The Today Show relaunched its studio and graphics package in 2013 with a renewed focus on viewer interaction via social media. Now, more than ever, loyal Today Show viewers can Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, and vote their way to participating in the show.
The Orange Room is an interactive, social media driven set featuring the Digital Dashboard which displays trending topics, top links from the web and viewer Tweets/photos, and the Hashtag Battle which updates in real-time as viewers vote on hot topics (such as: "Should Matt Lauer shave his beard?").
The Sunrise Display is an LED monitor display that wraps around the exterior of the Today Show studio in Rockefeller Plaza and features viewer Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter photos pertaining to segments such as the #LoveYourSelfie campaign.
The Twicker is an on-screen lower third graphic which displays fan feedback from Facebook and Twitter during live events such as the Today Show Concert Series.
Generating all these different displays for social media is a challenge for a TV production, the operation for a live show would require multiple producers and graphics operators to add this graphics to the show seamlessly. We developed a web tool called "the portal" in which we gave the social media producers the ability to modify the content and graphics for all this displays in real-time from a web browser. The portal allows a single producer to "skin" the entire social media room for TODAY SHOW with a few clicks from her desk, maximizing the editorial reaction time.
These social media tools allow TV and digital to reduce the huge gap in production styles.
On top of giving valuable displays of social media content to the TODAY viewers in increases the production reaction time so it can offer a more real-time experience for the audience.
