Even though the days of unconstrained budgets for newsrooms are long gone, adoption of new workflows and technological advancements are driving the market.

As tapes disappear, broadcasters are redefining their production workflows. Several news channels have been launched in the country and are competing furiously for eyeballs. Every channel wants the kind of technological wizardry that will help them visually stand out from the crowd in an increasingly congested marketplace.

To appear cutting edge, most of them are leveraging new technology like never before. The newsroom computer system has evolved from a simple text-based wire browsing, script and rundown editing system to a multimedia workflow engine that spans well beyond the newsroom floor.

It hardly needs to be emphasized that the business landscape for broadcasters is being transformed on a daily basis, and the form and nature of broadcast journalism along with it. Newsroom systems are one of the major driving forces in the implementation of new technology. The key to survival is automating processes, lowering staff count, smartening efficiencies and doing more with less. The power of graphic applications, extending capabilities of video servers and switching from standard definition (HD) material to high definition (HD) material allows the channels to better brand themselves and deliver a faster, more comprehensive news report.

The old pattern of lunch-time, early evening and late evening bulletins for which the early NRCS systems were designed have been replaced by hourly newscasts, 24-hour news channels, news wheels, and, of course, by a huge new array of delivery options, including Internet and mobile phone. A few deadlines a day have been replaced by rolling news. Competitive news environment, 24-hour live channels, short deadlines, and range of newsgathering sources have highlighted the reason for transition as it recompenses lower operational cost, increasing reliability, easy and quick access to information, systematic workflow, common platform and better quality.

Journalism itself is evolving. TV news organizations do not just report to their audiences on significant events, but also are increasingly allowing TV viewers to become witnesses of those events. Live links and sat phones hugely increase speed-to-air, and that places a big responsibility on journalists to do background research and fact-checking on breaking stories rapidly, and turn them round for air in minutes and sometimes seconds.

To design a 21st century broadcast news system from scratch, versatile collaborative creativity that is an integrated, multi-stream content creation toolkit and end-to-end value-chain management which goes hand-in-hand with the creative aspects is sought. It starts with digital asset management, as well as with the cataloging, metadata, searching, retrieval and processing tools and it further includes a range of capabilities that are necessary to sell output into the widest possible range of markets.

Exact definition of newsroom system requires consideration of several factors:

• Technology advances, making newsroom systems immeasurably more powerful than they were before;
• The evolution of working practices, broadening the scope of what individuals in the newsroom are able (and willing) to do; and
• Changes in broadcast business drivers, resulting in hugely expanded output both on a station-by-station basis (length and numbers of bulletins) and in terms of the range of channels and delivery methods that must be served.

The term newsroom system includes all of those activities that are expected to be available on the journalist's desktop. The list of functions expected from the newsroom system includes planning/diary/assignments; communications (messaging, mail), web browsing and research; news agency reception, sorting and alerts; ingest scheduling and management; encoding/trans-coding; cataloging and metadata creation; search engine, low-resolution proxy browsing, shot-listing and editing; voiceover recording; high-resolution conforming and finishing; video server management; scriptwriting; running order creation; script and show timing; graphics creation; prompting; captioning; subtitling; on-air play out automation; web and DVD authoring and publishing; archiving (short-, medium- and long-term) of media and text; digital asset management.

The scope of traditionally known newsroom computer systems (NRCS) such as Avid's iNEWS and the Associated Press' (AP) ENPS based on core technology originally conceived for a text-only era are still operational and still being sold. Integration potential has replaced pure functionality as the most desirable and necessary attribute of these systems and continuous efforts has been expended by both companies to provide, one way or the other, additional capabilities. Avid promotes a one-stop shop in which iNews is part of a wider infrastructure including Avid editing systems and Unity. Their success has made it difficult for competitors to break into the market. Dalet, Octopus, VSN and Autocue among others all offer highly functional broadcast NRCS systems with numerous strong points and, indeed, satisfied customers. But none has achieved the critical mass of iNews and ENPS. There are some broadcasters who have decided to go it alone and develop their own systems but these systems are few and none has yet been installed outside its own organization.

Broadcasters at times are reluctant to install new hardware and software, changing workflows, retraining their entire staff or swap out their entire NRCS systems. The major requirement to consider change has been save me money means let me reduce staffing levels rather than improve my output. NRCS systems are and always have been, low-cost. Funding for development has seldom been generous. It has often been directed not so much at originating new functionality but at keeping the existing systems up to date.

But the question is for how much longer can this state of affairs continue? In an era when the rate of change in every other comparable area is increasing, can NRCS systems, and more importantly their users, afford to stay where they are?

The major vendors supplying newsroom automation equipment are Avid, Barco, Delta Powers, Playbox and Thomson GrassValley. Benchmark, CMS Broadcast Division, Ideal Broadcasting, Omnibus, Real Image, Cinecita, VTIPL, and Setron are major system integrators. In the last ten years around 24 channels have been set up with an investment of around Rs. 360 crore. In 2008-09 a buying of Rs.100 crore has been done by the channels and each channel had made an investment of around Rs. 12.5 to Rs. 18 crore. NDTV, CNBC and TimesNow's ET have made larger investments.

The year 2008-09 saw an increase in number of regional news channels while the national news channels are facing a setback due to high budget requirement in setting up a highly automated newsroom system. The format in which the news is put to air needs to be very impressive to drive forward the market of newsroom automation.

In India 483 channels are currently beemed. Last year four new national news channels namely UTVnews, Voice of India, 9X, and E-24 by BAG films hit the market but only UTVnews seems to have survived. 9X has been hived off to Nayi Duniya. Voice of India too is looking for investors. E-24 seems to be struggling with high attrition levels and poor TRPs.

The regional news channels, with low budgets for equipment pose challenging requirements to the system integrators and distributors. As news channels record healthy revenues, focus on innovative newsrooms with the latest technology up-gradations could improve the business of news and media operations. This market with the increasing interest in general news, live cricket, upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010 is heading towards a growth curve.

MAJOR PLAYERS

Barco has been a major player in display solutions. It has a wide range of products to respond to the needs of studio backdrop, monitoring solutions for PCR, MCR, DTH and IPTV. Products are designed for 24/7 applications keeping in mind the critical nature of operations.

Benchmark is one of the leading system integrators in India. All their installations are running smoothly. The major customers are Saam TV, Jamuna TV and T7.

CMS Broadcast is a part of CMS Computers Ltd. They provide turnkey solutions for TV channels. They represent some of the biggest OEMs from the broadcast industry like Sony, Apple, Building for Media, Octopus, Harris, among others and is also the authorized service partner for them. They offer AMC and facility management services to satellite channel, production houses, educational institutes, government departments and similar other clients.




Delta Display walls are designed for real and expanding requirements for large scale visualization systems that present extreme resolutions and provide a customizable multimedia system in a multiple monitor format. These are ideally suited for mission critical control and command rooms, data visualization and high entertainment environments. Its state of the art design delivers the highest contrast, best image quality, operational reliability, serviceability and cost-of-ownership.

Ideal Broadcasting supplied fully integrated newsroom solution to Century Communication channel. The solution includes Dalet newsroom, Omneon servers, Harris automation, graphics from Vizrt, and Final Cut Pro. Dalet newsroom helps out in content creation and production, asset management, and playout.

Omnibus in India is represented by Shaf Broadcast Private Limited. Shaf Broadcast as a system integrator provided solutions to Mahaa TV, Studio End, iNews, Local TV, Times Zoom, Sahara Mumbai, Raj TV along with few others. OmniBus provides broadcasting, cable, and satellite organizations with comprehensive automation, media content management and workflow solutions addressing every area of television-related operations. Its sports and newsroom content solutions include acquisition and recording of rich media material, media content management, and play out. Some of the products offered by company for newsroom automation are iTX a software based production and transmission solution allows broadcasters to launch both multi-channel operations and new low-cost channels or to establish backup systems that reproduce the entire transmission chain, complete with automation, ingesting, editing, and content management. Omnibus OPUS is a suite of content management and workflow components that link multiple vendor system with an integrated efficient workflow. Omnibus Colossus is a multi-channel automation system, providing a robust and scalable solution to broadcasters.

Playbox automation system supports all existing I/O interfaces, all video-audio standards, graphics, digital video effects, and compression format. The Playbox broadcast automation system consists of an ingest server, automated play out server, graphics insertion server, TX database server with TX management software, network file storage server, and networking peripherals.

Real Image is one of the India's major technology providers in the film, video and audio markets. The company through its partner Avid provides newsroom automation solutions to both national and regional news channels in India. The major customers include NDTV, CNN IBN, NDTV, Times Now, ET, SUN TV, Kalaignar TV and Shakshi TV. The product range of the company includes ISIS (Avid), with central storage features, iNews Command (Avid) for newsroom automation, interplay (Avid) for media asset management, airspeed (Avid) for ingest and play out servers, Orad for graphics and iNews (Avid) for NRCS scripting solutions.

Thomson GrassValley as one of the major service provider did project for TV9, Zoom along with few more and are working on project for Dhera TV from Hyderabad. The company addresses the newsroom with its Ignite integrated production systems, Media FUSE suite of multiple production tools, Storage Area Network (SAN) which is based on multiple K2 media servers configured in the shared storage architecture and the Aurora (7.0) platform allow a broadcaster to streamline the production of its newscast and other programs while giving the staff the ability to be more productive. The Ignite HD system can be ordered with one to four M/Es up to 32 control ports and is completely scalable from 24 to 96 video inputs and 24 to 96 audio inputs. Key features of the product include:

• Easy transition between back-to-back newscasts.
• Proven to easily handle any breaking-news scenario.
• Float, drop, and add stories within seconds.
• Improves ROI.
• Enables increased programming opportunities and revenue stream via single workflow.
• Provides direct link between run-down and on-air programming.
• Cost effective solution for new, live multicast channels, and multi distribution opportunities.
• Event-driven technology allowing one person to direct the entire production.
• Single, partial and fully redundant backup capabilities for CPUs, video and audio frames.

VTIPL serves the needs of broadcast audio-video industry in India by system designing, integrating and distribution of the professional broadcast products. VTIPL uses VSN news, a powerful, entirely integrated news system that allows text/video editing in the same application. VSN is not only a digital newsroom system but a brand new concept in the way of doing TV. All work is automated and computerized, creating a logical workflow between departments and people.

It allows editing video one minute after starting ingesting process, while you are still recording it. Playlist events can be edited and changed just 5 seconds before going on air. Their major clients are Focus TV, Hamaar TV, Local TV, Sun TV, Azad TV and Doordarshan. Their major principals are Leitch, Ross Video, CDAC, Data Video, Panasonic, Telescript, Mackie, Allen & Heath, Ruige, and VSN.

CASE STUDIES

Client: CNN-IBN

Project: Interactive backdrop solution

Vendor: Barco-Case

When Indians put on their TVs to watch the CNN-IBN news on 1 November 2008, they could witness how the studio had been greatly refurbished. CNN-IBN had joined forces with Barco to implement the very first Barco interactive backdrop solution in India: a total system with a high-quality rear-projection wall at its heart. The display wall and the accompanying controllers and processor have now converted the CNN-IBN studio into a state-of-the-art facility that provides the viewers with a captivating visual experience. CNN-IBN is the English news channel of IBN 18 Network (part of the Network 18 group), India's leading full play media conglomerate with participating interests in television and the Internet. Besides CNN-IBN, IBN 18 Network also operates IBN7 and IBN Lokmat, India's most important Hindi and Marathi channels respectively. The CNN-IBN channel operates from its headquarters in Noida, close to Delhi, and reaches over 40 million Indian households, thereby leading the English news channels in India.

With the Indian entertainment and media industry, and especially the television segment, growing steadily over the past few years, the channel is committed to retaining its market leadership. "We permanently strive to deliver sustainable value to our viewers by providing them with an exceptional viewing experience, explained Piyush Gupta, general manager - operations. We therefore decided to replace the plasma screens used at our news studio by a large-size video wall. No other supplier could provide such a large video wall with a flexible layout, high graphics quality and the state-of-the-art processor and controller like Barco. Besides, previous experiences with Barco had already taught us that the company successfully combines faultless quality with outstanding local customer support, he added.

The Network 18 and Barco engineers installed a video wall of 18 rear-projected 50 inch display cubes, in a 3 x 6 line-up, with two 3ME Encore Processors and driven by Barco's Encore show controller. This all-in-one backdrop solution allows live, in-studio broadcasters to show a multitude of video and graphical windows and produces smooth transitions from one display wall layout into another. Thanks to its high resolution, superior flexibility and excellent on-camera performance, the backdrop solution permits great interactive use and increases accessibility for the audience.

Piyush Gupta illustrated how this viewer interactivity was demonstrated shortly after the system was installed - when terrorists attacked multiple locations across Mumbai on 26 November, 2008. "With the new Barco wall, we were perfectly able to capture the news as it happened. In the past, the viewing was limited and screens could capture only one image at a time. Today, the Barco solution allows us to display three different views of the event, with outstanding picture quality, vibrant colors and high contrast". Equally important during intensive broadcasting periods is the reliability of the system. Barco's high-quality projection modules incorporate dual lamps with hot stand-by capability. A built-in second lamp ensures that each and every wall module is available, at all times. "Barco on the agenda .We are now planning to equip our video backdrop with touch-screen technology".