NEWSROOM AUTOMATION IN INDIA

The term newsroom system includes all of those activities that are expected to be available on the journalist's desktop. The list of functions expected from the newsroom system includes planning/diary/assignments; communications (messaging, mail), web browsing and research; news agency reception, sorting and alerts; ingest scheduling and management; encoding/trans-coding; cataloging and metadata creation; search engine, low-resolution proxy browsing, shot-listing and editing; voiceover recording; high-resolution conforming and finishing; video server management; scriptwriting; running order creation; script and show timing; graphics creation; prompting; captioning; subtitling; on-air play out automation; web and DVD authoring and publishing; archiving (short-, medium- and long-term) of media and text; digital asset management.

The scope of traditionally known newsroom computer systems (NRCS) such as Avid's iNEWS and the Associated Press' (AP) ENPS based on core technology originally conceived for a text-only era are still operational and still being sold. Integration potential has replaced pure functionality as the most desirable and necessary attribute of these systems and continuous efforts has been expended by both companies to provide, one way or the other, additional capabilities. Avid promotes a one-stop shop in which iNews is part of a wider infrastructure including Avid editing systems and Unity. Their success has made it difficult for competitors to break into the market. Dalet, Octopus, VSN and Autocue among others all offer highly functional broadcast NRCS systems with numerous strong points and, indeed, satisfied customers. But none has achieved the critical mass of iNews and ENPS. There are some broadcasters who have decided to go it alone and develop their own systems but these systems are few and none has yet been installed outside its own organization.

In India 483 channels are currently beemed. Last year four new national news channels namely UTVnews, Voice of India, 9X, and E-24 by BAG films hit the market but only UTVnews seems to have survived. 9X has been hived off to Nayi Duniya. Voice of India too is looking for investors. E-24 seems to be struggling with high attrition levels and poor TRPs.

The regional news channels, with low budgets for equipment pose challenging requirements to the system integrators and distributors. As news channels record healthy revenues, focus on innovative newsrooms with the latest technology up-gradations could improve the business of news and media operations. This market with the increasing interest in general news, live cricket, upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010 is heading towards a growth curve.

MAJOR PLAYERS

Barco has been a major player in display solutions. It has a wide range of products to respond to the needs of studio backdrop, monitoring solutions for PCR, MCR, DTH and IPTV. Products are designed for 24/7 applications keeping in mind the critical nature of operations.

Benchmark is one of the leading system integrators in India. All their installations are running smoothly. The major customers are Saam TV, Jamuna TV and T7.

CMS Broadcast is a part of CMS Computers Ltd. They provide turnkey solutions for TV channels. They represent some of the biggest OEMs from the broadcast industry like Sony, Apple, Building for Media, Octopus, Harris, among others and is also the authorized service partner for them. They offer AMC and facility management services to satellite channel, production houses, educational institutes, government departments and similar other clients.

Delta Display walls are designed for real and expanding requirements for large scale visualization systems that present extreme resolutions and provide a customizable multimedia system in a multiple monitor format. These are ideally suited for mission critical control and command rooms, data visualization and high entertainment environments. Its state of the art design delivers the highest contrast, best image quality, operational reliability, serviceability and cost-of-ownership.

Ideal Broadcasting supplied fully integrated newsroom solution to Century Communication channel. The solution includes Dalet newsroom, Omneon servers, Harris automation, graphics from Vizrt, and Final Cut Pro. Dalet newsroom helps out in content creation and production, asset management, and playout.Ideal Broadcasting India. Address:- 5cripwell house commercial complex, vasant kunj, new delhi 110070, New Delhi  0091 1204544122

Omnibus in India is represented by Shaf Broadcast Private Limited. Shaf Broadcast as a system integrator provided solutions to Mahaa TV, Studio End, iNews, Local TV, Times Zoom, Sahara Mumbai, Raj TV along with few others. OmniBus provides broadcasting, cable, and satellite organizations with comprehensive automation, media content management and workflow solutions addressing every area of television-related operations. Its sports and newsroom content solutions include acquisition and recording of rich media material, media content management, and play out. Some of the products offered by company for newsroom automation are iTX a software based production and transmission solution allows broadcasters to launch both multi-channel operations and new low-cost channels or to establish backup systems that reproduce the entire transmission chain, complete with automation, ingesting, editing, and content management. Omnibus OPUS is a suite of content management and workflow components that link multiple vendor system with an integrated efficient workflow. Omnibus Colossus is a multi-channel automation system, providing a robust and scalable solution to broadcasters.

Playbox automation system supports all existing I/O interfaces, all video-audio standards, graphics, digital video effects, and compression format. The Playbox broadcast automation system consists of an ingest server, automated play out server, graphics insertion server, TX database server with TX management software, network file storage server, and networking peripherals.Address:- PlayBox Technology India Pvt. Ltd. R7B, Green Park Main, New Delhi - 110 016, India.tel. +91 11 4374 3333 fax. +91 11 4165 1607

 

Real Image is one of the India's major technology providers in the film, video and audio markets. The company through its partner Avid provides newsroom automation solutions to both national and regional news channels in India. The major customers include NDTV, CNN IBN, NDTV, Times Now, ET, SUN TV, Kalaignar TV and Shakshi TV. The product range of the company includes ISIS (Avid), with central storage features, iNews Command (Avid) for newsroom automation, interplay (Avid) for media asset management, airspeed (Avid) for ingest and play out servers, Orad for graphics and iNews (Avid) for NRCS scripting solutions.

Thomson GrassValley as one of the major service provider did project for TV9, Zoom along with few more and are working on project for Dhera TV from Hyderabad. The company addresses the newsroom with its Ignite integrated production systems, Media FUSE suite of multiple production tools, Storage Area Network (SAN) which is based on multiple K2 media servers configured in the shared storage architecture and the Aurora (7.0) platform allow a broadcaster to streamline the production of its newscast and other programs while giving the staff the ability to be more productive. The Ignite HD system can be ordered with one to four M/Es up to 32 control ports and is completely scalable from 24 to 96 video inputs and 24 to 96 audio inputs. Key features of the product include:

• Easy transition between back-to-back newscasts.
  

• Proven to easily handle any breaking-news scenario.

• Float, drop, and add stories within seconds.

• Improves ROI.

• Enables increased programming opportunities and revenue stream via single workflow.

• Provides direct link between run-down and on-air programming.

• Cost effective solution for new, live multicast channels, and multi distribution opportunities.

• Event-driven technology allowing one person to direct the entire production.

• Single, partial and fully redundant backup capabilities for CPUs, video and audio frames.

VTIPL serves the needs of broadcast audio-video industry in India by system designing, integrating and distribution of the professional broadcast products. VTIPL uses VSN news, a powerful, entirely integrated news system that allows text/video editing in the same application. VSN is not only a digital newsroom system but a brand new concept in the way of doing TV. All work is automated and computerized, creating a logical workflow between departments and people.

It allows editing video one minute after starting ingesting process, while you are still recording it. Playlist events can be edited and changed just 5 seconds before going on air. Their major clients are Focus TV, Hamaar TV, Local TV, Sun TV, Azad TV and Doordarshan. Their major principals are Leitch, Ross Video, CDAC, Data Video, Panasonic, Telescript, Mackie, Allen & Heath, Ruige, and VSN.




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