When it comes to graphics, the team at Singular have more experience (and more Emmy awards) than anyone else on the planet. We know the problem with the existing solutions; expensive, inaccessible, hardware and software dependent, plus they’re not very environmentally friendly. These traditional systems pre-date the internet and their fundamentals remain relatively unchanged.
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In 2015 our CTO Hubert Oehm was working on a large-scale implementation project in Doha; “the largest control room he had ever seen in over 25 years in broadcasting.” Considering that Hubert was one of the original founders of Vizrt and had worked with the largest broadcasters all over the world, this was some statement. It seemed absurd to him that there was all this incredibly expensive hardware and software lined up in row after air conditioned row in the middle of the heat of the middle east, simply to take a video signal and add graphical overlays to it.
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This was where the concept of Singular was born. Out of a realization that there had to be a better way to do what was being done. A more modern way that could do this but also much, much more.
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As Hubert began to think about this more deeply, he engaged a long time partner and collaborator Thomas Molden. Like Hubert, Thomas had worked in broadcast and live graphics, in particular in management, monitoring and control systems, for 25 years. The two of them had seen first hand how the worlds of live production, content creation and consumption were rapidly changing. The impact of digital devices was a major catalyst for that but so too was the internet. Many other industries had been revolutionized by new digital technologies from home entertainment to accommodation all the way through to personal transportation and retail. Yet broadcast remained resolutely linear and analogue. The internet was actively excluded from most production control rooms.
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However the more they looked into it, the more they kept returning to the cloud through their research and discussion to find the best solution for the next generation. When looking for the most widely used, ubiquitous graphics format, the answer kept coming back to HTML. Even though 2015 was not that long ago, cloud services were nowhere near as robust and widely used as they are now. Certainly not in live production! Nonetheless Hubert and Thomas knew then that this new standard, providing the next generation of live graphics overlays, had to be cloud native and HTML. Thus Singular was born.
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Once a very early prototype of the Singular platform had been developed, Hubert took it to show one of the most successful early pioneers with the Vizrt platform: Reality Check Systems. Based in LA, RCS was founded in 1997 and had won over a dozen Emmy awards designing graphics, software and supporting technologies for live productions primarily on the Vizrt platform for clients and events ranging from ESPN and CBS Sports to DAZN, Facebook, Sky, F1, MLB and multiple Superbowls.
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RCS had themselves realized the same impending industry transition that Hubert and Thomas had seen and knew that Singular was the way forwards and immediately became partners in Singular.
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A revolutionary graphics platform that collaborates with partners and works in all production workflows. Backwards compatible and future-proof. A platform that offers everyone no matter their experience, resources or circumstances the tools to enhance their content, augment their own platforms and ultimately provide a better, more engaging modern viewing experience for their audience.
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Using Intelligent Overlays; a next generation HTML overlay that allows a two way dialogue between creator and audience, Singular delivers unique features and functionality including interactivity, personalization and real time analytics for example. Added to the fact that Singular is entirely browser-based this further demonstrates how Singular is fundamentally different from what has gone before.

But more than building a new graphics platform, Singular is building a community of creators and innovators. Collaborators and partners who use our platform with it’s open APIs and SDKs to develop or enhance their own ideas and solutions. It’s also why we created our Singular For Good program that gives free Pro grade Singular accounts to educators and nonprofits all over the world. A further chance for us to give back and encourage the next generation of content creators and production professionals that our industry so badly needs.