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TVBEurope Advertorial Supplements
April 2017
Agile field-to-audience news infrastructure How to retain (or even re-acquire) news audiences of today‌ and tomorrow In association with
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The search for the lost audience
Why unified content platforms are providing a helping hand
I
f you work in TV news, you will be aware
operandi, refreshing newsroom systems and
allow its regional teams to tailor it for their
of an indisputable trend, one that threatens
investing in dedicated online and social media
audience, across all platforms, evolving the
your very livelihood: your audience is
teams and tools in order to get news out quicker
story whilst it develops. And this includes mobile
and onto more platforms.
journalists, out in the field, who can collaborate
declining. Regardless of the great work you do, times have changed. The way we consume news has evolved.
While this has plugged the gap it has also resulted in an inefficient news operation that
with the rest of the team using the same resources and tools.
Where the nightly television bulletin or the
works in silos. Different teams using different
hourly radio report would traditionally provide
systems and different resources, producing
Hive is a network production system that is
the most complete – and often the only –
variations of the same content for different
built on a future-ready UCP. Customisable,
source of current affairs, information is now
outlets. This results in work and technology
cloud-native and scalable, it can be
available almost every second of the day
being unnecessarily duplicated. It is not just
deployed on-premise, in the cloud or in a
from thousands of sources across a myriad
inefficient. It is also very expensive.
combination of the two.
of platforms and devices. From live streamed video reports and tweets to
Faced with all these hurdles, broadcasters
At Sony, that UCP is Media Backbone Hive.
Featuring a host of built-in tools and
usually have two options: continue to lose
compatible with third-party ones, it allows
constantly updated live text reports, it is possible
their audience or spend more money trying
journalists, producers and editors to collaborate
to find out what is happening from Aberdeen
to keep them.
from wherever they are in the world, ensuring
to Zambia at the touch of a mobile, tablet
Fortunately, there is another way. It is
that they are first with the story across online, TV
or smart TV. And more often than not, it is the
possible to entice back that lost audience
and radio. No more silos. No more duplication.
online world that gets the story first with television
and have a lower cost base and fewer silos. It
And a lot more flexibility. In today’s fast
broadcasters then providing context, detail and,
requires a unified content platform (UCP) that
turnaround world, this agile, efficient and
it must be pointed out, accuracy.
links everything and everyone within a news
adaptable approach to news production could
organisation together.
be the difference between locating that lost
The millennial generation, in particular, look to the Internet and apps first. According to Ofcom,
Imagine this. A TV station needs to cover a
audience and losing it forever. n
the UK’s communications regulator, more than 60
fast-breaking story throughout Europe. Without a
per cent of 16-24 year-olds get their main daily
UCP, with news teams and journalists working in
Your Journalists can grow your brand and
news fix that way.
isolation, it would be complex, time-consuming
increase audience share by simply having
But this is not a big lift and shift away from TV and radio to online. Nearly 90 per cent of British
and costly. With a UCP, however, the TV
access to the right tools.
station can share content and stories and
Find out more: pro.sony.eu/news
people aged 55 and over still get their news from the TV, for example. Instead, it is a general dispersion of the audience across the different platforms. Ofcom suggests that the average consumer now uses 3.5 different sources for their news. This democratisation of news provision might be great for those of us keen to know what is happening in the world – and for those viewers looking for alternative points-of-view – but for broadcasters it has become a real headache. Not only are they competing with each other they are also competing with these new and often quicker sources of news. It has led to a general reduction in viewership. Those viewers that have moved away are now considered ‘the lost audience.’ In an attempt to entice them back, broadcasters have changed their modus
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Building successful collaborations to tell your story first Mobile Journalism (Mojo) empowers news journalists; giving them the tools and technology to record, edit, transfer or broadcast live from wherever they are and under any conditions. But even with improved network connectivity, collaboration between Mojos and the newsroom has always been limited. Until now. Using the remote toolsets within Sony’s Media Backbone Hive, and embracing cloud computing, journalists can collaborate with each other, and the newsroom, sharing and using centralised footage, graphics and more, from wherever the story breaks.
Media Backbone Hive
Contact us today to find out more pro.sony.eu/news
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Agile, flexible and cost-effective: why Hive is ideal for modern day news production In the ongoing search for TV news’ lost audience, a unified content platform could be the answer. Here are five reasons why you should choose Sony’s Media Backbone Hive. 1. Hive will make you more productive
Making use of hyper converged node technology
broadcast production system for news and sport. Built on the latest data centre class technologies,
Adopting Media Backbone Hive will improve
via customisable dashboards at the front, Hive
and capable of embracing the benefits of cloud
business operations in a myriad of ways. It will
streamlines, and provides control of, the news
computing, it includes a rich toolset, open APIs
make it possible to deliver more content, in the
production operation. It integrates with third-party
and various customisation capabilities.
correct format, to more destinations with fewer
tools, provides flexible file management capabilities
resources. It will make it possible to attract new
and offers built-in applications of its own.
Sony’s Media Backbone Hive is a highly scalable
When injected into the heart of a production
in the back-end, and providing operations analysis
ecosystem, it offers flexible and powerful workflow
audiences and retain current ones while enticing
and content management capabilities and the
back those lost viewers. It will even allow breaking
newsroom computer system (NRCS), across import,
ability to streamline a news operation, removing
stories to be published when the content supplier is
production, publishing, planning, archive and
silos and eradicating duplication.
a member of the public.
playout. By combining NRCS control with networked
Importantly, it makes it quicker and easier for
Hive oversees all the elements that connect to a
Crucially, because it is entirely software-based,
news production capabilities, it simplifies the task
journalists, editors and producers to collaborate,
it also allows users to respond rapidly to changes in
of getting news out quickly to multiple people, on
regardless of where they are in the world, allowing
business demand and to optimise costs and avoid
multiple devices, from anywhere in the world.
them to be the first to tell their stories using social
inflexible capex investments.
media as well as TV and radio.
Journalists can read the wires, pull video, edit it, collaborate with remote correspondents and other
Hyper converged nodes provide extreme
2. Hive will remove your silos and streamline your workflows
resiliency and make it possible to dynamically
In an era when the public can get their news
scale storage and processing, whether on-premise
from many different sources, the fact that Hive’s
work that’s increasingly the norm such as creating
or in the cloud. And, because it is all software-
publishing capabilities serves both traditional TV
different versions for different media. And they can
based, Hive provides the chance to reduce
playout as well as social media, web and mobile,
do it without the need to waste time jumping from
upfront costs and adopt an opex model instead.
is absolutely vital.
one system to another.
Hive is also reliable, flexible and cost-effective.
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journalists – just like a traditional NRCS operation – but now they can take it much further. They can also do all the additional production
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April 2017 www.tvbeurope.com
Supplement 3. Hive will help you to make the most of the cloud (and you can do it your way)
it isthen simultaneously available to all
Hive is a scalable journalist-centric software
and reporters in the field, both locally and
layer that can be deployed on-premise or
around the world.
on stories. Users ingest footage once and relevant journalists including mobile journalists
in the cloud: or straddle a hybrid of both. architecture, different elements can be
5. Hive will allow you to adopt an ‘expand or kill’ strategy
deployed in different locations, as appropriate.
Because Hive makes use of the inherent
Because it is built around a distributed services
In some cases, it may be that a broadcaster
scalability and flexible economics of cloud
is willing to jump straight to the public or private
computing, once the platform is in place,
cloud, but that may not be practical or cost-
users can add temporary applications for
effective. In that case, a hybrid approach, with
specific events such as a sports tournament
some elements on premise, some in the cloud,
or a political event.
might be more appropriate.
A type of agile prototyping, this allows
This allows users to benefit from the same
a news organisation to try something new,
technology that the cloud uses, giving them
measure its success and then either expand it
the same levels of flexibility and platform
or kill it, depending on how well it is received.
functionality, but have it hosted on premise or
All without spending huge sums of money.
in the hybrid configuration of their choosing.
Traditional newsroom systems cannot do this.
The important thing is that the broadcaster
Agile, flexible and cost-effective, Hive is
can pick an approach is best for them, taking
much more than just an enhancement to the
into account the key cost: bandwidth.
newsroom. It’s a fundamental change in news
This flexibility is absolutely ideal for modern
production architecture. Hive will improve your business by
news production.
streamlining your workflows, bringing your news
4. Hive will make it easier for you to collaborate
teams and journalists closer together and
By adopting a unified content platform, online,
kill strategies. With a hybrid cloud approach,
TV and radio news teams can work together
you can realise cost benefits too.
making you agile enough to adopt expand or
under a single umbrella system, allowing them
To find out how Sony’s Media Backbone
content. This not only reduces duplication
Hive can help you to streamline your
and negates the need for separate systems
news production operation, go to
and technology, it allows greater collaboration
sony.pro.eu/news
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to search, access and make use of the same
Audience Reach
Increasingly, success is far more about intelligent platforms and business agility than about managing and delivering media assets. The winners are those businesses that can combine increased content collaboration (across teams and remotely) with greater flexibility to quickly adapt to new trends with an open infrastructure
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Hive: how does it work? • Integrated assignment and planning tools within Hive automatically send assignments directly to the news crew or a mobile journalist’s camera, linking and structuring key assets • Web-based dashboards provide operational insight, real-time business intelligence and remote monitoring and support • With its multiple ingest capabilities, Hive intelligently routes video inputs to the right places, making a proxy instantly available to all users • Hive automatically updates newsroom systems with new content, linking key metadata to news content • Full integration with wireless cameras enables journalists to begin editing with proxy footage as soon as it’s shot. Packages can then be switched to using high res files once they’re available • Because Hive is file agnostic it will handle any file type, format or resolution, whether it is video, audio or other types of data • Hive offers simple and advanced logging options to allow users to add markers in real time, building metadata that’s immediately usable • Journalists can quickly search the entire newsroom system to find what they need – whether current or archived content, or material arriving in the moment • Stories can be created wherever they are needed, in a web-based environment, or remotely in the field
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Tech innovation: CCTV case study
China’s CCTV is leading the way in news production modernisation, making use of the public and private cloud and a unified content platform to create a global collaboration network for its journalists When it comes to innovation within news
overseas in English, French, Spanish,
success criteria – making best use of the
broadcasting and production, China is
Russian and Arabic. Offering news,
benefits of both technologies whilst avoiding
currently ahead of the game. In a market
documentary, comedy, entertainment
the inherent limitations – utilising a software
where the lines between linear TV and the web
and drama programming, it has a
platform that is easily deployable in both
are at their most blurred, the broadcasters and
combined audience of more than one
environments.
service providers are constantly seeking out
billion viewers.
new ways to efficiently and cost-effectively
CCTV’s news operation consists of 31
Liu Wanming, technical director of news at CCTV says, “The globalisation of news requires
attract and retain an audience.
Chinese journalist stations, two overseas
a global perspective delivered with local
This is epitomised by the national
branch stations, five overseas central journalist
understanding. Our goal is to give immediate
broadcaster China Central Television
stations and 63 overseas journalist offices.
access to content from across all of our regions, from a wide range of creative toolsets,
“Providing the easiest access to content securely requires a single platform capable of running in private environments and public cloud natively. Our ability to reduce costs while ensuring scalability and flexibility is absolutely critical to the success of this project” Shi Qiang, CCTV
to enable this localisation of stories for the audience and their devices.”
What is the solution? Partering with Sobey for the HQ system in Beijing, CCTV has opted for Hive, the unified
(CCTV). CCTV has a vision for a new global
What is the challenge?
news production operation that is a step
CCTV plans to adopt a global collaboration
ahead of anything else in the broadcast
platform that allows it to produce TV and
technology in the back-end, and providing
market, using both public and private
new media content at the same time across
operations analysis via customisable
cloud to create a worldwide collaboration
its global output. The requirement is for a
dashboards at the front, Hive streamlines and
platform for its journalists and bureaus
collaborative network that is accessible by
controls a news production operation.
across the world.
all of its offices and locations, and allows
content platform. By making use of distributed micro-service
Through the use of published APIs many
them to share and exchange content and
different types of creative and authoring tools
Who is CCTV?
access scheduling and planning functions.
are integrated onto the Hive back-end. For the
The Beijing-based public national broadcaster
High availability is key. The effective adoption
first time journalists from different groups and
CCTV operates 43 TV channels including five
of both private and public cloud is a critical
experiences can access the same content, at
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vii
Supplement the same time using their toolsets to craft their
training and support cost with this single overall
The journalist-centric network production
story, tailoring it to their particular audience
architecture and yet ensuring the scalability
system, built on a unified content platform and
or device. Each journalist will have a number
and flexibility to decide where to place the
utilising hyper-converged node technology,
of different toolsets available to him or her,
platforms and which partners to work with is
is suitable for any broadcaster or other media
including Web Editing; WeChat Authoring;
absolutely critical to the success of this project.”
organisation looking to improve the way they
Craft Editing; an Omni-Media Web Portal;
work and attract new audiences.
Image Authoring; H5 Mobile Authoring; SNS
When is it happening?
Authoring (Weibo/Twitter/Facebook/Youtube);
By the time you read this, CCTV Beijing
and APP Authoring.
will be operational. The network will be
With the private cloud, operating as a data centre on-premise, managing metadata and both proxy files and high-resolution footage,
implemented in a phased fashion, in two stages. Phase1 will include the construction of
facilitating content sharing and new media
CCTV’s headquarters in China complete with
production. The public cloud will then contain
private cloud and public cloud capabilities.
a synchronised version of the private cloud that
This will initially support new media production
has mirrored metadata, the proxy files and on-
only with TV news being produced using a
demand high res.
legacy system.
Using public cloud service in China the public
“Hive marries the technology of the internet economy, cost effective speed and flexibility, to the quality, governance and collaboration of broadcasters systems” Richard Scott, Sony
Richard Scott, head of Sony Media Solutions
Phase 2 will see an enhancement and
said, “The issues being addressed by CCTV are
cloud repository will allow journalists to access
scaling of the headquarters so that it can
uppermost in the minds of all of our customers;
content, handle User Generated material and
support both TV production and new media
collaboration, governance, the ability to tailor
produce new media output locally, and then
production simultaneously.
the stories to the local audience and get those
distribute it across social media. Irrespective of where the journalist is based, they will be able to build an Edit Decision List
The first CCTV China elements are due to
stories to that audience on their preferred
go live in February 2017. The American and
device. The commercial reality of multiple
European region will follow up later this year.
teams working on or across different systems and waiting for content to be copied cannot
(EDL) and create a news story package using footage and data gathered from anywhere
Bringing Hive to Europe
around the world. The initial work will be done
Although China is a very different market,
using proxies that are then published back into
with different considerations and priorities,
economy, cost effective speed and flexibility,
the main system and re-linked to the high-res
Europe can potentially glean a lot from
to the quality, governance and collaboration
footage. Journalists could also be download
CCTV’s experience.
of broadcaster’s systems.”
clips and control and manipulate them locally. CCTV project manager, Shi Qiang stated
carry on indefinitely. “Hive marries the technology of the internet
The adoption of a global collaboration network could bring huge efficiencies and
To find out how Sony’s Media Backbone Hive
that: “Providing the easiest access to content,
streamline workflows for news production. These
could help your broadcast news operation
securely, from literally anywhere, requires a
are benefits that all broadcasters crave.
visit sony.pro.eu/news
single platform capable of running in private
That is why Sony is bringing the same
environments and public cloud natively. Our
innovative back-end architecture to Europe
ability to reduce engineering, integration,
in the form of Media Backbone Hive.
CCTV HQ (Beijing) Private Cloud
Public Cloud
Europe Region Public Cloud
America Region Public Cloud
Private Cloud
Beijing
Private Cloud
Asia Pacific Region
Public Cloud
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