43 ROUND TABLE The New Newsroom
Regardless of how content is consumed, local weather, sports and breaking news will continue to drive viewers to local broadcasters. The TV industry is hyper focused on serving up on-demand content, but live sports and weather matters equally – if not more. Consider a family huddled in their basement during a tornado in the Midwest, hurricanes on the coast of the US, and volcanoes erupting globally. Viewers care and need immediate access to live streaming content to stay up to date. To be competitive, news broadcasters need to capture and retain viewers – this means editing and delivering news that is relevant to them, especially on platforms that they prefer. Therefore, investing in technology that solves the complexities of delivering news quickly, to multiple platforms is key for Metroville News. METROVILLE NEWS: One of Metroville’s biggest issues is the border conflict with the neighbouring Republic of Freedonia. We want to do live reporting on the conflict, but there is only occasional electricity at the border, and almost no connectivity. What technologies can we use to get live coverage of the conflict to the people of Metroville? MARK BLAIR: There are quite a few technologies that provide the ability to publish high-quality video using cellular and satellite services that are battery powered. They range from turnkey
THE TV INDUSTRY IS HYPER FOCUSED ON SERVING UP ON-DEMAND CONTENT, BUT LIVE SPORTS AND WEATHER MATTERS EQUALLY
ALEX FERRIS: The key thing is to make the most of the bandwidth you do have access to and to do what you can do deliver the highest-quality programming. If you’ve deployed a media and workflow management tool for example, you can live-stream frame-accurate, low-resolution proxies, which typically only take up 2% of the bandwidth compared with their high- resolution counterparts. Editors back at the central production facilities can review and collaborate on edit tasks to quickly finalise and deliver content. Combining a media management and production asset management tool with this capability, alongside emerging technologies that utilise public networks such as 4G or LTE for faster data transfer
offerings with a backpack that’s been preconfigured with all the right gear in it to custom-built packs that use cellular bonding to quite complex customised gear. The challenge is to do this in a way that the production costs don’t escalate. Unfortunately the connectivity can present issues from a cost perspective with any content, but especially video.
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