LONDON—ITV Studios, the production arm of the UK's largest commercial broadcaster, has deployed the Cuez live production platform to unify the management of three back-to-back live shows from a single platform for live rundown and studio automation.
ITV's three daytime magazine, talk and lifestyle shows, “This Morning”, “Loose Women” and “Lorraine”, run back-to-back from the same London studio. They share a single technical crew but with different presenters, branding and graphics, along with their own editorial style.
To produce these shows, ITV Studios needed a solution that could unify these three shows while serving every production role from producers building rundowns to gallery operators managing playout.
Discussing the decision to adopt the platform, Barry Thomas, executive director at ITV Studios said that Cuez allowed them to handle the entire creative process from a single environment, supporting a leaner crew with a clearer view: "Our production teams range in technical ability yet suddenly they all use the same newsroom system and that's really unique," Thomas said. "Other systems don't offer this sort of full capability."
"Using one application, we were able to play multiple graphics systems and VT playout systems together very easily," adds Adam Scott, Gallery Playout Operator at ITV Studios. This results in the crew having a clearer view of the show, and less margin for error when transitions between programs run to minutes."
Members of the production team also praised the Cuez platform as easy to adopt.
"From the minute I started, I noticed it was much easier to use than other systems I've used in the past," comments Jonathan Hughes, producer at ITV Studios. "It's really user-friendly. Once you've had just a little bit of a play-around with it, you’re completely across it. Last-minute changes are critical for all three programmes. Cuez Rundown keeps everyone in sync. You type something in the control room and this instantly gets on set. The live synchronization is exactly what we needed. Those changes also reach the camera operators in real time. They’ve replaced their bundles of printed rundowns with a modern iPad attached to each camera, displaying the synced Cuez Rundown."
"Being able to have one universal tool that we can communicate in, and see exactly what is happening next, is a real game changer for creatives and directors," Barry Thomas summarizes.
Cuez is a cloud-based platform for news programs and live entertainment that connects with and controls content creation devices via API or MOS. It comprises three core elements: Storydesk, Rundown and Automator.
More information on the deployment is available in the following video:
