Amazing Things Happened On Our Way Through the Forum

It is now becoming commonly accepted that Prague is not only the centre of excellence for broadcasting automation and newsroom solutions, but it is also the birthplace of the renowned global Broadcast Management Systems (BMS).

The response, therefore, to invitations to the Provys Client Forum 2018 held at Czech Television premises was extremely satisfactory, bringing together one big family of world players in the broadcasting sector to discuss broadcast management systems, particularly, common experiences and differences, both today and looking ahead to the future.

Among the key participants were top representatives from organisations such as: AMC Networks, Arqiva, B92, BT Sport, Gazprom Media, IMG, MTVA, OTE, Polsat, RTV Slovakia, RTV Slovenia, TV 2 Norway, and TV Nova. Many of the participants gave presentations of their current status on the first day, followed by discussions and future expectations on the second day.

One of the most popular topics was the survival of linear broadcasting in this age of "digital disruption". Two dominant pathways emerged from the broadcasters’ discussions: firstly, adapting to the challenge of the younger generation by introducing VOD and OTT services, and secondly, focusing more and more on live news and sports events. As one speaker was heard to say: "Sport is the only thing I would watch LIVE, because you see the match before the score; everything else I could watch later, recorded or on demand." And that is the key essence underpinning the future survival of linear broadcasting. A secondary contributary factor is the increasing longevity of a fair proportion of traditional linear viewers (couch potatoes).

The introduction of sports broadcasting raises fresh challenges, over and above those of classic studio broadcasting. Among the long list of necessary operations and workflows for a successful sports channel can be found: production management, which must include budgeting, cost reporting and auto generated call sheets; resource bookings and despatching, which clearly includes requesting people and things directly from production management (replacing manually created requirements for different resources including equipment, personnel, studio commentary, OB vans, contribution and distribution networks, etc.); task management including work schedules, compliance schedules, ingest schedules, creative makelists, file delivery schedules, MCR schedules and filler schedules for unexpected but quite common gaps in events. Many other unmentioned challenges also exist, but all of these things will be resolved by a proper broadcast management system which should guarantee an end to headaches, problems and stress within the team.

All participants at the forum agreed unanimously that in addition to a perfect technical solution, all external suppliers must also be ready, willing and able to act as good business partners. In particular, suppliers must meet client needs including flexible adaptation of their solutions, rather than rigid, off-the-shelf inflexible software. A real partner must offer expertise, impeccable credentials and a genuine willingness to help and guide the client. As the Master of Ceremonies at the Forum, Josef Vasica, CEO of Stream Circle, emphasised: "To sum up, a reputable supplier must be ready to tailor an end to end solution according to the client’s specific needs, acting as a reliable and trustworthy partner in any process of change".
Successfully bringing together so many top managers from various renowned broadcasters is never an easy task owing to time constraints and busy schedules. So, getting them together in the same room for two days can only be described as amazing, and an extremely valuable and informing experience, held together by the common thread of being users of the same broadcast management system, whose name, should be clear to all our dear readers.

www.provys.com
Author: Martin Junek
Picture: Broadcast Management Systems Forum at Czech TV

This article is also available in the July edition of Broadcast Film & Video. Available here.