PARIS—Dalet today unveiled Dalet Flex LTS, a major update that makes the platform more intuitive for a wider range of users, accelerates editing and collaborative workflows and introduces foundational AI capabilities to support next-generation, agent-driven experiences with Dalet’s Dalia agentic AI solution.

Dalet Flex is fast to deploy and intuitive to use, enabling broader adoption of professional-grade media workflows across the organization. Broadcasters and sports teams, along with brands, agencies and marketing teams use Dalet Flex to ingest, create, manage and distribute media with enterprise-grade control, governance and performance.

“This release allows Dalet Flex to support media wherever it’s created and distributed,” said Aaron Kroger, director of product marketing at Dalet. “For broadcasters, that means expanding laterally across the enterprise to support more teams, workflows and content types without adding complexity. For marketing, brand and content teams, it removes complexity from media production, making it easier to create, manage and reuse high-quality content with professional-grade tools. At the same time, this release introduces core capabilities that prepare customers for the next phase of innovation with Dalia.”

A highlight of the release is a new semantic search experience that makes large media libraries easier to navigate and far more discoverable. Dalet Flex now enables users to find assets by meaning and context, helping teams locate relevant content even when metadata is inconsistent, incomplete or created in different languages.

Embedded directly into Dalet Flex, semantic search enables multilingual discovery, allowing users to search across catalogs where content may be logged or tagged in different languages. Users can also combine semantic discovery with exact metadata filters, such as rights, region, format or resolution, enabling faster, more precise access to usable content.

"With semantic search, users no longer need to know the data model, the metadata schema, or which fields were used to tag content. They just describe what they're looking for. This is a fundamental shift; it democratizes access to the archive, letting anyone on the team find relevant content without training on the system's data model or relying on someone who knows where things are stored,” said Erwan Kerfourn, head of product for Dalet Flex.

The Dalet Flex LTS release includes a significant upgrade to Dalet Xtend for Adobe Premiere workflows, designed to improve speed, mobility and reliability for editors working across distributed environments. New capabilities include:

• Offline mode to continue editing uninterrupted during network disruptions, with automatic synchronization upon reconnection.
• Streaming mode to access content directly in Adobe Premiere without downloading full files or proxies.
• Smarter remote rendering workflows, including intelligent job routing across Adobe Media Encoder resources.
• Expanded support for modern editorial workflows with improvements to project handling, rendering and version control.

The Flex LTS release advances Dalet’s initiative to make Dalet Flex easier and more efficient for users with UI refinements and new viewing options, such as Dynamic Tile View, allowing users to adapt layouts for tasks like shot selection or high-volume browsing without repeatedly opening previews.

The release also strengthens core platform capabilities supporting enterprise media operations. Enhancements include improved handling of large-scale IMF workflows, addressing complex packaging and distribution requirements for high-resolution, HDR and multi-variant deliverables. In addition, Dalet Ingest Portal with intuitive web-based scheduling is now available.

Dalet Flex LTS also introduces Dalet AI Services, a new foundation for embedded AI capabilities that run directly within Flex environments, whether on premises, in the cloud or in distributed deployments. Initial capabilities include built-in multilingual transcription.

The release is designed to support Dalia, Dalet’s agentic workflow solution. Dalia is currently in testing with early adopters and will be widely available starting in Q2.

More information is available on the company’s website.

NEW YORK—Media technology and service provider Dalet has named Gwen Braygeen as executive vice president and chief customer officer, a new role tasked with strengthening the company’s end-to-end customer experience as it expands its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms and introduces new AI-driven innovations.

She’ll lead Dalet’s global customer success and customer support organizations, the company said, and will be the executive owner of the complete customer life cycle that spans onboarding, adoption, value realization and expansion and renewal.

Braygreen joins Dalet from Akamai Technologies, where she oversaw the product management, engineering and enablement teams within the content delivery network provider’s customer services division.

“Dalet is committed to ensuring customers get the maximum value from their Dalet solutions, especially as we continue to introduce new innovations across our platform,” Stephen Garland, chief product and technology officer at Dalet, said. “Gwen will steward the execution and operational excellence needed to make every stage of the customer journey successful, from onboarding through long-term adoption and expansion.”

An industry veteran of more than 20 years, prior to Akamai, Braygreen was general manager of Bangalore operations at Aspect Software and senior VP of customer experience at Aspect Communications, where she led the global customer success and support organizations. Earlier in her career, Braygreen worked at the ABC television network in broadcast operations and engineering roles.

"The customer journey is a confidence lifecycle,” Braygreen said. “Trust is built or lost at key moments, from early expectation-setting through onboarding, day-to-day usage, and ultimately renewal. My focus is on ensuring Dalet delivers a consistent, accountable experience that enables customers to adopt new capabilities faster, realize value sooner and operate with confidence."

For more on Dalet, Braygreen and the company’s customer-centric strategy, visit Dalet’s website.

LOS ANGELES—When we launched KOCOWA, our vision was simple yet ambitious: to bring the best of Korean entertainment to audiences worldwide. Founded by Korea’s leading broadcasters, KBS, MBC and SBS, KOCOWA began in the Americas in 2017. Over the years, it has evolved into a truly global platform, with expansion into Europe, Australia and New Zealand in early 2024.

Today, KOCOWA has subscribers across 73 countries who enjoy their favorite dramas, variety shows, and K-pop programs just six hours after they air in Korea, with subtitles available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

This rapid expansion has been fueled not only by our dedication to fans but also by our commitment to continuously improving our technology. Dalet Flex, in particular, has become the foundation for building an efficient and scalable operation that supports both our B2C subscribers and B2B partners worldwide.

The Deployment
From the beginning, our goal was to automate content acquisition and distribution to operate with minimal resources while maintaining the highest quality of service. We needed a platform capable of handling the high volume of content arriving from Korea, adapting to diverse business models and scaling globally.

Dalet Flex provided robust, adaptable workflows that reduced manual labor and ensured consistency across every aspect of our media supply chain. With the support of Dalet’s professional services team, we designed and configured workflows tailored to our specific needs. These cover everything from ingesting and processing content to preparing metadata and delivering assets to both B2C and B2B end points. The Dalet team also trained our staff, enabling us to quickly optimize operations.

Today, we have team members across content management, marketing, service operations and engineering who rely on Dalet Flex on a daily basis. This cross-departmental adoption demonstrates just how central Dalet Flex has become to our operation.

In our operations, Dalet Flex automates the entire supply chain. Incoming assets and metadata are acquired, processed and transformed for use on our streaming service. Content is then distributed seamlessly across our B2C platform as well as to our expanding roster of B2B partners. Tasks that once required hours of repetitive manual effort are now handled automatically, allowing our teams to redirect their efforts toward innovation, user engagement and strategic partnerships.

One of the most valuable aspects of Dalet Flex is the Flex Core. Its flexibility allows us to adjust workflows as business needs evolve, whether we are scaling into new regions or adding distribution partners. Additionally, the Dalet Flex Publish feature has become indispensable to our content marketing strategy, automatically delivering promotional clips to YouTube, where they engage fans and generate excitement for full episodes.

Future Flexibility
The impact of Dalet Flex on our operations is clear in terms of efficiency, cost reduction and improvements in the viewing experience. The solution automates and eliminates repetitive manual work, accelerating turnaround and ensuring content is ready for fans within hours of broadcast in Korea.

It has also reduced costs. By leveraging automated workflows, we have kept staffing levels lean and operational costs under control, even while serving audiences around the world. In addition, simplified, reliable processes mean that viewers receive subtitled content faster, improving satisfaction and loyalty, while B2B partners benefit from smooth, on-time delivery.

As KOCOWA continues to grow, Dalet Flex will remain a cornerstone of our operation. Our plans include expanding our B2C reach into new territories while also strengthening our B2B partnerships with media companies worldwide. By doing so, we aim to make it easier than ever for audiences everywhere to discover and enjoy the rich, diverse world of Korean entertainment.

For us, Dalet Flex is the backbone that enables us to fulfill our mission of connecting global audiences with the vibrant, ever-expanding universe of Korean entertainment.

More information is available at www.dalet.com.

NEW YORK—Dalet unveiled Dalia, the company’s Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under a single, natural-language, conversational‑style user experience, at the just-ended IBC2025.

Dalia, an intelligent layer embedded across Dalet Flex, Dalet Pyramid, Dalet InStream, Dalet Brio and Dalet Amberfin, features a family of media-aware agents that act as assistants to facilitate complex workflows across ingest, production, rights management, distribution and archive.

“After a year of shaping and executing our product strategy, we’re thrilled to bring this vision to life,” said Stephen Garland, chief product and technology officer at Dalet. “From Day One, we have challenged ourselves and the industry to deliver the kind of seamless, user‑centric experience that consumers now expect. What we’re unveiling isn’t just another tool or AI chatbot. It’s intelligence beyond an agent, a transformational leap that unifies the entire Dalet ecosystem under a single interface. With this launch, media professionals can reimagine how they work, leveraging the full power of our platform through a conversation with a trusted assistant.”

Built on Dalet’s open-core API, the agentic interface sits above all applications in the Dalet portfolio, offering a single conversational entry point. Users can ask the agent to locate assets, build title collections based on rights status, trigger review workflows or schedule live ingest, and the system will execute these tasks end‑to‑end.

Unlike generic chatbots, Dalet’s conversational AI interface and agents are media-aware: trained on the company’s own orchestration and media engine, not on customer data. This allows users to interact with a full range of media types directly and securely within the chat. Training and analyzing media is done within the core platform, providing complete control of which engines access customers’ content. Dalet AI Agents understand how to search, clip, transcode and package content without users leaving the chat. This approach augments traditional user interfaces for many day‑to‑day tasks, giving users the ability to perform complex operations with ease.

More information is available on the company’s website.

Dalet has released a new update to its Dalet Flex media workflow platform, introducing powerful new capabilities to its flagship platform.

Dalet Flex 2025.6 LTS (long-term support) debuts “Secure Share,” a feature that enables external collaboration without compromising security or control. Users can now generate secure, time-limited links for seamless media exchange, whether sharing single assets, collections, review sessions, or delivery packages, according to Dalet.

The release also introduces Flex Packages—modular, preconfigured functionality bundles grouped into five strategic packs. These packages accelerate time-to-value by enabling AI-powered workflows (Dalet Media Cortex, DeepVA, OpenAI), live production integration, content review and approval, and more. Additional enhancements include a fully Kubernetes-native architecture and expanded language and captioning support in Dalet Cut, allowing media organizations to scale operations and deliver content globally with greater agility

“With its latest updates, Dalet Flex introduces powerful production workflow improvements, blending advanced automation with intuitive, user-friendly enhancements,” Aaron Kroger, director of product marketing and communications at Dalet, said. "The new capabilities underscore our commitment to streamlining processes and boosting efficiency. Features like Secure Share and packaged workflows optimize collaboration, allowing teams to work faster and smarter. The ongoing platform improvements save time and effort, while helping organizations deliver high-quality content more efficiently.”

Key Highlights of Dalet Flex 2025.6 LTS
Designed to integrate seamlessly into any media ecosystem, Dalet Flex 2025.6 introduces new features that enhance workflows for media ingest, strategic content management, and distribution.

• Secure Collaboration: The new Secure Share feature transforms how media teams collaborate with external partners, providing safe and efficient asset sharing. It offers secure access to individual assets, collections and reviews with granular permissions and activity tracking for complete control, eliminating the need to transfer assets between platforms.
• Rapid Deployment: Preconfigured, packaged workflows provide standardized solutions for common requirements, enabling quick adoption and rapid deployment for teams.
• Enhanced Usability and Accessibility: An improved user interface with optimized layouts makes navigation easier, while expanded language support—including Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Hebrew—reduces friction and enhances team efficiency.
• Streamlined Captioning: Dalet Cut now enables seamless creation, translation, and editing of caption files. Paired with FlexMAM’s ability to manage these files as individual assets, this enhancement streamlines editorial workflows.
• Unmatched Scalability: A full Kubernetes architecture ensures maximum scalability, cost efficiency and reliability. Benefits include auto-scaling, self-healing, zero-downtime updates and seamless performance in high-demand environments.
• Optimized Ingest operations: The new Dalet Ingest Portal offers a modern, user-friendly, web-based ingest scheduler, enabling efficient management of live ingest across cloud and on-prem environments through a centralized platform. The Dalet Flex 2025.6 LTS release includes beta access to the portal.

Read Aaron Kroger's blog on how the combination of existing functions and new additions has unlocked a new level of production workflows.

PARIS—Media technology provider Dalet has added Tamara Saunders, a 30-year veteran of enterprise technology and financial strategy, as its chief financial officer.

Saunders will lead Dalet’s global financial operations with responsibilities in such critical areas as financial planning, risk management and organizational development, the company said. She’ll also serve as a liaison with the company’s board.

“In today’s fast-evolving industry, financial leadership is not just about numbers, it’s about creating frameworks that enable agility and innovation,” Saunders said in a statement. “I am excited to join Dalet at such a pivotal time in its growth. The opportunity to collaborate across disciplines as we drive value for our customers and continue building a strong foundation for the future is deeply inspiring.”

Saunders’ career experience includes leadership roles in global technology companies, Dalet said, with extensive experience guiding financial strategies in high-growth, international environments. Her ability to build cohesive, results-driven teams and align operations with corporate goals has earned her a reputation as a forward-looking, strategic leader, according to the company.

“Tamara brings a wealth of financial expertise, operational insight and a proven record in driving transformation across complex organizations,” Dalet CEO Santiago Solanas said. “She embodies the modern CFO, playing a pivotal role in shaping strategy, fostering collaboration and creating sustainable value for all stakeholders. We are thrilled to have her join Dalet’s executive team as we continue our focus on innovation, customer success and operational excellence.”

Her appointment reinforces Dalet's commitment to assembling a leadership team equipped to navigate the evolving media technology landscape and capitalize on emerging opportunities, the company said.

Dalet has hired Erik Holt as senior vice president, global channels, responsible for the media technology and service provider’s global partner strategy.

The former IBM and Optimove executive will play a pivotal role in strengthening Dalet’s global ecosystem, the company said, by focusing on activating long-term, high-value collaborations with solutions and technology partners to scale the delivery of its solutions.

“Dalet continues to make big investments in its business and technology, transforming how our partners can engage us and thrive,” Dalet Chief Revenue Officer Tara Bryant said. “With Erik at the helm, the vision for a Dalet enterprise ecosystem of partners is clear, and we are well-positioned to significantly accelerate and scale delivery of our value solutions for the opportunities ahead of us.”

Dalet supports an global ecosystem of more than 300 product integrations and hundreds of other solutions, technology and business-partner relationships worldwide. Its multilayered Dalet Solutions Partner Program and Dalet Technology Partner Program provide the needed tools to integrate, market, sell and deliver the company’s media-workflow solutions at sale across news, sports, media asset management and entertainment verticals, the company said.

For more on Dalet’s partnership programs, please click here.

PARIS—Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s national public-service media company, has chosen Dalet to develop and implement a state-of-the-art content management ecosystem, the company said.

As part of the agreement, Dalet will provide a scalable, flexible and collaborative media asset-management and workflow orchestration platform that will serve as the foundation to manage RTÉ archival workflows as well as production workflows connected to its content, such as video editing.

In addition, Dalet will provide a high-density ingest and playout solution to manage content capture, ensuring that metadata is meticulously captured.

“This partnership with Dalet represents a significant step in the transformation of RTÉ into a modern media organization,” RTÉ chief technology officer and director of operations Richard Waghorn said. “A key element in that transformation is the development of solutions that enable us to deliver our programming and content, including a vast amount of archive material, to our audiences more easily and more effectively. Dalet’s content management ecosystem will ensure we can do that.”

Waghorn also stressed that “with Ireland's rich history, RTÉ’s archives contain a wealth of unique Irish content that will now be more readily accessible to better utilize and share. This demonstrates our leadership’s commitment to continue building RTÉ into a world-class media organization.”

The new content management ecosystem, named “One Media Share,” will integrate about 1.3 million hours of content from 19 siloed content storage and archive systems, including in-production content, nearline stored digital content, and deep archive content stored on tape. Dalet’s platform will standardize metadata, ensuring all content is fully accessible and searchable. This comprehensive integration will maximize the return on RTÉ’s existing investments by enhancing production and delivery workflows.

“Dalet has extensive experience bringing together massive disparate storage pools and archives for broadcasters around the world,” said Enrique Lafuente, vice president of sales EMEA, Dalet. “We’re proud to partner with RTÉ as it enhances its content management, user experience and to enable new opportunities through our agile solution.”

RTÉ established its radio services in 1926 and its television service in 1961, making it one of the world’s longest-operating public-service media organizations. RTÉ is dedicated to championing Irish culture by captivating audiences with trusted, engaging and challenging content, celebrating the country’s rich diversity and cultivating its talent.

PARIS—As news organizations struggle to adapt to rapid changes in the way consumers access and digest news, Dalet and Caretta Research have published a new study, “The Future of Newsroom Workflows,” which delves into both the challenges facing newsrooms and some potential solutions.

The study featured input from newsroom professionals worldwide from more than 60 organizations, mainly public and commercial broadcasters.

“This research highlights how news organizations are responding to years of change driven by evolving media habits, multiplatform production, funding pressures, the pandemic, and new technologies,” Rob Ambrose, co-founder and managing director of Caretta Research, said. “The findings reveal that despite acute challenges, there's a remarkable wave of optimism among industry professionals. At the same time, it points to the opportunities to embrace fully 'story-centric' working and updated newsroom workflows and systems.”

The report illuminates the seismic shifts in the news business that are shaping workflows. It covers key topics such as AI adoption and the role of social media, as well as story-centric and multiplatform production challenges.

Study respondents said many news organizations are struggling with traditional workflows and legacy systems. Specifically, one-third say their current newsroom computer system does not meet their needs. While more than half faced budget cuts in the last year, only a small number actively track the cost of covering stories or measure ROI.

The report also reveals a notable trend of adopting AI-enabled tools and rethinking content delivery across platforms as news operations aim to maintain relevance and engage audiences in a highly fragmented distribution model.

“Newsrooms must now create more content for multiple platforms with fewer resources,“ Marcy Lefkovitz, senior vice president of product innovation at Dalet, said “Our findings highlight the crucial role technology and modern toolsets play in supporting journalists to meet the evolving demands of their audiences. Our partnership with Caretta Research enables us to share a current view of newsroom operations. The result not only outlines ongoing challenges but also provides actionable insights for future success.”

Key findings of "The Future of Newsroom Workflows" include:

• 45% of news operations experience significant challenges with legacy systems, limiting access to field content and requiring users to switch between multiple systems to complete tasks.
• Websites are the leading platform for news distribution, but a significant portion of the industry still lacks dedicated digital teams for content production.
• Despite significant changes driven by digital and social media platforms, there’s enormous optimism, with 68% of news people feeling “good” or “very good” about the future of their news operation.
• Further insights into crucial topics shaping the future of newsroom operations include strategies for managing and tracking costs.
• Respondents noted that modernized tools greatly simplify newsroom operations, underscoring the importance of selecting the right systems and implementing timely updates. To navigate the complexities of legacy system replacement, data and workflow migration, Dalet recently introduced a comprehensive Competitive Upgrade Program to maximize transformation benefits, efficiencies and cost savings.

The independent research was commissioned by Dalet and conducted by Caretta Research in July and August among global respondents in a wide range of roles, including newsroom management, editorial and production roles, technical and engineering jobs and craft and operational functions. Participants came from over 60 diverse news organizations, mainly public and commercial broadcasters, as well as local network affiliates across the U.S.

The full report is available here.

PARIS—Dalet has announced that it is expanding its Competitive Upgrade Program to include legacy news systems.

Launched in 2023, the Dalet program provides financial incentives, expert workflow consultation, migration and training services to help customers modernize their media operations and significantly reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). Under the expanded program, organizations with legacy news systems can migrate to Dalet’s story-centric workflow solution featuring advanced automation and AI capabilities.

“In today’s climate of austerity and efficiency, continuing to spend on outdated newsroom systems isn't sustainable. However, simply replacing a legacy system is not enough to drive progress,” Dalet Chief Revenue Officer Tara Bryant said. “News organizations need a partner with deep industry expertise and cutting-edge technology to achieve the best financial and operational outcomes. That partner is Dalet.”

The expansion of the popular upgrade program coincides with Caretta Research’s upcoming report “The Future of Newsroom Workflows,” prepared in partnership with Dalet. The report found 45% of news operations experience significant challenges with legacy systems. Specifically, outdated tools and fragmented workflows limit access to content from the field and require users to jump between multiple systems to complete tasks.

Dalet described the key benefits of the Dalet Competitive Upgrade Program as follows:

• Complimentary news workflow consultation for an operational audit and insights into story-centric news production, collaboration and remote operations.
• Financial incentives for transitioning from legacy solutions to Dalet, along with the resulting operational cost savings.
• Seamless transition for your data and workflows by tapping into Dalet’s expertise in managing hundreds of successful customer migrations.
• A year of free training through the Dalet Learning Hub, supporting change management and adoption.

More information is available here.

PARIS—New Zealand public broadcaster RNZ has selected Dalet to transform its editorial systems with the media solutions provider’s story-centric news production technologies, the company said.

RNZ is making the upgrade as it enters its 100th year of operations. It plans to transition to the new system in 2025. Dalet is currently working with the broadcaster on a comprehensive staff training program.

“RNZ’s upcoming centenary marks not just a celebration of our past, but a bold stride into the future,” RNZ Chief Technology Officer Mark Bullen said. “This investment underscores our commitment to digital transformation, leveraging modern technologies to streamline operations and enhance our capacity to deliver timely news and information.”

RNZ provides independent news and current affairs and a range of diverse programs and podcasts, on-air and online, with both audio and video programming. The new system will free RNZ’s staff to spend more time on what matters most, the broadcaster said—delivering impactful narratives to audiences.

RNZ said it plans to deploy Dalet Pyramid, a news solution that enhances resource sharing and story collaboration for chaos-free operations that are open and auditable. The integrated solution will modernize content production and delivery with a story-centric approach.

The replacement newsroom management solution includes planning, story editing and approvals, wire feeds, contact management, publishing, rundown management and archiving. In addition, the updated audio editing and management solution will let RNZ staff capture, edit and publish audio anytime and anywhere. The tech upgrade represents an investment of NZ$4.5M for the implementation and first five years of operation, RNZ said.

“One of the systems we’ve been relying on dates back to 1999,” RNZ Chief News Officer Mark Stevens said. “To put that into perspective, in 1999 Nokia 3210 topped phone sales and Google had just hired its first employee. Our dedicated RNZ kaimahi (staff) have worked wonders with these outdated tools, finding creative solutions wherever possible. However, we owe it to our storytellers to provide them with state-of-the-art technology so they can concentrate on delivering quality content to our audiences.”

Dalet was chosen to deliver the new system after a rigorous six-month tender process with almost 200 specific requirements, including RNZ’s role as a lifeline utility needing a hybrid cloud and on-premise solution. This ensures that RNZ can remain on-air to deliver news broadcasts during emergencies.

PARIS—Dalet has announced three new members of its executive team. Tara Bryant joins as chief revenue officer (CRO) with responsibilities spanning sales, marketing and customer success, while Marcy Lefkovitz joins Dalet as the new senior vice president (SVP) of product innovation. 

Stephen Garland has been appointed chief product and technology officer leading Dalet’s product and engineering organization; he will also continue in his role as senior advisor to the Dalet Board. 

“Tara, Marcy and Stephen embody the culture and values we have and strive for at Dalet: proactive collaboration, high accountability, strategic drive, balanced pragmatism, and a focus on execution,” states Santiago Solanas, CEO, Dalet. “All three are exceptional individuals who combine assertiveness with excellent listening skills and, most importantly, passion. I look forward to collaborating with them closely to shape the future of the media industry.”

Dalet CRO Tara Bryant brings a wealth of global go-to-market experience in all areas of revenue creation. As a trusted and proven leader of high-performing teams, she will help align Dalet’s sales, marketing, and customer success functions, as well as drive customer strategy and growth ambitions, Dalet explained. 

Marcy Lefkovitz is a well-known and respected industry leader with more than two decades of experience in media and broadcast technology at companies like ABC News, Disney Content Operations and TelevisaUnivision. As Dalet’s new SVP of product innovation, she will bring her background as a journalist, editor and operations executive to oversee the design and implementation of innovative workflow strategies and technologies that optimize operations and boost efficiencies for Dalet’s customers.

Stephen Garland brings over 25 years of experience in successfully driving and scaling rapid growth across global B2B, B2C, and B2B2C companies to his role as chief product and technology officer. His expertise in building and optimizing globally distributed teams is matched by his passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences through value-driven, innovative SaaS solutions. Stephen’s commitment to collaboration and iterative processes is set to significantly enhance Dalet’s end-to-end product strategy, delivery, and support, the company said. 

PARIS—Dalet has announced that The Picture Production Company (PPC), a dynamic marketing agency specializing in the film and television industries, is achieving greater efficiencies by using Dalet solutions to implement production-based workflows and AI capabilities. 

With offices in London and Los Angeles, PPC services major entertainment clients globally. Each location has its own specific workflow powered by Dalet Flex. 

"With Dalet Flex, we've created an environment with less internal noise and faster production processes,” says Dave Chordia, COO at PPC. “We're excited about the future and the continued improvements we'll achieve with Dalet Flex."

Dalet Flex provides PPC with end-to-end content production and media supply chain workflows with media asset management (MAM) and workflow orchestration across PPC’s London and Los Angeles offices. 

PPC reported that one of the standout features of Dalet Flex is its seamless integration with best-of-breed Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines and that PPC has incorporated Wasabi AiR into their Dalet workflow. All content ingested into Dalet Flex is automatically sent to the AI engine for specialized services such as transcription, particularly speech-to-text and text-to-text.

In addition, these workflows have helped with localization. 

PPC manages content for nearly 90 territories worldwide, many of which encompass multiple languages. Instead of having on-site linguists, PPC collaborates with suppliers and in-territory translators globally to create localized content.

English language transcripts are the starting point for PPC’s localization pipeline to translators and dubbing studios around the world. While automatic transcription may seem ubiquitous, PPC needs a secure, scalable enterprise process that leverages human review and correction. Although it is a closed system to protect the clients’ IP, with human intervention, the system can learn the intricacies of idioms, colloquialisms, and cultural references to properly represent tone and intent.

Dalet will be showing Dalet Flex and other solutions at the upcoming IBC Show. 

Dalet will showcase updates to its range of media asset management and content creation tools with an emphasis on AI-enhanced workflows at the 2024 IBC Show, Sept. 13-17 at the RAI Amsterdam.

Dalet Pyramid
Dalet’s story-centric news solution, Dalet Pyramid, modernizes news operations with an advanced digital-first news workflow that mutualizes resources and optimizes story collaboration to promote a chaos-free news operation. AI-enhanced workflows and centralized planning transform the way global news operations can facilitate multi-format news workflows on a future-proofed platform that runs with full flexibility across cloud, hybrid and on-premise environments.

Updates shown at IBC2024 include a customizable Dalet Pyramid Planner dashboard and UI improvements that enable users to see stories, media and assignments exactly as they want. Attendees can also preview the new Dalet Pyramid browser-based rundown management capabilities that enhance the production of live shows. The next-generation rundown enables collaboration with real-time co-authoring while still working in a story-centric workflow.

Dalet Flex
Dalet Flex media asset management (MAM) and workflow orchestration enables sports organizations and entertainment companies to produce, manage, package, distribute and monetize content effortlessly. Key integrations with digital storefronts like Veritone Digital Media Hub further enhance library and archive monetization opportunities.

Dalet Flex continuous updates, also shown at IBC2024 include a range of operational efficiency capabilities, including enhanced growing-file management and editing capabilities that accelerate workflows. Improved UX functionality provides faster, easier metadata management. Plus, new cost-monitoring capabilities track cloud storage and processing costs.

Dalet Cut
Cloud–native Dalet Cut web-based editor for collaborative and multiformat storytelling lets Dalet Pyramid and Dalet Flex users edit and publish content from anywhere with speed and ease. AI-generated and translated captions and graphics increase speed and efficiency.

New Dalet Cut updates include editing growing files and new modes with three- and four-point editing as well as audio improvements with auto ducking and improved monitoring options.

Dalet’s booth will also include

• New AI integrations - Dalet Media Cortex presents a multi-engine approach to metadata enrichment and normalization of multiple sources across large-scale libraries and archives that gives customers consistent, accurate results. The new integrations provide secure, trainable AI models with flexible deployment options - both in the cloud and on-premises - for facial recognition, logo detection, speaker identification and more.
  
• Advanced media processing - Dalet AmberFin delivers premium transcoding at scale on-premises and in the cloud and now gives customers even more deployment flexibility, updated best-in-market pay-per-use pricing, as well as additional codecs and tools that optimize media supply chain workflows. It features elastic pay-by-the-hour media processing business model and flexible deployment options.
  
• Ingest and playout without limitations - Dalet Brio provides high-density ingest and playout while Dalet InStream enables elastic ingest in the cloud for leading media-centric organizations. Ingest as you need, without limits with multi-channel, cloud-native solutions. New features provide additional codec support and continued improvements for a better user experience.

“Customers across every market vertical need to transform both their operations and business models for greater efficiency and monetization. Our commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements uniquely positions Dalet to lead these transformations,” states Santiago Solanas, CEO, Dalet. “Our renewed solutions portfolio delivers on the promise of AI efficiency with a customer experience that enables you to navigate industry uncertainty and thrive, all while safeguarding the integrity of storytelling.”

Dalet will be in Stand 7.A43 at the show. For more information, visit https://show.ibc.org/

LEVALLOIS-PERRET, France—Dalet will highlight new flexible media workflows, product capabilities and artificial intelligence (AI) integrations at the IBC Show, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center.

The company will show how collaborative AI workflows enable a single, cloud-native technology stack to power production, distribution, archiving and monetization in news, sports and entertainment, it said.

Dalet relies on industry standard AI engines to connect multiple AI services via the Dalet Media Cortex. AI integration enables speech recognition, language translation and automated metadata tagging, the company said.

The latest integration with a best-of-breed engine provides secure, trainable AI models with flexible deployment options to transform production and distribution workflows, it said.

The company will show a new customizable Planner dashboards for its story-centric multiplatform news system Dalet Pyramid as well as extensive UI improvements to enable news users to see stories, media and assignments precisely how they wish, it said.

Dalet Flex, the company’s platform for media production, management, orchestration, delivery and monetization will feature an improved UX and faster, easier management of metadata as well as new cost-monitoring capabilities to track storage and processing costs, it said.

The company also has updated its cloud-native web-based Dalet Cut editor when connected to Flex and Pyramid with the ability to edit growing files and support for new modes with three- and four-point editing as well as audio improvements with auto ducking and improved monitoring, it said.

Dalet will also show multiple improvements for Dale AmberFin media processing and transcoding. It also will feature Dalet Brio high-density ingest and playout and Dalet InStream, its elastic ingest cloud-based solution.

See Dalet at IBC 2024 Stand 7.A43. 

More information is available on the company’s website.

Missed any of our product news this week? Here is our new weekly wrap-up of new products, services and deployments we published in our newsletter between June 24 and June 28. The stories are listed from the newest on Friday June 28, day by day back to our stories from Monday June 24..

Nest Productions, MiB Partner On New Production Insurance Program

Nest Productions has partnered with film and TV insurance firm MiB, providing Nest partner indies with competitive insurance rates, enhanced coverage and production risk management and support, it said.

Globecast, Blacon Media To Collaborate On U.S. Election Coverage

Globecast and Blacon Media, a broadcast engineering, production and distribution firm, are partnering to provide live coverage of the 2024 U.S. election and related events.

Fubo Launches on Xfinity Flex, Xumo Stream Box and Xumo TV

Comcast and the vMVPD Fubo have announced that Xfinity Internet customers with a Flex or Xumo Stream Box have another option for a live TV service with the launch of Fubo, a sports-first live streaming service that brings together more than 400 sports, news and entertainment networks.

Dalet Completes AWS Foundational Technical Review for Dalet Pyramid Cloud-Native News 

Dalet has announced it has completed the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Foundational Technical Review (FTR) for Dalet Pyramid, the company's cloud-native news workflow solution.

T-Mobile Remains Top Ranked for 5G Speeds

New Q1 2024 data from Ookla shows that T-Mobile continues to provide the fastest 5G download speeds in the U.S., with a median 5G download speed of 287.14 Mbps as of March 2024, an increase of 29.64 Mbps in a single month.

Amagi Strengthens its European Presence with New Office in Poland

Amagi has opened a new office in the bustling center of Łódź, which will strengthen its European presence and allow it to tap into a wealth of young technology talent in Poland, the company reported.

HOT Telecommunications Reduces Errors, Plans For Future With OOONA QA Manager

Israeli telecom HOT has deployed OOONA’s QA Manager to transform management of its video-on-demand (VOD) catalog and automate quality assurance operation, enhance the accuracy of localization and deliver a better experience to customers.

Peacock to Use AI-Generated Al Michaels' Voice for Recaps of Olympic Games

AI generated content will be breaking new ground in major sports coverage at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris with the NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock announcing that it will harness AI technology to present “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock”.

EMG / Gravity Media Deploys Remote Video Workflow For Netball

EMG / Gravity Media has developed a remote video production workflow for coverage of Netball, a sport played by more than a half million worldwide with some similarities to basketball.

Drei TV Turns To ATEME For OTT Video Compression, Management

Drei TV has deployed video compression and management technology from ATEME to power the Austrian TV service provider’s over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, which consists of more than 60 channels, in time for coverage of a major European Football Tournament.

DAZN Group, Exports World Cup Foundation Strike Coverage Deal

The Esports World Cup Foundation has entered into a global partnership agreement with DAZN Group, which will provide its platform for the free broadcast of the inaugural Esports World Cup (EWC), July4-August 25.

Amagi Showcases New Streaming Technology on Vizio

Amagi has announced the successful deployment of Amagi's Zero Slate technology on Vizio's owned and operated WatchFree+ channels.

Dish Launches New TV Bundle with Free Netflix

Dish Network has announced that it has added Netflix to its Dish TV subscription offering at no additional cost for two years.

Meptik Releases Turnkey ‘Studio in a Box’ for Virtual Production

The Disguise company Meptik has unveiled its first turnkey virtual production studio solution, Meptik Studio Pro.

Akta Integrates Google Cloud Gemini AI Models

AI-powered video solutions specialist Akta has announced at StreamTV 2024 in Denver that its platform will now use Google Cloud’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) models.

Hyperlocal Streaming Service Zeam Expands Channel Roster

Zeam Media has announced the launch of a number of new channels including Always Funny TV, from the creators of America’s Funniest Home Video, Tegna's Locked on Sports and True Crime Network channels, and Hubbard Broadcasting’s roster of local stations across Minnesota, New Mexico, and upstate New York.

Avid Unveils Avid Huddle SaaS Content Review, Approvals Solution

Avid has launched Avid Huddle, an SaaS solution that gives post-production teams the ability to collaborate and accelerate content review and approvals.

Cineverse Taps XL8 to Enhance Captioning, Localization

Cineverse announced this week that it is using XL8’s AI-powered machine translation technology to enhance Cineverse’s Matchpoint content management and distribution platform for captioning and localization.

Bitcentral Unveils Fusion Gateway for AI-Powered Media Asset Management

Bitcentral has launched Fusion Gateway, a best-in-class cloud offering that the company says “bridges the gap between media asset management (MAM) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools,” enabling Bitcentral customers “to harness new opportunities for content discovery, automation, and increased efficiency and sets the table for more creativity.”

Accedo, Qualcomm and HBS Form XR Sports Alliance

Accedo is joining forces with Qualcomm Technologies and HBS, a specialist sports broadcast organization, to form a strategic alliance with the aim of bringing together market-leading stakeholders to bridge the sports and XR industry.

Wowza to Work with AWS and AMD for High-Efficiency Streaming

Wowza has announced that Wowza Streaming Engine, its highly flexible, on-prem video streaming solution, is now compatible with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) VT1 instances from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is available in AWS Marketplace.

KBTC Upgrades Studio Lighting with Brightline Soft Lights

The public TV station KBTC has redesigned and upgraded its lighting design with Brightline soft lights. A legacy Kliegl lighting/dimming system was repurposed, adding the ability to route non-dimming power to new solid-state soft lights from Brightline Lighting.

Imagine Upgrades Ad Management Platform xG Linear with New Features

Imagine Communications has unveiled new features and improvements to xG Linear, its ad management platform for MVPDs in North America.

Canada’s Global News Upgrades to Calrec’s Type R IP Consoles

Global News, a leading news network in Canada, has integrated Calrec's Type R consoles into its facilities in Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver.

Lionsgate Selects Amagi for FAST Playout and Delivery

Amagi has announced that Lionsgate has chosen Amagi to be its partner for FAST playout and deliveries globally. Lionsgate will use Amagi's cutting-edge cloud technology to scale Lionsgate's content delivery capabilities globally and enable the rapid launch of new channels, the companies reported.

Paul Bunyan Communications Chooses Witbe Monitoring Technology

U.S. rural all-fiber-optic network provider Paul Bunyan Communications has selected Witbe’s proactive monitoring technology to monitor channels remotely that run on its PBTV set-top boxes (STBs) and ensure customers across multiple states receive a high quality of experience (QoE).

Hiltron Reports Growing Demand for Ground Antenna Refurbishment

Demand is coming from high accuracy teleport antenna performance evaluation through to latest-generation motorized antenna mounts and control systems.

CommScope Updates E6000 Converged Edge Router

CommScope has launched Software Release 13 for the E6000 Converged Edge Router (CER). Software Release 13 allows operators a flexible path forward with existing or new units as they move toward 10G with the power of the E6000 CER­—the cable industry’s most widely-deployed CCAP—in rapidly-evolving cable networks.

Comcast Business, Elon Musk’s Starlink Ink Deal to Provide Connectivity to Businesses

Comcast Business has announced an agreement with Elon Musk’s Starlink, a major provider of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite technology, to provide connectivity solutions to Comcast Business enterprise customers.

IBC Show to Focus on AI, Shifting M&E Business Models, Sports

In a press conference, IBC organizers previewed the upcoming 2024 IBC Show, taking place Sept 13-16 at the RAI Amsterdam, with a focus on how AI is impacting media and entertainment as well as an examination of how evolving business models are transforming the way media companies use technology to inform and entertain.

PARIS—Dalet has announced it has completed the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Foundational Technical Review (FTR) for Dalet Pyramid, the company's cloud-native news workflow solution. 

This major milestone follows the successful FTR completion of the Dalet Flex media asset management and supply chain platform in June 2023. The pair of achievements, along with participation in the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, reinforce Dalet’s global relationship with AWS and accelerate its efforts to offer customers who seek to run cloud-native media operations with enhanced performance and security standards, the company reported. 

"Dalet Pyramid enables modern, story-centric news workflows promoting wide-scale collaboration across sites, systems, and teams. With support for cloud, hybrid, and on-premise deployment, it provides customers with full scalability and flexibility," stated Lincoln Spiteri, CTO at Dalet. "Our successful completion of the AWS Foundational Technical Review ensures our customers that Dalet Pyramid provides a secure, resilient, and efficient infrastructure.”

Dalet said that it is working with AWS to offer a whole new way of thinking about news production with 360 storytelling in a virtualized environment. 

The AWS Foundational Technical Review ensures that Dalet Pyramid adheres to the AWS Well-Architected Framework, providing a robust, secure, and seamless cloud experience. Dalet News customers can dynamically scale resources to confidently manage complex, large-scale news events such as the upcoming Paris Olympics and 70-plus elections happening near-simultaneously worldwide. All this can be achieved while maintaining optimal performance and security standards, Dalet reported.

Dalet also stressed that its focus on security and long-standing ISO/IEC 27001 certification, combined with a mature global cloud operations team that’s recognized for its best practices, can keep customers’ data secure and operations online when migrating to the cloud.   

BERGEN, Norway—Vizrt has integrated Viz Pilot Edge, the company’s newsroom HTML-based templated graphics system, with the Dalet Galaxy five news production and distribution solution, Vizrt said today.

Viz Pilot Edge is designed for the newsroom to help journalists create story-centric, engaging content faster and more efficiently. The recently introduced Viz Pilot Edge 3 features a new web-based interface that makes newsroom graphics production simpler and seamless, it said.  

To ensure efficiency and a fast turnaround of stories, Viz Pilot Edge is now directly accessible from the Dalet Galaxy.

“At Vizrt, we are committed to continuously empowering newsrooms with the tools and technology to boost workflows and succeed in a rapidly evolving media landscape. This collaboration is a step forward to give journalists the independence and power to elevate storytelling with visually compelling content that audiences expect,” said Ionut Pogacean, senior product manager for Viz Pilot Edge. 

The integration brings the templated graphics capabilities of Viz Pilot Edge directly into Dalet’s solution for unified news operations. Journalists and editors can now access the latest Viz graphical elements directly from their existing Dalet newsroom workflows, the company said. 

“News professionals must have a seamless experience throughout their day-to-day operations,” said Aaron Kroger, product marketing lead at Dalet. “Having Viz Pilot Edge integrated within their existing tools creates this experience.” 

More information is available on the Vizrt website. 

PARIS—Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, has hired Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), replacing Carl Farrell, who will remain on Dalet's board.

Solanas has a 30-year career at leading technology firms, including Cisco, Sage, Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft and is the former CEO of PE-backed Grupo Primavera, where he spearheaded the acquisition, integration, and acceleration of 15 companies, transforming the business into the leading business management software platform in Iberia, before its combination with Cegid, a PE-backed global provider of cloud business management solutions for finance, human resources, CPA’s, retail, and entrepreneurial sectors. 

“Santiago’s appointment marks an exciting next chapter for Dalet,” says Christian Heim, Chairman of the Board, Dalet, and Partner at Long Path Partners (“LPP”). LPP led the take-private of Dalet in 2020 and is the Company’s controlling shareholder. “His exemplary track record of driving transformational growth and execution is a powerful complement to Dalet’s rich history of innovation and category-leading solutions. We are eager to support Dalet under Santiago’s leadership to the benefit of our valued customers, employees and all stakeholders alike.”

“As cloud and AI continue to disrupt and accelerate the industry into new territory, I am very excited to leverage Dalet’s 34-year heritage, extensive industry expertise, and position as a trusted advisor,” says Solanas. “I am passionate about establishing new standards in innovation, customer success, and execution while championing the values of inclusive leadership.” 

In addition to his role as CEO, Solanas will also be a Dalet investor and Board member. 

PARIS—Dalet has announced that during the 2024 NAB Show (booth #W1713), attendees can experience firsthand Dalet’s collaborative, AI-enabled workflows that harness the power of a single, cloud-native technology stack to facilitate production, distribution, archive and monetization for news, sports and entertainment across all channels. 

Dalet said that its flexible, scalable solutions are designed to revolutionize the way broadcasters engage audiences around major sports and events, empower news organizations with the tools and speed to deliver authentic stories as they happen on every viewing platform and enable content owners to reduce time to market and monetize archives through revenue-generating storefronts. 

"Dalet is synonymous with digital media transformation. Our AI-enabled production, distribution and monetization workflows showcased at NAB 2024 give customers trusted, future-proof technology that they can leverage for transformative business opportunities,” states Robin Kirchhoffer, chief marketing officer, Dalet. “Dalet’s unified media workflow platform is designed from the ground up for unprecedented flexibility. Its modern, cloud-native architecture supports technological evolution, enabling us to offer a modular collection of services and expanded workflows that bring real business value and operational efficiencies, empowering our news, broadcast, sports and content customers to thrive today.”

Designed for mission-critical media workflows, Dalet's unified platform for asset management and orchestration maximizes return on investment (ROI) globally through industry-leading automation, full elasticity and AI-enabled applications, the company said. As the company develops new, bespoke technologies, modules and applications for news, sports, OTT, archives and other content workflows, the Dalet platform underpins the expanded ecosystem seamlessly.

Key highlights for newsrooms include: 

• Dalet offers story-centric workflows for unified news operations across television, digital and radio. These solutions optimize collaboration, modernize operations and harmonize resources to solve chaos across newsrooms. The award-winning Dalet Pyramid application is presented alongside the Dalet Cut browser-based editor, and Dalet Media Cortex powerful AI capabilities, which present a revolutionary approach to centralized planning and multiformat news production across a global news organization. The showcase will include a preview of next-generation, browser-based rundown management.
• Co-founder and principal Stephane Guez will explore approaches to “Solving Chaos in the Newsroom” as part of the NAB 2024 conference program on Tuesday, April 16th. 

Key highlights for sports include:

• Sporting organizations such as leagues, federations and major teams can leverage Dalet Flex to streamline their end-to-end workflows from elastic ingest, logging - integrating third-party tools such as loggers and sports data feeds - AI-powered metadata enrichment with Dalet Media Cortex, near-live production with Dalet Cut, distribution and monetization through storefronts like Veritone’s Digital Media Hub. 

Highlights for streamlining advanced M&E content operations include: 

• Dalet Flex empowers media-centric organizations to produce, manage, package, distribute and monetize digital media content and archives effortlessly. The cloud-native solution powers complex end-to-end workflows for content owners of all types and sizes. From production with web-based editor Dalet Cut, integration with creative tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Avid Media Composer, complex format processing, advanced packaging and distribution at scale through to monetizing their archives, Dalet Flex increases efficiency and speed-to-market.

Additional product highlights include:

• Practical, integrated AI with Dalet Media Cortex, which provides speech recognition, language translation, automated metadata tagging and more. Visitors to the Dalet booth will be able to discuss real use cases, such as the complexity of multiple language requirements and how incorporating AI can automate translations of captions, graphics, voiceovers and more.
• Elastic Ingest with Dalet InStream, the multi-channel, cloud-native ingest solution that brings a whole new level of efficiency, agility and elasticity to capture large-scale live events.
• Advanced Media Processing with Dalet AmberFin, the leading media processing and transcoding solution that delivers high-quality media conversions for advanced production formats to complex delivery standards with flexible deployments and elastic processing power.

Dalet will also host its exclusive Executive Breakfast on April 15th, at 7:30 a.m. at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas. The C-Suite, invite-only event themed “Big Events. Big Changes.” will feature keynotes from top industry leaders and innovators. Spots are limited and filling up fast: click here to register your interest and we will confirm your attendance based on availability.

Dalet customers and partners are also invited to the popular “After Work” happy hours at the Dalet booth W1713 for snacks, drinks, and conversation. Stop by and say hello on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of the show from 4:30 pm to close.

Attendees can book a meeting here. 

PARIS & DENVER—Dalet and Veritone, Inc. have announced a technology partnership that integrates the Dalet Flex media workflow ecosystem with Veritone’s AI-powered Digital Media Hub (“DMH”).  

The integration enables a seamless workflow from content creation through production, curation, packaging and distribution for media, sports and entertainment customers to monetize their digital media archives, the companies said. 

A demonstration of the integration will be available at the upcoming NAB Show from April 14 to 17 at Veritone’s booth (W1642) and Dalet’s booth (W1713).

“With content consumption being at an all-time high and media-rich organizations seeking new ways to bring in additional revenue streams, monetization of media archives and assets is key,” states Carl Farrell, CEO and Board Member of Dalet. “The combined power of Dalet and Veritone enables customers to overhaul their monetization initiatives, exposing and licensing their assets quickly, securely and with the highest level of control.”

The Dalet and Veritone referral partnership enables media and entertainment companies to maximize the return on investment of their content assets to generate new revenue streams. The secure, scalable and robust solution enables media-centric organizations to automatically deliver content to partners while remaining in control of their content catalog.

“Veritone’s AI-enabled technology has long been the tool of choice for some of the world’s most recognized brands because of its ability to more efficiently and effectively organize, manage and monetize content,” said Sean King, senior vice president at Veritone. “Veritone and Dalet share a commitment to unlocking the true potential of digital content and we’re pleased to offer the content monetization capabilities of DMH to complete Dalet’s end-to-end platform and provide endless revenue opportunities to their customer base.”

Key features include:

• A cloud-native ecosystem to produce, manage, distribute, transact and monetize digital media content and archives.
• Uniquely advanced rich metadata management, to drive content catalog exposure and automated publishing based on business rules.
• The ability to easily implement branded digital marketplaces, offering a familiar content shopping experience for B2B clients, partners and affiliates.
• Customizable B2B portals, flexible monetization business models and granular searches based on extensive metadata, including timecodes. 
• A highly efficient secure solution with a common vision, long-term shared roadmap, and outstanding customer service. 

 Learn more at www.dalet.com and Veritone.com.  

PARIS—Dalet has launched Dalet InStream, an elastic IP ingest SaaS solution that enables customers to dynamically scale ingest operations in a matter of seconds. 

Available on Sept. 6, Dalet InStream will make its official debut at IBC2023, held in Amsterdam from September 15 through 18, on stand 7.B45 in hall 7. Attendees can book a private demo to experience Dalet InStream in action at: https://www.dalet.com/events/ibc-2023/.

Complementing the high-density Dalet Brio on-premises ingest and playout platform, the cloud-native Dalet InStream leverages the agility and performance of the cloud in a pay-per-use model, bringing greater efficiency, flexibility, and cost savings to capturing news, sports, and other key live events, the company reported. 

Dalet InStream seamlessly integrates across the Dalet ecosystem - Dalet Flex, Dalet Pyramid, and Dalet Galaxy five - enabling customers to schedule, record, access, edit, and deliver content from anywhere, faster than ever. The flexible end-to-end cloud workflows provide customers with new opportunities to expand their programming and significantly reduce total cost of ownership (TCO). 

Available on Sept. 6, Dalet InStream will make its official debut at IBC2023, held in Amsterdam from September 15 through 18, on stand 7.B45 in hall 7. Attendees can book a private demo to experience Dalet InStream in action at: https://www.dalet.com/events/ibc-2023/.

“The amount of content our news and sports customers need to capture and manage from live events is growing exponentially, overwhelming their existing on-premises infrastructure.​ These companies are looking for a cost-effective solution that enables them to ingest content from an ever-growing number of live sources while reducing reliance on on-premises resources that typically sit idle for hours on end. Dalet flips this challenge into an opportunity, allowing them to scale their ingest capabilities as needed to thrive in an IP-first world,” states Lincoln Spiteri, CTO, Dalet. “Recording simultaneous IP streams, particularly for major live events such as the Olympics and national elections, has typically been complex and expensive. Fully integrated within Dalet’s cloud-native ecosystem, including the web-based editor Dalet Cut, Dalet InStream opens new doors for media organizations to accelerate their content time-to-market and expand their programming.”

With the introduction of Dalet InStream, any ingest scenario required by Dalet customers is now fully supported: from IP streams in the cloud to on-premises SDI & IP feeds, standard file upload and camera card ingest. 

The company also stressed that Dalet InStream is a major milestone for the Dalet cloud-native product roadmap. It completes Dalet’s end-to-end ingest-to-distribution cloud offering, providing customers the flexibility and computing power of the cloud on an architecture and business model that future proofs their operations.

The company said that Dalet InStream can be deployed within a day. No additional hardware investment or resources required. With a flexible subscription and pay-per-use model, customers can significantly reduce ingest costs with potential savings between 50 and 80 percent.

Key capabilities include:  

• Scale ingest capabilities dynamically based on immediate needs, removing barriers for expanded opportunities.
• Access ingest content from anywhere and enable faster workflows with growing file support, allowing you to begin editing immediately.
• Reduce total cost of ownership while maintaining broadcast-quality capture and formats (high resolution and proxy generation).
• Centralize operations with a user-friendly interface that enables users to manage both IP and on-premises SDI ingest, when combined with Dalet Brio. 
• Support a wide range of broadcast feed formats including SRT, NDI or RTMP from web sources, Zoom and backpack solutions to ingest live content from the field.
• Optimize and streamline operations for news organizations through centralized recordings, which are available to users across multiple sites. This significantly eliminates the need for duplicate human and staff efforts and technical resources, introducing considerable TCO savings, Dalet said. 

Dalet said that in conjunction with Dalet InStream, customers can leverage tools such as the web-based media editor Dalet Cut for live editing, fast-tracking assembly of content for highlights, social sharing, or programs, as well as distribution - all in the cloud.

The underlying cloud-native architecture of Dalet InStream also provides the firepower required to manage the recording of the world’s most complex events while future-proofing the platform for future transformation, Dalet said.

In addition, as a SaaS offering, Dalet InStream users always leverage its latest capabilities, thanks to recurrent updates and no maintenance requirements. 

For more information, visit: https://www.dalet.com/products/instream/.

PARIS—Dalet has announced that it worked with the iconic Australian racecourse, the Victoria Racing Club (VRC), to build a media production unit at VRC by deploying the Dalet Flex production asset management system to store, organize and manage media.

The Victoria Racing Club runs the Flemington Racecourse, home to the world-famous Melbourne Cup Carnival and Australia’s most iconic horse race, the Lexus Melbourne Cup, which was first run in 1861. 

"Flemington’s incredible history needed to be preserved and celebrated, but most of it was stored on hard drives or tape. With a range of highly valuable historical content, the VRC saw an opportunity to transform this content into an organized, accessible library for the VRC, media partners and fans,” said David Campbell, executive general manager – VRC Media. “Working with Dalet Flex has allowed the VRC to store rich content that tells the story of Flemington’s long and important history now and into the future.”

The VRC is famous for the Lexus Melbourne Cup, which runs on the first Tuesday in November every year, and is part of the iconic four-day Melbourne Cup Carnival. With an additional 19 race meetings held at Flemington each year, the Club has been generating significant video and photographic content that needs to be managed, easily sourced and utilized. 

“The VRC recognized this approach was not the most efficient use of resources – simple storage of video and media assets wasn't enough. They called Dalet to provide both the technology to take control of the assets and collaborate on a strategy to fully maximize its premium content,” explained Ren Middleton, vice president of sales for the Asia Pacific at Dalet.

The VRC researched several technical options and agreed Dalet Flex was the best choice to meet their needs.

“Our partnership with Dalet, from development to implementation has been fantastic,” Campbell said. "The Dalet Flex system is powerful, easy to use and was fully integrated across the business quickly. The cloud-native architecture provides the scalability we need and future proofs our operation no matter what media production needs arise.”

For more information about Dalet Flex visit https://www.dalet.com/products/flex/.  

PARIS—Dalet has announced that it will be showing new SaaS solutions that are designed to power modern, agile, and efficient digital content production, management and distribution workflows at the 2023 NAB Show from April 16-19th on booth W1935.

“The last three years have put a significant burden on our customers’ businesses, whether they’re adapting to new audience requirements, distribution demands, or work environments," explained Carl Farrell, CEO, Dalet. "To accelerate the delivery of new technology that empowers our customers and positions Dalet as a leader in this new era, we took the company private and invested in expanding our leadership, product and customer-facing teams. We rebuilt ourselves as a cloud-native, subscription-based media solutions company. We’re excited to introduce the new Dalet at this NAB Show."

The featured cloud-native solutions on display provide tailored workflows for:

• Modern Archive Management and Monetization - Cost effectively migrate aging archives into a modern content library for collaborative use across productions and unlimited monetization opportunities. Deploy on any cloud, on-premises or hybrid environment with best-in-class security and a robust set of tools to find, use, repurpose, share, and deliver content.
• Powerful Media Supply Chain and Distribution - Orchestrate, automate, scale and analyze content packaging and global distribution. Meet (and exceed) audience demand for high quality, fully compliant content for viewing on any platform. Efficiently adapt to ever-changing business demands and add delivery endpoints on the fly.
• Streamlined Production Asset Management - Eliminate production silos, unsupported formats and processing friction that bogs down production and remote collaboration. Fully optimize cloud and on-premises infrastructure with comprehensive monitoring and prediction capabilities that optimize resources and costs.
• Faster News Production and Delivery - Bring news operations into a new era of Storytelling 360 with a fully connected, digital-first news operation equipped with web-based tools for collaborative planning, contribution, production, fast-paced media editing, and distribution under a single solution.

The new Dalet SaaS solutions, which are available March 29, are underpinned by the proven Dalet Flex platform and Dalet Pyramid modules. They offer faster deployment with a roll-out in days rather than months. For customers who want to maximize their existing Dalet investment, Dalet Flex and Dalet Pyramid offer a gradual transition path. There is no big bang approach that forces a full product replacement. Cloud-native architecture and customer success specialists provide the full arsenal of services to ensure operational scalability, agility, security and optimum cost-performance ratio.

In addition, Dalet product specialists will present an exciting technology preview of elastic ingest workflows in the cloud at the Dalet booth. A cutting-edge, cloud-native technology codenamed “Dalet InStream” built on the market-leading Dalet Brio I/O solution, the preview will showcase end-to-end workflows in the cloud, from ingest to production and distribution. Allowing temporary scale-up of ingest capabilities to acquire multiple feeds at once, this technology is a game-changer for broadcasters and media companies facing growing needs to ingest feeds from the cloud and expand their coverage at an affordable cost.

Together with the entire product lineup, Dalet will showcase the following new releases on the stand:

• Dalet Flex - Media Workflows & Collaboration
• FlexMOBILE, the new mobile app for seamless media management on-the-go with unmatched mobility and remote collaboration, available on Android and iOS.
• FlexREVIEW, the collaborative review and approval tool with expanded audio waveforms support and monitoring for multi-channel files, as well as a refreshed user interface.
• Dalet Flex - Laptop and Mobile (1)
• Dalet Pyramid - News Production & Distribution
• Pyramid Planner, the intuitive, calendar-based planning now comes with configurable views, tasks, and assets sharing in a single workspace. The modern planning approach provides visibility and enables collaboration across the news operation.
• Pyramid Cut, the state-of-the-art, web-based editor enables fast-paced, intuitive and collaborative production of multiplatform news stories from anywhere. The digital-first editor also enables users to templatize graphics for different video requirements, making packaging eye-catching stories fast and easy.
• PyramidCut in laptop
• AI-powered workflows will also be featured with the latest version of Dalet Media Cortex that provides improved speech-to-text and translation capabilities, allowing for up to 80% time savings for caption creation.

During the show, Dalet will host its exclusive Executive Breakfast on April 17th, at 7:30am at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas. The C-Suite, invite-only event features keynotes from top industry leaders and innovators. Register here. 

Dalet customers are invited to the popular “After Work” happy hours on Dalet booth W1935 for snacks, drinks, and conversation. Stop by and say hello on Sunday, Monday and/or Tuesday of the show from 4:30 pm to close.     

To book a meeting, visit: https://www.dalet.com/events/nab-show-2023

The role of the cloud is now well entrenched in broadcast and cinema production, but some traditional tools remain. This gives flexibility to production workflows that would have been unthinkable 15 years ago, when everyone’s attention was focused on the digital/HD transition.

At the 2023 NAB Show, April 15-19, there will be something old and something new. One of the latest technologies is the use of “volumes” to provide hyper-realistic backgrounds for live and cinema production.

The following is a sample of new production gear that will be shown in Las Vegas next month. 

Knocking Down Barriers
Pixotope, a provider of virtual production software solutions, will showcase its Graphics XR Edition, which includes a range of tools that simplify setup and operation in connection with the use of LED volumes, by reducing the technical complexities and associated resource costs of XR workflows and environments.

“With XR Edition, Pixotope is knocking down a major barrier to virtual production adoption by addressing the challenges that have previously made it difficult to leverage XR outside of major blockbuster productions,” said David Dowling, chief revenue officer of Pixotope. “It effectively removes the need for proprietary hardware, bringing users an off-the-shelf XR solution that enables bigger, better stories with greater ease.”

Blackmagic Design will roll out its line of network storage solutions, including Cloud Store, Cloud Store Mini and Cloud Pod, all of which let users share media files between multiple users on a global scale. The devices also understand proxy workflows, allowing a whole timeline and its media to be shared in minutes with responsiveness similar to a directly connected drive.

“We noticed how other storage solutions on the market didn’t offer the performance needed by the feature film and TV industry, so we took it upon ourselves to build something for our customers that’s not only fast but also reliable, portable and accessible in terms of costs,” said Bob Caniglia, director of sales operations for the Americas at Blackmagic Design. “The resulting Cloud Store, Cloud Store Mini and Cloud Pod are easy to set up and use, while providing secure access to media files globally with syncing and sharing media via Dropbox and Google Drive, allowing users from around the world to collaborate.”

Open Architecture
Panasonic will feature its Kairos line of IP-based production switchers. Kairos is an IT-based open architecture platform that enables functional enhancements and control linkage with external devices by adding software. At the show will be the next-generation Kairos Core 200 and Kairos Core 2000 mainframes, which offer improved functionality and performance, including many more inputs and outputs, improved video-processing performance and enhanced file-storage capacity.

Avid will be on hand to demonstrate its Maestro suite of graphics design and production tools for broadcasters. From news tickers and data-driven visuals to interactive and augmented reality content, Maestro provides solutions and tightly integrated workflows to add content on-screen in a coherent and engaging way.

LiveU will focus on flexible workflows such as remote/decentralized production, and cloud-based management and distribution help to allow delivery of high-quality, dynamic live content. LiveU will also showcase its latest 5G offerings and cloud-based solutions, which use the company’s low-latency, high-quality transmission protocols.

Rolling out its latest NDI-capable switchers is For-A, which will introduce the HVS-190, a 1-M/E version of the company’s flagship HVS-490 video switcher. As with the HVS-490, the HVS-190 also supports high-bandwidth NDI and NDI HX input and output. In addition to these switchers, FOR-A’s MFR-3100EX all-in-one production center, ClassX graphics, Insight media server, and SOAR-A live production platform are all upgradeable to NDI.

Ross Video will feature its 12G ready Ultrix FR12, the latest version of its award-winning Ultrix Router. The FR12 router has an integrated production switcher that allows customers to build an infrastructure with greater flexibility, performance and integration. The Ultrix FR12 is targeted at studios, OB vans and flypacks.

Monetizing Content
Dalet will highlight its Dalet Flex media asset management and workflow solution, which lets users seamlessly produce, curate, orchestrate, archive, deliver and monetize content. With its new mobile app, FlexMOBILE, you can bring the power of Flex to your fingertips with the ability to find, preview, comment, review and approve your assets from anywhere.

TVU will demo its RPS Link Encoder and Channel Plus. The RPS Link Encoder provides multicamera, synchronized remote production capability, targeted for use in remote locations where reliable wired IP connections are unavailable or inadequate. Channel Plus, a cloud-based playout service with integrated ad sales support, enables broadcasters to create live and VOD channel programming from a simple web browser with minimal training and experience.

Matrox will spotlight its ConvertIP line of 4K distribution products that can send zero-latency 4K over 1, 10, and 25 GbE cabling systems. Built on Internet Protocol Media Experience (IPMX), ConvertIP encoder/decoder line supports 4K60 4:4:4 IP signal transport.

Vizrt will highlight its AR and virtual studio capabilities in live production through Viz Virtual Studio and Viz Engine 5. Together, Viz Virtual Studio and Viz Engine 5 enable the creation of interactive 3D virtual sets, AR graphics, and mixed reality presentations, elevating audience experience through XR with hyper-realistic quality.

“Viz Virtual Studio in combination with Viz Engine 5 is a game changer for visual storytellers,” said Chris Black, head of brand and content at Vizrt Group. “Presenters can simply walk through 3D spaces, while the camera follows them and captures the interaction with XR infographics in an XR set that illustrates the story.”

NewTek will showcase the latest in its TriCaster line at the 2023NAB Show. On display will be the new Flex Control Panel, TriCaster Mini X, its sports replay solutions, and more. CaptureCast, the company’s flagship lecture capture solution for enterprise and education technology, will also be available.

Teradek, which will exhibit as part of the Creative Solutions Group in the North Hall, will focus on 4K with the debut of Prism Mobile, a camera-back video encoder with integrated cellular bonding, delivering 4K HDR live video from the toughest network environments. 

Teradek says it developed Prism Mobile “to provide better connectivity, seamless portability, and more reliable video contribution for professionals in the field.” It features two built-in high-performance cellular modems, and support for nine simultaneous network connections across WiFi, Ethernet, and Cellular offering the connectivity required for going live at sporting events, political rallies, and conferences. 

PARIS—In an effort to expand its cloud-based advanced content-based workflows beyond its traditional M&E base, Dalet has entered a strategic business partnership with Fincons Group (Fincons), an international IT business consulting and system integration company. 

As part of the agreement, Fincons will offer as part of its solutions portfolio Dalet’s cloud-native solutions and SaaS offerings which include the media logistics solution Dalet Flex, and the company’s Dalet Pyramid  advanced news planning, production and distribution solution.

The partnership leverages Fincons’ technical expertise in cloud solutions and expansive customer base across international media markets, and Dalet’s cloud-native solutions to empower customers with modern, scalable content workflow solutions, according to Dalet.

“With growing demands for advanced content workflows beyond the traditional media and entertainment (M&E) boundaries, Fincons and Dalet are well-positioned to enable digital media transformation and success in new markets,” the company said. 

“The partnership with Dalet represents another important enrichment of our solutions portfolio,” comments Francesco Moretti, Group Deputy CEO and CEO International of Fincons Group. “In the media industry, we bring extensive consultative and technology expertise to our customers, many of whom are Tier-1 players that are transforming operations digitally and migrating workflows into the cloud. We are committed to partnering with the leading technology providers to ensure we are always offering the most cutting-edge and responsive solutions as markets evolve. Dalet is a key player in supporting content supply chain transformation initiatives and perfectly matches our need to provide best-in-class solutions to our customers. 

"The collaboration could also go far beyond the media industry as digital assets—and video in particular—are becoming vital for any organization in any industry," Moretti added. "Fincons can count on dedicated business units looking after sectors such as financial services and insurance, energy and utility, manufacturing, transportation and others.”

“We recognize that nearly everyone today is a content creator and have designed our solutions to enable content workflows for both traditional media and entertainment organizations and those who are blazing new paths in storytelling across non-traditional media markets,” states Ewan Johnston, Strategic Alliances and Channel Partner Director, Dalet. “Fincons’ industrial portfolio combined with its M&E practice enables us to expand our reach and connect with new brands. Their trusted guidance and technology expertise will ensure success as customers transition to the cloud with Dalet.” Johnston concludes, “The partnership also enables us to expand our services and support to our existing customers as our cloud business grows.”

For more information on Dalet solutions, visit www.dalet.com. To learn more about Fincons, visit https://www.finconsgroup.com/.

Dalet will demo Dalet Flex for Teams and Dalet Pyramid solutions at NAB Show New York. Both solutions now run fully in the cloud.

Dalet Flex for Teams is based on the Dalet Flex media workflow platform. The multitenanted software-as-a-service (SaaS) makes key media logistics use cases such as library management and multiplatform content distribution accessible to the team through affordable, pre-configured workflows fully hosted and managed by Dalet.

The company says Dalet Flex for Teams “makes it easy for customers to get up and running quickly and scale as needed with control over budgets.” Dalet Flex can be hosted by customers, in the cloud or on-premises, or by Dalet as a dedicated, single-tenant implementation.

Dalet Pyramid solutions enable newsrooms running Dalet Galaxy five to expand their workflow with next-gen news production capabilities. Available as a subscription, these plug-and-play solutions add efficiency for centralized planning, remote editing and digital production:

● Centralized Planning meets the needs of multiplatform and multisite news operations with a kanban-based news planning tool that allows news organizations to visualize, manage and assign stories at the corporate level.

● Remote Editing offers fast, web-based news editing capabilities in a browser even with limited bandwidth. Editors can upload rushes, gather source materials, edit videos from anywhere, and publish remotely.

● Digital Production allows news organizations to plan, produce, edit video and distribute digital-first news content. It offers support for multiple aspect ratios, digital graphics and pre-configured social media publishing.

NAB Show New York will be held Oct. 19–20 at the Javits Center. Dalet will be in Booth 1419 on the show floor.

PARIS—Dalet will showcase accessible media workflows and next-generation newsroom solutions at the 2022 NAB Show, April 23-27, in Las Vegas.

The company will make the NAB Show debut of the Dalet Flex for Teams offered as-a-service for all teams requiring digital media management and multiplatform delivery and Dalet Pyramid solutions offering centralized planning, remote editing and digital production capabilities for modern storytelling and news production.

“We’ve been hard at work investing in and developing modern technologies to meet the demands of today’s media rich organizations,” said Dalet CTO Stephane Guez. “To support this, we have expanded the Dalet Team with media, cloud, and security experts whose focus is to enable wider market adoption of Dalet solutions beyond the traditional borders of broadcast.”

“These investments coupled with our intense R&D and project management efforts have enabled us to deliver an NAB showcase that we’re incredibly proud of—budget-friendly, pre-configured, convenient, yet secure workflow cloud-based offerings with state-of-the-art UX and UI experiences customers expect.”

Dalet Flex for Teams, being exhibited for the first time as-a-service, is based on the company’s Flex media workflow platform. The new, multi-tenanted software-as-a-service (SaaS) democratizes key media logistics applications, such as library management and multiplatform content distribution, the company said.

Offering affordable, pre-configured workflows fully hosted and managed by Dalet, the Flex for Teams solution makes it simple for customers to get up and running quickly and scale as needed with control over budgets, Dalet said.

Dalet Flex also is still offered as an enterprise-grade media workflow platform as a subscription that offers tailored to an organization’s needs and requirements. It can be hosted by users, in the cloud or on premises or by Dalet as a dedicated single-tenant implementation, it said.

Dalet Pyramid is the next step in the evolution of newsrooms running Dalet Galaxy five, expanding their workflow with three key new capabilities, including:

• Centralized planning for multi-platform and multi-site news operations making it possible to visualize, manage and assign stories at the corporate level;
• Remote web-based news editing via a browser even when bandwidth is limited. Editors can upload rushes, gather source materials, edit video from anywhere and publish remotely;
• Digital production to enable news organizations to plan, produce, edit video and distribute digital-first news content.

The company also will feature its Dalet Unified News Operations solution, an end-to-end collaborative newsroom operation system with modern storytelling tools, state-of-the-art workflow orchestration and a range of deployment, architecture and security options.

NAB Show attendees can book an appointment with the company online.

See Dalet at NAB Booth C4423.

PARIS—Dalet has announced that it has secured ISO/IEC certification 27001 and is implementing a Zero Trust security framework across its cloud-native solutions.

The company’s recently accomplished ISO/IEC 27001 certifies that Dalet employs a best-practice approach to managing information security addressing people, processes, and technology.  

The move is part of a company-wide focus on providing top-notch security for customers shifting from on-premise to hybrid and cloud-based work scenarios. As part of that effort, the company has recently appointed a chief information security officer (CISO), Jerome Athias, who will be leading its security efforts. 

An expert in IT and cyber security with more than 20 years of experience, Jerome is a renowned data protection standards contributor who has helped numerous companies advance their security position. 

“My first act as Dalet’s CISO was to secure the company's ISO/IEC 27001 certification, a testament not just to our experience and hard work securing clients in the past, but our commitment to do so in the hyper-connected world of today and tomorrow,” explained Athias. “Today, we're proud of our ISO/IEC 27001 and DPP Security Marks certifications, but we're not resting on our laurels by any means. We are constantly developing and improving an internal workflow called Secure Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which reduces the number of vulnerabilities in our systems.”

The company noted that as media companies globalize and become more collaborate, more people are connecting across more platforms, services, and networks, which makes securing content, broadcast data, and streaming data increasingly challenging and important. 

Under a Zero Trust framework, nothing is considered safe. Every incoming signal or connection is by default untrustworthy until it's rigorously tested to ensure legitimacy or authority to connect. Dalet is implementing a Zero Trust approach to security which will help customers ensure that every input or connection request complies with internal security policies: that they're running on reputable platforms or that authorized agents are using them. 

“Following our heritage as an on-premises provider, we have decades of experience monitoring systems, and as workflows using external platforms and multi-connectivity have evolved, we've grown with them,” Athias concludes. “Zero Trust will secure our customer's borders no matter what cloud services, internet of things (IoT) and/or bring your own device (BYOD) policies are used to interact with their organization.”

More about Athias and his security mission is available at his blog. 

PARIS—Dalet has unveiled significant updates to the Dalet AmberFin transcoding platform that feature seamless integration with cloud-native Dalet Flex media logistics and Dalet Pyramid unified news operations platforms as well as new transcoding capabilities.

“Dalet AmberFin sits at the heart of the rapidly evolving streaming workflow,” explained Patrick Devlin, product manager for Dalet AmberFin. “Because it is a cornerstone technology for our customers, we are focused on its continuous improvement and integration in the wider ecosystem. This release threads the recognized Dalet AmberFin conversion quality and media processing technology across our flagship SaaS solutions, Dalet Flex and Dalet Pyramid. As a critical pillar of these solutions, Dalet AmberFin bridges the gap for Dalet customers who need a fully cloud-native media ecosystem with proven end-to-end production and distribution workflows that can support any existing or emerging market vertical.” 

Dalet AmberFin also provides a cloud-first approach that has been verified by the AWS Foundational Technical Review, the company said. 

“It is no longer sufficient to simply take an on-premises system and run it on EC2 instances in the cloud, customers want cloud-native applications that can take full advantage of containerized services, scale up and scale down and the security best practices in the cloud,”  Devlin said. 

The company also stressed the convenience, agility and power provided by the new update. The solution’s advanced ingest management and conversion combined with elastic cloud resources enables enterprise users to cost-effectively facilitate large-scale projects, the company said. 

In addition, the newly updated Dalet AmberFin Kiosk, which supports macOS and offers expanded support for formats including ProRes RAW and NEF, helps users quickly offload and back up large amounts of content. Utilizing cloud storage, it concurrently verifies content integrity and enriches metadata so that content is organized and ready to drive further operational workflows easily.

Dalet said this new capability is particularly useful for teams out on location for long production shoots. Processing pipeline improvements leverage Netflix Photon validation tools to enable key IMF workflows in the cloud. 

Other production efficiency enhancements include support for UHD input and output with a standard transcode node and support for writing ABR packages DASH & HLS while content is being ingested. 

Dalet also reported that its accelerated development plans include an entire suite of cloud-native solutions in 2022. 

As part of that, Dalet Flex will be made available as a multi-tenanted SaaS offering, providing customers with scalability and elasticity when needed while offloading the costs of infrastructure investment and time spent on maintenance to Dalet. With Dalet Pyramid, newsrooms will be able to virtualize their entire operation with increased production and distribution capabilities that enable digital-first news story workflows anytime, anywhere, Dalet said. 

For more information watch the latest Dalet AmberFin video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMLoYySpOKs .

PARIS, France—Dalet will be highlighting its solution for unified news operations, Dalet Pyramid, online at Dalet Connect and in-person at IBC2021. 

The Dalet Pyramid offering is designed to accommodate both digital-first and linear end-to-end news workflows and enables a collaborative storytelling 360 approach to multi-platform production and distribution, the company said. 

“Dalet Pyramid builds on Dalet’s Unified News Operations where planning, content creation, asset and resource management, playout and multiplatform distribution have been combined into a single platform that enables production of fast-breaking, digital and live news, current affairs shows, and more,” states Raoul Cospen, director of product strategy, news at Dalet. “The new agile architecture design facilitates collaboration at story-level with the industry’s first Storytelling 360 approach and enables a truly virtual newsroom. Just like all Dalet offerings, Dalet Pyramid is a cloud-agnostic solution that supports multiple cloud providers, including industry leader Amazon Web Services. It can also run in virtualized environments, offering unprecedented mobility that supports the industry’s continued pivot to solutions designed to support remote productions.”

Dalet Pyramid’s user experience covers the breadth and depth of news production, planning, distribution and playout tools to facilitate fast breaking news across all viewing platforms, the company said. 

The web-based user interface makes it easy to onboard staff and freelancers quickly, reducing training time. Users can contribute, produce and manage the full news story lifecycle from anywhere using smartphones, tablets and laptops connected to basic internet. The underlying Dalet asset management and orchestration engine facilitates content flow from ingest through planning to distribution and archive, the company said. 

It also provides full storytelling capabilities on mobile devices and is available in the cloud, on premises or a mix of both.

“The agility of the Dalet Pyramid architecture and inherent benefits of SaaS enable customers to rationalize their productions across the entire operation and dramatically increase user productivity everywhere, reducing the overall TCO of the platform," Cospen said. "Combined with its digital-first and Storytelling 360 workflow capabilities, the solution will help transform the business of news production, setting a new bar for operational standards and efficiencies while opening doors to new revenue opportunities thanks to stronger digital and OTT workflows.”  

Further information is available at Cospen's latest blog post “Dalet Pyramid - a natural evolution for Dalet Galaxy five newsrooms” where he explains the key benefits Dalet Pyramid brings to Dalet Galaxy five customers and the steps that will lead to a smooth transition.

The Dalet Pyramid introduction video is available here. Media professionals can register for the first Dalet Pyramid premiere online session held on November 4th here, and in person at IBC2021 (suite 1BS21). 

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Founded in Los Angeles in 2016, the Korea Content Platform, Inc. (KCP) is a joint venture among Korea’s three major broadcast networks: KBS, MBC and SBS. In 2016, KCP launched KOCOWA, a cloud-based streaming service offering one of the largest collections of Korean produced entertainment including over 17,000 hours of K-Pop, K-Variety, and K-Dramas for the Americas.

An impressive lineup of current hits, including “The Veil,” “The Penthouse 3,” “Running Man,” “Home Alone,” and “Police University” are available on KOCOWA as quickly as six hours after the Korean broadcast. To ensure a premium experience, which includes high-quality subtitles in English, Portuguese and Spanish, KCP built a CMS based on the media logistics and metadata management capabilities of the Dalet Flex system. 

COLLABORATIVE MEDIA LOGISTICS

Dalet Flex allowed us to expand globally, supporting remote collaboration across our U.S. South Korea and Brazil offices. The media logistics capabilities enable a seamless exchange of content and metadata, automating many nuances of working across geographies and languages. Using the configurable APIs, we can create and manage an ecosystem with complex media workflows that meet our B2C and B2B requirements, including rapid content delivery with first-class metadata and subtitles which cut down overall costs of operation.

Our marketing team uses Dalet Flex to easily access fan favorite content and share it across the KOCOWA social media channels. Without the constant stream of content, we would have never been able to accrue such a large social media following of more than nine million followers. Today, our YouTube channel has more than six million subscribers and our Facebook page has more than two million followers. 

CURATING SOCIAL MEDIA

KCP social followers are very vocal and thrive on the constant insider access to all our premium content. And because the social media channels are so active, we can gauge the popularity of our content and use Dalet Flex to curate our B2C and B2B product packages accordingly. 

For example, social media followers in Brazil have repeatedly asked for classic episodes of “Master in the House'' starring Cha Eun-woo to be subtitled in Portuguese. We were quickly able to curate and localize the first seven episodes of when Cha Eun-woo first joined the show to celebrate the Second Anniversary of KOCOWA Brazil with the help of Dalet Flex.

It has been a great experience working with Dalet, not only for their system capabilities, but also for their customer care.

More information on the Korea Content Platform can be found at https://kcpglob.com.

For more information on Dalet Flex, visit www.dalet.com or call 212-269-6700. 

 PARIS—Dalet has announced significant updates across its media logistics, AI-driven production and IP ingest and playout product line involving Dalet Flex, Dalet Media Cortex and Dalet Brio. 

The updates are designed to support the industry’s continued transition towards flexible hybrid and cloud workflows for remote production and work-from-home scenarios, Dalet said. 

As part of the improvements, robust APIs and Integration Panels simplify collaboration with creative tools like Adobe’s Premiere Pro and enterprise applications like Salesforce and Slack.

“These new capabilities help our customers to not only hurdle the challenges of a workplace in transition, but be better prepared for any future disruptions,” stated Bea Alonso, chief market officer, Dalet. “Our customer experience is at the heart of development and Dalet is delivering highly adaptive tools that improve media workflows and the overall business outcome. We look forward to rolling out these capabilities to our customers and showcasing them in person at CABSAT2021 (stand Z2H) and IBC2021 (suite 1BS21) events as well as virtually at Dalet Connect.”

Dalet Flex centralizes production, distribution and archiving workflows into a configurable content management application that makes it easier and less expensive to manage, package and distribute content. 

As part of the updates, the new FlexXTEND Panel provides enhanced NLE integration with creative tools such as Adobe Premiere Pro. The panel features full search and content discovery with free text searching for general queries; advanced filters and sorting for targeted queries against any metadata, and saved searches for common queries, the company said. 

Improvements have also been made to the Dalet Brio ingest and playout platform, which provides media companies a smooth transition path to full IP production workflows. Offering maximum flexibility for creating and delivering content across hybrid infrastructures, Dalet Brio supports greater density with more ingest and playout streams, making it even easier and faster for companies to migrate operations to IP without disrupting existing workflows that still rely on SDI. Smarter workload distribution and core optimizations around HD and UHD increase density and propel an overall smoother ingest and playout workflow for high resolution productions.

The Dalet Media Cortex AI service platform leverages cognitive services and machine learning to offer Dalet customers powerful speech to text, object recognition, facial recognition and automated subtitling services. Recent additions include APIs to translate captions while preserving timing information, eliminating the need to manually re-time translated captions.

Additionally, the integrated caption editor now flags infringements around timing, line and character overlaps in real-time allowing users to address visual issues early on in the production process. A complement to both Dalet’s Media Workflows and News solutions, Dalet Media Cortex will also ship as part of the AI-powered newsroom starter pack for the soon-to-be-released Dalet Pyramid - Dalet’s next generation Unified News Operations. 

“AI is becoming more pervasive in media production and at Dalet, we continue to integrate across offerings, helping customers do their jobs...better,” Bea adds.  “Metadata, which is critical for AI workflows, is at the heart of all our platforms.  We have expertise in leveraging it to propel productivity-enhancing AI workflows like real-time recommendation of indexed content for storytellers and automatic creation of subtitles for content destined for global audiences.” 

More information is available at www.dalet.com

PARIS—Dalet has announced key updates to its Dalet CubeNG platform, its graphics solution for modern news workflows. 

Dalet CubeNG is fully integrated across Dalet Unified News Operations, and leverages the Brainstorm real-time graphics engine to deliver rich 2D and 3D branding as well as engaging visual storytelling across broadcast, social and digital channels.

The graphics solution, which is used by such broadcasters as Euronews, Mediaset and Teleticino, and now features customizable work spaces that allow users to manipulate graphics in real time during a live show, the company reported. 

The update also adds support for working across multiple sites to allow broadcasters to create distributed graphics workflows across all their centers of operation.

All Dalet CubeNG capabilities, including the new features, are available both on-premises and in the cloud. 

New features include: 

• New customizable button boards: Users can customize their playout workspace with curated graphic templates that can be triggered on the fly. This allows operators to interact with the live graphics to visually tell more complex stories, keeping audiences informed and engaged.
• Computer graphics (CG) items can now have a shortcut ID: The new Dalet CubeNG quickplay shortcut lets users quickly trigger the playout of a CG.
• Trigger advanced interaction with graphics: Users can animate graphics like bar charts to show changes in election results over time or zoom in on a map to show exactly where a pandemic has spread. This visually summarizes detailed data and unknown reference points to simplify stories and keep audiences informed. 

“Audiences depend on graphics to absorb key points of complex events such as pandemic data, elections or sports statistics [but] you cannot script these stories in advance,” stated Jérémy Krein, product manager, Dalet CubeNG. “Our latest release of Dalet CubeNG brings users time-saving tools to enhance unscripted live news with compelling graphics elements. Users can animate charts, maps and other elements on the fly, enhancing the overall news commentary. This type of interaction with graphics provides audiences with even more valuable information, thus engaging them at a deeper level.”

The solution also introduces new capabilities that enable better collaboration across multi-sites, multi-studios and remote productions. Broadcasters can centralize graphics playlists for multiple playout locations. Each graphics playlist can be configured to play in one specific studio or across several. New APIs allow broadcasters to automate the creation of CG playlists across the enterprise, Dalet reported.

“A strategic component for this release was the support for enterprise operations,” Krein concluded. “Some of our customers have more than 20 locations, so rather than looking to deploy in each separate location, a centralized solution made much more business sense. Dalet CubeNG gives news operators more control over their brand and visuals while simplifying the delivery on a highly scalable platform. We revamped Dalet CubeNG with a brand-new engine just over a year ago, bringing great business success.”

To learn more about Dalet CubeNG, please visit https://www.dalet.com/tools/cube/ 

PARIS—At a time when content producers are exploring new remote workflows and facing rapidly changing businesses, Dalet has announced a number of new integrations and partnerships that will give their customers greater flexibility and interoperability in their operations.  

The move will provide content producers and distributors greater choice when it comes to cloud providers, advanced remote editing and archive options and will offer expanded support for Adobe Premiere Pro, Microsoft Azure, and Spectra BlackPearl RioBroker, the company reported.

As part of that push to provide more flexibility, Dalet announced enhancements to its open solutions Dalet Flex and Dalet Galaxy five that can provide easy integration and customized remote workflows with solutions from developers like Adobe, Microsoft and Spectra Logic.

“Dalet has always encouraged our customers and partners to leverage our rich set of APIs to expand their content supply chains while protecting existing investments,” said Bea Alonso, chief market officer at Dalet. “Our goal is to help companies grow for sustained success at their own pace, building long-term relationships and real partnerships with our customers.”

Alonso also noted that “the company will continue to explore integrations with providers of complementary solutions, especially cloud infrastructures and services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and most recently, Alibaba Cloud, to strengthen its position as a true multi-cloud support vendor. Dalet Flex was one of the earliest cloud content supply chain solutions, and works seamlessly with these four different cloud infrastructure vendors.”

The newest integrations include: extended Adobe Premiere Pro integrations for Dalet Flex and Dalet Galaxy five to support a wider set of editing scenarios; Dalet Galaxy xCloud on Microsoft Azure to support cloud-based radio production workflows;  Dalet Flex and Dalet Galaxy five with Spectra Logic’s BlackPearl RioBroker Archive to enhance existing workflow orchestration with expanded archive management capabilities.

SAN FRANCISCO—If the last year has proven anything, it’s that broadcasters are a resilient bunch. In March 2020, when newsroom stations began to be shuttered, news staff scrambled for ideas to pull off productions at home. 

Despite some hiccups, many stations across the country pulled off a successful, on-the-fly runaround because newsroom production technologies proved up to the task—the ability to pull in content, edit proxy material, upload graphics, cache locally—all with the final goal of covering breaking news faster even though they weren’t in the newsroom at all. 

Consider the obstacles: security restrictions, VPN hurdles and the related problems of less-than-adequate broadband connections, licensing limitations, news workflow disruptions and more. Despite all that, the work needed to be done. 

THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF CLOUD

“While anyone can bring an on-premises editor into their house, it’s the team collaboration, news production workflow and management of files that is problematic. There is simply no editorial process or metadata management [in place],” said Raoul Cospen, director of product strategy for news at Dalet.

For any station pushed into a pandemic workaround, access to the cloud proved key as did a way of managing many reporters and editors in multiple locations. 

“We had a number of news customers asking for help to support their remote workforces and adjust their infrastructure so that it could support editing from home,” said Bea Alonso, chief market officer at Dalet. The company’s answer to newsroom shutdowns was Dalet Galaxy xCloud, a cloud-based newsroom solution, she said.

“[It] allowed our customers to offload some of their teams to work on Dalet-hosted infrastructure while being away from the physical newsroom,” Alonso said. “Other clients used it as an extension of their on-premise Dalet installation, to provide business continuity to reporters, producers and editors.”

One interesting element about Galaxy xCloud, Alonso said, is that it provides tools familiar to anyone familiar with working in a physical newsroom. This meant there was no additional training required to enable people to produce, edit, write scripts and collaborate with their teams from their homes, Alonso said.

One broadcaster that made quick use of this tool was France Télévisions, the national television network of France, which employed Galaxy xCloud to enable news workflows from home. The SaaS-based system helped facilitate end-to-end remote news production workflows, giving them the flexibility to support remote work for its more than 300 journalists. 

In addition to concerns over bandwidth, security and licensing issues, working from home created another speedbump: how does a broadcaster handle team collaboration, news production workflow and management of files when your team is no longer in the same room? 

By working with Amazon Web Services and their cloud capabilities, Galaxy xCloud securely connected staff at home to the Dalet Galaxy five on-premise media asset management system. This gave journalists during the pandemic access to tools like the Dalet OneCut news editor so they could search the production system, collaborate with producers and edit growing files. 

“It’s seamless integration whether you are at home, in the newsroom or in the field,” Cospen said.

News organizations also tapped into new mobile applications such as the Dalet On-the-Go mobile newsroom application, which  enables a remote reporter to connect to their newsroom with a mobile device and write scripts, upload content to the newsroom and use the mobile device as a teleprompter. 

“User demand during the pandemic accelerated the development of this mobile app,” Alonso added.

GOING VIRTUAL

But newsroom production technology wasn’t the only tool that stepped into the abyss during the early days of the pandemic.

When U.K. radio station talkRADIO wanted to create video programming to stream online alongside its radio programming, it considered using a virtual set system, but this was made trickier by the fact that guests had to stay socially distanced while in the studio or had to call in by Zoom. 

“We were looking at innovative solutions to engage our audiences and satisfy our advertisers, over and above what other radio broadcasters are doing,” said Nick Prater, head of broadcast technology for Wireless Group Media, which operates 11 radio stations in the U.K. “We determined that virtual studio technology was now mature and could provide the unique advantage we needed.”

The answer turned out to be a StarTracker Studio virtual system from Mo-Sys. The broadcaster only had a small space to convert into a studio, Prater said, “but we wanted it to look big, to look luxurious,” he said. As part of the virtual set, talkRADIO installed Panasonic PTZ cameras and the Unreal Engine from Epic Games running on standard HP workstations. 

The system is combined with a preconfigured rack of switching, keying and the graphics power to sustain photorealistic virtual environments in real time. Using three tracked cameras—one on a rolling tripod, one on rails and one on a jib —customers can set up a variety of shots and scale up to 16 cameras. 

PARTY OF ONE

Beyond the new realities imposed by the pandemic, advanced visual storytelling remains a key goal for many newsroom systems. Vizrt’s Newsroom Solution Suite, a cross-platform newsroom content creation system, allows journalists to independently prepare, script, plan and create with graphics, video, stills, data visualizations and maps. With this system, one journalist can be a one-person production crew.

Journalists can scale and adjust the tools they need based on the volume of required output and the type of content needed for a specific platform, and can also create data-driven election graphics and submit breaking news stories and publish as needed to different platforms. 

That’s the simple reality: The pace of the news cycle has never been faster, said Daniel Nergard, president of Vizrt.

“Today’s journalists need to be able to create on multiple output formats, often at the same time, in order to reach and engage their audience,” he said. Nergard added that Newsroom Suite simplifies workflows and offers easier access to a comprehensive set of tools, making it so that journalists can focus on what matters most: Telling the story.

“Vizrt Newsroom allows journalists to scale and adjust the tools they need to the volume of required output and produce any type of content for any kind of show, program or platform,” said Gerhard Lang, CTO for Vizrt. “Content production teams can create anything from data-driven election graphics and breaking news stories, to social media aggregation, and republish and adapt to any combination of output needs.”

Using Vizrt Newsroom’s browser-based interfaces, journalists can plan, create and edit stories from either their newsroom, the road or from home. This feature proved vital during the early days of the pandemic. 

“During the pandemic we saw creative use of virtual technology not only from broadcasters but also the corporate world,” said Andre Torsvik, head of marketing strategy for Vizrt Group, referring to a corporate event organized by Janssen, an immunology company that saw its Covid-19 vaccine receive emergency use authorization in the U.S. in early 2021. 

The three-day corporate event took place using Vizrt virtual environments. The company used Viz Arc to control graphics and handle virtual camera transitions. All material was produced in the Amazon Web Services cloud and controlled from three international locations, Torsvik said.

“We have seen some brilliant work from our customers in leveraging software-based solutions to break through old hardware-based limitations,” he said.

Vizrt also recently released the Vizrt XR Extended Reality system, which gives journalists virtual, augmented, mixed and extended reality storytelling capabilities. Used in the studio or at a home location, the virtual set can be reset from one show to the next in a matter of minutes. A wall at home can serve as a blank canvas allowing for interaction between presenters and graphics objects. 

According to Nergard, the system is designed to make it easier to run immersive, extended reality shows. State-of-the-art camera tracking and AI keying technology create hyper-real, precise graphics. Virtual views, 3D camera flights and myriad analysis tools let the presenter break down a sporting event interactively, either by offering insights on a touchscreen or virtually inserted right on the wall.

LONDON—Media and entertainment enterprises are seeking automation to drive efficiencies with artificial intelligence and machine learning the technology keys. In a post-pandemic world where a remote and distributed work model is the new norm, AI engines could come into their own. 

“We’re at the beginning of a golden age of AI and ML,” says Hiren Hindocha, cofounder, president & CEO at Digital Nirvana, a Fremont, Calif.-based developer of media compliance technology. “The use in media is tremendous. It makes content searchable and translatable into multiple languages, allowing content to be consumed by users anywhere.” 

Others strike a note of caution. “AI/ML is working and has not led to the mass layoffs that some feared,” says Tom Sahara, former vice president of operations and technology for Turner Sports. “But nor has it reduced budgets by a huge percentage.” 

Julian Fernandez-Campon, CTO of Tedial, agrees, “AI/ML has become a ‘must-have’ feature across all technologies but we have to be quite cautious about the practical application of them. They’ve proved good results in some scenarios but in reality, broadcasters are not getting big benefits right now. Being able to test and select the proper AI/ML tool quickly and cost-effectively will definitely help adoption.” 

Roy Burns, vice president of media solutions at Integrated Media Technologies, a Los Angeles-based systems integrator, says customers are confused about what AI/ML is or what they want to do with it; “We have to explain, it’s not a magic bullet.” 

SPEECH TO TEXT

The key benefit and one ready for general operation today is captioning. Live speech-to-text quality is rapidly improving, leading to the possibility of fully automatic, low-latency creation of subtitles. Dalet reports time savings of up to 80% in delivering subtitled content for news and digital publishing. Additional ML capabilities allow systems to properly segment and layout captions to increase readability and compliance with subtitling guidelines. 

“Speech-to-text translation is probably most mature where there’s about a 90% confidence rate,” says Burns. “For some people that’s good enough but for others making an embarrassing mistake is still too risky. 

“It’s important to understand that the output of object or facial recognition tools are not human readable,” he adds. “They are designed to give a ton of metadata about the asset but to correlate it against your media you need a MAM [media asset management]. That’s what I try to explain—if you can ingest AI outputs to a MAM and correlate against a central database of record that is what is going to make it searchable.” 

Hearst Television has adapted its MAM with Prime Focus for automation of file management of commercial spots. Joe Addalia, director of technology projects for the station group, explains, “We have hundreds of commercials coming into our systems every day. If we have to mark in and out each time and do a quality check we are not being efficient. Instead, the MAM automates this, harvests necessary metadata and supplies it downstream to playout. There’s no reason for an operator to go into the item.” 

Addalia emphasizes the importance of metadata. “You can have the most glorious 4K image you want but if you can’t find it you may as well not have it. AI/ML is about being able to find what you need as you need it.” 

Hearst’s internal description for this is “enabled media:” Metadata-enriched video, audio or stills content that Addalia says will advance the possibilities for new workflow and products. 

“On top of speech-to-text, automatic machine translation is nearing maturity to enable multilingual captioning scenarios,” says Michael Elhadad, director of R&D for Dalet. “The main obstacle is that standard machine translation models are not fully ready to translate captions out-of-the-box. Automatic machine translation is trained on fluent text, and when translating each segment into individual subtitles, the text is not fluent enough; standard models fail to produce adequate text.” 

The alternative method, which consists of merging together caption segments into longer chunks, leads to another challenge: How to segment back the translated chunk into aligned and well-timed segments?

“A specialized ML method must be developed to address this challenge and produce high-quality translated captions,” says Elhadad. “This remains an open challenge for the industry and something that we’re working on at our research lab.”

CURRENT USES OF AI/ML IN MEDIA  

Additionally, object and face recognition logged as metadata can assist scripting and video editing, specifically with a rough cut being automatically created based on given metadata fields, for example, creating highlights from keywords, objects, text-on-screen. Tedial has been using AI/ML tools for some customers in the automatic logging of legacy archives, to identify celebrities and OCR using AI tools.

A big pain point is “text collusion,” when onscreen text (perhaps indicating a place or date) overlaps with caption files. Files presented with this error will immediately fail the QC of all the big streamers, but detecting issues manually in every version permutation is not cost-effective. 

OwnZones offers a deep analysis platform to scan content and compare it against other media items like time text. “The AI analysis tool can find the location of onscreen graphics using OCR [optical character recognition] and with information from time text is able to detect a collision,” explains Peter Artmount, product director for the Los Angeles-based developer of media management distribution technology. “A failure report is automatically sent back to whoever did the localization work to fix captioning before sending on to OTT services.” 

Typically, it would take an hour or two to manually QC and flag issues per hour of content; OwnZones claims its AI does it in 15 minutes. 

Another common use case is scene detection for censorship. Artmont describes a scenario in which an episodic drama containing occasional profanity requires closed captions to be blurred out for transmission during daytime hours. 

“Typically, you have to store all the versions you create, eating up storage on-prem,” he says. “In our example, you are storing 300–400 GB per show, yet the only difference between each version is to 3–4 MB of frames. We apply our AI analysis to generate a (IMF-compliant) composition playlist from the content. By storing only the differences [scenes with bad words] from the original we can trim content by 46%, making storage far more efficient.” 

CURRENT USE OF AI/ML IN SPORTS

Sports is a greenfield where the use of AI can leverage production to generate more tailored content for a specific audience. “With the reduction in live events, the ability to monetize valuable content from years of archives is key,” says Elhadad. 

There are two principal applications: Indexing (tagging, transcription, classification and object/face recognition) of vast archives; and automatic highlight creation, event-driven automatic overlays and titling. 

Aviv Arnon, cofounder of WSC Sports, an Israeli-based developer of sports media production technology, says its platform is taking “dirty” production streams of a sport into its cloud-based platform where an AI/ML system breaks the game into hundreds of individual plays. The system applies a variety of algorithms to ID each clip, make it searchable, and to clip each with optimal start and end times and then gathers the results into video packages for publishing. 

“Our ML modules understand the particular patterns for how basketball is produced including replays, camera movement, scene changes,” Arnon said. “We have all those indicators mapped to automatically produce an entire game.” 

He says sports leagues need to scale their content operations by packaging different clips to social media and other websites and that AI is the only way to do so rapidly. 

“I can’t say it’s 100% accurate but 99% is too low,” he said. “A better question might be, ‘if I had a manual editor would they have clipped it a second shorter or longer?’ It’s not about the veracity of the content. There’s no doubt it has helped speed up the process by allowing an operator to handle a lot of content in a short amount of time.” 

Elhadad explains that indexing is collected frame by frame (e.g., a frame contains the face or the jersey of a known player), but search results should be presented as clips (coherent segments where clues collected from subsequent frames are aggregated into meaningful classification). 

“While descriptive standards exist to capture the nature of such aggregation (MPEG-7), the industry has not yet produced methods to predict such aggregation in an effective manner.”

SMPTE DEVELOPING AI/ML BEST PRACTICES

Work is under way in this area. SMPTE is working with the ETC@USC’s AI & Neuroscience in Media Project to help the media community better understand the scope of the AI technology. 

“AI is promising but it’s an amorphous set of technologies,” says project director Yves Bergquist, noting that a quarter of organizations report over a 50% failure rate in their AI initiatives. Consultancy Deloitte also found that half of media organizations report major shortages of AI talent. 

“There are a lot of challenges around data quality, formats, privacy, ontologies and how to deploy AI/ML models in enterprise,” Bergquist says. “AI/ML is experimental and expensive and there are duplications across the industry. 

“We think there are strong opportunities for interoperability throughout the media industry,” he adds. “Not everything has to be in the form of standards. We also want to share best practices.” 

The task force is made up of about 40 members including Sony Pictures, WarnerMedia and Adobe. Research is focused on data and ontologies, AI ethics, platform performance and interoperability, and organizational and cultural integration. “That last topic is the most important and least understood challenge,” Addalia says. “It speaks to the ability of an organization to create an awareness and understanding of what AI is and is not, how to interpret its output, how to understand the data.” 

The task force is “expecting to make a substantial contribution in the area of suggesting best practices in terms of creating a culture of analytics,” he said. 

Addalia agrees that no single tech provider can do it all. “TV is a cottage industry,” he said. “We have to use our collective resources properly so we can leapfrog into next-gen where we have automated workflows. This requires cross-industry collaboration. Vendors must work together.” 

There’s also an onus on end users to provide feedback, Addalia added. “They need to define the use case and the desired results,” he said. 

Muralidhar Sridhar, vice president of AI/ ML products at Prime Focus says M&E needs specific treatment and that ready-made AI engines have not transformed the industry. 

Human-like comparison of video masters, transcription for subtitling and captions, AI-based QC, reconformance of a source from a master, automatic retiming of pre- and post-edit masters are all important use cases, he says, provided the AI can be made to understand the nuances. 

“The problem is that while most AI engines try to augment content analysis, the ability to accurately address nuances is not easy to match,” he said. “Marking segments like cards, slates and montages takes time and cost. It needs 100% accuracy and 100% frame accuracy." 

Prime Focus’ prescription for clients like Star India, Hotstar and Hearst Television is to combine computer vision techniques with neural networks where necessary then customize the solution for the customer. 

DEVELOPMENTS AHEAD

Higher accuracy and speed across all AI/ ML capabilities continues to advance. Fernandez-Campon advocates “Intelligent BPM,” where AI tools improve workflows by taking automatic decisions and focusing the work of operators on creative tasks. “That’s why it’s key to offer flexible and cost-effective AI/ML tools that can easily integrate into workflows and be swapped one for another,” he said. 

Dalet is working on a new approach to indexing faces and creating “private knowledge graphs” it thinks will speed up the process of cataloging large content archives and building libraries of local personalities for regional needs. Current technologies are not able to easily recognize faces throughout a historical archive, the company says. 

“Better context-aware speech transcription, more accurate tagging and smoother automatic editing will further reduce the need for manual, repetitive tasks,” says Elhadad. “AI/ML empower content producers and distributors to focus on higher value creative work. AI/ML is becoming pervasive: another tool in the box that users will find increasingly beneficial without the doom-laden ‘man vs. machine’ context.” 

PARIS—Dalet has made updates to its AmberFin platform, a transcoding, media processing and workflow platform. Dalet says the update offers performance boosts, a new browser interface and support for audio output.

All of the new features of AmberFin v11.9 work both on-premises and in the Dalet AmberFin Cloud Transcoder Service. Users can control both their on-premises and cloud transcoding resources from the same workflow engine and API, as well as use the same conversion profiles and workflows for both fixed and elastic capacity.

The specifics of the AmberFin update include:

• Enhancements to the AmberFin transcoding engine, providing a 30% increase in throughout on average; 
• New web-based conversion profile editor for managing day-to-day configuration; and 
• Emotion System’s advanced audio processing and loudness normalization capabilities for loudness correction and global delivery compliance requirements. 

“We are committed to keeping Dalet AmberFin on the forefront of media processing with continued improvements in speed and usability both on-premises and in the cloud,” said Eric Carson, director, Dalet AmberFin Product Strategy.

Dalet AmberFin v11.9 is now available. For more information, visit www.dalet.com.  

OTTAWA—When the world went into lockdown last March due to COVID-19, all manner of companies sent their staff home to work remotely via the web. For many sectors, this unexpected move away from the office was difficult to support using their existing software/ IT infrastructures. But for the firms who make multiplatform news production software, it wasn’t— because the pandemic simply accelerated a trend that was already underway.

This is certainly the case at Avid, which is well-known for its MediaCentral media workflow platform. “We have accelerated this transition towards the cloud as an enabler for remote production,” said Raúl Alba, Avid’s director of product marketing for media and cloud. “Everything that we are doing is designed to help our clients move to the cloud, or be deployed on premises and accessed remotely.”

The same is true at Dalet. “Even before COVID, we had already planned to increase our capability to do more with mobility and have a web client that can be used from anywhere with no compromise in functionality,” said Raoul Cospen, Dalet’s director of product strategy, News. The just-announced Dalet Pyramid newsroom system trumpets this precise capability under the slogan, “Create, anywhere, together.”

At the same time, skeptics in the broadcast news business opened up their minds to working remotely after the lockdowns began.

“As long as the delivery of jobs is seen to be safeguarded, news teams are happy to be given tools that enable them to be quicker and more responsive on a widening range of platforms,” said Michael Pfitzner, vice president of CGI Media Solutions. CGI’s OpenMedia enterprise newsroom system (developed by SCISYS, which the company acquired in 2019), allows users to search agency wires, schedule broadcasts, integrate with other broadcast systems like MAM/playout systems, and write and distribute news stories.

“Journalist buy-in is rarely an issue anymore as it was in the early days of moving to nonlinear systems,” Pfitzner added

THE DRIVING FORCE

To distribute digital content to multiple platforms, newsroom software and the content it manages has to be remotely accessible and modifiable over IP networks.

Operating newsroom software over a secure, reliable corporate LAN is one thing; providing this same functionality to remote users via the insecure, unreliable web is quite another. Fortunately companies were addressing this challenge before anyone had heard of COVID-19.

“IP has been a driving force in our product development for many years,” said Gerhard Lang, CTO of the Vizrt Group, whose open standard-based Viz Pilot Edge web client allows newsrooms to create all aspects of newscast production in the cloud, no matter which newsroom computer system (NRCS) they use.

“Initially, the focus was on how IP and the cloud would replace broadcasters’ on-premises SDI infrastructure,” Lang said. “This focus changed during the lockdowns, when remote users took charge of keeping broadcasters’ news and other programming on air.”

The nature of cloud-based NRSC software means that everyone accessing this platform is a remote user by definition, whether they are doing so from a station newsroom, a home office or on the road.

Whatever the location, Bitcentral’s Oasis, a field-centric, browser-based cloud contribution platform is designed to serve all of them equally, according to company CEO Fred Fourcher.

“Remote contribution was already being used by our Oasis broadcast clients prior to COVID-19,” he said. “Now that COVID-19 has resulted in an increase in people working out of the office, our clients are simply using this Oasis capability more.”

MEETING CUSTOMER NEEDS

The rapid increase in use of NRCS systems remotely hasn’t been without its hiccups.

“We had to help a number of our customers enable their users to work away from the office home,” said Dalet’s Cospen. “Not everyone was ready to do so, which is why we quickly created and llaunched our cloud-based Dalet Galaxy xCloud platform for them to use.”

Other vendors have been tweaking their current products to better support remote production, while developing new products that take this capability even further.

CGI pivoted during this period to ensure its products remain relevant in the work-from-home environment, according to Pfitzner.

“We recognize the importance of staying connected, especially when many organizations have no choice, all while remaining cost-efficient and within budget,” he said. “Among other things, this has meant establishing professional tools for delivering platform-agnostic content and establishing these within our current and future feature sets.”

In the same vein, Avid’s MediaCentral was enhanced with the introduction of mobile apps and support for third-party NRCS in November 2020. “The new remote workflow capabilities in MediaCentral give creative teams the capabilities and confidence to create more content in shorter timeframes regardless of location,” said Avid's Raúl Alba.

This kind of flexibility is what customers want. “What they’re asking us to do is to build much more sophisticated editing products that can run in a web browser, where you could make something that’s perfectly good to put on mainstream TV broadcast,” said Trevor Francis, Grass Valley’s business development manager.

Bitcentral has responded to current events by updating its browser-based tools. “Customers can already remotely schedule/edit incoming satellite and other feeds that are recorded at the station,” said Foucher. “In line with the trend to increased remote access, we are adding more features to our timeline tools to be even more powerful from anywhere.”

By sheer good fortune and forward-looking vision, Primestream had its Xchange Media Cloud For Remote Content Creation in development prior to the pandemic, and released it in April 2020. “With Xchange Media Cloud, we’re bringing the robust functionality of our enterprise-grade Xchange MAM right to their remote workstations,” said Claudio Lisman, president and CEO of Primestream. “Before the pandemic, a lot of remote news production was fed using satellite uplinks/flyaways or by microwave. Today, most of the contribution comes from either online video encoders or bonded cellular devices. Xchange Media Cloud can handle all the recording, editing and playout of these IP contribution sources in the cloud.”

WHAT’S NEXT?

Once vaccinations become commonplace and restrictions are lifted, Grass Valley’s Francis doesn’t expect the remote production trend to be reversed. “People may never go back to working five days a week in the office,” he said. “They may work at home most of the time and go to the office some of the time.”

In fact, the logical outcome of this remote production trend is for some or all of today’s physical TV production/facilities to become virtual, with broadcasters simply leasing access to them as needed, working wherever they choose.

For instance, “we believe that technology like teleportation—the capability of placing two individuals from two different locations and greenscreens onto a single virtual set where they can interact as if they were in the same room, and which we pioneered years ago, has found its time,” said Vizrt’s Lang. “It will become a common way of conducting interviews or staging chat shows.”

Last spring, Vizrt demonstrated this “teleportation” type technology using its Vizrt Engine 4.1 platform to make it appear that Lang and Chris Black, Vizrt’s head of brand and content, carried on a live, one-on-one conversation as if they were in the same room—but were more than 1,000 miles apart.

The disruptive nature of the cloud has allowed more people to work remotely with more power and more efficiency than ever before and will continue to reshape newsroom delivery, CGI’s Pfitzner said. “We can see smaller production sites becoming much more central to many organizations as a result, and at some point, in the future, the physical nature of the newsroom as we know it of a contiguous space dedicated to a sole task might end up disappearing too.”

On a larger scale, Grass Valley’s new Agile Media Processing Platform (AMPP), which offers cloud-based playout/master control functions on a subscription basis to broadcasters, can eliminate the need for a physical TV station/network altogether, according to Francis.

“AMPP is all about taking an entire production suite, including switchers and routers, and running it virtually in the cloud.” said Francis. “This will let customers build a TV studio on demand without having to buy tons of equipment and put it in a dedicated facility. They can access it all in the cloud.”

All told, COVID-19 has spurred news production software firms to move even more boldly into the cloud, and to extend the functionality previously reserved for the newsroom to the entire planet via the web.

PARIS—Dalet has launched the Dalet Pyramid, which the company describes as a next-generation system for unified news operation.

Dalet Pyramid is an integrated solution for news production, content management and multiplatform distribution through a web-based user experience. It features integrated tools that enable 360-storytelling and the dissemination of breaking news across all viewing platforms, Dalet says.

Media asset management and orchestration power ingest, production, delivery and archive workflows, allowing for producers to create content from anywhere. The system’s digital-first multiplatform workflows also provide access to editorial, graphics and distribution tools through desktop and mobile devices. In addition, advanced AI capabilities automate metadata tagging and provide real-time contextual recommendations.

“With Dalet Pyramid, we have completely revamped the user workspace to offer an exceptional creative experience and all the conveniences you expect from a modern architecture including native-cloud support, configurable workflows, scalability, enterprise-level security, frequent feature updates and accessibility across devices,” said Raoul Cospen, director of Product Strategy, News, at Dalet.

For more information, visit www.dalet.com.  

MONTREAL—Four prominent industry companies have joined the SRT Alliance, taking membership to more than 450 firms, the organization said.

With AJA Video Systems, Dalet, NTT TechnoCross Corp. and Ross Video joining the alliance, the number of industry organizations signing up over the past three months has topped 50. Haivision established the SRT Alliance to support the SRT Open Source project.

“We’re thrilled to see how the enthusiasm for the open source SRT technology, and the SRT Alliance, has continued to grow,” said Jesús (Suso) Carrillo, director of the SRT Alliance for Haivision.

“By joining the SRT Alliance, industry leaders like Dalet, Ross and AJA are showing their commitment to addressing today’s challenges in live and remote production and delivering exceptional solutions for their clients,” he said.

The alliance also has announced the return of the SRT Tuesday webinar series and SRT Plugfest, which runs Dec. 8-10, hosted by Haivision and the SRT Alliance. The webinar series examines the SRT innovations of alliance members.

Upcoming SRT Tuesday webinars will be presented by:

• Easyline.io, Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. ET 
• Primestream, Nov. 24 at 1 p.m. ET 
• Dalet, Dec. 1 at 9 a.m. ET 
• SRT Plugfest Kickoff Webinar, Dec. 8 at 9 a.m. ET 
• AJA Video System, Jan. 26, 2021, at 9 a.m. ET 
• BirdDog, Feb. 9, 2021, at 9 a.m. ET 

More information is available on the SRT Alliance website. 

PARIS—As France Télévisions adapts to the realities of remote production, the network has sought the help of Dalet and its Dalet Galaxy xCloud to assist with enabling new workflows from home, supporting more than 300 France Télévisions journalists.

France Télévisions has subscribed to Dalet Galaxy xCloud, a Software-as-a-Service offering that is a full-featured version of the latest Dalet Galaxy five platform, which uses the cloud to facilitate end-to-end, remote news production workflows, Dalet says. The Galaxy xCloud facilitates news production workflows across national channels and the franceinfo rolling news channel. It also supports newsroom editing applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro and Dalet OneCut.

Dalet Galaxy xCloud’s remote editing framework integrates with France Télévisions’ on-premises Dalet Galaxy five system. It supports advanced proxy editing workflows, mixing of central and local content, with proxy content cached locally to eliminate disruptions due to limited bandwidth. Rendering is offloaded to the Dalet Galaxy xCloud system.

France Télévisions will use the Dalet Galaxy xCloud on AWS Cloud, which connects high-resolution file exchange with the on-premises Dalet Galaxy five platform. The broadcast is later expected to move to a hybrid configuration that utilizes the Dalet Galaxy xCloud on-premises gateway to manage heavy media processing. Only proxy content will be sent to the cloud. The hybrid implementation will also support low latency workflows.

For more information, visit www.dalet.com.  

PARIS—Dalet announced the latest release of Brio, its high-density I/O platform, with newly added support for SMPTE ST 2110 to help broadcasters and other media organizations transition from existing SDI workflows to their full IP-based equivalent.

“Unless you are starting from scratch, there is no overnight jump to IP. We find our customers need legacy SDI workflows while they transition to IP. It's a delicate balancing act,” said Jérémy Krein, product manager, Dalet Brio. “The Dalet Brio platform is designed to provide our customers with a practical, flexible and cost-effective solution for transitioning their entire operations to IP environments over time, supporting everything from media management and workflow orchestration to news production and archives.”

Dalet Brio version 3.21, which is now available, supports greater density with more ingest and playout streams, making it easier and faster for companies to migrate operations to IP without disrupting existing SDI workflows, the company said.

Configuring version 3.21 is easy with its broad codec support and approach to managing both IP and SDI. The latest version can be used in production, content management and distribution workflows, either on premise or in the cloud, the company said.

With Brio, content production can be distributed across multiple platforms as well as various internet streams, including SRT, RTMP and NDI, it said.

With support for SMPTE ST 2110 UHD workflows and SDI, Dalet Brio makes it possible to invest in an IP infrastructure at the pace that makes sense for each organization without disrupting ongoing operations, the company said. 

Dalet Brio is “IP-Ready certified” and is part of the official JT-NM Tested program to validate support for ST 2110 and NMOS. The company also has recently joined the SRT Alliance, it said.

On the 2020 roadmap of Brio enhancements are support for AWS cloud workflows, ingest of SRT and RTMP streams for bonded unmanaged IP networks and production of MPEG-DASH on AWS S3 and production MXF, the company said. 

Together the additions will provide remote production teams with end-to-end, cloud-based IP workflows for video contribution directly to the Dalet Brio server, which will make content immediately available in newsrooms for review, editing and playout.

To learn more visit the Dalet website. 

PARIS—Dalet’s Ooyala Flex Media Platform has been updated to better meet the needs of global program delivery, while putting a focus on controlling budgets, the company shared in a press release.

The Ooyala platform has added Kubernetes capabilities to scale cloud computing use for proxy creation and file movement to help optimize cloud costs. There are also new multitenant security features and support for a range of mastering formats, including IMF in the cloud.

With the Kubernetes, Ooyala Flex can scale computing power across cloud environments. Users can also set job concurrency quotas and scaling thresholds, designed to help keep a tighter control over cloud costs. There is also added support for cloud archive lifecycle for additional control over management and costs of large archives, says Dalet.

The platform’s new ability to manage and distribute IMF packages eliminates the need to create multiple versions of a content package, per Dalet. The system is designed to enable users to reduce storage space and optimize management of common projects such as programs distributed globally in different languages and non-standard viewing formats required by licensees and OTT services.

The new Ooyala Flex Media platform is now available. For more information, visit www.dalet.com.  

PARIS—Dalet, a leading provider of solutions and services for broadcasters and content professionals, has announced its virtual IBC2020 event plans through Dalet Connect. An extension to Dalet’s online presence launched in April 2020, Dalet Connect is a digital meeting environment dedicated to media professionals looking for workflow solutions. 

Dalet kicks off its "Virtual IBC'' on Sept. 1 with digital sessions on new product introductions and workflows that enhance mobility, flexibility and agility across news, programming and OTT content preparation. Dalet Pulse, which will be held on Sept. 8, is a special online event that provides attendees the opportunity to interact with the Dalet team, learn about the latest innovations and what's on the horizon.

"IBC has long served as the platform for Dalet to present real technology use cases as well as to discuss our innovation plans. It has also been a place for us to connect with our customers and partners and hear what matters to their businesses,” comments Robin Kirchhoffer, director of Marketing, Operations and Content, Dalet. “With the current events preventing us from connecting in person, these deep conversations become more important now than ever,” Robin summarizes. "Over the last several months we have been fine-tuning the Dalet Connect online experience to recreate a community environment where any media professional can engage with Dalet at their own pace and based on their specific needs.”

DALET PULSE 2020

In partnership with Adobe, AWS and Bitmovin, Dalet Pulse will feature keynotes and presentations from industry experts with discussions on leveraging tools that foster remote collaboration and increase audience engagement across consumption platforms. Dalet will facilitate live discussions on latest advancements and real-world use cases in media. Register for the Dalet Pulse Sept. 8, at https://www.dalet.com/events/dalet-pulse-online.

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHES

The expanding digital session lineup features new product introductions and technology innovation including: 

• New Dalet AmberFin Cloud Transcoder: This SaaS-based, high-quality media processing service offers robust transcoding, media packaging and distribution capabilities with unlimited scalability. The solution addresses a range of complex needs allowing content creators and distributors to respond quickly and efficiently to delivery demands. 
• Innovating OTT Workflows: The Ooyala Flex Media Platform, integrated with Bitmovin’s encoding, player and analytics offerings, redefines the economics and the user experience of OTT video distribution. The presentation will feature the case study of the National Rugby League of Australia. 
• New Cloud-enabled Graphics with Dalet CubeNG: Tightly integrated in the Dalet Galaxy five platform, Dalet CubeNG can now run on public cloud infrastructure as well as on-premises, supporting real-time graphics creation with must-have features including CGs on the timeline with animated preview and burn-in. 
• Enhanced integrations with Adobe Premiere Pro: With new functionality for the Ooyala Flex Media Platform, thanks to improvements to its Adobe Panel and added support for remote and cloud editing workflows with Dalet Galaxy five, enabling advanced collaboration for distributed teams.
• New and improved tools for home-based production: Dalet Galaxy xCloud, a SaaS-based full-featured version of the Dalet Galaxy five platform, facilitates end-to-end remote production workflows with unlimited scalability. Updates to Dalet On-the-Go newsroom mobile app include a new UI and a range of usability improvements to optimize remote user experience for journalists, reporters and chief editors. 
• A range of SaaS offerings to complement existing Dalet operations: From AI-driven editorial tools with Dalet Media Cortex, to B2B monetization solutions that selectively expose a content owners’ catalog with Dalet StoreFront. 

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS

The new products arrive as the company marks an important milestone, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, according to Bea Alonso, director of global product marketing. 

“In 30 years of experience working in the broadcast and news production environment, we've collected a lot of experience and know how in terms of news sort of become the leader in news production and distribution,” Alonso said. “But we know that it's time to evolve a new generation of news producers and reporters who are working more outside the newsroom because there's other ways of creating and consuming news these days.”

Dalet was already in the process of re-evaluating its news production products before the pandemic hit earlier this year, Alonso added. 

“Over the last year we've taken a lot of time to look at how we're going to continue to appeal especially to those new generation reporters,” she said. “Our next-gen news production tools are a complete departure from what we've been doing with Galaxy. It has browser-based user interfaces, and it sort of ‘decentralizes’ the newsroom,” to respond to the evolving news environment where reporters are spending more  time outside the facility and news is being distributed to more and more platforms. 

“Customers want mobility, agility and flexibility and this is a direct result of the pandemic,” Alonso added. “The pandemic has really changed the way that our tools are used by our users, and it's all about making sure that no matter where the user is they have the ability to connect and continue to produce good work, whether they are in an office or whether they're at home.”

To join Dalet’s IBC2020 Virtual Showcase, head over to https://connect.dalet.com/#join. 

PARIS—Dalet has announced the availability of a cloud-enabled version of its broadcast newsroom graphics solution, Dalet CubeNG.

Powered by the Brainstorm real-time graphics engine, Dalet CubeNG includes tools to create and manage playout of 2D and 3D dynamic graphics and branding for news distributed via broadcast, digital and social channels.

“With this version of Dalet CubeNG, we not only optimize mobility with cloud infrastructure, but the connection to the Dalet ecosystem as well,” said Jérémy Krein, Dalet CubeNG product manager. “Natively integrated, Dalet CubeNG’s broadcast graphics workflows provide a first-class user experience that we continually improve upon.“

Dalet CubeNG can run on the public cloud as well as on premise. It creates graphics and offers features, such as CGs on the timeline with animated preview and burn-in. The new version also integrates tightly with the Dalet Galaxy five environment.

“Journalists can browse their video and image titles through Dalet Galaxy five and retrieve assets to build image-rich stories and engaging visuals from anywhere, using the Dalet CubeNG plug-in,” said Krein. “The familiar interface and simple-to-use tools make the entire experience seamless, allowing users to focus on creating graphics that up-level the visual news narrative across traditional, digital and social channels.”

Dalet CubeNG distributes operations like burn-in and animated preview, which require time to process, across multiple file-based engines in parallel, creating significant time-savings whether done in the cloud or on premise, he said.

More information is available on the Dalet website. 

PARIS—Dalet announced enhancements to the usability of its Dalet On-the-Go mobile app for smartphones and tablets to improve how journalists working remotely can collaborate with their newsroom colleagues via a new user interface (UI).

The company has also enhanced its underlying Dalet Galaxy five news production and distribution platform. Dalet has added remote editing features, such as cloud-based edit while recording, and support for open-source frameworks to accelerate secure content exchange across multisite and distributed newsroom operations, the company said.

The enhancements also benefit Dalet Galaxy xCloud, the dedicated, cloud-hosted system managed by Dalet as a full SaaS service, the company said. The service connects securely with existing on-premises systems, supporting advanced workflows for remote editing and news production teams.

“Our digital-first product strategy focuses on mobility and flexibility,” said Bea Alonso, director of product marketing for the company. “Dalet On-the-Go and remote news production solutions, like Dalet Galaxy xCloud, empower journalists, reporters and chief editors with the technology they need to pivot, remain productive and keep telling vital stories.”

DALET ON-THE-GO

The latest release of Dalet On-the-Go connects journalists, reporters and chief editors to the newsroom. The app makes possible remote assignment management, story development, review and approval, rundowns, planning, status and contact search. It also gives users easy access to their Dalet Galaxy five catalog of video, audio, scripts and wires, the company said. 

Available from Apple’s App Store and Google Play, Dalet On-the-Go offers advanced content contribution capabilities. Templates let users record media and craft stories quickly by mixing local media together with remote content stored within the Dalet Galaxy five system, the company said.

Dalet’s smart upload features guard against connectivity issues, reconnecting to the upload exactly where it left off when necessary. Teleprompter support for on-the-fly reporting is provided, while tickers, wires and chat messages keep staff connected to information and late-breaking news, the company said.

DALET GALAXY FIVE AND DALET GALAXY xCLOUD

The SaaS-based Dalet Galaxy xCloud offering is a full-featured version of the latest Dalet Galaxy five platform. Hosted by Dalet, it leverages the cloud to facilitate end-to-end, remote news production workflows, Dalet said.

The core remote editing framework supports advanced proxy editing workflows, mixing of central and local content, with proxy content cached locally to eliminate disruptions due to limited bandwidth. Rendering is offloaded to the Dalet Galaxy xCloud system, optimizing performance to break news faster, the company said.

Dalet Galaxy five offers a new public API that empowers news organizations to customize workflow capabilities and integrations, the company said. 

More information is available on the Dalet website.

PARIS—Dalet and Bitmovin have announced a new collaboration focused on the preparation and delivery of OTT content, which has a user in the form of Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL).

The workflow integration features Dalet’s Ooyala Flex Media Platform for media logistics and Bitmovin’s encoder technology. The workflow is designed to expand existing offerings into new markets and geographies at scale; engage viewers through multiple services, including VOD, apps and subscriptions; and augment revenue opportunities with better visibility across production and distribution operations, according to the announcement.

NRL will utilize this technology to fully optimize their OTT strategy. The league’s digital division creates, produces, archives and livestreams hundreds of hours of content to NRL.com, Telstra NRL official app and Telstra TV OTT device.

Using the combination of Ooyala Flex Media Platform and Bitmovin tech enabled NRL’s staff to build ad-hoc workflows that could better tap into their inventory and distribute more editorial content, imagery and video across NRL’s applications. The Ooyala Flex Media Platform orchestrated the media catalog’s encoding, media movement and content discovery to surface near-live video to audiences.

“By combining the Ooyala Flex Media Platform and the Bitmovin solutions we have been able to reduce complexity and issues, optimizing inefficient steps while successfully accelerating our delivery workflows,” said Quanah McBride, head of digital media operations, NRL.

For more information, visit www.dalet.com.  

PARIS—Dalet has a new product that it has just made available to help broadcasters and content professionals with remote production needs during the current coronavirus pandemic, the Dalet Galaxy xCloud.

The Galaxy xCloud is a scalable Saas system that can extend on-premises production and enables remote editing and collaboration experiences from home to hub, per Dalet. The system uses cloud infrastructure as well as production tools like Dalet OneCut, Dalet WebSpace and Dalet On-the-Go from home-based devices. It can also support Adobe Premiere Pro-based editing workflows through the Dalet Xtend plug-in.

Dalet says that the Galaxy xCloud technology will be able to help with critical production and distribution operations in this current environment, as well as when things get back to normal.

The company has additional products it says can assist with some of the new working conditions. Dalet OnePlay can be used to run a studio with a reduced crew; Ooyala Flex Media Platform scales OTT packaging and multiplatform distribution needs; and Dalet StoreFront is able to source content remotely and expose inventory to clients.

To learn more about Dalet’s latest technology, the company has created Dalet Connect, a dedicated site where users can set up online appointments for demos, meetings and webinars, as well as direct correspondence with Dalet team members.

For more information, visit www.dalet.com.  

PARIS—Dalet has announced the hiring of Bea Alonso to the position of director of global product marketing.

Alonso will have strategic oversight of Dalet’s product marketing team and technology partnerships, working with Dalet product management, sales and corporate marketing groups to define and execute all go-to-market strategy plans.

Alonso joins Dalet from Ooyala, where she led the media logistics business across the Asia Pacific region. She also has past experience at Avid and Grass Valley.

“Our mission is to understand customers’ needs and market trends, then drive a product strategy that provides effective solutions with world-class user experience and a clear return on investment for our customers,” says Alonso. “We can now deliver agile workflows from enterprise broadcast productions to digital-first distribution, as well as help sports organizations, enterprises and brands looking to increase their consumer engagement through video.”

Alsono will take part in the “Transforming Content Production and Distribution with AI” panel during the 2020 NAB Show, which is scheduled for April 22 at 9:40 a.m. in room N239/N241.