NCPower Pro Rollout at RTL
NCPower Pro -in use at Europe's largest commercial TV station
In 2003, television broadcaster RTL in Cologne decided to implement NCPower Pro as its new newsroom system, replacing the Newswire 2000 newsroom system. Since then, the station's most famous evening newscast "RTL aktuell" as well as all other news and magazine programs have been produced using NCPower Pro as the central application for all steps in the news production process.
NorCom's NCPower Pro allows the broadcaster to
- retrieve multimedia content from numerous sources by means of convenient search functions
- assemble and produce multimedia content in close collaboration with several editors working simultaneously and
- store it in an internal archive where it is available for further use
Tasks in detail:
Integration of the solutions for media (S4M) video production management system VPMS. MPEG-1 low-resolution copies are made of the high-resolution MPEG-2 4:2:2 videos and the relevant metadata ingested into NCPower. Journalists can view and edit the MPEG-1 material from any workstation (EDL export).
- Automatic detection of scene changes and generation of key frames and time code information.
- Automatic generation of metadata based on OCR (optical character recognition) in single video frames.
- Research facilities and navigation.
The following third-party devices/components can be directly controlled via NCPower Pro:
- vizTrio (3D character fenerator)
- vizPilot (graphics and playout)
- Solo news automation (on air switches, mixers etc.)
- S4M
- ADC100 (follow-up videos)
New features for newsroom staff:
The changes resulted in convenient and time-saving work processes for the newsroom staff. Specifically, all research is handled via a single browser/window:
- News agencies
- Drope sheets
- Archive content
- Internet content
In addition, all functions are handled in the same browser/window:
- Fields for commentaries
- Fields for reports
- Fields for graphics/animation instructions
- Fields for production instructions
Roll-out of the new newsroom system:
- More than 20 individual editorial departments
- More than 1,200 editors
- Over 700 editorial workstations, of which 300 are configured for parallel use of NCPower Pro
- Tri medial newsroom: Audio, Video, Internet
- On air since July 2003
Role of NorCom:
- Project management, development and implementation.
- Delivery of product.
- Customization and System Integration
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