BBC News will use a string of technical innovations to try to attract more viewers when the major broadcasters go head to head with their general election coverage tonight (6 May).

BBC Election Night will use a new-look ‘swingometer’ and large touch screens for manipulating data and producing line graphs.

For the virtual set elements, Jeremy Vine will be shot in front of a green screen using cameras mounted on Vinten Radamec Quattro SE pedestals, which provide tracking data for synchronised real-time 3D models.

A Free-D tracking system on a Steadicam, developed by BBC Research & Development, and a 44 ft MovieBird crane will also be used.

Studio content will be interspersed with feeds from 90 outside broadcast positions across the UK.

BBC Studios and Post Production (S&PP) is providing facilities for the coverage, co-ordinating crews and providing studio sound teams, editors and assistants, as well as engineering support.

Meanwhile, ITV News hopes to seduce viewers with an interactive holographic wall that alternates between a three-way swingometer, a 3D House of Commons, a battleground of key seats and a “hung parliament” graphic.

Sky News will launch in HD on the night, starting with the election show Decision Time.