started ECN Live! last summer by appearing in front of the camera himself, and shortly after, realized the amount of time and effort that goes into video productions. Svehla and his video producer, Ron Garrett of Las Vegas, have been instrumental in moving their project to the next state-of-the-art, the Virtual News Room, as provided by CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation.

ECN Publisher Don Svehla knows trade show industry

Viewers of ECN Live! can see each week’s program in a variety of ways – on YouTube, on Facebook, on the Exhibit City News’ webpages and the CHOPS Blog pages. As the program develops, ECN will offer advertisers the opportunity to place low cost commercials in each weekly newscast, to reach a very targeted audience – people who are actively involved every day in the trade show and special event business. For more information, contact Gary via his website at www.chops.com.

CHOPS invites viewers to see his best work