Pro TV Romania Takes Delivery Of Turnkey Digital Newsroom System

Harris Corporation has announced that Central European Media Enterprise's (CME) subsidiary, Pro TV Romania, has taken delivery of a turnkey digital newsroom system as part of CME's transition to an automated, networked, tapeless environment.
The sale, which was made by the Harris local distributor and systems integrator in Romania, Hydra Ltd., includes a cluster of five Harris NEXIO server platforms, eight NewsFlash high-resolution news editors, 20 NewsFlash Preditor low-resolution desktop editors, and eight VelocityQ craft editing systems. The new CME facility will provide news programming for Romania.
"Harris provided us with the optimal solution to meet our needs as we transitioned to a tapeless newsroom environment, both in terms of the product offering and the support offered by the Harris local distributor and systems integrator, Hydra Ltd.," said George Iliescu, Deputy General Director at Pro TV Romania. "Our journalists had recently made the decision to use the ENPS newsroom computer system, so it was essential to have a server system that would smoothly integrate with ENPS, and the NEXIO servers provided this solution seamlessly."
"The installation at Pro TV Romania is a significant application of our NEXIO server and NewsFlash editing solutions in a newsroom environment where reporting is time critical," said Dave Dougall, Vice President of Sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the Harris Broadcast Communications Division. "Turnaround of material is extremely fast through the NEXIO servers, as both high- and low-resolution non-linear editors can start working while the material is being ingested. Journalists can simultaneously browse and edit low-resolution content at their desktops and send the material to playout."
At Pro TV the Preditor low-resolution desktop editors with integrated NRCS (newsroom computer system) tools are attached to the central storage, enabling the journalists to easily tie scripts to video from one simple interface. NewsFlash news editors and VelocityQ craft editing systems provide high-resolution editing capability. Of the eight VelocityQ craft editing systems, four are dedicated to news, two to promos and two for repurposing content, particularly for the Internet.
In Romania, CME currently broadcasts four channels: Pro TV, the main network that transmits a broad mix of programmes, including news, sports and entertainment; Acasa, a lifestyle channel largely aimed at women; Pro Cinema, a premium movie channel; and Pro TV International, broadcast outside Romania's borders, which is aimed at expatriates around the world. Over the next year, CME plans to add at least two more channels, including an HD service, which will be the first in Eastern Europe.
NEXIO is a modular, scalable server system for transmission and news environments, which offers integrated application platforms for editing, browsing and media management across a multi-tiered storage hierarchy. As an operation grows, the NEXIO design allows users to build systems of up to 28.8 terabytes in a single domain in small, low-cost increments. The NewsFlash high-resolution news editor sets industry standards for speed of editing and turnaround. The key is direct Fibre Channel access to shared NEXIO storage by all users, without delay or restriction. More important, all seats can begin editing the moment that ingest begins, enabling a true collaborative environment.
(DS)