Picus TV

Picus TV is a television news station seen in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Its celebrity news anchor is Eliza Cassan.

Background
Picus TV is a part of the Picus Communications Group, which was founded in 1985 by media mogul Sir Martin Darrow from a merger between Dazzle Me Magazine, T-K Records and Roque Publishing. It rose in the global media scene over the next decade as it acquired multiple smaller companies in film and television production, video games, advertising, marketing, public relations, and internet service provision. By 2010, the Picus Group moved its headquarters to Montreal, Canada -- a growing hub for virtual entertainment -- and has continued to grow.

Story
Adam Jensen visits the Picus studio seeking Eliza Cassan, finding the building mysteriously abandoned as he arrives. It is soon revealed that a fire alarm was tripped and then silenced. Jensen seemingly locates Eliza Cassan, only to discover that she is actually a holographic projection. The building is quickly assaulted by mercenaries, as Francis Pritchard informs Jensen that the systems controlling the hologram are located in the building's basement.

The basement turns out to be a secret bunker run by the Illuminati. Here, evidence can be found on computers and in studios that the station is engaged in a propaganda campaign against Augmentation rather than journalism, with e-mails detailing everything from deliberately using loaded language to wholesale falsification of stories using advanced digital image manipulation technology.

Making his way to his objective, Adam discovers that Eliza Cassan is actually a projection of a powerful AI designed to manipulate the media. Yelena Fedorova then attacks, intending to kill Jensen and destroy Eliza's mainframe to prevent her further damaging the conspiracy, but is ultimately unsuccessful.

Behind the scenes

 * Picus was a mythological Roman king of Latium renown for his skill in augury – interpreting the will of the gods by studying the flight of birds.
 * Another Picus, who was often conflated with the Roman King, was a minor agricultural deity whose portfolio and rituals included the fertilization of fields with the feces of animals, often bulls.
 * Picus is also the name of a genus of woodpeckers, perhaps referencing the station's tendency to hammer its message home.
 * Picus TV is the station to which Francis Pritchard tried to suggest a television show featuring a hacker.
 * The logo appears to be designed so that the top and bottom of the 'C' blend together easily, making it say "Pious" TV, rather suitable for the station's reporting style.
 * Picus TV, is based in the tower of the Olympic Stadium of Montreal, which means that the city of Montreal never found another purpose for this landmark after the Expos was sold to Washington and simply sold it to whoever was wanting it.
 * Picus' newsroom seems to be entirely modeled after the New York Times newsroom. There are very few differences in architecture and desk positioning, to a point where it's highly unlikely for it to be coincidence.
 * Picotechnology is a field of futurism that derives from nanotechnology but is on an even smaller (atomic)scale. This type of science would apply to machinery found in the first Deus Ex (such as the Universal Constructors) and ideas discussed in a message to Hugh Darrow (son of Picus TV's founder) found beneath the Omega Ranch in DX:HR.

Gallery
Picus TV