Norwegian national broadcaster NRK has launched a new file-based workflow to get user-generated content on air and online quickly, in response to the growing volume of eyewitness material it receives. The new system, known as TIPS, is based on technology from Signiant, including its Managers+Agents, Media Exchange and Media Shuttle modules, as well as an automation platform originally built for NRK by systems integrator Mediateket for the 2012 London Olympics. With TIPS a producer or journalist can define how, where and when user-generated news content best fits into the operation and into the story. Signiant’s accelerated file transfer software then moves the content through a process where it is tagged, transcoded if needed, and sent to downstream destinations including broadcast playout and web publishing. All content is documented and tracked, making it easier for journalists to annotate story packages and find user content for other stories. “Signiant helped us to create one of the most advanced automated news workflows, where we avoid time-consuming repetitive tasks, expedite content movement and give our staff the tools to use the wealth of user-sourced content to create engaging news,” said Rune Hagberg, solutions architect at NRK. “During the Olympics it proved its power for greatly accelerating content delivery, and now we are integrating it with a host of mission-critical broadcast systems.” Signiant’s Managers+Agents software includes file-based workflow modelling, designed to orchestrate tasks including ingest, quality screening, virus scan, scheduling, transcoding and asset management and archiving.
