Second Screen and Social TV

This project started with the intent to enhance the viewer's experience by allowing active participation and interaction with a live TV show through a mobile phone app and a Second Screen application, including sounds such as clapping, laughing, whistling and other interactions.

"Amici Real Time" is a project developed for Discovery Italia, and was possible thanks to ClassX, a real- time TV graphic platform used worldwide together with Parterre (http://parterre.eu/), a Second Screen platform providing an interactive user experience using smart phones and dedicated applications.

The Parterre platform was built to enhance the experience when watching reality shows, talent shows, talk shows or contents. It allows spectators watching TV at home to feel as though they were in a real theater by participating with applauses or whistles. Parterre allows viewers to vote in favor or against guests on the live show. The platform was built to enhance the experience when watching reality shows, talent shows, talk shows or contests.

Discovery Italia decided to use Parterre for their talent show "Amici di Maria De Filippi" that started in 2001 on Mediaset, and is also available on Real Time TV from 2014. In this talent show, about twenty students between 18 and 25 years in age aspire to become singers, jazz, hip-hop or classical dancers.

Parterre developed the app that was dedicated to this show. The app is called "Amici Real Time" and is a free download from the Apple and Google online stores. The app shows pictures of the students and their teachers through an inspiring, very simple-to-use interface; just guest and push a button to register your positive or negative vote.

The visualization of data received by the mobile application on TV is handled by ClassX and its graphic overlay engine. The operator selects and manages the events to broadcast through a simple control panel, where different animation and graphic templates are available.

Four months after the first live show, the number of votes gathered by the application are 68 millions with more than 168.000 active users, with a remarkably high participation rate per user per day.

Gathering data from such different platforms in real time and providing a simple and fast tool to manage all this information for the Discovery Team has been an exciting challenge. Today the Editorial team in Milan can control and manage one single influx of information coming from Facebook, Twitter, Spreadfast and Parterre, while choosing in real time what to display on the TV show, that is managed in Rome. It is a big step forward in the technology of graphic automation for TV programs. The social platform developed by ClassX has reached high standards and levels of completeness, quality and stability that are hard to find even in higher priced lines of similar products, thus again confirming ClassX one of the most innovative and dynamic companies in the global market.

Michele Puccini, CEO of ClassX, says: "Gathering data from such different platforms in real time and providing a simple and fast tool to manage all this information for the Discovery Team has been an exciting challenge. Today the Editorial team in Milan can control and manage one single influx of information coming from Facebook, Twitter, Spreadfast and Parterre, while choosing in real time what to display on the TV show, that is managed in Rome. It is a big step forward in the technology of graphic automation for TV programs. The social platform developed by ClassX has reached high standards and levels of completeness, quality and stability that are hard to find even in higher priced lines of similar products, thus again confirming ClassX one of the most innovative and dynamic companies in the global market. ClassX confirms its full engagement in social media and second screen applications by enforcing investments and widening development plans for year 2015 and 2016."

ClassX srl