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.

Contrary to what many believe, virtual studio solutions are not new technology. They have just been neglected. 

CBS tried them at the dizzy heights of the dot-com bubble back in 1999, as did many others. But the combination of expense, complexity, and subpar graphics meant they crashed and burned very quickly. 

As one, the industry quietly turned away and pretended it had never happened.  

But in recent years, we have quietly been helping traditional news broadcasters around the world, from the BBC to NBC experiment with new forms of video production and keep up in the creative arms race that modern media has become.  

Many have found that virtual studio technology offers a significant strategic advantage for modern newsrooms — and can be for yours too. 

Media Consumption Habits Are Driving Change  

Media consumption habits have shifted in the last decade, making the industry more competitive than ever before.  

As audiences are bombarded by the volume and variety of news outlets and media forms available, news broadcasters are rapidly expanding and experimenting with creative elements to keep viewers engaged.

A lower technological barrier to entry and shift of advertising capital towards new advertising platforms (such as social media) has resulted in lower news viewership and budgets — and smaller creative and technical teams for many broadcasters.  

Newsroom directors and their teams must do more with less to produce engaging, accurate content to capture audiences — and are increasingly turning to virtual studio to do that.  

Overcoming the Physical Limits of Traditional Studios 

While the traditional news industry has been reluctant to implement (or even talk about) virtual studio, they have become commonplace in sports broadcasting.  

Their adaptability and ease of redesign make virtual studio a powerful tool for news broadcasters — especially those operating under constrained budgets. That flexibility allows newsroom directors to do more with graphics and creative elements, inject more dynamism and visual intrigue into their broadcasts, and turn the studio into a storytelling tool. It also facilitates much faster set up and tear down times, rapid transitions between segments and shows with a fraction of the budget, time, and resources required by physical sets. 

Virtual Studio in Action – Revolutionizing Broadcast Efficiency 

The advantages of a virtual broadcast studio are threefold: easy set-up, more creative, and reduced broadcasting resources. 

For instance, NBC LX built a virtual set into their new studios, allowing them a lot of flexibility and allowing them to use immersive graphics to grab attention and draw people into the story.  

(See how NBC LX uses their virtual set to tell better stories in this video)

Virtual studios can also make live video production more efficient. They allow for faster transitions between sets and environments, meaning producers can quickly repurpose studio spaces for different programs without having to spend the time and resources building multiple hard studios and sets.

Virtual sets and studio elements are programmed using automated workflows, templates and pre-recorded transitions, meaning they can be used and repurposed for multiple different stories with minor editing. These highly automated workflows are particularly useful for smaller production teams, empowering reporters and creatives to deliver more high-quality content with a fraction of the work involved. 

Elevate Your Newsroom with Ross Video Solutions 

Success in the modern newsroom means doing more with less: more content with less budget, more engagement with less staff, and more “bells and whistles” in less time.  

Modern news broadcasters use Ross Video products like XPression, Voyager, and Lucid to automate and streamline immersive virtual studios. Workflow automation tools, like Overdrive and Streamline Pro, stitch these tools together, accelerating the production process and ensuring brand consistency and quality.  

That frees reporters and creatives to deliver more content, creating and embellishing their own stories — sometimes live on air — without adding to their news directors’ long list of worries.  

To learn more about how Ross Video can help your newsrooms stay competitive in the rapidly changing media landscape, reach out to one of our newsroom production experts here.

Keeping Pace in the Election Race

2024 is a big year for newsrooms with a record number of elections taking place around the globe. For advanced insights on how newsrooms can get ahead in addressing their elections needs with cutting-edge graphics, download our guide. 

WASHINGTON—Curtis LeGeyt, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters told a Senate Forum this week that while local broadcasters have historically been among the most trusted sources of news and information, the rapid dissemination of misinformation fueled by advances in generative artificial intelligence is creating new challenges.

“Broadcasters are committed to delivering trusted, fact-based local and national news and are investing heavily to ensure stories are verified before they are aired,” LeGeyt said during the Senate AI Insight Forum "Transparency, Explainability, Intellectual Property and Copyright.” “While many broadcasters are responsibly embracing AI tools for operational efficiencies, such as scripting commercials and first drafts of content for human review, AI presents challenges to the critical local journalism broadcasters provide.”

Calling the trusted journalism broadcasters provide “the antidote” to such AI-based misinformation, LeGeyt said such “uncontrolled advancement”  of generative AI increases the costs of vetting stories and footage for local broadcasters and lead to copyright violations. 

“The ingestion of broadcasters’ copyrighted news content in AI systems without authorization or compensation risks further diminishing reinvestment in local news,” he said. “AI tools use stations’ work product without compensation while at the same time broadcasters are being forced to devote more resources to fight the misinformation AI systems so easily proliferate.”

“Broadcasters’ expressive content is particularly valuable for AI ingestion precisely because it is vetted and trusted,” LeGeyt added. “If broadcasters are not compensated for use of their valuable, expressive works, they will be less able to invest in local news content creation.”

LeGeyt used the current violence in the Middle East as an example of the issues broadcasters face in verifying footage.

“After the terrorist attacks on Israel in October, fake photos and videos reached an unprecedented level on social media in a matter of minutes,” he said. “Of the thousands of videos that one broadcast network sifted through to report on the attacks, only 10% of them were usable or authentic.”

In addition to the difficulties posed by AI-generated misinformation to distinguish the difference between fake and real news, LeGeyt added several other concerns to the list. 

Using generative AI in news production “increases the likelihood of legitimate, copyrighted broadcast content being ingested and then mixed with unverified and inaccurate third-party content, especially when the particular use wasn’t authorized in the first place,” LeGeyt said. “There is also particular concern among broadcasters about AI tools being used to create images, video and audio that replace the likeness of a trusted radio or television personality to spread misinformation or perpetrate fraud. The use of AI to doctor, manipulate and distort information is a significant and growing problem that must be addressed in balance with the First Amendment.”

LeGeyt cited numerous efforts from broadcasters to deal with misinformation, including CBS News’ “CBS News Confirmed” unit that investigates misinformation and deepfakes; Tegna’s VERIFY team, used across all of its 49 newsrooms to evaluate stories and help viewers identify misinformation; and Hearst Television’s partnership with FactCheck.org to produce segments combating misinformation for its stations across the country.

LeGeyt’s warnings come amidst the 2024 presidential election campaign in which AI-generated misinformation could have serious consequences for the country. 

“According to the Pew Research Center, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that “false information online” is a major threat to our democracy,” LeGeyt said. “According to Morning Consult, just 37% of Americans believe the upcoming 2024 election will be both honest and open, and nearly two-thirds believe that disinformation will influence the outcome.”

With recent advancements in extended reality (XR), newsrooms around the world are undergoing a revolutionary transformation. From immersive reporting experiences to cutting-edge visualizations, these technologies are reshaping how stories are told in the broadcast news industry.

This technology isn’t coming up in five or 10 years, it’s available now. Before long, it will be the expectation. And, with broadcast viewership at all-time lows, newsroom studios must adapt to maintain their competitive edge and keep viewers tuned in and engaged.

The public’s hunger for immersive technology is evident across sectors, whether it be entertainment, sports, or the corporate workplace. We’ve seen what that means when U2 recently debuted the new Sphere in Las Vegas, a highly immersive concert hall that has been widely referred to as the future of entertainment. 

Interactive Storytelling
Similar technology is breaking into smaller-scale spaces like newsrooms and corporate broadcast studios. Through LED volumes and strategic flexible design, traditional media spaces are evolving to offer a whole new breadth of user experience through XR integration. XR technologies enable interactive storytelling, where viewers can explore news stories in a nonlinear fashion. They often involve real-time graphics and overlays that allow users to visualize complex data and provide context that enhances the viewer’s understanding of the news story.

Hunan TV, China’s largest television broadcaster, launched its first ever news channel, Hunan News, which  features numerous large LED displays, allowing formatting flexibility when presenting XR content in a layered, on-air look. The broadcast facility, designed by Provost Studio back in 2020, was the country’s first 4k ultra-high definition news studio, complete with 360 degree capabilities. The 5,000-square-foot studio features three main areas for content presentation, including a main anchor area, social media zone and informal discussion area with dramatic entry stairs.

With XR technology, reporters can share breaking news as though they have boots on the ground, which can be particularly useful for covering events in challenging or dangerous environments. The enhanced immersion allows viewers to feel like they are present at the scene of a news event and enables more interactive and creative storytelling.

Beyond allowing reporters access to remote production capabilities at home, XR stages can be optimized with virtual setups for interviewees. They also enable more robust hybrid strategies to accommodate a variety of pre-taped and live segments.

Maximizing Potential
When adopting XR stages into the newsroom, there are many ways to maximise their potential. It’s crucial to update technology to create a physical AND virtual environment, allowing a seamless merging of the two.

News organizations can also opt for a variety of content zones for different types of media and platforms. This will ensure the space accommodates anything from Instagram moments to standing news presentations. An adaptable “tool box” design is also key, as flexible studios that feature multiple configurations, movable scenic elements and backdrops will enable the space to be retrofitted and retooled as content priorities and industry technology change.

In today’s rapidly evolving media landscape, newsrooms globally are experiencing a profound shift driven by XR technology advancements and consumer thirst for immersive content. As these innovations revolutionize the way stories are presented in the broadcast news industry, news organizations seeking to be on the cutting edge of innovation must embrace these changes to ensure viewers stay connected and engaged.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand Installation. 

NEW YORK—The Associated Press has released a wide-ranging report on local news outlets’ understanding and use of artificial intelligence and their readiness to use AI to meet their journalism and business needs.

The report is based on survey results from nearly 200 newsrooms across all 50 states and more than two dozen in-depth interviews with local news leaders. Print, radio, television and digital outlets are represented, as well as commercial and nonprofit operations.

“With this report, AP aims to raise awareness and also begin to level the AI playing field for local newsrooms,” said Jim Kennedy, AP senior vice president of strategic planning. “The goal is to help them harness innovative technology to improve their operations.”

Key findings from the report include:

• There is a significant gap between large and small news organizations in terms of how widely AI and automation technologies are used.
• Despite some concerns about handing off human work to machines, there is nevertheless strong support among local newsrooms for automating tasks that could free journalists for deeper reporting, streamline production or enhance content monetization.
• While interest is high, AI technologies are not in wide use at the local level because many news outlets lack the resources or time required to experiment.

Although the report found that usage of AI in local newsrooms had not been widely adopted and was still in the early stages of development, the report also found that TV managers tended to be more interested in the use of AI. 

TV managers, for example, gave higher scores than radio or digital managers when asked if their newsroom regularly used AI in newsgathering and when asked if they had a few people who’ve tried using AI technologies in newsgathering. 

TV managers  were also more likely than other local media to agree when asked if they regularly use AI in production operations. 

Despite the low current usage, print, radio and TV leaders all expressed solid backing for using AI to simplify production operations, with support highest among digital newsrooms.

Managers, however, tended to be more supportive than journalists. 

Using AI for transcription was the most requested automation wish, the report found. 

At KSAT-TV in Texas, news director Bernice Kearney called the transcription tool Trint “a game-changer,” especially during the pandemic when most civic meetings have been recorded, the report stated. 

It also noted that Oregon Public Broadcasting had been using transcription and it quoted chief content officer Morgan Holm saying that transcription allowed the newsroom to put more resources “into the human part of newsgathering.”

The use of AI to monitor social media and to speed up the delivery of content to multiple platforms were also mentioned as potentially important use cases. 

In addition to unveiling the report, AP also announced that it will offer a free online curriculum beginning next month, open to all U.S. news outlets on the subject. It will feature live, virtual workshops and recorded tutorials. International news outlets will have access to all recorded sessions.

“We will be digging into a range of technologies and focusing on the pain points that AI and automation can help to alleviate at the local level,” said Aimee Rinehart, program manager of AP’s local news AI initiative.

Both the report and online curriculum are part of a two-year project funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to help local newsrooms expand the use of AI. The full report can be found here. 

NEW YORK—The national service program Report for America announced that applications are now open for news organizations that are interested in partnering with Report for America to host emerging and experienced journalists in their newsrooms for up to three years, beginning next summer.

Report for America is a national service program that recruits and places talented journalists—corps members—into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. 

Report for America is currently fielding some 300 corps members in more than 200 newsrooms across the country. 

As part of the the program, Report for America noted that host newsrooms receive: reporters, photographers and videographers; diverse, hand-picked candidates from a pool of emerging and experienced journalists; subsidized salary support, up to half for the first year; help with local fundraising and resources; and extra training and mentoring for journalists.

"Report for America provides a unique opportunity for newsrooms to bring journalists on staff at a time when the need for local, trusted news is more important than ever," said Norman Parish, director of recruitment for Report for America. "Through our support, news organizations are better positioned to cover important issues, diversify their newsrooms, and grow sustainable, local support within their communities."

The application deadline is September 30, 2021, and newsrooms will be publicly announced in December. 

While all local news organizations are eligible to apply, Report for America is looking to deepen coverage in rural areas where news holes can be huge. Prospective newsrooms must identify specific gaps in coverage in the community, drawing attention to under-covered communities or issues. 

For example, Report for America is seeking newsrooms in the Mississippi River Basin that want more coverage of agriculture, water and environmental issues, as part of a new partnership with the University of Missouri.

Beats to consider can include, but are not limited to: healthcare, education, communities of color, immigration, economic development, local government, religion, obituaries, military and veteran affairs, or even sports reporting. Newsrooms are encouraged to consider hosting multiple journalists.

Report for America looks to reinvent local journalism by creating a sustainable business model that taps into the communities served by newsrooms. This includes providing up to half of the corps member's salary, and providing tools and resources for newsrooms to raise funds locally to support their share.

"As you look at the body of work that a Report for America reporter contributes, by the end of year one and certainly by the end of the year two, there's so much there that I'm not sure we would have carved out or prioritized," said Lauren Gustus, executive editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. "Because, as you know, in any newsroom, you literally run from fire to flood to earthquake to the next thing. Right? And having the space in the bandwidth to say this is important to us and we're going to stick with it has been invaluable."

Report for America plans to hold online information sessions with newsrooms and partner organizations throughout the application period. 

To begin the application process or to learn more information, news organizations can visit http://www.reportforamerica.org or send an email to: info@reportforamerica.org.

WASHINGTON—Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has fired back at two prominent Democratic members of Congress for suggesting that cable, satellite and streaming video distributors would be combatting disinformation by dropping Fox News, Newsmax TV and One America News Network, saying those legislators are trying "to drive political dissent from the public square."

He called on his fellow commissioners to join him in condemning the effort.

Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney, both California Democrats, have written to a dozen cable, satellite and streaming companies calling on them to better combat disinformation—which they principally identify as Fox, Newsmax and OANN—and grilling them on what they plan to do about it.

In response to the news of those letters, Carr, who has been an outspoken critic of what many Republican's see as attacks on conservativism from the left, left no doubt what he thought of the letters, calling them "a chilling transgression of the free speech rights that every media outlet in this country enjoys."

“Today, two senior Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee selectively targeted a handful of news media outlets for their coverage of political events. By writing letters to the cable providers and other regulated entities that carry these news media outlets, the Democrats are sending a message that is as clear as it is troubling—these regulated entities will pay a price if the targeted newsrooms do not conform to Democrats’ preferred political narratives."

Carr said that the legislators effort to get various video distributors—including Comcast, Charter, Cox, Dish, Roku and Amazon—to tell them what "moral principles" guide their decision on what news outlets to carry can't be reconciled with free speech principles.

The letters and Carr's response comes in advance of a hearing this week on the role of traditional media in promoting disinformation and extremism—streaming is apparently now in that category, or at least has been included on that side of the ledger as opposed to social media companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter, which have taken most of the disinformation heat.

The death last week of Larry Edgeworth, a 25-year NBC News veteran audio technician, from COVID-19 not only underscores the serious nature of the disease in TV news, but also adds an element of urgency to planning going on in newsrooms around the country about how best to keep news personnel safe.

Telephone interviews with several broadcasters—large and small—over the past week revealed that a variety of steps are being taken in an effort to protect personnel and maintain news operations.

They include: when possible, sending staff home to work remotely; breaking newsroom personnel into small pods to limit interpersonal contact and possible exposure; distancing personnel from each other in the newsroom and on-set; limiting exposure of field reporters and photographers to newsroom personnel; deep cleaning of stations; regular wipe downs of keyboards, various production control surfaces, ENG camera controls and other surfaces with disinfecting wipes; use of old-school mic techniques; and frequently using internet technologies like Skype and Apple FaceTime in place of personal interviews with newsmakers and other sources.

Further, broadcasters also reported ongoing evaluation of longer term strategies, such as leveraging control room and master control automation, to address a range of possible eventualities, the worst of which includes an entire shutdown of a station building.

NEW TECH FRONTIERS

The rapid onset of the coronavirus in American society means newsrooms, just like the public at large, must evaluate new information as it becomes available and adjust their strategies for protecting staff and their overall operations accordingly.

“How it is impacting our day-to-day operations is a learning process we are still going through,” says Patrick McCreery, president of Meredith Local Media Group. “But I can tell you we are pushing the boundaries when it comes to using technology to help us through this process.”

For Meredith that means instructing reporters and photographers to not report to their local stations. Rather, they are being asked to access their Avid iNews NRCS remotely, rely on IP newsgathering backpacks and Dropbox to submit video. 

Adjusting strategy to the realities of working during the outbreak and relying on technology to fill the gaps created by the contagion are key to the response from Sinclair Broadcast Group as well, says Sinclair Senior Vice President of News Scott Livingston.

“Many of our stations are right on the frontline of this outbreak,” he says. “There is a lot of uncertainty. The situation continues to change rapidly, and we continue to adjust our coverage plans and also our contingency plans.” 

Among the adjustments is clamping down on studio guests. Rather than inviting newsmakers into its stations’ studios, the stations are turning to Apple FaceTime and Skype to conduct live interviews, he says.

Changes are happening in the field as well. Sinclair has inked an enterprise-wide deal with LiveU so that all employees have the LiveU app on their phones, greatly multiplying the group’s ability to go live from the field. Not only does the app give the broadcaster greater reach, it also means an individual can readily shoot news footage without requesting more station personnel to go into the field, thereby limiting possible exposure to the virus.

To further limit the possibility of exposure, Sinclair news-producing stations have stopped using lavalier mics but instead are using stick mics—frequently clamped to an object—to minimize how many people actually touch workaday gear, says Livingston. 

In another move to limit exposure, news crews no longer share cars from a vehicle pool. Rather, individuals are assigned a vehicle that they take home and can use to drive to the scene of a story. Similarly, ENG trucks are being assigned to single individuals—all in an effort to isolate news personnel from one another and minimize potential interpersonal virus exposure, Livingston explains.

The outbreak has also affected how technology is used and a planned expansion at NewsNet, the Cadillac, Mich.-based free-to-air diginet news network that launched a little more than a year ago, says Eric Wotila, president of the new news network.

“We have greatly expanded our Skype and remote interview capabilities here so we can talk to people without sending anyone into the field and interview more relevant newsmakers right from our control room via Skype,” says Wotila.

NewsNet is also “fast-tracking” deployment of its Studio C because of its extensive remote interviewing capabilities, he adds.

CLEAN, REORGANIZE, RETREAT

The first thing Waterman Broadcasting in Fort Myers, Fla., did when it learned of the outbreak was to put sanitizing stations at every entrance of its buildings, says Bob Hannon, director of production. 

Employees at its NBC affiliate, WBBH-TV, and ABC affiliate, WZVN-TV, which Waterman operates under an LMA, are also being instructed to wipe down their work surfaces several times a day with disinfectant. Similarly, frequently touched surfaces in the broadcaster’s production control rooms are being wiped down before and after each block of shows, and personnel in the room are instructed to disinfect their hands frequently with hand sanitizer, he says.

Reorganizing how things get done is important, too. The broadcaster has restricted all visitors, guests and deliveries and developed a plan to have up to 30% of its personnel—mostly traffic, sales and digital—work from home. At-risk employees with ongoing health concerns were sent home to work as well, he says.

Waterman has broken up newsroom and production teams into what Hannon describes as “workgroup pods.” 

“We are looking at a situation where we have smaller groups instead of large groups,” he says. “So when an exposure happens—and that’s not a question of if—we are looking at possibly having to quarantine a smaller number than a larger number.”

Thorough, regular cleaning is important elsewhere, too. “Over the last week, we have fogged and/or done other similar types of deep cleaning at every facility,” says Meredith’s McCreery. “We did this because we knew we were going to be working, and we wanted to start with a new, clean, fresh slate.”

However, if cleaning and the other steps aren’t enough, other contingency plans are in place. If Meredith should be forced to shut down a building due to the outbreak, the first tier of defense is to run an umbilical from the building to a temporary work environment outside to control station operations while decontamination and cleaning are under way, says McCreery. 

“Let’s take that one step further and say we can’t access the premises at all,” he says. “We do have the ability through remote control rooms in two of our facilities to switch and augment a newscast.”

In practice, that might mean running a newscast for Meredith’s WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tenn., from its hub in Phoenix. “I could actually utilize Nashville anchors and reporters via LiveU and bring them in and switch them with Nashville graphics out of my Phoenix hub,” says McCreery.

If one of Meredith’s hubs should have to be abandoned due to the virus, the broadcast group can continue to operate it remotely via the cloud. “So I can actually keep all of our stations on the air without actually having the physical hub in place,” he says. “It’s not ideal, and it would be messy—I can promise you that. But we can do it.”

A SILVER LINING

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has so upended what was considered to be normal that some pundits are predicting a new normal will emerge when the pandemic passes in which there’s far more work from home and far less social interaction.

Local television news may not be immune to this turning either. Meredith’s McCreery likens the possible long-term impact of the pandemic on newsrooms to what happened coming out of the economic downturn 12 years ago.

“We needed something to shake our foundation, and that was the Great Recession of 2008,” he says. “That forced our hands into thinking proactively about using the technology that was available, and that’s what led to our hubs in the first place.”

Sinclair’s Livingston thinks the pandemic’s effect on newsrooms is already under way. “You look at it, and this outbreak is really accelerating the newsroom of the future,” he says. “We are using the technology at our fingertips, and it’s pushing us to be innovative.

“I think this is probably one of the most challenging situations folks will face in their professional careers. But together, we will help each other. We will leverage our strengths and resources to help all of our stations get through some difficult days ahead.”

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been designated a global pandemic by the WHO, newsrooms are being forced to adapt their operations to protect their employees while still providing key information to their audiences.

Axios has summarized the actions taken across the news industry, which for most has involved some kind of work-from-home policy.

When it comes to video production, some steps being taken include Quartz featuring more individualized explainers to limit peer-to-peer contact. Buzzfeed, meanwhile, moving forward with video production, is providing thermometers on all production sets. NowThis News says that it is “well-versed in remote interviews and virtual meetings,” so it does not anticipate a large impact on its offerings at this time.

For live television productions like talk shows, nearly all are moving forward with taping without audiences. This includes late night shows on CBS, NBC and Comedy Central, and all ABC live studio shows.

For more information on the news industry’s response to coronavirus, visit Axios’ website. 

NEW YORK—Due in part to the proliferation of social media, the way people get their news continues to evolve, and broadcasters are embracing these changes in how the news is even disseminated. The linear broadcast that has been a staple of TV reporting—including the daily evening news—has given way to multiple delivery platforms. At the same time belt tightening means newsrooms increasingly have to do more with less, but here too technology is having a serious impact as audiences fragment in the evolving 24-hour news cycle. 

This has led to broadcasters adopting the “digital first” policy that was first championed by publishers, according to Warren Davis, senior product manager at Bitcentral in Newport Beach, Calif. 

"Digital curators are getting access to content as it is being created for live broadcast," he said. "This is being facilitated by new search, production and publishing tools in the newsroom being shared across the digital production teams. Additionally the push for earlier metadata enhancement of raw camera and finished content allows for the automated curation and assistance in creating new or re-versioned content for live and digital distribution."

This year could see significant changes, beginning with how news is produced, but more importantly how it is delivered or distributed and also in how it is consumed.

"There are many, many new things that are coming up," predicted Raoul Cospen, marketing director for news at Dalet, which has also adopted a “digital first” approach. "The first one is obviously the digital disruption and the fact that even televisions now have websites and digital ways of putting their news or posting their news. So, digital is becoming more pre-eminent in workflows."

This digital first approach addresses changes at the production level, and Dalet is among the companies leading the move to the next-generation, borderless multiplatform newsroom with Dalet Galaxy Five, which will leverage advanced cloud and AI technologies, Cospen said.

GOING WITH THE WORKFLOW

The work of producing news for viewer consumption has long been about the workflows, but in 2020 these will continue to evolve as part of that move to digital first. However, in many ways it could still be "business as usual," as the end result is about delivering the news in a timely manner.

"Editorially, there are new needs for the TV script but also the CMS script, but also the narrations that are going to go inside the video and so on," said Cospen. "Then on top, you will have broadcast video that sits on one side but also the digital version with multiple formats; obviously, 9:16, 4:3, [Instagram] square and so on. But that will embed some additional graphics, some captions, maybe some translations, maybe some narrations, some stuff that is going to make the video more compelling to the digital viewers, basically."

None of this is exclusive to news production, but it is the never-ending daily news cycle that presents the added challenges to the workflows. In addition, there is the fact that viewers aren't sitting around the TV to catch the evening news at a set time. As such, the traditional workflow is very much a work in progress.

"There is the move toward mobile journalism, user-generated content and we need to arm those journalists with the toolsets so that they can do everything they need to do over a phone or tablet," said Ray Thompson, director of broadcast & media solutions at Avid. "We're seeing a move away as well from the truck or even cameramen, and the new technologies enable broadcasters to become more nimble and operate with less."

Even within broadcast facilities the actual newsroom is undergoing significant changes, notably with the move to IP.

"This is extending the ability for anyone in the newsroom to work with reporters who are everywhere, and this can include editing of video and the adding of graphics," added Thompson. "We're also seeing a move to a cloud-based repository, which allows broadcasters to route video as a story breaks whether it is regionally, nationally or internationally, and to be shared to that audience."

The evolving workflows will address this cross-media proliferation of news content delivery as well. "We can increase the number of output channels, and a lot of our existing customers are looking to be more efficient from these tools," said Trevor Spielmann, head of sales for newsroom solutions at SCISYS, which was acquired by CGI last year. 

However, there are also new challenges as a result.

"We are finding that it must be cost effective, easy to learn, easy to deploy and flexible when deployed," added Spielmann. "Our ‘Open Media’ [platform] can do all this and be customized, and integrated with third party applications, which provide that flexibility to our clients." 

AI FOR NEWS

While the newsroom may have to do more with less in terms of people, it will be getting help from artificial intelligence and machine learning tools, which can provide the ability to utilize content in the archives far faster than ever before. This could also result in a change in the general repurposing of archived content. 

"I would not call it ‘repurpose’ anymore because we used to repurpose before, but because of the ‘digital first’ aspect, it's not about repurposing," said Cospen. "It's about producing some content for many outputs, taking many outputs in consideration."

This is just one aspect of how AI could be utilized this year and beyond. AI has fully strategic uses, which include the calibration element as well as the ability to better collaborate across a story even as it has more contributors.

This will allow for a more collaborative working environment added Cospen, who noted this includes, "the ability to comment, the ability to do to-do lists, the ability to follow pieces of news and so on. The last point is adding a resource management on top of your newsroom, to optimize, to be more efficient and again to tell better news faster, cheaper and in a more efficient way."

Searching for just the right content, when it is needed most, could also be made easier via AI, and Dalet is offering its new automated “Discovery Search,” which works with the planning editor and story editor. "It is identifying potential matches for what you’re currently doing, for things that you didn't identify as potential material for your story," said Cospen. "It's going to help you to dig further in your archive and to bring some extra content that is going to make your story a bit more compelling."

AI can provide the way to pull the content from the archives via metatags and other metadata in a way that simply wasn't possible in the past, but it can also do searches far faster than a team of researchers.

"It can do facial, speech-to-text and use other algorithms to recognize a particular scene or even logo," said Thompson. "This is where the rubber meets the road in really being able to take advantage of the archives, but it can also determine the right content for a specific audience."

However, the full potential of AI will not come soon.

"AI is still a buzzword at the moment," cautioned Spielmann. "It is what everyone is talking about, even if a lot of it isn't really AI. There are plenty of third-party AI solutions as everyone has a different view and a different application in mind. So our view is to be as flexible as possible in how these can be integrated."

USER GENERATED

Today, thanks to our increasingly powerful smartphones, it isn't just the professional TV reporters that are doing the work of newsgathering. More and more content is being shot on those devices, and with the right toolsets this content can be used by teams in the physical newsrooms.

"TV news production has always had access to user generated content [UGC]," said Davis. "Stations are marketing it to be used with their apps and website UGC contribution portals directly from the user's mobile phone. Of course all of these consumer-level video contributions require transcoding since a variable frame rate is used for most all mobile phone recorders and must be converted into a fixed frame rate before going to air."

The quality of the actual content is just one part of a very complex equation, and here is another aspect that AI can streamline.

"The big challenge is about getting the rights to use that content, but we now have the toolsets that can allow you to scrap the social media feeds via hashtags and other metadata," said Avid’s Thompson. "User generated content is produced so quickly that users can beat the actual broadcasters to the story, so it is imperative that those news providers find that content and can get it posted."

HAMILTON, N.J.—As news organizations settle into life on file-based IP workflows, their next quantum leap is on the horizon. It’s the cloud—the same cloud that’s already beckoning their media asset management, ingest and playout operations.

By leveraging the cloud’s media processing and storage capabilities, newsrooms can have greater production elasticity and scalability to ramp up or scale back as productivity demands. And cloud platforms make content contribution and remote collaboration easier, especially from mobile devices, while putting newsrooms closer to the social media, OTT services, and other online destinations they increasingly feed.

While top newsroom vendors are building out their platforms with the cloud in mind, they recognize that broadcasters won’t make the leap without assurances that their internet access will be sufficiently robust and reliable, and that their valuable assets will be secure from internet threats.

Despite these challenges, newsrooms will likely be enticed by smart cloud processing, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cognitive services, like facial and voice recognition, that will make it easier for them to mine the media gems their newscasts require.

Ross Video Inception can be purchased and run on local hardware, in a virtualized environment or in the cloud.

NEWSROOMS OF THE FUTURE
“Futuristic capabilities, such as AI and cognitive services, have the potential to really enrich the news product and further streamline the news production process,” said Raoul Cospen, business development manager for Dalet Digital Media Systems. “But this intensive processing requires accelerated, scalable computer power that is best found in the cloud. To do this on premises would require a massive server farm to perform AI and cognitive processes on huge datasets. We also need to teach machines what we want them to do, such as identifying specific individuals, voices, locations, foreign languages and other aspects of media in large databases.”

The company expects to move users of its Dalet Galaxy-powered unified news operations solution into the cloud step-by-step, starting with such “bread and butter” tasks as ingest, storage and disaster recovery. This incremental approach means that Dalet Galaxy can be configured on premises, in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) public cloud or a hybrid of both.

“We at Dalet believe that newsrooms will inevitably migrate to the cloud because of its many operational benefits,” Cospen said. “But we’re mindful of security concerns. We’ve spent the past four years refining our security features and testing our platform’s resilience to hackers and other unauthorized access. We’re confident that we’ve solved that, and other cloud challenges, and we’re forging ahead with what we’re calling our ‘Newsroom of the Future’ roadmap.”

Trevor Francis, director of production systems for U.K.-based SAM also believes that the cloud holds the key to unlocking today’s newsroom potential.

“Newsrooms gain spontaneous scaling of systems relative to productivity demands when they deploy the SAM VIBE news and sports production system in a virtualized, public or private cloud configuration,” he said. And since SAM VIBE freely mixes content from any source and technical standard, he adds, “This gives newsrooms the ability to respond more rapidly to breaking news, while maintaining a competitive presence on social media and other non-TV platforms.”

If a broadcast news organization is not actively publishing its branded content to leading social media and web platforms, Francis said, “They could be dead in a matter of months. This is because the consumer will look elsewhere for another news supplier that does provide the news they want on their preferred platforms.” SAM VIBE uses MOS control to interface with most newsroom systems, he said.

According to Francis, today’s new consumers view news from dozens, if not hundreds of online sites, smartphones, tablets, TVs, laptops and other mobile devices. This often requires mixing standard video with non-standard video formats in their native orientation and aspect ratio into the final product. SAM VIBE “makes it easier for broadcasters to publish their branded content optimized for mobile consumption,” he said.

“This capability is especially important because the first images of hurricanes, accidents, terror incidents and other unexpected events are likely to be shot by people that happen to be there with cell phones, well before the news crews arrive,” Francis added.

Avid MediaCentral Cloud UX provides access to projects, tasks, media and more across MediaCentral through a simple user-friendly graphical interface, available as a web client and as mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

DEEP SEARCH
With the explosion of content inundating today’s newsrooms, “News organizations need scalable, flexible, enterprise-class solutions that help them efficiently gather and manage it, as well as distribute it wherever it needs to go,” said Ray Thompson, director of broadcast and media solutions market for Avid.

By delivering Microsoft Azure cloud-certified and cloud-native newsroom solutions and IP-workflows, Thompson said that Avid is enabling newsrooms to move quickly and handle a broader range of IP content and tasks. This includes browser-based search and access to a deep, indexed library of content, locally and across the group, while extending newsroom resources and workflows to field reporters.

“The cloud is also essential to aggregating and leveraging user-generated content in a way that makes newscasts more relevant, engaging and personalized for viewers,” Thompson said.

MediaCentral users can add modules—such as MediaCentral l Newsroom Management and MediaCentral l Asset Management—to the base platform to tailor it to their workflow. According to Thompson, this enables them to take advantage of the scalability, collaboration and accessibility that MediaCentral running in a hybrid, public or private cloud affords. Users can also augment their workflows with MediaCentral l Graphics Management to enable journalists to add graphics using the MediaCentral web UI, and expand production and editorial collaboration across heterogeneous editing environments.

In the future, Thompson said, “Media- Central will have increased analytics, artificial intelligence and other advanced capabilities that will help news organizations deal with the explosion of media they need to manage to deliver a personalized consumer experience on any device.”

DEALING WITH SOCIAL CONTENT
Well-functioning newsrooms depend on the flexibility and reliability of existing workflows, so transitioning to new capabilities in cloud-based environments takes time and agility, according to Drew Martin, product manager of GV STRATUS for Grass Valley. “It’s not realistic to expect TV news teams to completely up-end their complex workflows, and jump into the deep end with an all-new cloud or virtualized-based workflows,” he said. “The key is to allow them to migrate to virtualization and cloud configurations gradually, while maintaining their familiar workflow experience.”

With v6.0 launching in February, Grass Valley is making its GV STRATUS newsroom software extremely modular, moving away from proprietary hardware so users can run it on a less COTS environment. The release also adds the functionality broadcasters need to ingest and manage video from user-generated sources.

At the 2018 NAB Show, Grass Valley will unveil the GV I/O feature, which enables GV STRATUS to support SDI and IP ingest and playout in software or virtualized environments. Combined with GV XRE Transcoder, GV STRATUS will ingest and publish media to a wide range of platforms, while handling different aspect ratios automatically.

Social Media Management, another new GV STRATUS module (coming in early 2018), will enable newsrooms to securely manage their social media posts from a single user interface. “They can also set up rules that automate workflows to ease the burden of maintaining a dynamic social media presence,” Martin said.

FLEXIBLE CONFIGURATIONS
Jenn Jarvis, marketing product manager for Ross Video says it’s unrealistic to have a “one size fits all” mentality about newsroom workflows since customers have unique preferences and want to work in different ways. For example, some larger entities might have sufficient staff, equipment and networking resources to control and manage their own local and/or cloud newsroom, while a start-up with a small team that often works remotely might want to have a newsroom in the cloud that’s managed for them.

“We designed Inception News to meet the needs of every customer so they can work the way they want and be successful doing so,” Jarvis said. “Inception can be purchased and run on local hardware, in a virtualized environment or in the cloud. Our Inception.Cloud subscription service offers the option to rent access and Ross Video will take care of all the maintenance. Since both options use the exact same software, it means customers can easily change and adapt as their needs change.”

While Ross Video currently runs its Inception.Cloud subscription service on AWS, the software also runs in other popular cloud services including Google and Microsoft.

SAN FRANCISCO—Looking back at those slightly disjointed, jerky productions that popped up in newsrooms more than a decade ago, it’s clear that virtual and augmented reality technology has made strides. Pushed by 3D development in gaming and mobile, and driven by advances in real-time rendering and power capabilities, the evolution of three-dimensional virtual/augmented design is reaching a new peak.

Newsrooms are seeing the benefit. New solutions in the form of virtual sets, augmented reality (AR) technologies and camera-tracking solutions have refined their ability to combine complex 3D graphics into a real studio environment — enabling journalists to convey in-depth concepts and detailed data sets in a clear and compelling new ways.

“With virtual you can afford to do things you couldn’t even afford to do [before]—we’d have to move into a different building to try to do what we’re doing with virtual and in a much smaller space,” said Joseph Maar, vice president of programming and production at the New England Sports Network (NESN), which uses virtual and augmented technology in its newsroom.

SMART INVESTMENT

That was also case for virtual at WBTV-TV in Charlotte, N.C., which adopted new newsroom graphics technology to transform the way it reached out to its Top 25 market audience. The Raycom Media-owned station invested in a newly designed newsroom with a hard set in one studio, and a greenscreen next door, enabling the station to use these sets back to back in a newscast, according to Mack McLaughlin, creative director of FX Design Group, which was involved in the station’s virtual set design. Viewers in Charlotte see a mix of real-world sets and virtual reality elements—a traditional newsroom in one scene, the infield of a baseball field in another.

WBTV-TV in Charlotte, N.C. invested in a newsroom with a hard set in one studio and a green screen next door, enabling the station to interchange between sets back to back in a newscast.

The investment was also smart from a cost-savings perspective, McLaughlin said—far less than the $300,000 it might have cost to invest in a standard hard set. Its appeal when it comes to enticing imagery was immediate. Investment in this kind of technology “doubled the number of shots [they] could do on a given day,” McLaughlin said. The sets can be swapped from a standard newsroom set to a baseball set and used by the station’s sister station KFVS-TV in eastern Missouri.

[The technology] explains the story,” he said, whether a station creates a virtualized image of a tank driving into the newsroom set to clarify elements of a war news story, or builds a small swirling virtual tornado spinning around a weatherman to warn viewers of an impending storm. “[Broadcasters] are able to explain the story, walk around the object, bring the story to life,” he said.

THE BENEFIT TO THE VIEWER

The goal of any newsroom set design for a local station is the same: To integrate graphic technology into a newsroom in a way that entices viewers, holds their attention, and tells a story with vibrancy and immediacy.

The key, say newsroom set designers, is to think about the viewer benefit. “For us, the evolving intertwining of scenic and graphics is very exciting,” said Dan Devlin, owner of scenic and lighting design firm Devlin Design Group. “When we think about the ‘viewer benefit’, augmented graphics add another layer of interaction which really draws an audience deeper into the understanding of a story.”

Though stations in the U.S. have been slower to adopt these technologies than their international counterparts, Devlin and others are still seeing ongoing adoption of hybrid solutions that combine both real and virtual options.

Some of the biggest issues when it comes to using virtual technology for newsroom set design is to consider space, technology integration and the reality question.

“In terms of set design, there are few restrictions when considering AR,” said James Eddershaw, managing director for Shotoku UK, which launched a series of manual virtual/augmented reality tracked camera cranes at NAB. Space needs to be incorporated in the design to accommodate the AR objects in a realistic way. “A common method is to create a floor space within the design where floor-based or free-floating graphic objects can be used, and where presenters can closely interact with the objects.”

It’s also important to consider materials used in the set design that can complement the graphics design—think reflections and lighting—to ensure a very natural overall scene.

For full VR greenscreen studios, the quality of the chroma-keying is also paramount. “Even the most advanced graphics and tracking systems will not be convincing if the foreground objects are not cleanly keyed into the VR set,” Eddershaw said. In addition, lighting of the foreground and greenscreen, as well as the virtual lighting effects, plays a huge role in the final composition quality also.

SIGNIFICANT TECHNOLOGY LEAPS

In the earliest years, VR was a fairly major technical undertaking with clear limitations. Harken back to the days when on-air talent attempted to interact in a virtual environment that neither looked realistic or sharply designed. “Presenters could not behave naturally in the studio, creating a forced impression when graphics were inserted,” Eddershaw said, which detracted from the quality of the whole experience.

The technology has taken significant leaps since then. “The use of AR is almost seamless within many studios, avoiding the forced feeling and giving broadcasters and presenters the confidence to use the technology more often and in more natural and interesting ways,” he said.

By using crane technology in a virtualized environment, newsrooms can offer viewers interesting angles. “Being able to ‘fly’ down towards a presenter within an AR environment is a great way to really highlight the power of the 3D graphics,” Eddershaw said. The company’s new Graphica crane solution can also be used on OB sites.

Greater adoption of virtual sets and virtual graphics—particularly for breaking news environments—will most likely be led by improvements in real-time 3D design and integration with knowledge on different 3D virtual set and virtual graphics platforms.

ChyronHego’ CAMIO virtual set and virtual graphics platform.

“Virtual set and virtual graphics are efficient only if the workflow is respected,” said Olivier Cohen, managing director, Hybrid, at ChyronHego, whose virtual set and virtual graphics solution includes CAMIO Universe, which offers robotics motion tracking technology and a 3D graphic engine, Krypton. A number of broadcasters have found success via a template-based approach using an NRCS that can fulfill and create a rundown to playout virtual set and virtual graphics. “This approach allows producers and journalists to quickly create content using virtual graphics and virtual set technology to create a compelling story as it breaks,” Cohen said.

And yet a number of broadcasters still see this technology as a bit of a mystery, particularly in a newsroom setting, citing questions over cost, scalability and the technology’s ease of use.

“They see the technology progressing, but they still find it complex because virtual set and virtual graphics are a multi-discipline technology in the media and entertainment market,” Cohen said. The solution impacts everything from graphics to cameras to vision mixing, he said.

Even so, adoption continues. NESN has installed a mix of virtual and augmented reality technologies to better allow the network to easily swap to a different look or style. “[It can] really advance what we are offering as a network,” Maar said. The network uses a mix of Overdrive, Acuity and XPression technologies from Ross Video along with a virtual set and two robotic cameras.

“The great thing [with this technology] is you can a manipulate that set so that you’re looking in a variety of different ways and different angels,” said Colin Sheehan, operations manager for the Boston-based network.

GIVING BACK CONTROL

NAB 2017 saw new options for the market —particularly those technologies that put graphics control back in the hands of the producer and journalist.

“Our entire design intent is to give control of the newscast back to the newsroom,” said Lan Merrill, vice president with NewsMaker Systems in Moorpark, Calif. Newsmaker Systems’ technology connects MOS-based newsroom systems and invisibly connects that system with a Newtek Tricaster TC1, which opens up functionality of this video production system so steps can be automated via external control. This benefit allows journalists to respond quickly with last-minute graphic additions or rundown changes.

“The two biggest problems that automation systems have with news is that it changes, and it changes really fast,” he said. Clips may need to be flipped out; graphics may need to be slipped in.

Giving journalists more control is also a key tenant of Vizrt;s new Viz Story, a capture, editing and publishing system that allows editors to add 3D graphics to a visual narrative with browser-based tools. Files can be uploaded in the field through the Web-based application, and can be dragged and manipulated into the companion editing system.

And when it comes to graphics in the newsroom, there are a few basic rules that customers should consider when installing tracking and camera technologies and incorporating a graphics into that workflow

“Our advice to customers is simple. If you’re interested in significantly improving the quality of your production while at the same time reducing your production cost, then consider adding robotics to your production platform,” said Rush Beesley, president of RUSHWORKS, whose Locked On Robotic Camera Tracking System and VDX T-Bar Control Surface (within the VDESK and REMO production systems) can be used to automatically track objects in a newsroom and control cameras with shortcut keys.

ALEXANDRIA, VA.—Social and online media platforms are not only changing the way people consume news, they’re impacting the way TV newsrooms work. To build their audience, and raise the visibility of their trusted news brands beyond broadcast, today’s newsrooms increasingly publish their news stories on social networks.

Ross Video’s Inception newsroom system integrates tools for creating and publishing news content to multiple platforms from within a unified work environment. News teams also need to monitor and track the onslaught of user-generated content, video and commentary trending on social media and websites, and pull newsworthy assets into their newscasts. This can mean dealing with non-standard file formats or unusual aspect ratios, like square or portrait (9:16) orientation, that can stymie news production pipelines.

To deal with these new pressures, broadcasters are turning to advanced newsroom software designed to support and automate social and online media newsgathering so journalists can focus on telling timely, relevant news stories for multiplatform distribution.

PARADIGM SHIFT

“The best approach is to build a newsroom software ecosystem with the flexibility and versatility to react, adjust and adapt to technology shifts—and the connected viewers’ changing preferences—without disrupting the user experience,” said Jenn Jarvis, marketing product manager for Ross Video in Iroquois, Ont.

The company’s Inception newsroom system integrates tools for creating and publishing news content to multiple platforms from within a unified work environment. Ross releases Inception software updates on a very aggressive schedule intended to keep pace with changes in the way that viewers now access and consume news.

Compared with separate, silo-ed approaches, Jarvis said, “Inception users can control how content moves from acquisition to multiple platform distribution from within this flexible ecosystem. This enables them to make sure they’re publishing content in a way that maximizes audience exposure on any given platform all at once. And it lets them adapt to disruptive technology and market changes without having to leave the comforts of their familiar newsroom software environment.”

STREAMLINED WORKFLOWS

NewsMaker Systems’ NewsCaster software offers automated integration that bridges the newsroom computer system with the NewTek IP Series and TriCaster integrated production systems. NewsCaster makes it easy to link the news rundown from any of the major newsroom computer systems on the market to the TriCaster, along with video and other media assets needed for the newscast.

The IP Series’ and Tricaster’s integrated production environment, which includes video switching, graphics, audio, virtual sets, camera robotics control and text, can then be used to produce the newscast. Once the news rundown, graphics and other media assets are ready, TriCaster can produce a live program for broadcast live to air, as well as stream the media directly to YouTube, Facebook Live, and other platforms.

“Social media is just one of the many challenges facing today’s TV newsrooms, and they often can’t add personnel to deal with the growing workload,” said Lan Merrill, vice president of sales and marketing for NewsMaker Systems, in Moorpark, Calif. “Our solutions automate the workflow between MOS-based newsroom computer systems and the IP Series and TriCaster production systems so that news people can spend less time dealing with technology and more time developing compelling news stories.”

UTILIZING USER-GENERATED CONTENT

Grass Valley’s GV Stratus video production and content management system has tools for media asset management and publishing to digital media platforms, and new tools are in development that will make it faster and easier to bring file-based user-generated content (UGC) into the on-air news pipeline.

“Today’s newsrooms face many frustrating challenges when it comes to decoding sparse media files,” said Drew Martin, product manager for GV Stratus, in Hillsboro, Ore. “The methods used in the acquisition of media from users or social media sites have often been overlooked. We want to change that.”

UGC is often acquired in unusual, nonstandard file formats that professional transcoders are not equipped to handle. “This leaves newsroom personnel to use time-consuming, laborious methods to convert these files into formats their news operations can use,” Martin added.

While the Edius NLE was the first product to showcase these particular capabilities, they are also being integrated in GV Stratus and will be highlighted at the 2017 NAB Show.

GATEWAY TO NEW CONTENT

Vizrt offers Viz Story, a stand-alone newsroom storytelling tool, and Viz Pilot Edge, which can be embedded in any newsroom system. Both browser-based solutions give news journalists an intuitive environment for producing content from anywhere, that can be published anywhere.

“Our software serves as a gateway to create story timelines with a broad array of high-quality 3D graphics, video and media sources,” said David Jorba, president of Vizrt Americas. “News content originating from different sources can be quickly distributed to your on-air and online audience. Journalists can work in a collaborative way from any browser and work with live feeds, voice overs, and create and distribute high-quality news stories to online and social networks from within your existing newsroom workflow.”

Jorba added that their newsroom tools also enable news stations to use the same graphics, text and animated elements they’re using for the on-air product, which preserves consistent quality image branding and efficiency across all targeted networks.

GAINING MOMENTUM

Snell Advanced Media’s Momentum workflow/asset management system can automate and streamline newsroom workflows including finding and moving video and other media assets to the intended destinations, including publishing directly to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

In addition to the company’s SAM News newsroom software, Momentum interfaces with all industry-standard newsroom systems, and automatically manages and archives newly acquired media assets, along with their metadata.

“Momentum’s automated workflows can be set up and modified dynamically to support operational requirements,” said Lew Blanchette, senior system architect for SAM. “It can also deliver content to a producer for review/approval, or send it directly to the destination after adding workflow elements, like video branding. It sends the file to available transcoders, along with the output file formats needed for the targeted broadcast, social media and website destinations.”

According to Blanchette, if video needs to be posted to different online platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or future social platforms, “Momentum automates every aspect of what would otherwise be separate, time-consuming manual processes—to conform to each platform’s unique video format—saving valuable newsroom time and effort.”

Snell Advanced Media’s Go! is an HTML5 browser-based editor When using SAM’s Go! HTML5 browser-based editor, video can be shot in the field using a smartphone or another HTML5 device, and transferred to a companion product, the SAM News server at the station. The video can be edited anywhere, including in the field, adding cuts, dissolves and voiceovers, even with less than optimum internet access, because of Go!’s adaptive bitrate transcoding. Momentum social media workflows can also be triggered directly from the Go! interface, launching automated workflow processing that has been pre-defined for that type of video file.

STORYCENTRIC WORKFLOW

Built on Avid’s MediaCentral/UX platform, the Avid iNEWS system provides an integrated toolset and environment that lets broadcast journalists monitor and manage news content originating from and moving across multiple platforms from a single user interface. With the Avid Everywhere strategy enabled by MediaCentral, journalists can manage news resources, such as personnel and equipment, and have browser-based access to shared information from any device, including smart phones and tablets.

Built on Avid’s MediaCentral/UX platform, Avid’s iNEWS provides an integrated toolset and environment that lets broadcast journalists monitor and manage news content originating from and moving across multiple platforms from a single user interface. “Broadcasters are looking for ways to engage and motivate viewers by consistently delivering timely, relevant, and even personalized news content across multiple platforms,” said Alan Hoff, vice president of market solutions for Avid Technology in Burlington, Mass. “We support the news rundown process, but also give news teams the freedom to develop all aspects of the story from creation to distribution using a nonlinear, collaborative story-centric approach.

“We certify that partner tools will integrate seamlessly within iNEWS to extend the capabilities and customize the environment for users,” Hoff added. For example, x.news is a third-party product that helps manage incoming news feeds. And new features are regularly added, such as the new Social Media Hub that enables tracking, filtering and usage of trending social media from a windowpane on the MediaCentral/UX platform.

“Newsrooms can access content from multiple sources, including social media and citizen journalists as well as publish what they produce to air, to the web and to social media all from within iNEWS,” Hoffman said.

RECORDING LIVEU FEEDS

As a provider of advanced workflow and media asset management systems, Masstech interfaces its technology with popular newsroom computer systems, such as Avid iNEWS and AP ENPS. The Toronto-based company recently partnered with LiveU, a leading provider of live video acquisition, management and distribution over IP, to have all LiveU live video streams—shot in the field and transmitted via bonded cellular—automatically recorded on a Masstech server back at the station. Once on the Masstech server, a notification containing a link to the video is sent to the newsroom computer system as a wire story so journalists can watch it.

“Since this LiveU solution is natively integrated within the newsroom computer system, the process is fast, easy and transparent to the user,” said Mike Palmer, vice president of business strategy for Masstech. “While it’s sometimes difficult to know exactly when a press conference or other news event will begin, journalists and video crews never have to worry if their LiveU video feeds are being recorded because they’re always being recorded automatically, every time.”

The Masstech server stores long recordings more cost-efficiently than a production server can. The Masstech workflow also tracks and manages the media assets and metadata.

GREATER AGILITY

With its Unified News Operations solution, Dalet Digital Media Systems gives broadcast newsrooms a platform that’s more agile and responsive to rapidly changing audience viewing habits and news consumption.

“Since today’s news operations need to be very fast, collaborative and responsive to remain competitive, they are much better served by an advanced platform that delivers all the components of the needed ecosystem in a very consistent and agile endto- end workflow,” said Arnaud Elnecave, vice president of marketing for Dalet Digital Media Systems, in Los Angeles.

According to Elnecave, “When it comes to producing and distributing news content to social media, TV news teams need a more effective way to plan and assign stories, make editorial decisions and collaborate. Elnecave said, “These decisions should be based on new data insights being made available in real time at every level of the chain. That’s why social will become an organic part of our news solution going forward.”