TVNZ Chooses Quantel For Next Generation

TVNZ, the New Zealand national broadcaster, has selected an integrated Quantel Enterprise sQ news production system to service all its news production needs at its Auckland headquarters and Wellington and Christchurch news bureaux.
As one of the world’s first adopters of server-based news production systems (TVNZ installed only the second Quantel ‘Inspiration’ system in 2001), TVNZ is well placed to assess the potential of the latest generation of systems. TVNZ invited tenders from all the major news system suppliers in mid-2006. Key criteria were to maintain competitive advantage by improving further on the workflow of the Inspiration system, which Don Cunningham, TVNZ Head of News Operations, says has “revolutionized the way TVNZ manages its news content,” and also to enable regional expansion into Wellington and Christchurch with shared content in an integrated digital environment as well as integrating seamlessly with TVNZ’s iNews NRCS. The system is required to deliver six hours of live news a day.
“TVNZ and Quantel have a long-standing relationship and their system was preferred by our users,” says Cunningham. “We tried a number of systems and the Quantel tools, workflow and ultimately, the maturity of the product, convinced us it was the way forward. ZoneMagic is seriously impressive and will streamline our workflow from the regions and result in productivity gains. We just feel comfortable with it.”
The Auckland system, based on two sQ servers with and supporting 50+ journalist shot selection and editing applications (available on any of 250+ desktops around TVNZ) as well as a number of sQ Edit Plus craft editors, has just been installed and training is currently underway with a view to going live in June/July. Automation is by Omnibus, with redundant backup for ingest and playout via Quantel’s sQ Record and sQ Play applications. The Christchurch and Wellington systems will come on line later in the year, and full integration and media sharing between the three sites using Quantel’s ZoneMagic technology will follow when New Zealand’s data transmission infrastructure is expanded.
“We’re about to launch a new digital satellite channel carrying news and information programming, and this system will be critical to our efficiency and productivity. And if our news content is to be out there on mobiles, PCs and all the new devices that come along – as our company is planning, we need this kind of technology,” Cunningham concluded.
(SP)