DOHA, Qatar & DUBAI, UAE — At CNBC Arabia, the financial and business information channel, we faced the daunting challenge of a comprehensive overhaul. It was imperative due to the revamp of our Dubai headquarters and an expansion in our Doha location, as the network sought to adapt to ever-evolving industry demands and emerging technologies.
Embracing the change, we had a clear goal of streamlining workflows, enhancing collaboration, and driving innovation across the organization. An Avid customer for more than 15 years, CNBC Arabia had previously used another Newsroom Computer System (NRCS) with third-party integrations before switching to Avid MediaCentral | Newsroom Management (iNEWS).
Two Facilities, One System
With two facilities in Dubai and Doha as well as several news bureaus across the Middle East, CNBC Arabia recognized the imperative for a comprehensive and integrated newsroom workflow efficiency solution from a single vendor, so that content could be easily shared between locations and delivered to end users as fast as possible.
Avid’s solutions offered a unified user experience in the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX, bringing together script writing, video viewing and editing, logging and access to archive content. Editors work in Media Composer to craft packages for air, powered by the video sharing capabilities of MediaCentral | Production Management, with Avid NEXIS shared storage. Avid ingest and playout servers are deployed in both sites for robust workflows to get media in and play media out to air.
Another key aspect of our transformation was the adoption of Avid | Edit On Demand, a cloud-based platform for seamless media sharing and collaboration, removing the need for on-prem infrastructure in the bureaus and providing a simplified way of creating content that can be easily accessed by both main studio locations.
CNBC Arabia benefits from being on a subscription package encompassing all locations, giving the organization leverage and flexibility to upgrade to a better system without a heavy initial investment.
Our migration to the new solution in both Dubai and Doha was not without its challenges, but by now using the web-based MediaCentral | Cloud UX, staff can easily view and browse content in either site on a unified user interface, and then use MediaCentral | Delivery to exchange content swiftly for use by their editorial teams.
The capabilities of MediaCentral | Newsroom Management also allow staff to view any stories in either site and transfer them simply by dragging and dropping from one rundown to the other.
In Dubai, our infrastructure was—and still is—based on SDI, while in Doha, an IP-based infrastructure was deployed. Avid’s solution can handle both scenarios. While viewers may not notice any change to their viewing experience, the technical infrastructure behind the scenes is vastly different.
Avid | Edit On Demand, which runs in the Microsoft Azure Cloud, empowered CNBC Arabia to create, edit, and distribute content with unprecedented ease and efficiency. Additionally, our distributed teams benefited from a sense of reliability and consistency. With Avid | Edit On Demand, we now have a centralized process to bring content into the cloud, making our lives much easier.
Cloud-Based Flexibility
With a modernized system now in place in our two main locations, combined with the cloud-based flexibility of Avid | Edit On Demand, the need to re-edit and transcode files and footage before sharing has been eliminated. Valuable time is saved, allowing us to deliver news to our audience more swiftly and efficiently than ever before. We no longer spend time digging through file systems, allowing us to focus on our content schedule. We have more bandwidth to create new programs and talk shows.
Looking forward, the flexibility and scalability offered by Avid’s subscription packages will enable us to adapt to evolving needs and take full advantage of all system capabilities. With plans to further explore Avid’s offerings, we’re poised to unlock even greater newsroom workflow efficiency and innovation, paving the way for future growth. l
More information is available at www.avid.com.
