Newsrooms Tech India 2003

Newsroom technology assuming relevance in India

Geetanjali Wadhwa & Pradeep Chakraborty

NEW DELHI -- "India today has more news channels than any other country in the world. And newsroom technology, as a subject, is steadily assuming significant relevance to India's populace," said the chief guest, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Rajya Sabha MP, and general secretary and spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and former minister of State, Information & Broadcasting, while delivering the inaugural address at the Newsroom Tech India 2003 international conference and exhibition, organised by Exhibitions India Pvt. Ltd., in New Delhi on 3 September 2003.

Naqvi added that offering 24x7 news channels presented its own set of challenges. There is keen competition among the various news channels to create their own identity. The popularity of the channels have increased tremendously, with new news channels being launched nearly every month or so. "News channels have even influenced the way politics and politicians conduct themselves in this country," he observed. Naqvi noted that the lifestyle and the manner of presentation of the politicians themselves had undergone a sea change with the advent of news channels. Political parties have started appointing spokespersons, as they have become very conscious of their image. The chief guest added that once direct-to-home (DTH) comes into being, it will become easier to carry news into the rural areas.

Earlier, welcoming the delegates, Prem Behl, managing director, Exhibitions India Pvt. Ltd. said television has brought communities together as never before. "With the onset of satellite TV, especially, news TV, there has been a paradigm shift in the manner in which we receive and imbibe information," he said. He added, "Today, the total number of channels broadcast into India has increased to 152, of which, 64 are regional channels, and the thrust is on or exclusive 24/7 news channels." Thus, today, news is big. The news channel market is one of the world's most potential and lucrative markets. Behl said, "Indian news channels are growing by 24 percent and according to industry estimates, broadcasting revenues could grow from $1billion to $2.9 billion by 2007."

The distinguished panel for the opening session included Karlton Burn, managing director, Leitch Asia Ltd., Shreyan Shah, chairman and managing director, Gujarat Samachar, Ram T. Hingorani, vice chairman, IndusInd Media and Communications Ltd., and Ashish Mukherjee, president, Benchmark Microsystems Pvt. Ltd. Adding that newsroom technology was a very relevant topic today, Karlton Burn thanked the organiser for allowing him the opportunity to grace the event. Shreyan Shah added that technology was changing at lightning speed. Today, news takes hardly 36 minutes to travel from one part of the country to another. "News gathering itself has acquired the latest technology," he said. Ram Hingorani mentioned that barring CNBC, all of the news channels were broadcast free-to-air (FTA). "Today, news gathering has become elegant, and lots of cosmetics have come in," he noted.

Ashish Mukherjee touched on some of the challenges facing news gathering and newsrooms today. According to him, these include: "The increasing use of new devices, possibly modified phones; capturing and preservation of meta data; the increasing use of IT as an infrastructure - with more IT methods being used for moving files around; a very high level of integration among the various segments of the newsroom; new delivery formats - such as MPEG-4 coding, news-on-demand and subscription of news; developing new business models to support all of these."

Chairing the first working session on "Newsroom Systems and Installations," K.M. Paul, engineer-in-chief, Prasar Bharati Corp., All India Radio (AIR), said that an exclusive conference on newsrooms and news related matters indicates the significance of news in our daily life. "News empowers our knowledge. There are many processes involved in gathering news. The point is that the entire process has to be shared." In this context, time is of utmost importance. "The value of news is inversely related to the amount of time. That is, we need modern systems and technologies to gather and present news in the minimum time possible, so as to retain and enhance its value," Paul noted.

Presenting an overview of what goes into making newsrooms, Iain Wood, sales manager, Omnibus Systems Ltd., UK, said the broadcast process could be divided into three phases -- ingestion, editing and transmission. Speaking on Electronic News Production Systems (ENPS), Anthony Prangley of the Associated Press, UK, said: "This is a newsroom system designed for journalists, by journalists. It includes newsgathering assignment systems, newswire management and ingest, script creation and editing, editorial approval and revision, and control of the broadcasting equipment and archiving." Sahara TV is its first customer in India. Prangley added that the media object server (MOS) from Associated Press can handle a high volume of news traffic and support multiple newsrooms. It facilitates dragging and dropping stories across running orders as well. The latest version, the ENPS-4, integrates Web and WAP, is MOS compatible, supports browser favourites as well as embedded clips and graphics.

Touching on digital newsroom and server technologies, Dave Chawner, director, applications engineering, Leitch Asia Ltd., said that a major trend is the shift to storing on video disc instead of tapes. He highlighted that the key requirements for newsrooms include multichannel ingest from satellite, ENG and tape sources; rapid access for viewing new content; quick cut-edit for breaking news; craft editing for 'sensitive' content and effects; immediate availability for studio playout; remote content access; and content tracking. He said the server environment offered a multi-user environment, allowed content sharing and direct, on-server editing, as well as low-res proxy versions. It also allowed file transfer to and from remote locations.

Introducing the Leitch environment, Chawner said: "All users have equal shared access to content. We offer a shared storage environment." Leitch's shared storage technology, the RAIDSoft patented SAN management, he added, "is now finding its true strength."

Highlighting the migration of analog content to digital content, Timothy O'Brien, partner, Media & Entertainment industry, IBM Global Services, Asia Pacific, said that just as the Web made every company a publisher, the use of digital content management and distribution will make every organisation a broadcaster. Images, video, and audio will soon transform the Internet into one of several key digital channels or networks.

According to R.S.Chauhan, vice president -- engineering and operations, Sahara India TV Network, the production and transmission of news is a complex and demanding task. Professionals involved in the process have a tradition of making the best use of new technologies -- both to get stories to air faster as well as to send better stories to air.

Elaborating on the workflow at Sahara Digital Newsroom, he added that MOS protocol had been introduced to speed up work. At Sahara, the technology is state-of-the-art, that includes tapeless ingest and instant editing. Special care has been taken at the content editing level. The system allows different jobs such as ingesting, indexing, scripting, designing, graphics, archiving etc. to be done simultaneously. The technology is ENPS, Omnibus and Leitech. The newsroom control system is server-based, and the seven news models have the best nom-linear editing set ups, PCRs and will soon have countrywide virtual access.

According to published reports, Sahara Samay Rashtriya, the 24-hour news channel of the Sahara India Group, has invested over Rs. 200 crore in what is considered as Asia's largest digital newsroom. It has tied up with five international technology vendors - Leitch Inc., Associated Press ENPS, Omnibus Systems, UK, IBM and Shaf Broadcast for its newsroom located at Noida.

Chairing the second working session on "Trends in News Gathering," S.S. Swami, advisor and former chief engineer, Doordarshan, said that technology provided media managers with all the tools for acquisition, post production and transmission. "DV-based camcorders are now becoming popular. Solid-state camcorders and new, optical laser disc will be available as well, and the latter can also be re-used." He added that although tape will exist and networks will have the option of tape, optical disc and solid-state camcorders. Swami remarked that while satellite transmission continued to be the most popular medium, camera phones were also useful for breaking news, as were store-and-forward tools.

Speaking on news gathering and the changing art of doing battle, Vynsley Fernandes, director -- operations, STAR News, said viewers expect to be able to tune to a channel and quickly get timely, interesting and fresh stories. The viewing public has never been closer to the action. In this hi-tech age, it is easy to forget that there is still someone behind the cameras and the technology, bringing the latest pictures into our living room. "News travels around the world at the speed of light, but explosions travel only at the speed of sound," he added.

Comparing the skills and tasks of conventional reporter with the modern day one, he said that earlier no technical skills were required and, a crew always accompanied the journalist. However, a journalist is now expected to be a "one-man band". He is a journalist, a cameraman, a producer, and a technician, all rolled into one! Fernandes added that STAR News had successfully debunked the myth that news channels needed to be headquartered in the national/political capital of the country. Currently, it runs/operates remote studios on-air with full complement of news automation with video clips. It facilitated this move by exploiting the use of communication technology. He noted, " It is this speed, quality and content that determines the success or failure of newsrooms."

Siddharth Bolurker, 3D product specialist, Softimage, Canada, highlighted the various facets of the technology for designing and developing 3D graphics, images and logos. Doordarshan is said to have 60 licenses of Softimage's 3D graphics.

Rahul Nehra, regional manager-Asia, Europe*Star added the satellite news gathering (SNG) was the temporary and occasional transmission with short notice of TV or sound for broadcasting purposes, using highly portable or transportable uplink earth stations operating in the framework of the fixed-satellite service. Highlighting the technical specifications of the international standards for SNG infrastructure, he said Ku band, a dish size of 60-90cm, RF <50W and 1.5MB-4.5MB bandwidth were necessary. Nehra added that for a DSNG network of 20 locations, for a capacity of 18MB, a broadcaster can save up to Rs. 4 crores in three years using new, Ku band satellites like the Europe*Star.

Ashok Bharti, country manager, Inmarsat, said several news channels were using Inmarsat. It covered 98 percent of the world’s land mass compared with GSM that covered only 10 percent. Its mini-M is the world’s best selling mobile satellite phone. The GAN is Inmarsat's premier land service for voice
and data, offering mobile ISDN at 64Kbps and mobile packet data service (MPDS). Users are charged only for the kilobits used. Its regional BGAN offers high-quality connectivity and seamless service anywhere within the coverage area. Easy to install and use, it is a cost-effective, always on solution. "Users pay only for data sent and received, and not for the connection time," he added.

Speaking on the trends in digital acquisition, Ajay Pal Singh, vice president, Beehive Systems Ltd., said there was a compelling urge among broadcasters to be the first on air. Consequently, bureaus had moved out to the field and newsgathering out of a suitcase. He added the IT and media were heading toward convergence. Beehive's digital tools acquire, manage and enrich content on-air. The firm is offering the Vidlink Mobile and the Vidlink. The former is portable, laptop-based video workflow solution. It is available for both live and store-and-forward transmission. The latter is a fixed news gathering solution and comes with the option of live or store-and-forward.

Elaborating the salient points of the Vizrt from Benchmark, during the final session on "Convergence Newsrooms," Ashish Mukherjee said, "It will fundamentally change the way information is communicated by broadcasters and corporations by providing tools for generating compelling and robust visual media experiences with immediacy and impact across different delivery mechanisms."

Vizrt automates the creation process while templates saves time. The solution has an automatic fit-and-fill feature that allows it to maintain a uniform look. Graphics can be automatically linked to animations as well. Data from external computers can be automatically inserted into templates, while animated charts and graphics can be automatically created from the data feed. He added that highly skilled operators were not required to operate Vizrt.

One PC can communicate with all the SGI and NT machines on the network. Multiple PCs can be connected and share all templates, data and stories as well. Besides, several TV stations using Pilot News, are able to exchange animations, stills, and graphics concepts. Hence, all users can share the same information, thus leading to effective use of human resources. This increases the effective use of assets and speeds up the distribution of shared information.

Speaking on the technology evolution from tape to automation and the advantages of non-linear editing (NLE) over linear editing, Y.P. Singh, vice president, technical, Zee News, Zee Telefilms said that making changes to an edited tape was a tedious and time consuming process, e.g., adding extra shots in the clip requires re-copying all subsequent material. He said that there was a need for automation as the news environment was much more competitive and broadcast 24 hours live. Deadlines were shorter and large chunks of information needed to be moved around. The advantages of automation included lower operational cost, increasing reliability, easy and quick access to information, systematic workflow and a common platform.

Presenting a case study on Radio Mirchi, S. Venkatraman, zonal manager (North & East), Emerson Network Power (India) Pvt. Ltd., said the FM radio broadcasting industry in India was in a nascent stage. The current reach was estimated at 39 million, with only 13 FM stations across nine cities. "Radio accounts for just about 1 percent of India Inc.’s advertising spend," he added.

He stressed that FM in India was here to stay. Before the introduction of private stations in India, the amount of time the average Indian spent with the radio was less than half an hour a day However, today, the listening habits were such that one tunes into the radio at any time during the day expecting a continual feed of music and infotainment A dip stick report prepared by the IMRB International placed Radio Mirchi's listening audience at 70 per cent of the total listenership of FM radio in Mumbai.

Radio Mirchi is a venture of Entertainment Network India Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bennet Coleman and Co. The network operates in the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta as well as Indore, Pune and Ahmedabad. Downtime was completely unacceptable as any downtime translates into loss of broadcast opportunity and hence, loss of listenership. Venkataraman said that it had plans to launch in Bhubhaneshwar and Jabalpur as well. Looking toward the future, he added there was a need for less harmonics and precision air conditioning in FM stations across the country.

Speaking on MXF solution from Optibase, Sonal Srivastava, product manager-video division, RB Comtec, said it had a streamable file format for real-time contribution. It had an extensible framework for interchanging meta data and essence. The solution is independent of compression formats, and supports

random access and partial file transfer. On where Optibase could fit in, he added that it will offer a cost effective solution over the Sony e-VTR Optibase encoders that will replace the expensive NLE systems in ingest stations.

Commenting on employing all digital architectures in newsroom environments, Sadanand Patil, South Asia business manager, video business unit, Tektronix India Ltd., said that moving to a video server based environment required an analysis of the total workflow of the facility. This included an analysis of the entire workflow, from ingest to playout, and employing centralised monitoring using SNMP. Regarding the importance of accuracy in work, he added that there were limitations in waveform monitor displays that engineers, technicians and artists use to examine digital video because of the different types of architectures used in waveform monitor. According to him there are types of digital waveform monitoring:

the digital analog hybrid monitor using a vector stroke CRT; the digital analog hybrid rasterizer using a raster scan display; and a full digital rasterizer using a raster scan display.

Adding that networks were becoming critical to the operation of the businesses, Patil said administrators needed tools to properly manage the network. The Flexi-view has ISO defined functions for general network management system. It tracks use and assigns charges for the use of resources, and controls, identifies and collects data from resources as well. It evaluates the performance of resources and also protects resources and logs access attempts. Patil pointed out that SNMP itself had evolved over the years, from SNMPv1, to SNMPv2c and the newest version, SNMPv3. He concluded, "The question is not whether to upgrade to all-digital waveform monitor technology, but when!"