TUCSON, ARIZ.—At KVOA-TV, Tuscon’s NBC affiliate, we used to archive by recording the selected clips to videotape out of our editing systems, tying up both systems and staff. We kept archived content in a three-ring binder, and if we wanted to restore the archived clips we needed to recapture them from tape. The whole process was very inefficient.
We wanted our archive management solution to be more efficient, freeing up our journalists and resources so they could focus on creating content. The solution needed to make it easy for users to archive, find, and recall clips without needing to understand technical details, or requiring a lot of training. And it needed to fit our budget.
IMMEDIATE IMPROVEMENT
Masstech’s newsroom media management solution met all of our criteria. We were immediately impressed by its ease of use, and we particularly liked that it integrated directly with our AP ENPS newsroom computer system, enabling users to interact with the archives without leaving the NRCS interface. The Masstech solution also integrated seamlessly with our Imagine Communications Nexio playout servers and Velocity editing software, streamlining our workflow.
The Masstech system has allowed KVOA to archive 45 TB of storage in its library, per Aaron Diezman.
We started using the Masstech solution immediately for all new content and recently began to use it to ingest legacy archived footage. Our Masstech system now manages more than 47,000 assets totaling approximately 45TB of storage in our Spectra Logic T50e LTO data tape library, and we add between 300 and 400 clips to it each week.
The move to the Masstech solution allows our staff to spend more time on more productive tasks. Whereas our old process took our users and systems away from preparing for the next newscast, it’s now pretty much “fire and forget.” The users never have to leave the NRCS interface, and archiving happens in the background without interrupting production.
NEW TOOL FOR JOURNALISTS
Finding, viewing, and retrieving archived content is easy, too. Our journalists can search the archive using ENPS’s native tools, and preview the video right from the ENPS interface. Once they find what they’re looking for, they can restore it from the archive and move it into the editing environment by dragging-and-dropping within the NRCS.
The system has proven to be stable and reliable. On the rare occasion when we needed help, Masstech’s support team has been very responsive. We’re about to deploy the latest version of Masstech’s comprehensive MAM software, and are looking forward to the improvements it will bring us.
The Masstech newsroom media management solution has given everything we were looking for, and their ongoing advances position us well for the future.
Aaron Diezman is assistant director of engineering at KVOA-TV, with management responsibilities for the engineering department and IT infrastructure. He can be reached atadiezman@kvoa.com.
For more information, please visitwww.masstech.comor call 905-946-5712.
