Exhibit City News is a leader in the trade show industry, and Publisher Don Svehla thrives on innovation. He's leading the way with a state-of-the-art virtual newsroom provided by Gary Jesch's CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation, creator of ECN Eddie, a live virtual presenter.

1. ECN Live! The Trade Show Industry’s Weekly News Show
Here’s a story about the making of ECN Live!, Exhibit City News’ weekly webcast
featuring a virtual presenter who makes one heck of an anchorman. Introducing
ECN Eddie – the world’s most interesting live avatar, courtesy of CHOPS.

2. Jesch animates ECN Eddie in real time
Real-time animation, including automatic lip sync and facial expressions are
controlled by Gary Jesch, a pioneer in performance animation, at the controls of the
3D Digital Puppeteer ™. Jesch’s software is controlled by pen and tablet as the
laptop’s output is recorded directly to video.

3. ECN Eddie – Virtual Presenter for Exhibit City News
This virtual presenter has been performing at trade shows and special events since 2007, interacting
with people in real time from a variety of screens, including LED and video projections. The talent
behind ECN Eddie is Gary Jesch, a pioneer in performance animation, with a passion for telling
stories in a most unusual way. He moves his audiences from behind the scenes, like the wonderful
“Wizard of Oz.”
ECN Eddie reports on the trade show industry weekly, with his show appearing on Exhibit City News’
YouTube.com playlist – ECN Live!

4. ECN Eddie’s priority is trade show industry news
Working with Exhibit City News Editor Zeenath Haniff and Publisher Don Svehla, Jesch
receives the stories the publication is covering, and adapts them to fit the weekly
program. He selects the best pictures and videos to report on items of immediate
interest to the trade show industry. Because Exhibit City News is located in Las Vegas,
the staff there often gets a jump on other publishers in their niche.

5. ECN Live! is edited with Adobe’s Premiere Pro CC
Jesch records his “takes” for each section of the show, moving from one story to
another in real time, using a special capture card that pulls each video into Premiere
Pro at HD resolutions. He quickly trims each cut and polishes the sequences before
exporting the entire project to a Flash format that is uploaded to the Exhibit City
News YouTube channel. If necessary, he can immediately re-make and fix any
problems in a matter of a few minutes, because he’s working in real time.

6. ECN Eddie’s co-anchor is VirtuaLibby
Every good anchorman needs a beautiful co-host and ECN Eddie is no exception. VirtuaLibby is also an
interactive virtual presenter, performed by Dana Stamos, co-producer at CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation.
With the 3D Digital Puppeteer ™ system, both these characters can appear on the same screen and can
interact with each other and with the audience at the same time. Her high-resolution realistic
appearance is one of her most attractive features, as well as her voice and warm heart.

7. ECN Publisher Don Svehla knows trade show industry
Svehla started ECN Live! last summer by appearing in front of the camera himself, and shortly
after, realized the amount of time and effort that goes into video productions. Svehla and his
video producer, Ron Garrett of Las Vegas, have been instrumental in moving their project to the
next state-of-the-art, the Virtual News Room, as provided by CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation.

8. CHOPS invites viewers to see his best work
Viewers of ECN Live! can see each week’s program in a variety of ways – on YouTube, on
Facebook, on the Exhibit City News’ webpages and the CHOPS Blog pages. As the
program develops, ECN will offer advertisers the opportunity to place low cost
commercials in each weekly newscast, to reach a very targeted audience – people who
are actively involved every day in the trade show and special event business. For more
information, contact Gary via his website at www.chops.com.