77 SPONSORED CONTENT VSN
arcelona-based VSN has been providing solutions to newsrooms and broadcasters for 30 years. After launching its popular playout
automation software VSNMatic, VSN expanded its tools for workflow management to include a suite of web-based solutions for making live broadcast more agile. The company’s star product has been VSNExplorer, which is VSN’s media asset management system with tools for ingesting, cataloging and searching content, boosted by artificial intelligence. It also features an editing tool, as well as other capabilities like workflow orchestration, production asset management, BI, QC, traffic management and scheduling when integrated with the VSNCrea software. The system is entirely browser-based and via a plug-in can be integrated into almost any newsroom CMS. The plug-in can also integrate existing NLEs, CGs, playout automation software and video servers, which allows journalists to access to EDLs, text to script and even graphics to work on content directly from any browser. “This plug-in allows you to interconnect all the third-party systems and solutions that are used in news production,” explains VSN product manager Toni Vilalta. “On one hand, you can access all these tools through the same interface. On one half of your screen you have your NRCS (newsroom computer system) and on the other half is our VSN NewsConnect plug-in, which allows you to search for content, use the web video editor, record voice-overs and add graphics.” Since VSN NewsConnect is an HTML5, browser-based system, companies can alter their workflows but still have access to the same VSN NewsConnect tools, no matter what their local set-up may be. Browser-based newsroom tools have never been more essential. This year’s rules for sheltering in place have had news organisations scrambling to find remote ways of working. The dining room has become the newsroom, with teams producing news from disparate locations. Diverse global news organisations like Colombia’s Canal Capital, TV Ukraina, Euronews Albania and Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation were already using VSN NewsConnect. Once lockdowns occurred, they were able to manage a smoother transition to remote working as a result. “We had been prepared for some time for this kind of scenario, where people need remote access to the system, because we were based in the web from the very beginning,” says Vilalta. “When the pandemic started, we had several customers asking us how we could help them work better.”
WE ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE CUSTOMERS AND TRY TO PUTASMANYOF THEIRREQUESTSAS POSSIBLE INTOTHEPRODUCT
appropriate numbers of licences based on the customer’s requirements. Some require a lot of hand-holding, or want the solution tailored specifically for their needs. This collaboration means continuous improvement in the company’s products. “We always listen to the customers and try to put as many of their requests as possible into the product. For one customer, we created a new PAM product inside VSNExplorer, and now it’s something that we have rolled out to everyone. You never know if something that a customer is requesting can be used later to improve your product in the future,” concludes Vilalta.
For example, VSN’s Eurovision office in Washington DC needed to find a way to quickly enable its journalists to ingest and edit content. VSN provided a workflow where the homebound journalists could ingest video into Eurovision’s VSN server in Washington, edit and prepare the content in their browser, then send it directly to Eurovision’s head office in Geneva. These new remote workflows, with VSNExplorer at the centre, are being configured in varieties of ways, entirely on- premises or in the cloud, including VSN’s own SaaS cloud service. Given the flexibility of the opex model, VSN has been receiving more and more enquiries about its hosted cloud services. VSN collaborates with broadcasters according to their business needs, adapting the set-up of its workflow and issue
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