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BBC English Regions in transition to digital with IBIS
IBIS has now completed the first phase of the transition to digital for BBC English Regional Newsrooms, with newsrooms now on air in Norwich, Newcastle, Hull, Leeds and Birmingham.
The automation system from IBIS provides MOS enabled reactive software operating on standard IT based open architecture, integrating with Quantel sQ servers. The modular applications deliver seamless integration from journalist workstations to playout, including ingest control and media management.
When the BBC was considering the type of automation they wanted for the Regional newsrooms, they recognised that there were significant differences not only between the systems vendors could provide, but also between the type of system required for a Regional newsroom as opposed to a centralised one.
For a news environment in the mould of BBC News 24, for instance, the automation solution is geared toward operating with minimal staffing and few changes to the running order. For this type of scenario, the planning is more akin to a conventional 24-hour programme schedule, where the running order is set, with only a minimal requirement for changes.
For Regional newsrooms the requirements are very different. Here the news environment is live and dynamic: a half-hour programme, which may require continual changes to the running order during both the planning stages and once the bulletin is on air. In a Regional programme, it is often the case that that whilst items 2 and 3 in the running order may be in place, item 1 isn’t, and so it would have to be slotted in as item 4. As can often happen in such a dynamic environment item 1 could become available for transmission as the titles roll making it important that item 4 must be quickly moved up the running order to the top spot.
The BBC decided that what they needed was ‘automation-assist’ software – software that would help the director, help the sound guy, help the server operation. With a standard automation system the rules that would have to be set to allow this type of operation would be so complex that the margin for error and malfunction would increase to an unacceptable level.
What they didn’t want was an automation solution that would fight for total control, as that would make it difficult - if not impossible – to change the running order in the ways that were needed. It was essential that the gallery staff should be able to operate the software easily and, because human beings can react quickly to change, the automation had to be flexible and intuitive.
Andrew Winter of IBIS, makes an interesting point here: “We are finding that the concept of automation is changing almost on a daily basis. At IBIS we tend to refer to our software systems as ‘process management’ but they are increasingly being referred to, in the BBC’s case, as ‘automation assist’ and elsewhere as ‘Gallery play-in’.
“In a news and sports environment what is often needed is a gallery play-in tool: automation that will play clips in via MOS or manually as a play-in to the final output of a channel.”
Through IBIS, the BBC English Regions have the best of both worlds. They can have an almost fully automated output - with servers, CGs and sound, all being triggered by IBIS via MOS - right through to an ‘automation assist’ type of dynamic operation.
Central to this flexibility is the dynamic MOS gateway. “Many people are concerned about MOS,” says Winter. “They worry about retaining control and can feel that MOS will remove this. MOS doesn’t take away control. The BBC will tell you that it helps provide a seamless integration right from journalists writing their scripts, setting captions, marking in/out points etc., through to making sure that all relevant systems – CGs, cameras and prompters are triggered at the right point.
“However, I would say that there is no such thing as a standard MOS layer – there are actually many variants and these will vary depending on whether you are dealing with iNews, ENPS, or another newsroom system.”
Within the BBC Regional newsroom model all five sites operate in essentially the same way. With largely the same programme output for each region, the BBC felt it was important to use the same technology and follow the same workflow processes. When news material arrives, IBIS applications ensure it is ingested straight to the hub so that everyone has immediate access to it. Early on in this project the BBC, ENPS and IBIS worked together to ensure that the users had access to a sensible naming convention for all new clips – essential to the smooth flow of any digital newsroom system. All IBIS applications, working in tandem with ENPS, track the ingest, movement, editing, playout and archiving of the material throughout the facility.
The initial contract was for two sites to assess the system. At the end of those two projects, the BBC was happy to purchase applications for the next three, which means that for the regional managers the BBC feels they have got their regional story right in terms of what they wanted. Training and processes across the regions is now standardised giving them greater flexibility - not only with their journalists but with their operational staff too. By having same technology across the board, media asset management and operations are much easier.