The British Broadcasting Corp and Independent Television News Ltd are pioneering digital newsroom technology that they say will change the face of news-gathering and production techniques. The current problem faced by both companies revolves around accessing information. The existing antiquated system at the BBC means journalists have no facilities available to them to get hold of old stories or research information. The idea is that a desktop archiving technology will replace the existing system to link BBC newsrooms across the worldwide corporation, pooling skills, information and resources. By bringing radio and television journalists together in the new multimedia centre, managing director of BBC News & Current Affairs Tony Hall said the BBC will save #10.0m per year. No-one from the company was prepared to put a figure on the level of expected staff cuts, and with its favoured system of short-term contracts it will probably be difficult to quantify. Hall does say that when the newsroom is up and running he will be able to concentrate his efforts on setting up a dedicated 24-hour television news service. The staff needed for an operation of this size would more than compensate for the earlier redundancies, it says. But whichever way you look at it, #10m represents major cutbacks somewhere along the line. Associated Press and Neville & Co, lined up against a partnership consisting of Logica UK Ltd, Nexus Informatics GmbH and Sun Microsystems Ltd are the two consortia that have been chosen by the BBC to develop electronic newsroom prototypes. Both teams are keeping their designs under wraps at the moment, but the successfull consortium will pilot during the spring and summer and is intended to be fully operational early next year. If all goes according to plan, Hall envisages a news archiving system that can be accessed via any personal computer within the next few years. Home users will be able to dip in and out of the BBC archives on a 24-hour per day basis to receive personalised news stories and information. It will be like having Kate Adie in your very own living room, promises the corporation. If the proposed television service works as planned, it should be an altogether more attractive service than the BBC’s Ceefax or ITN’s Oracle interactive data news services. Slightly less ambitious The server is to be housed at the new BBC Television Centre, currently under construction in West London. ITN looks likely to be first to the post with its digital newsroom, but is taking a slightly less ambitious route. While the BBC has opted for all- encompassing company-wide implementation, ITN is concentrating efforts on its satellite World News Programme. A system jointly developed by Oracle Corp and Sony Corp will be delivered by April, be installed by May and piloted during June and July (CI No 2,614). If all goes according to plan, it says the technology will be up and running by August this year. Oracle’s media server will be used to store 10-to-one-compressed digital images. Two additional Oracle databases will store high quality non- compressed video scripts and one month’s worth of archived news footage. Previewing compressed video clips before selecting broadcast quality pictures avoids the need to install a fully anynchronous network, said the company. The technology is intended to enable journalists to view, edit and ultimately prepare broadcast quality material directly from their 12 networked personal computers, with more complex editing carried out on five Unix workstations. Finished stories will be stored on the RAID-based workstation on-air buffer. The agreement represents a snub to Basys Ltd, the company now owned by Avid Technology Inc that was formed by ITN to market the original newsroom system it developed. At this stage ITN is unwilling to say if the digital technology will be disseminated across the whole organisation. If the system proves a success it may explore the possibility of wider implementation, but is concerned not to give the impression of being able to run before it can walk. Its a fair bet
that the Beeb’s two consortia will be keeping a close eye on ITN during the coming months to make sure that Auntie retains a competitive edge. – Louise Williams.
