NEW YORK – As the Internet and other electronic media proliferate, content distribution is rapidly shifting to a broadcast model where real-time updates and the incorporation of audio and visual elements are necessary.
Today’s content management systems must be capable of storing and manipulating text, audio and visual content. The new broadcast model requires new workflows and procedures for many content providers.
Dalet – a global provider of world-class professional quality software and services for traditional and new media broadcasters – is in a key position to help content providers through this transition.
The company provides a unique set of tools to create, manage and re-purpose multimedia content for delivery over multiple channels. This is accomplished by using a multimedia content database and a set of ”broadcast engines” that can easily and automatically adapt content for distribution over different media.
With a decade of experience serving the broadcast industry, Dalet has developed a strong expertise in this area understanding the needs of the modern-day broadcasters.
Newsroom Technology Software
Dalet’s newsroom technology software consists of a suite of interfacing products that collect, edit and manage digital material and then re-purposes it for distribution to the web and wireless devices. Included in the suite is Dalet TeamNews, Dalet Web and Mobile Portals and the Dalet Advanced MOS Integrated Environment (AMIE).
Dalet TeamNews is both a newsroom computer system and content management platform that allows users to create, edit and publish stories quickly and easily. Once a story has been created and edited in the TeamNews workspace, users can preview what their story would look like on a specific web page or on wireless devices, which help expedite the editing and publishing process. Finished stories can contain any combination of digital content: text, audio, graphics, images as well as digital photos and video.
Dalet Asset Manager is TeamNews gateway to the Dalet Multimedia Content Warehouse – a database that houses multimedia elements including audio bites, images and video. Soundtracks, CD covers, picture links to fan club websites, biography and e-commerce links can be associated to the song being played. To manage the multimedia content, broadcasters enter data in a form with different, customizable fields such as text, hypertext and video. Multiple objects – whether they are pictures, audio or video – can be assigned to one title.
The Document Status Manager is another important feature of TeamNews. Administrators can specify user rights to access, modify or delete content in specific folders in TeamNews digital content warehouse. The workflow is made even more efficient with the capability to view the status on a given story. It is possible to view what stage of the process a story is in – whether it is newly created, recently submitted or approved. Most importantly, the Document Status Manager ensures that content is not published until the story has been approved.
New Video Editing Capabilities to TeamNews
One of the newest features to TeamNews is the video editing tool, which allows journalists and content producers to efficiently gather and edit video content. Through a partnership between Dalet and Virage Inc., a provider of applications and software for publishing, managing and distributing video on the Internet, TeamNews will be integrated with index engines VideoLoggerTM and AudioLoggerTM. These tools allow users to perform wide video searches in TeamNews.
In the Dalet Multimedia Content Warehouse, VideoLogger detects changes in visual content, such as pans and zooms, and generates a storyboard of browsable key frame images. This rich information index is used to instantly search for and retrieve the exact video clip desired, with a frame-by-frame accuracy. VideoLoggerTM simultaneously extracts any text in the video signal such as closed captions. With the help of AudioLogger, it can identify spoken words, speakers names and audio types. Once video clips have been edited, they can be inserted into a news story by a simple drag and drop.
”The addition of Virage video technology into Dalets applications allows us to offer an integrated multimedia content production and management system. The combination of Dalets world renowned digital audio systems, its new video editor, together with Virages video capabilities creates a solution that can answer all multimedia broadcasting requirements,” says David Lasry, Dalets CEO.
Once content is produced in TeamNews, it can be published to the Internet and WAP devices by using the Dalet Web Portal and Dalet Mobile Portal. After a story has been created with Dalet TeamNews, it is immediately stored in the Multimedia Content Warehouse. The story is extracted as an XML file and reformatted by Dalet Web Portal, which produces an HTML file. All the associated multimedia data is reformatted according to predefined templates, which determine where the components are placed on the web page. The result: users can change the content to their websites as frequently as they wish, quickly and easily.
Dalet Mobile Portal enables broadcasters to keep their audiences up-to-date with any type of news content. Audiences can view headlines, sport scores and weather information on their mobile devices. Broadcasters can even offer customized subscription-based services by allowing their audiences to enter user profiles that specify the type of information they wish to receive.
As with Dalet Web Portal, journalists can reformat stories with TeamNews and publish them on WAP devices. Dalet Mobile Portal detects new stories that are produced, and then posts them automatically on a server using the Wireless Application Protocol.
Dalet Advanced MOS Integrated Environment (AMIE) helps TV and radio broadcasters integrate their existing Newsroom Computer System (NCS) with the Dalet digital audio system, using the industry standard MOS protocol.
With AMIE, the news production process is streamlined and journalists and editors can work on audio and text and share a common database and search engine. Any user is able to edit a story on their usual NSC, edit audio bites and insert them in the story. All the required tools are located on a single screen, which makes operations easy to perform.
Dalet has recently been awarded a contract by Independent Television Network (ITN) to supply and install a digital solution based on Dalet5.1 – Dalets benchmark digital audio software – that fully integrates with their existing ENPS system from Associated Press (AP). This will be the first major ENPS newsroom of its kind to be completely integrated with any digital audio system.
With the installation of Dalet news products, journalists at ITN, for the first time, will be able to produce and broadcast news using a fully integrated system. By using the MOS2 protocol, journalists can exchange information between Dalet and ENPS seamlessly, without changing screens or even computers.
Acquisition of information is achieved by using Dalets advanced but simple to use Surfer audio editing application, which sits directly in the ENPS workspace. Audio as well as other media can then be integrated directly into any ENPS script by a simple drag and drop, and can be updated at any time. These combined media packages are then scheduled into an ENPS play list, and then broadcast using the Dalet NewsCast system, which provides a clear, simple and user-friendly interface for presenters. Changes can be made in the play list at any time, giving the newsroom unprecedented ability for up-to-the-second news production and presentation.
According to Ted Taylor, Director of Technology at ITN, ”Dalet was chosen because ITN has always been impressed with Dalets editing software as well as its ability to now integrate with ENPS.”
Dalet’s solutions are used in more than 50 countries by 1,500 customers including ABC, CBS, CNN, BBC, CBC, Deutsche Welle, EMAP, Europe, NRJ and Prisa.
