OnAir-Graphics Builds Real-Time Graphics Middleware for College Basketball on Vizrt Trio

From a Spreadsheet to a Live Control Surface: Automated Broadcast Graphics for US College Basketball

College sports in the US mean a lot of games, constantly changing rosters, and broadcast crews that are often students rather than seasoned operators. That combination exposes exactly where automation earns its keep: every single game needs fresh rosters, live stats, and clean graphic pages — fast, reliably, and without anyone needing a technical background to make it happen.

OnAir-Graphics built a dedicated middleware for this environment, in cooperation with Offshoot Operations, connecting Vizrt Trio directly to any live data source. Vizrt remains the owner of the scene design and the graphics engine itself — together with Offshoot Operations, we deliver the layer in between that turns raw game data into air-ready graphics in real time.

A Plugin Architecture That Works for Any Sport

At the heart of the system sits a flexible plugin model: every data source — NCAA basketball feeds today, other leagues tomorrow — is connected through its own swappable plugin, never by touching the core system. Player names, jersey numbers, live stats, and team data are picked up automatically, validated, and pushed straight into Vizrt Trio.

The payoff shows up fast. One roster template, two teams of twelve players, and the system generates 24 fully populated graphic pages on its own — no one builds those by hand. Pages are created and updated through the Vizrt MSE REST API and can be recalled with fresh data at any moment, replacing the old, time-consuming Trio Read/Save routine entirely.

From Spreadsheet to Live Stage: The Operator Console

The first version of the middleware ran on a single Excel configuration file — powerful, but it asked a lot of whoever sat behind it. The new Operator Console changes that completely: a dark, broadcast-speed interface that keeps both team rosters visible with live stats and a scorebug refreshing every few seconds, so nobody has to switch screens mid-game.

The Builder sits at the center of it. Drag a player onto a slot, or click to assign, and a swap button flips the matchup in an instant. Finished graphics go straight into Prepared Pages — a queue that lets a crew build an entire run-of-show before kickoff and update it in seconds if the starting lineup changes at the last minute. Template Studio puts the same control over the templates themselves: a live data dictionary, drag-and-drop field bindings, and an instant preview that shows exactly what will go to air before it ever does.

The practical result is hard to overstate: what used to require Excel fluency and a working knowledge of JSON paths is now a visual, self-explanatory tool. Updates that took minutes now take seconds. Crews with little to no broadcast background can run a full game on their own, and graphics directors get a system that simply doesn’t need babysitting once it’s set up.

Built to Scale: Football and American Football Are Next

Because the middleware was designed to be sport-agnostic from day one, the same foundation — plugin system, MSE connection, Operator Console — carries over directly to other sports. Football and American football are next in line, two sports we already know well from productions like the European League of Football, where roster sizes, play-by-play stats, and live pacing all bring their own demands. Adding a new sport means writing one new data plugin and mapping its fields — the rest of the pipeline doesn’t change.

Your Partner for Vizrt Middleware Solutions: From Concept to Live Operation

At OnAir-Graphics, we pair creative graphics design with a real understanding of data integration and live production. For this project, working closely with Offshoot Operations, we deliver:

• Sport-agnostic middleware with an extensible plugin system for any data source
• Visual operator interfaces built for live production — from roster overview to page queue
• Seamless integration with Vizrt MSE and Trio via REST API, with zero changes to existing scene designs
• Self-service graphic templates with live preview, no coding required
• Ongoing support and ongoing expansion to additional sports and leagues

We’re looking forward to bringing our graphics and middleware expertise to college sports and other leagues going forward.

Want to find out how we can automate your broadcast graphics production and make life easier for your operators?