Canada’s Premiere National Broadcaster, CBC, Selects Oasis™ Archiving Solution for Cost-Effective Digital Asset News Distribution to Affiliates
NEWPORT BEACH, CA – APRIL 5, 2011– Bitcentral is dedicated to transforming the way TV news is gathered and shared, announced today that it has closed its first deal outside the U.S. Under terms of the deal, CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster, will install Bitcentral’s Oasis content archiving and management system.
CBC is the largest news broadcaster in Canada and manages a daily stream of news programming in English and French to stations from St. John’s in the east to Vancouver in the west. The Oasis solution will be integrated into Newstream, the system the broadcaster currently utilizes to “push” content out to its affiliates. Today, daily offerings are selected centrally and affiliates can vet that handful of story choices, which are then delivered via a satellite feed from Toronto.
With the installation of Oasis, approximately 14 affiliates and bureaus will be able to search all daily and archived content from the CBC via the Internet, utilizing a browser-based interface to access the centralized server in Toronto. This will greatly increase the quantity and quality of content available to news professionals as they prepare their daily newscasts, while eliminating costly satellite delivery charges. Because Oasis is built as a non-proprietary archiving solution, CBC affiliates will be able to take advantage of a broader array of video content without investing in any new, vendor-specific hardware.
“Digital file-based IP delivery represents the most cost-effective way for our affiliates to access breaking news as well as archived material,” said John Bainbridge, director of news production, CBC News. “With Bitcentral, we can offer nearly instantaneous access to a world of content from our hub in Toronto to our most remote partners.”
Oasis attaches metadata which stays with the assets throughout the archiving process, easing the retrieval of video by any authorized user. Because the solution is open, affiliates can select off-the-shelf storage servers with capacity to meet local needs for downloaded content.
“Oasis was designed to make collaboration faster, more affordable and less complex for major national news content distributors,” said Alex Keighley, vice president, sales at Bitcentral. “With Oasis, CBC will demonstrate how fast journalists can call up nationally available assets and proxy edit content for a localized version of a story. This means story packages can be created and developed faster than ever, whether for a telecast or streaming on the web.”
Station groups across the U.S., including Gannett Broadcasting and Journal Broadcast Group, have adopted Bitcentral technology, including Oasis and the company’s non-proprietary workflow solution. Used in tandem, these products provide unparalleled opportunities for sharing video assets among stations and within newsrooms.
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, Internet and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages, plus seven languages for international audiences. In 2011, CBC/Radio-Canada is celebrating 75 years of serving Canadians and being at the center of the democratic, social and cultural life of Canada.