We interview the Head of the company’s Academy and Solution Manager for Real-Time Motion Graphics to discover more about Lino, its recently launched workflow

*This content is included in the August issue of TM BROADCAST. You can access the full magazine here.

Born in the gaming world, Unreal Engine has become a key tool in the broadcast industry — especially at a time when broadcasters are striving to deliver more personalized and immersive content to compete with global platforms. Zero Density has played a major role in this transformation, recently launching Lino: a new workflow that enables template-based graphics playout for all broadcast graphics, powered by Unreal Engine 5.

“We merge industries such as visual effects, game engines, and broadcasting to let our users imagine the next big thing with unparalleled efficiency and quality,” says Faraz Qayyum, Head of Zero Density Academy and Solution Manager for Real-Time Motion Graphics, who joins us as the latest guest in our Industry Voices section.

“Unreal Engine’s role in broadcast and live production is rapidly evolving from a game development tool to a cornerstone of virtual studio production, on-air graphics, Augmented Reality, and Extended Reality workflows, thanks to our solutions”, he will add during the conversation.

The interview follows.

Company

As an introduction, what are Zero Density’s strategic goals for this year?

2025 has started as a breakthrough year for Zero Density in many areas, including the preview and launch of the Lino workflow, following a year of development. Lino is our new workflow that provides template-based graphics playout for all broadcast graphics, using Unreal Engine 5, and it has already grabbed the attention of top-tier broadcasters even before its official release. Along with the latest release of Reality 5.6 and Reality Hub 2.0, we deliver the most significant upgrade to the broadcast graphics industry in our history. It will define the broadcast graphics domain in the next decade.

Overall, how would you assess Zero Density’s position in today’s industry landscape? What would you say sets it apart from other competitors in the market?

Zero Density is the company that introduced Unreal Engine to broadcasters for virtual studio production a decade ago, and now elevates on-air graphics production using Unreal Engine. The Zero Density team continues to deliver future-proof Unreal Engine-based technology to broadcasters worldwide.

We drive the industry forward by introducing innovations over the last decade, which have combined to form an end-to-end graphics ecosystem. More importantly, we merge multiple industries such as visual effects, gaming engine and broadcasting together so our users can imagine the next big thing with unparalleled efficiency and quality.

Our versatile platform and solutions enable us to support broadcasters and their critical workflows, fostering innovation and elevating the standard of visual storytelling.

“As audiences demand more interactive and personalized content, virtual studios and AR will become even more integral”

You have an established virtual studio client base.  How do you see the market in general?

As a global leader of virtual studio production, we transformed the industry with our innovations and global footprint. With the latest release of Reality, our real-time broadcast graphics platform is expanding beyond virtual studio use cases. We are ensuring that our ecosystem contains irreplaceable solutions for everything they need now and in the future with the best workflows.

The current level of adoption for virtual studio (VS) and augmented Reality (AR) tools in broadcasting is steadily growing, moving beyond niche applications to become more mainstream, especially for high-profile events and news. On the other hand, AR is increasingly integrated for enhanced storytelling, data visualization, and interactive content, making complex information more accessible and engaging for viewers.

So much so that our top-tier broadcaster client demolished their physical studios and built an additional green screen after using our system for two years in a day-to-day live format, in addition to special programming.

As audiences demand more interactive and personalized content, virtual studios and AR will become even more integral, offering new opportunities for audience engagement, data visualization, and innovative storytelling across all industries, including broadcasting with news and sports, to entertainment and advertising.

I’d like to learn more about the Zero Density Academy. What role does this initiative play in your overall strategy, and how has it impacted your user community and adoption so far?

We deliver industry-shaping solutions, and we want to provide everyone with a learning platform to master them. That’s where the Zero Density Academy comes in. It is our online learning platform for broadcast graphics and virtual studio production designers. It offers a centralized and structured online learning platform for Reality with comprehensive, hands-on video courses. Users can turn the knowledge they accumulated from Zero Density Academy into hands-on experience with the Open Studio License Program. Through this initiative, anyone can request self-learning licenses and turn theory into practice.

Zero Density Academy currently has over a thousand users, and this number is increasing daily. With Zero Density Academy, we are moving industry expertise forward and welcoming future professionals with constantly updated courses and solutions.

“Our top-tier broadcaster client demolished their physical studios and built an additional green screen after using our system for two years in a day-to-day live format”

Trends

Graphics are a key element in the broadcast world. What are the main challenges you observe that organizations are facing when implementing any on-air graphics solution?

When implementing on-air graphics solutions, organizations can experience several challenges, primarily due to the complexity of the system. Some solutions fail to evolve, offering few updates or new features and limiting creative possibilities. Adding to these difficulties, organizations frequently face scenarios where solutions overpromise with flexibility, features, or integrations but fall short in real-life use. This is compounded by a steep learning curve associated with non-intuitive systems, which impacts onboarding and increases dependency on expert users. The lack of support for gaming or rendering engines, such as Unreal Engine, causes a major setback as real-time rendering becomes increasingly crucial for immersive storytelling. Finally, many tools are not designer-friendly, alienating motion designers, and weak after-sales support can leave issues unresolved, impacting broadcast reliability and team confidence.

However, as these problems became more apparent, next-generation solutions are emerging to eliminate them!

How is Zero Density addressing these challenges?

We are addressing these challenges by offering a comprehensive and forward-thinking solution with Lino, our template-based workflow for all broadcast graphics, using Unreal Engine 5. To eliminate system complexity and maintenance issues, our new workflow features a modern, streamlined architecture designed for quick deployment, easy updates, and efficient maintenance across on-air graphics. Unlike legacy systems, Lino workflow is a future-ready solution working with Unreal Engine’s Motion Design Mode, ensuring continuous evolution and benefiting from the latest advancements in real-time graphics and rendering performance. This approach also drives a high ROI by providing a single, template-based workflow for all broadcast graphics, including on-air, video wall, Virtual Studio, Augmented Reality and Extended Reality, consolidating operations, and reducing overhead, thus delivering long-term value.

We are reaching out with transparent commitment, working closely with customers during onboarding to align expectations with practical demos. Lino workflow significantly reduces the learning curve for both operators and designers, offering an intuitive workflow, a clean UI, a preview environment, and a drag-and-drop playout interface, thereby minimizing the need for extensive training. As a forward-thinking industry partner, we help our users with an open ecosystem and seamless integration, being fully API-ready and supporting MOS integration with NRCS systems, ensuring compatibility with evolving broadcast pipelines. Lino workflow is the only broadcast graphics solution deeply integrated with Unreal Engine’s Motion Design Mode, empowering motion designers to work directly within Unreal Engine but with a familiar skillset. This allows users to create state-aware, dynamic templates using real-time rendering power without any third-party bridges. Finally, Zero Density ensures reliable global support through strong pre-sales guidance, onboarding, training, and 24/7 assistance, ensuring customers are never alone in launching new shows or troubleshooting issues.

“Lino workflow is the only broadcast graphics solution deeply integrated with Unreal Engine’s Motion Design Mode”

In line with this, what are your clients asking for the most right now?

In the fast-paced broadcast industry, broadcasters need to act at the speed of news and maintain audience attention as competition gets fiercer and attention spans decrease. Knowing this, we are redefining news broadcasting by providing solutions that blend creativity with technology, efficiency with reliability, and visual impact with enhanced storytelling.

We provide a unified ecosystem comprised of best-in-class, easy-to-use solutions that can be utilized to design and control all types of graphics using Unreal Engine 5. For the last decade, we have been developing innovations that set the industry benchmarks. Now, with Lino workflow, all the content design and control can be handled by using a unified solution. We also provide camera and talent tracking, as well as engine hardware, to elevate virtual studio productions.

How do you see the role of Unreal Engine evolving in the broadcast and live production industries?

Unreal Engine’s role in broadcast and live production is rapidly evolving from a game development tool to a cornerstone of virtual studio production, on-air graphics, Augmented Reality, and Extended Reality workflows, thanks to our solutions. Its real-time rendering capabilities enable broadcasters to create dynamic, photorealistic virtual sets and interactive graphics instantly, streamlining broadcasts and reducing reliance on traditional physical sets and extensive post-production.

Now, Unreal Engine Motion Design has added to the fray, and with Lino, our template-based workflow for all broadcast graphics is adding a whole new layer of graphics design and control by combining it with our advanced web-based control solution, Reality Hub.

“Organizations frequently face scenarios where solutions overpromise with flexibility, features, or integrations but fall short in real-life use”