Submitted by Mike Grenville on Fri, 02 Jul 2004 18:40

A new BBC1 TV primetime live show ‘Johnny & Denise – Passport To Paradise’ from this Saturday will feature viewers amusing MMS pics judged on air each week using a new picture message management system.

The system from broadcast computer system specialist CAT AND MOUSE, can download picture and text messages from a variety of sources. It gives producers straightforward workflow tools to quickly find the best pictures, view and approve them, edit the text and stack them ready for transmission. Final output will be using Cat and Mouse’s ‘Roar Graphics’ real-time platform and for this programme, pictures will also be stacked to display on a multi-screen ‘information centre’.

To ensure that pictures look their best before reaching screen, built in tools include manual and automatic grading and gamma correction and where necessary, rapid censorship utilities allow ‘undesirable’ elements to be removed or obscured from pictures.

Carl Blundell, managing director of Cat and Mouse, says, “The modular design of the system means that it can be integrated with a variety of sources, including MMS suppliers and email services. Multiple users can be working on different phases of production at any one time making sendto:Air suitable for high volume fast turn around and live production such as ‘Johnny & Denise…’”

The Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen 50-minute live Saturday night show is called JOHNNY & DENISE – PASSPORT TO PARADISE and is a Celador Productions/World’s End co-production for BBC1.

Every week Johnny and Denise and the studio audience will pick their favourite photo. This week's Phone Photo challenge is in honour of silly hats in catwalk fashion, with the viewers invited to take a photo with anything on their head.

The MMS inbound delivery will be handled by MX Telecom.

www.bbc.co.uk/johnnyanddenise/

www.catandmouse.tv

www.mxtelecom.com