New Slovenian TV channel selects Enterprise sQ for speed, open integration and ease of use
TSmedia, media arm of Slovenia's national telecoms provider, Telekom Slovenije, has purchased a Quantel Enterprise sQ fast-turnaround production system. The system will handle all news and sports program production for Planet TV, the new national commercial TV channel being launched by TSmedia in November 2012.
The launch of Planet TV marks Telekom Slovenije's first venture into television. "Media platforms are becoming very important in the telecommunications business today, and our expansion into broadcasting gives us a new market area for long-term development," said Bine Lebenicnik, TSmedia Head of Development. "TSmedia already has one of the biggest web news portals in Slovenia, and stepping into television is a natural evolution of our media brand."
Quality will be at the heart of the Planet TV brand. "Our first and last thought is for our viewers," Lebenicnik continued. "We will respect our viewers' wishes and we are sure that this will set us apart from our competitors. Our market research showed that Slovenian viewers want quality documentaries and timely, well-informed news broadcasts, all in HD. These requirements helped us define the specification for our news/sports production system - speed and quality, with no production bottlenecks. Added to these were ease of use for the journalists and editors, and open integration with newsroom computer and automation systems. All these considerations led us to select Quantel."
The Planet TV system comprises 300 hours of HD workspace, with 12 sQ Cut and sQ Edit desktop editors and two Qube craft editors. Three sQ Load applications handle XDCAM/P2 file ingest, with sQ Record for line feeds. Playout is handled by two sQ Play applications. The system is fully integrated with Planet TV's Octopus Newsroom computer system - the Quantel sQ Cut editors run inside the Octopus GUI. Users also have instant access to media stored on Planet TV's Front Porch DIVArchive via Quantel's new sQ Fileflow application.
Planet TV launches with a team of 25 journalists and six craft editors who are fully trained on sQ Cut, sQ Edit and Qube. "Quantel is very easy to learn, intuitive and efficient. Almost every editor came from a different background and yet there was no problem quickly getting used to the Quantel interface," said Maj Jukic, Head of Graphics Editing. "The feature we find most useful, alongside FrameMagic [Quantel's built-in smart media handling technology], is publishing and sharing - you can access any edited sequence from any Quantel seat. It gives us a completely flexible workflow."
"As we're now fully up and running and very close to go-live, I can say that Quantel is everything we expected, and we're very happy with our decision," Lebenicnik added. "We have installed a system that is working as specified, and the journalists, editors and operators are all very excited about the platform, which has enabled them to spend more time working on stories in the field. We have complete peace of mind that in Quantel we have selected the right platform for Planet TV today and to take us forward in the rapidly evolving new media landscape."
