Gannett Broadcasting is deploying Bitcentral’s newsroom production platform in many of its broadcast station newsrooms, the two companies announced today.
Bitcentral’s Precis news production and Oasis distribution systems will be installed across an unidentified “multiple” number of station newsrooms immediately, improving worklow and connecting video assets of the Gannett Information Centers for unrestricted sharing of content across stations.
“Of all the suppliers we considered, only Bitcentral offers the unconditional functionality and flexibility we need to quickly upgrade our properties without limiting our options in the future. With their technology, our stations will enjoy faster, broader news distribution leveraging greater collaboration across all of Gannett’s Information Centers for more comprehensive coverage of daily events,” said Jeff Johnson, vice president of technology for Gannett.
Gannett, a top 10 station group owner reaching 18 percent of the nation’s TV households, is using Bitcentral’s Oasis media archive and sharing platform to provide their broadcast newsrooms with universal access to media created across the Gannett family of stations. With the rollout of Oasis, Gannett is also swapping out its current production systems for Bitcentral’s Precis in order to streamline editing workflows and simplify video preparation for distribution.
“Gannett recognized the long-term cost and operational advantages of bridging their news operations over open, IP-based technologies,” said Fred Fourcher, president and CEO of Bitcentral. “There’s a growing misconception in our industry that ‘open’ is measured in degrees of interoperability. Broadcasters appreciate Bitcentral’s solutions because they provide the only truly open platform that integrates with all existing equipment.”
