BURLINGTON, Mass.—Avid said it completed the acquisition of Wolftech Broadcast Solutions, a provider of cloud-based, multiplatform news planning, production and publishing solutions. Financial details were not disclosed.

“This is an exciting moment,” Avid CEO Wellford Dillard said. “Wolftech is unquestionably on the leading edge of where the industry is going, and this acquisition demonstrates Avid’s commitment to transform news, sports and live production workflows. We are delighted to welcome Wolftech into the Avid family.”

Closing the deal enables Avid to combine its digital-first, end-to-end media product portfolio with Wolftech’s story-centric workflow management. The combination will benefit news organizations with increased efficiency and accelerated story delivery due to enhanced remote collaboration and the ability to amplify the reach of stories across multiple platforms, Avid said.

“We were focused on finding a partner that could accelerate the adoption of our platform globally,” Wolftech CEO Arne Berven said. “We explored a number of possibilities, but when we talked to Avid, we knew it was the right match.”

Avid disclosed its definitive agreement to acquire Wolftech on Oct. 7. The acquisition will more fully integrate Avid’s tools with those of Wolftech, but Avid said it will continue to maintain an open approach to working with other companies with media production tools and newsroom systems.

Existing Wolftech customers will have access to Avid’s global scale for customer support and professional services, the company said.

“This acquisition strengthens Avid's position in the news market and confirms our commitment to deliver best-in-class solutions that empower news organizations to thrive in today's fast-paced digital landscape,” Dillard said. “Together, Avid and Wolftech will enable news production teams to accelerate storytelling—from pitch to publish.”

More information is available on the Avid website.

It looks like TV and online news operations nationwide are already moving at breakneck speed to capitalize on a broadening range of benefits delivered by generative artificial intelligence.

This was the obvious takeaway from accounts of GenAI activity offered by executives representing a sizeable slice of the U.S. broadcast news business at NAB Show New York this week. It’s only been a year since OpenAI’s ChatGPT made GenAI available for commercial use, but adoption in broadcast news has flourished with an allure in the creative sphere that goes far beyond the longstanding uses of AI in automatic speech recognition (ASR), performance monitoring, content-aware encoding, and other applications benefitting the M&E industry.

Now the question is, how does the industry harness the benefits without succumbing to the potential the technology has to undermine copyright enforcement, veracity, balance, and nuance in news coverage? 

James Finch, vice president of news services at Gray Television, voiced the emerging consensus view on controlling GenAI at TV Newscheck's "TV25: Monetizing the Future" conference at NAB Show New York this week, when he commented, “We’re going to prioritize our audiences and journalists over any benefits from AI.”

Formulating policies along these lines at the corporate level has become a game of catchup as local news operations jump on the GenAI bandwagon. In many cases, GenAI has become embedded in TV station news workflows ahead of front-office awareness, let alone any coordinated attempt to rein it in.

Michael Newman, director of transformation at the digital media and technology firm Graham Media Group, described what happened earlier this year when his office sent out a company-wide questionnaire asking, “Do you use AI?” “We got a spectacular response,” Newman said. “An unbelievable number of people are using AI day to day, even for headline writing and [news story] drafts.”

This signaled that Graham Media, which supports news operations at seven mostly big-city TV stations in Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Virginia, needed “to get out ahead of it,” he said, but in a way that would “bottle the enthusiasm.” That attitude appears to be guiding the emergence of ground rules for use of GenAI across the industry.

The goal should be “to help journalists do their jobs,” said Colin Benedict, vice president of news at Morgan Murphy Media, another supplier of news production support that works with seven stations affiliated with CBS, ABC, NBC, Telemundo, and Univision in Wisconsin, Washington, Texas, Florida, and Iowa. Currently, Morgan Murphy finds station news teams are spending just 25 to 40 percent of their time “creating original material,” Benedict said. “We want to get that up to around 80 percent.”

For example, he noted, Morgan Murphy affiliates’ news staffs are using large language models (LLMs), the pre-trained artificial neural networks that are designed to create human-like responses from massive datasets, to produce the first drafts of web articles from live broadcast feeds, which are reviewed by staff members before they’re posted. This cuts average time spent on executing the task from 30 to just four minutes, he said, which frees staffers to spend more time on creative work.

Along with using GenAI to turn original content into alternative versions, Morgan Murphy is fostering back-office uses. But it draws a line at using the technology to create original content, Benedict said. 

While that appears to be the case in most news operations, there’s no getting around the fact that, in the fast-paced, increasingly competitive world of broadcast journalism, there’s a mounting temptation to blur that line. Fears about the potential ramifications are well founded, according to Graham Media’s Michael Newman. 

The focus on the efficiencies enabled by GenAI generates fear of job loss in the newsroom, he noted. With more content streaming around the world than ever before, there are worries about a growing pool of unreliable information that AI can draw from. And, he added, “We need humans to tell critical pieces of the story that AI misses.”

Ahron Young, founder and CEO of the online newscaster Ticker, conveyed what it’s like walking the AI edge in a day-to-day scrum that’s generating 13-minute news capsules 24/7 for access through the Ticker App or on affiliated sites like Samsung TV Plus, Fetch TV, Sling, Telstra TV, and FuboTV. Citing the need to reduce the mundanities that burden journalists, Young said, “No one wants to do a mindless job.”

The real question, he added, “is how much better can the story be with this technology?” Noting “humans make a lot of mistakes,” often with decisions “based on emotion,” he pointed to beneficial uses Ticker is getting out of GenAI with research assistance, search-engine optimization (SEO) summaries of its video feeds, help with writing headlines, and promoting ad sales with messaging targeted to specific advertisers’ interests.

Another note of caution against too much GenAI restraint was sounded by Philippe Petitpont, CEO and co-founder of Newsbridge, a vendor specializing in GenAI-driven live and archive media asset management for news organizations. Considering whether broadcasters need a chief AI officer to keep things in check, Petitpont said a guiding principle should be “don’t be too strict.”

But Finch made clear there needs to be a corporately sanctioned guide to AI policy, which his company has created in the form of a task force that meets quarterly to review new developments and feedback from its 113 stations. Concerns over copyright infringement, erosions in staff trust stemming from job insecurity, how audiences are reacting to AI-influenced innovation, performance of GenAI algorithms, and much else are addressed by the task force in what Finch called a “living use-case document.” 

Leading this year’s recurring themes and category catch-phrases were the inevitable and overworked IP and Cloud, followed closely by Workflow Orchestration, Virtualization and relative newcomer Artificial Intelligence, all well-intentioned to automate the routine, liberate creativity, and enable deeper-than-ever dives into metadata, both for content and—shades of George Orwell—its consumers.

MASTER CONTROL AUTOMATION & CHANNEL PLAYOUT

AVECO debuted Ad Juggler, an ad revenue optimization tool for live sports coverage. A single key-press instantaneously executes an “alternate list” video/graphic sponsorship when a peak audience-interest play occurs; events post to the as-run for traffic and billing reconciliation.

BITCENTRAL showcased Central Control with multiple redundancy modes and Join-in-Progress updates, plus enhanced user-interface efficiency with multichannel control and customizable maps to aggregate and view remotely managed channels.

BROADSTREAM introduced Media Exchange for transcoder-free PitchBlue and Pathfire file acquisition and native playout. Also, CompuSat integration for off-satellite recording, and closed-caption display within its OASYS Browser.

CINEGY brought v12 of Air, Desktop, and Capture, plus Multiviewer v14. Desktop added real-time access to live feeds and its Archive MAM content. Included tools support logging, editing, post-production, news, and import/export to non-linear editing and automation.

CRISPIN unveiled a Sonybased Disaster Recovery solution via its RapidPlayX Web GUI. The Cloud-native playlist software offers on-premises and virtual deployment flexibility for stations to stay on-air when their ground facility’s off-line. Also, user feedback-based Join-in-Progress enhancements.

DNF CONTROLS unveiled its Live Cloud Playout collaboration with AWS. Thirdparty automation “sees” its GTP-32 controller as a local server channel, although content is remote on Amazon S3, and updates status as clips are added or removed. Also GTP-V1, a new software-only virtual IP controller for video/KVM routers, switchers, multiviewers, servers, tally systems, and more regardless of physical location.

ENCO announced NewTek Network Device Interface (NDI) support for IP video, plus a new ClipBoard interface for its Media Operations Manager (MOM) playout automation. Also, live input cut-ins without external switcher and support for SCTE-35 triggers and CEA-608/708 Closed Caption pass-through.

EVERTZ featured OvertureRT-LIVE workflow integration with iPowow, a social media aggregator and moderator, to enhance the viewer experience through real-time interaction with favorite shows.

FLORICAL partnered with Harmonic to debut FéniX, a scalable automation/playout package for simple channel to highyield enterprise configurations. Acuitas, its COTS hardware channel-in-a-box platform, added SAN environment capabilities for greater channel scalability.

GRASS VALLEY unveiled its SAM-merged automation range: iTX Flex, a Cloudbased SaaS solution for rapid channel spin-up; iTX Integrated Platform, software-based SD, HD or UHD playout with HDR support; and iTX On-Demand for VOD workflows. Complementing them: Multi-channel/screen Morpheus for on-premises, virtualized or multifacility operations, and ICE (Integrated Channel Playout), now supporting graphic templates with dynamic realtime data.

HARMONIC expanded its media processing family with VOS SW Cluster software and VOS 360 SaaS. Both support Cloud and bare metal environments to speed OTT deployment and channel migrations with greater flexibility and lower cost-per-channel.

IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS added “Vizrt Inside” graphics to Versio, its Cloud-native, microservices-based playout platform, plus version redundancy, geo-zone back-up synchronization, and Adobe Acrobat integration.

NVERZION debuted Aramyst to automate syndicated content acquisition, prep and playout from PitchBlue and Pathfire; also announced, a Utah Scientific partnership combining their master control offerings under the brand “Uinta.”

PEBBLE BEACH added low-latency NDI confidence monitoring for live, reactive channels, plus 3D graphics integration with Pixel Power and Ross for Orca, its virtualized IP solution for scalable playout using private or public Cloud infrastructure.

PIXEL POWER showcased the addition of NewTek’s NDI technology to its Stream-Master integrated playout platform to generate and monitor low latency proxies. The company also demonstrated Gallium Workflow Orchestration to automate adding/removing graphics, branding, content packaging and regionalization; and GalliumVOD for OTT, catch-up and multiplatform services.

PRIMESTREAM debuted IP stream ingest and transcoding, a SaaS-based Review and Approval system, 4K/UHD end-to-end workflows, a centralized configuration module, and public APIs for Xchange.

RUSHWORKS unveiled A-List Streamster, IP-based desktop scheduling and playback automation for Internet channels, with URL and NDI input/output support for YouTube and similar outlets.

NEWSROOM SYSTEMS & WORKFLOWS

AVID brought multiple Cloud-centric journalist apps to its MediaCentral platform, including: “Publish,” to repurpose on-air content for Web and social media; “Rundown,” for live news production; “Research,” news feed and social media consolidation; and “Maestro News,” to facilitate graphic workflows.

BITCENTRAL launched FUEL, designed to dynamically stream and monetize viewer-personalized news content, while boosting engagement and ad impressions. Fuel incorporates the necessary tools to version, upload, and publish to digital audiences anywhere. The company also highlighted functionality updates throughout its newsroom workflow, including multiple third-party integrations, enhanced Oasis collaboration, and heightened security.

DALET showcased smart journalist modules powered by Media Cortex, part of its Galaxy AI framework. Content Discovery creates contextual recommendations with auto-content tagging, topic extraction, and key phrase searches; Social Media Framework lets editorial teams harvest, analyze, produce and deliver fast-paced news with popularity tracking and an aggregator tool to identify and follow threads.

GRASS VALLEY augmented its newsroom workflows with social media tools for STRATUS 6.0; enhanced video, IT and cloud-based asset management in Momentum; and v11 of its Ignite newscast production automation with upgraded Event Builder, third-party switcher support, and editing via SAM’s Go!, Rio or Grass’s EDIUS.

ENCO showed advanced ENPS, Avid and Octopus plug-ins and a new MOS interface for its Media Operations Manager (MOM) playout platform. Journalists can search asset libraries within their NRCS interface to add graphics, audio or video to scripts; rundowns auto-synchronize and are controllable via MOS for play-to-air.

OCTOPUS featured v8.2 of its eponymous NRCS. Among enhancements: collaborative scripting, faster rundown editing with clip replacement and in/out point modification, plus direct posting to social media and new story slug shortcuts.

TRAFFIC, BUSINESS & RIGHTS MANAGEMENT

BROADVIEW SOFTWARE rolled-out Version 8, with tools for linking series, seasons and episodes; expanded live event metadata management; upgraded auto-promo placement; enhanced secondary event and ad break functionality; and streamlined workflows to create and publish bulk program content.

IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS debuted xG Scorecard. Blending input from sales and traffic, operational databases, social media, ratings and more across the enterprise, it empowers media executives to organize, navigate, interpret and draw real-time insights from their data.

MYERS introduced Console, a Cloud-enabled single point-of-entry to the ProTrack suite with enhanced security and multi-factor authentication. Also, ProTrack’s transition to browser front-end with advanced sales capabilities and interactive scheduling grid, and a significant update to ProWeb scheduling.

OPERATIVE (formerly SintecMedia) released an open API and ContentDNA, a machine learning algorithm within OnTarget forecasting to its Cloud-based AOS sales, traffic, and content management ecosystem. Also, new alliances with MediaOcean and Freewheel, among others.

WIDEORBIT launched Cloud Analytics, a streamlined SaaS edition of its flagship business intelligence solution that lowers implementation costs, yet retains its powerful dashboards, integrated traffic data, and mobile access for improved sales and financial decision-making.

ARCHIVE & MEDIA ASSET MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

AVID demonstrated On Demand, a Cloud-based SaaS platform to securely manage and deliver content to any device, anywhere, while automating transformation and QC tasks. Also, new AI Suite creates searchable rich metadata libraries, applying machine learning and cognitive services to content indexing, closed caption verification, scene and facial recognition, and speech-to-text conversion.

DALET introduced Galaxy five, the latest edition of its asset management and workflow orchestration platform. The new version adds AI across the workflow, hybrid infrastructures with on-premises and cloud deployments, and a core emphasis on social media.

EVERTZ showcased third-party integrations with Mediator-X, its Cloud-enabled asset management platform, including a file-based QC solution from Interra Systems; automated closed caption and video description verification, alignment and language identification with Avid|Illuminate; and scalable object storage with Cloudian HyperStore.

MASSTECH introduced its “Metadata Mining” concept: a framework to relay archive or production content to third-party AI services to create metadata such as voice-to-text, facial, object or location recognition, even sentiment recognition that can be converted into searchable metadata linked to specific stored assets, thereby expanding potential content discovery and monetization.

PRIME FOCUS TECHNOLOGIES added work order automation modules to its CLEAR Media ERP, including a Content Acquisition Portal to manage, evaluate, cata-logue and schedule; OTT Distribution for multi-platform VOD publishing; and Ingest for Satellite & Terrestrial Distribution for centralized capture, prep, QC and automated delivery to station master controls.

SONY announced full integration between Media Backbone NavigatorX and its Ci Media Cloud Platform, plus Avid and Adobe edit integration; HTML5 apps to ingest, organize, manage, and search across multiple departments and locations; and an Optical Disc Archive collaboration with Qualstar to develop an enterprise-class library system.

TEDIAL debuted AI-based SMARTLIVE, a metadata engine and production support tool for sports and live events. It automatically builds logs, player grids and schedules, captures actual multi-camera or multi-venue content, and creates highlight clips based on actions, keywords or logged occurrences for live production enhancement, archive, or publication to social media.

TMD showed Media-flex-UMS Orchestrator with third-party device controls and business system integrations for simple-to-complex software-defined workflows that adapt automatically based on metadata values. Companion Composer’s workflow designs may be cloned and edited in-house without programmers or costly professional services.

TVU NETWORKS unveiled its cloud-based MediaMind, consisting of Contribution Automation, AI Engine, Producer Pro, plus Real-Time Search and Workflow Engines. It precisely indexes video from the start of production based on AI-generated metadata, enabling production workgroups to efficiently locate and interact with content.

VERIZON DIGITAL MEDIA SERVICES featured Path Monitoring for OTT, part of Volicon Media Intelligence, with end-to-end delivery chain visibility, including a “what aired” video affidavit. It simultaneously monitors, logs and records baseband or transport stream feeds to confirm content integrity across geo-separated locations.

VSN showed Explorer MAM with new auto-metadata detection using IBM, Google or Microsoft Azure integration to obtain real-time insights from content via facial and brand recognition, keywords, speakers, objects, and more. Explorer now includes Wedit (web-based editor) enabling users to edit videos and export EDLs from any location.

XYECH revealed new features for its MediaPulse facility management, including Azure PaaS support, Change Control for Approval Workflows, Personnel Entitlements and Payroll Penalties in Schedule Book, and Auto-Assign Resource.

SWITCHERS/VISION MIXING

BLACKMAGIC DESIGN launched ATEM Television Studio Pro 4K, an all-in-one live UHD switcher with integrated hardware control panel featuring eight independent 12G-SDI inputs, built-in Fair-light audio mixer, ATEM Advanced Chroma Keyer, multi-view, flash-based media players, creative transitions, DVE, and more.

BROADCAST PIX released a dual-channel BPfusion CG software option for its BPswitch production series. It streamlines data-intensive graphics creation via built-in NewBlueNTX multilayer 3D motion CG and auto-updates with IP-based scoreboard, Twitter, RSS, spreadsheet, and similar sports, election, and news data.

EVS debuted X-ONE, an all-in-one live production system with software-defined technology for small to mid-sized events. An intuitive touchscreen interface enables solo operators to create replays, control audio, mix video sources, and add graphics over live content with high quality broadcast-standard output.

FOR-A unwrapped a new 4K 3 M/E model for its HVS-6000 switcher platform with a maximum 64 inputs/48 outputs in 12G-SDI and 12RU, Designed for users upgrading from HD to full 4K, it’s future-scalable to 8K.

GRASS VALLEY introduced K-Frame X, which uses existing K-FRM boards plus a new 192x96 I/O video production engine. It supports TICO compression or uncompressed SMPTE ST-2110 4K, along with HDR, and operates from any GV Kayenne, Karrera or Korona switcher panel.

JLCOOPER ELECTRONICS upped its Proton and Ion switcher control surfaces with front panel input mapping, Hall-effect T-Bar, GPI-input, and QuickSwitch to support multiple Blackmagic ATEMs.

NEWTEK unveiled NDI 3.5–its widely accepted interface protocol–with performance, network connectivity, and device discovery enhancements. Flagship TriCaster gained LiveGraphics with real-time motion and dynamic, data-driven text and imagery via Adobe Photoshop or After Effects, and without needing proprietary hardware.

ROSS VIDEO launched Carbonite Black Solo13, a compact 13-in/6-out switcher and hardware panel combo. Acuity gained Floating 3D DVE; 2020 WCG HDR Conversion on Input and Output Processing Boards with HLG, PQ and Slog3 support; audio on the Global Store; and enhanced Custom Controls. Carbonite v13 added DashBoard Virtual-Panel; input/output Color Corrector and proc amp controls; color temperature presets; Any Bus Follow, and more.

RUSHWORKS updated its VDESK Radio/TV Production System with 3n1 multi-function PTZ camera and TALK-TAKE voice-activated, hands-off switching between host and guests.

SONY unveiled the XVS-9000, an advanced live switcher for 4K, HD and HDR content productions with up to 80-inputs/40-outputs in 4K or 160-inputs/80-outputs in HD, plus IP, 12G-SDI in 4K, and hybrids of both for large sporting and entertainment programming.

ROUTING

EVERTZ debuted the XRF4, a modular RF router with hot-swappable rear panels, 64x128 matrix, direct fiber-optic inputs, and control/monitoring touch-screen.

FOR-A launched the MFR-6000 SD/HD/3G/6G/12G, a router with 12G-SDI compatibility across a matrix of up to 144-in/outputs plus 4K and 8K support. A built-in Web server simplifies setup and it can be integrated within an SNMP system to monitor operational states, I/O signals, and cross-point status.

GRASS VALLEY introduced v1.5 of Convergent, its SDI/IP router with familiar interface to visualize IP network bandwidth; it supports SDN and IGMP, as well as audio breakaway, shuffling and AES profile conversion. Also new, the Sirius 840 Enterprise, a router with integrated MV 850 multi-viewer with support for SDI, AES, MADI, 4K UHD, IP and 12G, 840 with integral audio/video processing.

ROSS VIDEO debuted the Ultrix-FR5, a 5RU, 144x144 routing/AV processing platform featuring SD to 12G, clean/quiet switching, audio embedding/de-embedding, and up to 24 MultiViewers with 100 PIPs per head.

UTAH SCIENTIFIC unveiled a pass-through card for its 400 Series 2/3 routers or standalone operation. It converts SDI to IP while keeping the original SDI for use elsewhere. Twelve 3G/HD/SD signals can be switched in SDI with simultaneous IP copies (2022 or 2110) fed to IP fabric, easing the migration to IP-based workflows.

KVM SWITCHES

ADDER TECHNOLOGY introduced the ALIF100T, a dongle-sized USB power-capable KVM, part of its ADDER-Link INFINITY series. The diminutive unit consumes a quarter the power of conventional rack units yet delivers up to 1920x1200@60Hz via DVI or DisplayPort interface.

BLACK BOX debuted its Emerald Unified KVM Platform, a converged solution to distribute video, audio, and peripheral signals in hybrid environments, including IP and proprietary direct-connect networks, with mixed resolutions up to UHD/4K and beyond.

G&D NORTH AMERICA unwrapped a KVM-over-IP matrix with dynamic access, secure AES-128 encrypted operation, and control room functionality for monitoring, scripting and scenario-switching.

IHSE launched the Draco ultra-491 Series, HDMI extenders that pass video over long distances without quality loss in simple point-to-point applications or combined with enterprise or compact matrix switches. It can extend HDMI up to 10 kilometers over fiber or 140 meters usingCat-X cables. Digital audio options include AES/EBU and S/PDIF up to 96 kilohertz.

THINKLOGICAL introduced the TLX Client Integration module, a virtual machine processor and KVM extender offering secure, uncompressed signal management without adding latency, artifacts or dropped-frames. It’s deployable point-to-point or in-conjunction with a matrix switch for multi-source/destination connectivity in collaborative workflows.