DPG Media Collaborates With Limecraft

DPG Media is one of Europe's fastest-growing and ambitious media groups, with a variety of TV, radio and print interests in Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

Following a wide-ranging review of business operations post-pandemic, DPG identified the content delivery process as a significant area for improvement and approached Belgian mediatech innovator Limecraft to develop a new solution that brings greater structure, security and efficiency to the content delivery process.

"We managed the complexities of the pandemic reasonably well," said Eric Michiels, Programme Manager at DPG Media, "but we used that experience as an opportunity to take a closer look at various areas of our operations, and we could clearly see the problems inherent in the content delivery process."

With DPG managing an increasing number of content producers and overseeing an ever-growing portfolio of content and collateral media, it was clear that a better framework was needed – one that would remove the phone calls, emails and manual work that have been the hallmark of the process traditionally.

"In 2023 we’ve been working with 60 different content producers on 1,400 individual episodes," added Wim Van de Voorde, Executive Producer with DPG. "In addition, we require series and episode trailers, social media assets, still images, material for electronic press kits and metadata. Getting everything we need at the right time, in the correct formats, to the required quality standards, has often been a big logistical headache and one that has only got worse as we have grown."

"DPG had worked with Limecraft in the past so got back in touch to discuss how the problem might be tackled," commented Limecraft co-founder Maarten Verwaest. "Our first discussion with Eric's team took place at the end of December 2022. They believed there is a better way of managing this process and had drafted a blueprint for a solution. Co-incidentally this was an area we had also identified as needing improvement. When we saw DPG’s outline proposal we felt confident we could work with them to deliver an effective solution within the year. We collaborated on this over the next few weeks and a final specification came together very quickly. DPG were obviously very motivated to solve this problem and we could see a wider industry need for a more structured solution so it was exciting to bring this to life. Having worked with both broadcasters and production houses (such as Warner Bros and Hotel Hungaria) for many years, we could also ensure that everyone at both ends of the delivery process would have their needs met."

Limecraft set an ambitious target to provide the new Delivery Workspace module to DPG Media by the end of September 2023, as well as offering visitors to IBC 2023 a working technology demonstration.

Verwaest continued: "In March, on agreement of the specification, we told DPG Media to expect delivery of the final version by 26 September. We hit the date perfectly. The development process was highly iterative; every time we made updates we'd send them over to DPG Media’s test environment and they were very quick to try them out and give us feedback. Development like that is very efficient but only possible when you have an excellent partner working alongside you, so this was very much a joint effort. As a result, we’re confident we have created a highly robust and secure solution that gives everyone involved in content delivery the structure and information they need, alleviating the need for manual intervention and ad hoc communication."

With DPG now rolling out the Delivery Workspace solution across its content suppliers, 2024 will see a big ramp up in its use. "This solution really is a first – there's nothing else like it available – and it’s very pleasing to be establishing a new industry standard," noted Van der Voorde. "It's going to make a big difference to DPG in terms of the efficiency of our operations, and to production houses in terms of their ability to deliver the right content, at the right time, in the right way."

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