The market for newsroom automation equipment in India is on the rise. Factors attributed to the growth include setting up of plethora of news channels especially regional news channels, transition from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD), and increasing investments especially from overseas. Most of the major players in newsroom automation from the USA, European, and Japanese companies have their presence in India through some business partners and distributors.

The year 2007-08 saw a number of channels set up in India. Out of these, news channels saw a rapid increase both in regional and local content. Breaking news has been a key factor for the success of news channels in India. This in turn has led to the setting up of newsrooms, which require broadcast equipment.

Newsroom systems routinely include either integrated editing applications or tight integration with separate applications. System integrators have taken the approach of integrating widely available editing products, making fully-integrated systems even less expensive and more scalable.

MAJOR PLAYERS

BENCHMARK

Benchmark Microsystems is one of the leading system integration companies for news in India. The company has installed the maximum number of news systems in India and overseas. All installations are not only running smoothly, but are also counted among the most successful news channels in their country/genre. Buoyed by this success, Benchmark is venturing into other regions of the world. Some of the major customers of the company in India are News 24, Live India, Zee News, Star News, Aaj Tak, INX News, TV9 Mumbai, SAAM News, Shukravaar, and R Plus. Apart from that, the company has customers in Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan.

Benchmark has invested heavily into hiring, training, and inspiring experienced professionals. Benchmark is perhaps the only company having a dedicated team for designing TV channels. This design starts with designing the workflow, helping the station to hire people, help them design their office, and helping the station in other areas such as cabling, air conditioning, technical furniture, interiors, and raised flooring. It ends with the team hand holding the operators, journalists, news producers, and helping the station go on air. Benchmark has also developed deep expertise into each of the technologies employed in a news environment - newsroom systems, editing systems, automation systems, graphics systems, networking, baseband systems, and control systems.

Almost every news station has a ticker. Sometimes they run two or even three tickers simultaneously. Benchmark has installed numerous 3D ticker systems. It is a complicated system because real-time data streams from various stock exchanges into a database. The system automatically picks up the relevant data from the database and displays it onto a ticker system which appears on the screen. The company takes complete responsibility for designing, supplying, installing, commissioning the system, and helping the customer go on air.

The equipment used by the company for the set-up of newsrooms in India include Octopus NRCS, Seachange servers, editing and browsing systems from Incite, Apple and Matrix Axio, Vizrt graphics systems, routers from Network Electronics, Autocue teleprompters, Aveco automation, switchers from Echolab and Eyeheight, Vizrt virtual set, and Snell & Wilcox glue, encoder, and converter.

According to the company, newsroom automation is what enables today's speed of news or information dissemination. In India, Aaj Tak should be credited with making news a money making proposition. Since the channel's launch, the market has been expanding at a phenomenal pace. Aaj Tak created history by going on to listing on the Stock Exchange and has now expanded to four channels. There was always a need for fresh, relevant, and important news. It is only now being tapped in India. This is something that broadcasters have realized. However, the only way to stay on top of breaking news is with newsroom automation.

India is perhaps one of the most competitive markets for news. TV stations that carry news have to be very focused and agile, if they need to figure anywhere in the ratings game. They need to have planned everything down to the last detail before they get into the business. Obviously, the most important issue is getting the right people. Once there are right people, there is a need to get the right technology backbone in place. The only saving grace now is that if the system is designed well (tightly integrated), a 24x7 news channel can be run with lesser number of people, in other words at a lower operational cost.

Newsroom Automation
Octopus. Octopus6 is a platform-independent newsroom system enhancing the key strengths of Octopus5. It brings the convenience of the Octopus newsroom system to Mac OS and Linux users. In Windows, Octopus6 performs better and more intuitively than the previous version.

Key strengths of the web-based system are kept in version 6 which include centralized updates, installation-free client, and intuitive user interface.

Many new features are already implemented in the system, many more are planned to come so that the user will be working more efficiently than before. If the working environment is Windows, Mac, or Linux, or a mix of any of these, it does not make any difference. Octopus6 is platform independent. It runs on multiple platforms simultaneously, reaching free operating systems as well as Apple Final Cut.

Automation
Aveco. Aveco designs and produces TV automation systems. The systems are modular and scalable. Each product can be configured with only the features which the user needs. An open path for upgrading functionality ensures each Aveco system will grow as the user grows. Its products are available either on their own or as integrated.

Aveco controls processes and devices for broadcasting one or more TV channels at one location or central casting among co-operating sites. It can control ingest to playout operations on video servers and their VTR feeds. It offers a remarkable expansion to the video servers' capabilities and helps them fit seamlessly into the studio.

Non-Linear Editing
IMC Technologies. IMC is a front-runner in bridging the traditional world of analog video broadcasting with modern concepts of computer-based, multimedia technology. IMC Technologies offers broadcasters a total solution that is modular, and thereby easily expandable. It provides open architecture with other Windows-based applications and is transparent with future technologies, especially those technologies that focus on media acquisition, metadata transparency, and third party integration. IMC's totally tapeless, IT philosophy offers cost-effective migration to scalable broadcast shared network (BSN) based on a comprehensive product family affordable, adaptable solution that can be easily expanded on demand.

Matrox. The Matrox Axio family of HD and SD platforms provides a complete post-production solution that lets the user get the best from the Adobe CS3 production premium software. The Axio platforms are designed to give the most comprehensive real-time feature set, the highest quality native codec technology, and complete file-based workflows, integrated with the Adobe software. There are three Matrox Axio platforms to choose from: Matrox Axio HD, Matrox Axio SD, and Matrox Axio LE. All offer ultra high performance editing in HD and SD formats. They differ only in terms of the editing codecs supported, the method of performing Matrox flex GPU effects, and the audio and video inputs and outputs provided on the breakout boxes.

Apple. The first choice of professional editors worldwide, Final Cut Pro 6 delivers high-performance digital non-linear editing, native support for virtually any video format, and facility-class extensibility and interoperability. The workflow extends through the other Final Cut Studio applications and Final Cut Server for even more power. Whether working solo or collaborating with a team, Final Cut Pro gives more creative options and technical control.

Graphics & Virtual Sets
Vizrt. The Vizrt solutions were developed to overcome common challenges in specific broadcasting environments. Each solution suggests a range of different Vizrt products that can be used to streamline workflows and guarantee high-quality results. Vizrt offers solutions for newsroom automation that range from animation and visual effects creation tools for high-quality 2D and 3D real-time graphics to real-time 2D/3D character generators, virtual sets, ticker tapes, and more.

IDEAL BROADCASTING

Ideal Broadcasting, the Indian arm of Ideal Systems Asia Pacific Limited, is considered as a system integrator par excellence. Since it was established in 2000, Ideal has been involved in the set-up of various news projects in India. Key clients include Sahara News related production control rooms project, set-up of Times Now news project, and supply of playout automation for various Network 18 CNBC channels, including Awaaz, CNN IBN, and IBN 7.

In 2007-08, Ideal was involved in the infrastructure set up of several news channels. These include:

INX News. Ideal supplied and integrated the state-of-the-art news facility comprising of the newsroom, central apparatus room, and master control room in Noida and Mumbai. The key components include Aveco automation and Octopus NRCS seamlessly integrated with Incite edits. NewsX is on the SeaChange Broadcast MediaLibrary/MediaClient (BML/MCL) play-to-air platform. NewsX is the first news operation in India that is ready for transition to high-definition broadcasting. With studios designed by Janson Design Group of New York, graphics by London's Red Bee Media, and sets from Shaun Moore, New York, NewsX offers its c-suite audience a global perspective with a viewing experience comparable to the best in global broadcast. The glue and router of the facility was from Leitch. .

UTV News. This project has newsroom from AVID along with playout automation from VSN. Probel supplied the station routing solution and other key components included Miranda multi- viewers and Snell & Wilcox glue and vision switchers.

IBN Lokmat. Ideal set up the news production control rooms and integrated the baseband chain with the Avid I news solution. The key components include Snell & Wilcox switchers, Probel routers, and Autocue teleprompters.

Ideal has also been awarded the task of setting up India's first complete HD news channel for Indira Television. Ideal is supplying a fully integrated newsroom solution for Century News channel. The solution includes Dalet newsroom, Omneon servers, Harris automation, graphics from Vizrt, and Final Cut Pro.

Role of Dalet in Century Communications.

• Content creation and production. Acquisition, creation, re-purposing of text, video and graphics content for use in multiple and varied environments. This includes various ingest tools for different sources, low and high-end editing tools as well as third party integrations.
• Asset Management. Control and tracking of all content from creation through ingest, from production through playback. This will include monitoring of all ingest material as well as the third party integrations.
• Playout. Control and tracking of all playout and automation operations. This includes monitoring of all ready-to-air material, control of playout devices, as well as third party integrations.

Other equipment used for setting up newsrooms by the company include four Omneon Media Deck video servers for Century Communications, where one server was used for the news channel and the rest was used for regional, entertainment, and spiritual channels. Omneon Media Grid video servers were used for Zoom Communications and Triveni Media's news channel, Voice of India. The Seachange video servers were used for INX. Incite editing and browsing systems were used for INX. Probel Sirius 128x128 router was used for UTV News, Mumbai and a 64x64 router for UTV News, Delhi. Probel Sirius 128x128 router was also used for CNBC while Leitch 128x128 router was used for INX. Teleprompters include Autocue for IBN Lokmat and Century Communications.

OMNIBUS

Omnibus in India is represented by Shaf Broadcast Private Limited. OmniBus Systems delivers comprehensive master control, automation, playout and media content management solutions to broadcast, cable, satellite and telecom operators across the globe. The company's transmission, newsroom, content management and workflow solutions address every area of television, mobile TV and IPTV related operations.

Some of the products offered by the company for newsroom automation are

iTX. iTX is a next-generation, software-based production and transmission solution built on standard IT hardware and advanced software technology. Offering a radical new approach to transmission, iTX 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, ingest, editing and content management. iTX replaces the complexity of a wide range of hardware and software systems such as video server, master control, graphics device, and logo inserter with a single software application. It manages the entire ingest, content management, and playout process with minimal broadcast equipment, produces a sophisticated output using logos, stills, voice-overs, live events, graphics and 2-D DVE moves for squeeze-and-tease effects, and supports single or multi-channel facilities.

OPUS. OmniBus OPUS is a suite of content management and workflow components that link multiple vendor systems with an integrated, efficient workflow. Offering a range of automated and manual task management tools on the desktop, the system brings unprecedented flexibility to the overall operations of media organizations. It ingests, tracks, and manages video content through integrated, multi-system workflows, enables the combination of selected modules in a cost-effective, best-fit content management workflow from ingest to transmission, manages physical assets, proxy material, content logging and metadata exchange across broadcast processes, and also defines and automates content processing workflows with rule-based task flow and job tracking. The OPUS Interchange is the gateway for the exchange of content metadata and workflow tasks. Using the platform-independent standard of XML Web services, Interchange provides the bi-directional exchange of metadata and workflow tasks with adjacent systems in the end-to-end content process. The OPUS Transfer Manager provides the management and processing of physical content files within a broadcast operation. By controlling IT storage, video storage, HSM archive, and transcoding devices, Transfer Manager can move content around the facility as required by the content processing workflow.

Colossus. OmniBus Colossus is the market-leading multi-channel automation system, providing a robust and scalable solution to broadcasters across the globe. This full-featured automated transmission product incorporates schedule management, event building and transitions, timeline monitoring, live-event management and cache management. It integrates best-of-breed systems under transparent automation control, bridges the gap between video, audio, Internet and data-streaming applications, permits the status of all channels to be monitored instantaneously from dedicated desktop layouts, allows SD or HD channels to be added easily and inexpensively, enables broadcasters to manage any volume of transmission streams, whether conventional broadcasts, data or Internet delivery of content.

REAL IMAGE

Real Image is one of India's foremost technology providers in the film, video, and audio markets. The company through its partner Avid provides newsroom automation solutions to television channels in India. Some of the major customers of Real Image include CNN IBN, NDTV, Times Now, UTVi, Star TV, Sun TV, Kalaignar TV, India TV, and IBN Lokmat

The company in 2007-08 sold 231 units of news room computer systems (NRCS) at a total cost of Rs. 1.5 crore. Other equipment sold by the company for setting up of newsrooms include 54 units of video servers at a total cost of Rs. 4 crore, 528 units of editing and browsing systems at Rs. 9.5 crore, 12 units of central storage servers at Rs. 2 crore, seven units of media asset management at Rs. 2 crore, and seven units of newsroom automation control air at Rs. 1.05 crore.

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 playout servers, iNews (Avid) for NRCS scripting solutions, and Titan/Fast Break (Sundance Digital) for end-to-end automation.

THOMSON GRASSVALLEY

Thomson Grassvalley is one of the major solution providers for newsroom automation in India. The company's Ignite line of production automation solutions is a software and hardware combination that is a complete link between the control room and the newsroom, and which provides an unmatched return on investment. Extending the capabilities of this platform is Ignite HD, the first totally automated HD control-room solution, which combines the power and flexibility of the Ignite platform with an Ignite HDC robotic camera system and controller.

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
• Improved ROI
• Enables increased programming opportunities and revenue stream via single workflow
• Provides direct link between rundown 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
• Scalable architecture
• One to four mix/effect (M/E) banks
• 24-96 video inputs
• 24-96 audio inputs
• Single, partial, and fully redundant backup capabilities for CPUs, video, and audio frames

PLAYBOX

The Playbox broadcast automation system supports all existing I/O interfaces, all video-audio standards, graphics, digital video effects, and compression formats. Playbox systems can be personalized to fulfill a wide range of extraordinary workflow requirements. Unlike traditional automation solutions, Playbox embraces its own automation routines built into the dedicated software of each workstation. Thus there is no need for external controlling system and maintenance is limited to simple software upgrades. The automation system's scalable and modular architecture enables broadcasters to configure their systems with dynamic interfaces as well as intelligent and customizable rules which meet precise workflow requirements and eliminate repetitive and labor-intensive functions.

The Playbox broadcast automation system consists of an ingest server, automated playout server, graphics insertion server, TX database server with TX management software, networked file storage server, and networking peripherals. This is the minimum configuration for a small but effective automation solution for the broadcasting of a single TV channel. All parts of this system may be expanded by adding more ingest/playout equipment, additional software to fulfill specific requirements, higher capacity storage arrays, or playout redundancy.

The broadcast automation system is most often connected to post production systems via fast Ethernet network as well as to the live production studio via the master routing switcher. This will enable the post production systems to copy material directly to the TX file server avoiding the tape recapturing process and the transmission playout system to take the live feeds from the production studios and put them directly ‘on air'

The automation system's scalable and modular architecture enables broadcasters to configure their systems with dynamic interfaces as well as intelligent and customizable rules which meet precise workflow requirements and eliminate repetitive and labor-intensive functions. Some of the major newsroom automation solutions provided by Playbox are

AirBox. Features include universal SD/HD content playout and streaming, 24/7 unattended operation, MPEG2, AVC/H.264, HDV and DV compression scalability, large variety of sources supported, and hardware independence. They are ideally suited for time-critical live operations. Professional device support through GPI, RS232, and VDCP is also available.

CaptureBox. Features include manual, automatic, batch, and scheduled capturing. The first software of its kind to enable MPEG2, AVC/H.264, and DV capturing on a wide array of hardware platforms with plenty of capturing facilities such as RS422 or DV deck control, VU/peak audio meter and volume control, native IEEE-1394 HDV or ASI MPEG2 TS (SD/HD) capturing, and real-time UDP streaming.

DataBox. DataBox is an all-in-one content management solution. From archives to run-time copy, from types and categories to genres, from credits to links, DataBox maintains total content order through sophisticated set of searching and classification parameters.

CASE STUDY

BENCHMARK MICROSYSTEMS

Bernama (Pertubahan Berita Nasional Malaysia), the Malaysian national news agency, launched a 24x7 news channel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It went on air on February 28, 2008. In December 2007, Benchmark was approached by Silver Ridge Sdn. Bhd. to tender for a project that would metamorphose Bernama TV - then a multi-language, single-bulletin-per-day news producer - into a 24x7 multi-language, news channel.

In January, Silver Ridge reverted to Benchmark on its proposal and informed them that, after deliberations and screening, they had decided to select them as the system integrator for the project. Apart from Benchmark's established track record of successfully installing 24-hour channels in the region, in difficult situations and on tight schedules, what obviously helped was the implementation workflow and pricing, as well as the fact that Benchmark had implemented the earlier set up at Bernama.

Apart from the constraint of an extremely tight deadline, the project was further complicated by the fact that there was a lot of legacy equipment that had to be integrated into the new system. Though the earlier equipment had been supplied and the systems integration effected by Benchmark, not only had the parameters changed radically but there was also the factor of the time-gap. Technology had leap-frogged dramatically in five years and in the interim everything had changed - operating systems, hardware, software, and most importantly, file formats. Yet, Benchmark had to make use of everything that they possibly could from the existing set up.

These legacy problems were realised, evaluated, and solutions determined by Benchmark at the design phase. There were a host of problems. Video formats had changed and the older formats were not recognized by today's systems. The challenge that faced Benchmark was: "How to make the new system work seamlessly with the legacy equipment and systems and how to do this on schedule?

Benchmark had to make the detailed drawings, order the equipment, ensure delivery, install it, commission it, test it, and go on air, all within a very short timeframe and a very tight budget.

On February 28, 2008 Bernama TV metamorphosed itself. It went from being a multi-language, single-bulletin-per-day news producer into a 24x7 multi-language news channel. It went on air on schedule.

Over the last five years or so, we have seen several new national news channels being set up, some by existing companies who currently do print and others by industry entrepreneurs. These channels have been catering to the majority and some have also started to launch complementary channels in business or infotainment segments. The systems used tend to be file-based newsroom systems, sharing central storage and architecture. This has automated the newsroom workflow using different types of News Room Computer Systems (NRCS). The efficiencies gained in these areas and the power of graphic applications being used more and more, allow the channels to better brand themselves and deliver a faster, more comprehensive news reports. Of late, we see more and more regional news channels starting up, who whilst delivering a lot of national news also mix it with specific regional news and events targeting their specific audience. Targeted marketing is a large part of their business plans generating advertising revenues.

While the switch from standard definition (SD) material to high definition material (HD) is starting to gain momentum, it still has some way to go before we see full HD everywhere. So, channels are preparing themselves to be able to deal with a mixed environment going forward.

The burst of news channels will eventually lead to consolidation in the markets. How this consolidation will come about will be down to the capital size of the players, along with marketing positioning of the channels. Certainly,, the news market still has some fairly significant change and growth ahead.