NewsBoss connects newsrooms for The Radio Network of New Zealand
NEW ZEALAND – The Radio Network (TRN) operates 50+ radio stations
covering all of New Zealand.
Most of the TRN stations were originally part of the government owned Radio New Zealand
commercial arm, which was sold in 1995.
Late in 1996, The Radio Network purchased another radio media group that included several
stations, Satellite network program distribution and Independent Radio News (IRN).
At the time, The Radio Network was operating on a shared Basys system with
its old partner Radio New Zealand.
TRN had plans to set up its own news network and we were looking at the various news platforms
that were available.
A set of criteria the selected system must meet was compiled and the various systems were
measured against this.
TRN has newsrooms established at most sites providing both local newscasts
and other material back to the provider of the network newscasts.
All newsrooms operated on the same Basys platform and had access to all (or selected)
text stories, which was one of the critical requirements for a new system.
All sites also had dedicated audio circuits for the transfer of audio cuts;
therefore the ability to maintain audio transfer was also a requirement.
Furthermore, there was a desire to move away from the existing tape and cart based
technology for audio management.
Independently, prior to the purchase by TRN, IRN were also looking
to replace their aging NewStar platform.
They had already made the change to hard disk based audio with 2 audio editing areas
and presentation units in each of their 3 reading booths.
Their criteria was similar except they only had one remote site, at Parliament House.
Audio at this site was tape-based and ISDN Codecs were used to move the audio.
They had an extra requirement to be able to generate outgoing wire feeds for some of their
client stations.
The ability to take text wire feeds from external suppliers was a requirement for both operations.
The need for a new system at IRN took priority as half of the NewStar
system had already collapsed and the repair costs would be better directed at a replacement system.
NewsBoss was the system we chose.
It offered us the ability to operate
on locally available PC hardware, using familiar Windows commands for its text operation,
integrated Audio into the system, and was able to handle incoming and outgoing wire feeds.
The initial system consisted of 17 NewsBoss workstations, a wire capture terminal
and 3 Prompters for presenting stories.
Operating on a Client/Server configuration the system uses a Novell SFT-III platform.
A deliberate decision to move away from paper stories to prompter presentation saw no new printers
installed and the old units were recycled for "emergencies".
TRN operates a Wide Area Network (WAN) between its major sites and this was
extended to Parliament with 3 terminals installed sharing the same database as the Auckland
IRN installation.
It quickly became apparent that although this worked technically, the bandwidth limitations
of the WAN made it operationally unacceptable and if NewsBoss was to succeed,
then an alternative operation had to be designed, and quickly, as the installation
had already started.
At this time TRN also decided to use NewsBoss, providing a way could be found
to either have every site operating on the same database or have the ability to duplicate
stories to all sites.
The pointer to the ultimate solution was given by the audio transfer operation.
The requirement for this was to have any audio in the system available for transfer between sites.
Because of the amount of audio in the system, and the historical operation of
only transferring audio that is required at a site, it was decided that a Journalist at any
site should be able to transfer audio to their site from anywhere in the Network.
This resulted in an FTP server, (at most sites a software program running on a NewsBoss workstation),
being set up at each site and an FTP client on all workstations that can be used to transfer
audio files to their site using the WAN platform.
Story text transfer could only be met by the existing wires function in NewsBoss,
using separate serial data circuits between each site – a less than desirable arrangement.
The developer, Desktop Technologies, was asked if NewsBoss could operate wire transfer over
a WAN instead.
Their answer was yes and within a short space of time this was implemented.
The complete operation was set up with an individual database at each site
using TCP/IP for the WAN transfer of "wire" text feeds between sites and FTP for audio transfer.
This configuration has several advantages.
The first being that text transfer between sites can be selected as required.
For example, a small remote newsroom might be receiving all external wires feeds,
but only want to send locally generated stories to other stations,
not the myriad of other material that finds its way into NewsBoss, from local weather,
to community notices, to tonight’s dinner menu etc.
Secondly, having a separate, self-sufficient database at each site makes the
overall operation far more robust, if there is a problem with the WAN data links news can
still operate individually at each site.
Every newsroom NewsBoss terminal now has audio processing ability with a
small mixer, telephone hybrid, headset microphone and many have selectable external
audio feeds.
This has proved so successful that the original editing booths setup for audio processing
have been removed and all audio recording, transfer and editing is done at the workstations
in the newsroom.
The journalists never need leave their seat!
One assumption made in the early stages that "everyone knows Windows" proved
incorrect, so during the latter stages of the change, all journalists were given half
a day basic Windows training.
This made our transition to the new system very simple.
NewsBoss however, is very simple to use, which was evident during the IRN
installation when the NewStar system completely died – a full 2 weeks prior to the planned
implementation.
NewsBoss was up and running, providing all the functions NewStar had, within a few hours.
As time has passed, the IRN and TRN operations have become far more integrated.
Operating NewsBoss at all sites made this almost a non-event.
IRN now operates more than 20 NewsBoss terminals with 5 reading areas and produces over
100 news or sports bulletins every day.
TRN has multi station newsrooms in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, with small newsrooms
at 9 other sites.
Different text wire feeds of company generated stories are also provided to several external clients.
As a product, NewsBoss has more than met all our requirements.
It has enabled us to move to a standard PC based platform using "off the shelf" hardware,
has introduced digital audio into our newsroom and has integrated audio with text
for preparation and presentation.
Graeme O'Connor
Manger Studio Systems
The Radio Network
New Zealand
