40 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Sony
“We had customers who had contracted with Sony for building on-premise systems, where we deliver all the professional services, all the software, all the hardware. We test it, get it running, hand it over to them and then support it. “But we saw the business models were changing. Because we had started to move into cloud-based technology, we’ve got a platform we can run either on a customer’s data centre – or private cloud if you will – or on public cloud. The customer can buy, or we can provide the computing and the storage, wherever and however they want to deploy it. “The customers we are talking to have a lot of experience with cloud already. They’re already building their business model around it.” AGILE MODELS Strange as it may seem, the technological step is sometimes the easy part of a newsroom upgrade. There is a reason many large media companies are reluctant to make changes to their existing system, even if doing so might mean greater efficiency and flexibility. Technology, by definition, is something that has to be used by human beings, and human beings don’t like working with technology that doesn’t suit them. Journalists and producers are torn between their greater need to work remotely and collaboratively, and their need to change the tools they are working with and how they do things. Changing how you do things is always anxiety-provoking, but when you have hosts of journalists trying to meet lots of deadlines, adding a new set of processes can look downright threatening. “We’re not seeing customers doing this in one big bang,” says Hedley. “They want to be able to evolve it. You’ve got to bring the operational teams and journalists on board with you in the transition as you change the platform and the tools they’re working with. We’re seeing customers spending a lot of time doing what used to be called ‘change management’ – getting senior operators and the journalists used to using the tools.”
Sony often does a proof of concept with its customers, who want to get a clear sense of how the system will work within the business and on their own premises. They may even want to try a pilot implementation to see how their journalists interact with the new system and give them some opportunities to experiment with the tools before they finally move into the real production. “There’s usually a proof of concept,” explains Hedley. “‘Does this actually work? Can I do what I need to do with this system? Will my journalists be able to do their jobs reliably?’ They let them play with the tools so they can get a real sense of what they can do and what they can’t do. “What we are seeing is that once journalists start to work with it, they see the benefits. They see they really can do what they need to do from remote locations. Through this process, they are also starting to drive more interesting workflows and more interesting operations. “But it is about giving the journalists and operational teams access and understanding what is possible, rather than just telling them what’s going to happen.” THE NEVERENDING STORY Many newsrooms have been working in connected environments for some time, but these have often been piecemeal affairs, with new tech tacked onto older systems. But these cannot begin to match what a fully integrated (cloud) system can offer. With consumers ready and waiting to receive news at all hours in every city on Earth, only a hugely collaborative, scalable system is going t o be able to cope. Newsrooms need to be dynamic. When something big happens, they need to be able to access a lot of resources very quickly. This means having everything from the ability to upload and share images, to giving multiple journalists in multiple locations the ability to files stories with different types of media attached. Operating a global, cloud-based system also allows a news organisation to have a 24/7 newsroom operating in shifts around the clock.
Hedley explains: “We’re seeing that news is a 24-hour cycle. This means the big national and international organisations are looking at being able to hand off stories into different regions as they progress. For example, if a breaking story in Europe happens at about 2am, local time, a broadcaster could control that story from their US operation and assign their US journalists to it before the UK or European journalists come online. Then, later, they can continue to move that story from the European region through to APAC and back to the US as the story progresses. “For the larger organisations that have more international footprints, the ability to access the same content from wherever they are around the world and to be able to update that story is really important. And these are the organisations that have their operations fully in a data centre or cloud.” The number of organisations resourced to do this kind of 24/7 storytelling is still relatively small but, as cloud adoption expands and tools become simpler and easier to access, the only real barrier in the future will be the forethought and planning about which collaboration strategies to use. “We are seeing a whole transition away from having to be in the news building to actually being able to file, edit and publish
YOU’VE GOT TO BRING THE OPERATIONAL TEAMS AND JOURNALISTS ON BOARD WITH YOU IN THE TRANSITION AS YOU CHANGE THE PLATFORM
feedzine feed.zine feedmagazine.tv
Powered by FlippingBook