Broder's Skunkware has signed an agreement to represent AKISPORT High-Definition Television Broadcast products in North America.

We started out as an AKISPORT customer, purchasing AKISPORT's GS2 HD Character Generators to deliver timing graphics and scorebugs for live network sports broadcasts. Our philosophy of “chefs who eat their own cooking improve quickest” then led us into further talks with the management of AKI, as after developing applications for the GS2 platform, we quickly came to the conclusion that the AKISPORT product line was the best in the marketplace in terms of programmability, features, and price. AKISPORT has a nice share of the broadcast tools market in Europe and South America, but they heretofore had no presence in North America. Thus, the doors are now open at AKISPORT.US to bring this technology to the US and Canadian markets.

AKISPORT's product line includes a “virtual telestrator” and several other “virtual” graphics products. In addition to common CG tasks of keying timing & scoring graphics into the foreground, virtual graphics can paint timing & scoring information on any object in the camera's view: a soccer pitch, a tennis court, an auto racetrack, and so forth. The most commonly-known virtual effects in the US are NASCAR's “virtual traffic light” used in yellow-flag situations, and the “flags on the bottom of the pool” virtual graphic used in swimming.

If you are a timing guy and are looking to step up your game in the technical services you deliver to your host broadcasters, have a look at the AKISPORT product line here:

http://www.akisport.us
http://www.akisport.cz