In Broadcast - October 2013 - 32

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 24 - OCTOBER 2013

N E W S

InSTUDIO

What’s Breaking In Newsroom Systems
The latest developments in broadcast news production systems revealed at IBC…
By David Kirk
Contributing
Editor

S

32

amuel Langhorne Clemens,
better known as Mark Twain,
described the years he spent as
a journalist at the Buffalo Express
as among the most challenging of
his life. Finding a strong lead story
every day for a regional newspaper
demanded a strong imagination to
supplement the sometimes meagre
throughput of local news. Same
applies in my neck of south-east
England where a recent local paper
headline announced, with a hint
of despondent majesty, ALBINO
SQUIRREL SPOTTED IN TOWN
CENTRE. What colour, I wonder,
were the spots?
Journalists and editors today,
whether working for television,
radio, online or newsprint, have
access to text, images and video
from a vast number of sources.
These include more news agencies
than Clemens could have waved a
cudgel at, plus a huge population of
independent writers, photographers
and videographers.
So what’s new in the newsroom?
IBC2013 was the place to find out.
AccuWeather has integrated its
INRIX real-time trafﬁc and incident
information, travel times and trafﬁc
camera images into the company’s
StoryTeller Trafﬁc app. StoryTeller
is a high-resolution touchscreen
platform which allows American
news broadcasters to create stories
with up-to-the-minute insight into
travel conditions for every highway,
interstate and local road across
the continent. The INRIX traffic
intelligence platform processes
real-time data from over a hundred
sources including traditional road
sensors, official accident and
incident reports as well as crowdsourced information from millions of
vehicles and devices.
AVIWEST announced at IBC
three additions to its range of
products intended for rapid news
acquisition. Designed for use with
external mobile modems, the DMNG
PRO110 is especially suited for
camera crews working worldwide
who need the greatest ﬂexibility
possible in modem management.
With its ten USB interfaces, it
allows the use of several types of
modem, or SIM cards, and eases
modem swapping. It is also an
autonomous device as it includes
a battery. The new DMNG PRO180-

RA is the company’s follow-up to its
core product: the DMNG PRO180,
a versatile device for live video
and audio streaming over bonded
cellular networks. Combining the
DMNG PRO180-RA with the QUAD
wideband cellular antenna array,
which can be mounted on any type
of vehicle such as a DSNG truck,
car, motorbike or boat, increases
the signal resiliency and enables
streaming of live video on the move
in critical conditions. The DMNG
App is a mobile application that
turns an Android smartphone into
a professional live video camera. Inthe-ﬁeld journalists can now stream
live footage via Wi-Fi or 3G/4G,
and transfer recorded video ﬁles
from anywhere in the world to a
DMNG Studio server simply using
their smartphone.
Etere’s recently introduced
Nunzio newsroom system offers
integration with video editing,
including fast edit with voiceovers,
and allows virtual stories to be
played without conforming. The
system organises human tasks
and automates all processes into
a streamlined workﬂow from ingest
and production to automated
playout with secondary events.
MeteoGraphics’ Webview
enables broadcasters to integrate
live news from the online world.
A new social media integration
feature allows direct interaction
with viewers. It can also illustrate a
story by integrating user-generated
videos or images and local weather
observations.
Mosart’s Newscast Automation
3.4 newscast automation GUI has
been further reﬁned in the tools it
offers for breaking news coverage.
Ssers can assign more advanced
content sequences to shortcuts.
They can also send such content
directly to the studio walls. Mosart
has enhanced the drivers for
CasperCG and Orad graphics, as
well as Studer audio (now using
EmBER). The automation system
now supports an unlimited number
of video server channels. Newsroom
enhancements include support for
Mosart commands in foreign MOS
items and the ability to select the
Avid iNEWS interface as FTP or
MOS. Also new is the ability of
the Mosart Media Router to allow
sharing of video wall, lighting and
camera resources.
Octopus Newsroom has
introduced new tools for its
Octopus7 newsroom system which
runs natively on OS X, Linux and
Windows. Octopus7 Assignment
Desk includes linking tool, a planning
calendar, a chat room for every

Etere’s Nunzio newsroom system

assignment folder using the builtin user-to-user messaging system,
and user notifications of new
assignments. Operators can attach
local ﬁles from their computers, such
as PDFs, images and video clips,
to an assignment which can then
be turned into a story. Octopus7
Topic Bins allows items to be tagged
with topics and automatically
sorted into the relevant topic bins.
External files such as photos,
PDFs, MS Word or Excel ﬁles can
also be dragged into the topic bin,
keeping all information together and
accessible across a network.
Orad Hi-Tec Systems has
introduced a version 7 release of
its 3Designer, Maestro and 3DPlay,
and enhanced Render Engine.
Features include 3Designer’s new
physics and constraints, value
triggers, new transformation
modiﬁer, countdown clock, preview
window enhancements, animated
text effects, and emoticons. The
Maestro application adds workﬂow
features that increase usability and
add control to new graphic and
video functions, such as the new
Graphic Media Asset Management
with access rights management,
metadata per type of asset, search
capabilities and scene management.
Other improvements to Maestro
include: 3D transitions for every
graphic element, support for MOS
2.8.1, multiple preview channels,
and more. The 3DPlay application
now runs on Windows 7 x 64 bit
and offers new features including a
stronger editor control engine, new
query tabs, and other capabilities
that make the production process
more efficient.
PlayBox Technology’s new
NewsRoomBox provides all the
facilities required for efficient
newsroom management, story
creation and studio control. It allows
live and pre-recorded content to be

united to create news programmes
using text, video, audio, photos and
incoming data. Video trimming can
be performed with single-frame
precision. NewsRoomBox can be
used to unite and process content
from an exceptionally wide range
of sources including live Newswire,
RSS and Atom feeds. Playout
servers, character generators and
teleprompters may be controlled
directly from the web-browserbased NewsRoomBox ‘Rundown’
operating screen. Control of AirBox,
TitleBox and external routers can be
performed either ofﬂine or during live
transmission. Multiple AirBox playout
and TitleBox interactive CG and
graphic servers are also supported.
Built on the Microsoft Windows
Server 2012 operating system,
NewsRoomBox incorporates an MSSQL database management system
which allows an unlimited number of
media, text and metadata and be
assigned to each news story within
a user-deﬁnable folder structure. The
media libraries support MAM and
NAS File Storage. The processed
output from NewsRoomBox can be
proﬁled for output to tickers, teletext,
web, social media, blogs, mobile
television receivers, Connected
TV and OTT. All news sources and
output formats may be handled
within a single workflow.
Quantel released V5.2 software
for Enterprise sQ fast-turnaround
production systems such as
news. sQ Fileﬂow has new features
which simplify configuration of
complex workﬂows. New ‘preset’
capabilities enable users to
conﬁgure ﬁle formats, resolution
and compression for sending media
to third party playout servers and
archives. NUGEN Audio’s VisLM
loudness metering software is now
supported, allowing the user to
CONTINUED ON PAGE 33
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