IRVINE, CALIF. – Sept. 10, 2008 – Bitcentral, Inc., a leading provider of news production, archiving and distribution solutions to television stations, has dramatically transformed Raycom Media’s WCSC in Charleston, S.C., with an entirely new digital and file-based workflow.
Bitcentral has gone live at the leading regional station with its revolutionary, non-proprietary Precis news production solution and its Oasis™ archiving and file sharing system. The massive implementation included eight new Edius™ editing bays, raw video repository platform and dual playout control/servers, plus full ENPS integration.
As is the case with all Bitcentral installations, the company serves as the single point of contact for 24/7/365 support in all parts of the station’s “ecosystem.”
The seamless launch began a new era at the station. Its new turnkey system delivers a browser-based, file-based workflow with extreme scalability – with SD and HD video content easily delivered to multiple platforms without video file transcoding. The “ecosystem” is completed with Bitcentral’s Oasis™ – enabling innovative archiving capability and ENPS integration, plus the ability to share stories between sister stations with a click of a mouse. And to support WCSC’s enormous conversion, an intensive training program was implemented to ensure that the station immediately gained a competitive edge over its competitors.
“As consistently demonstrated, our engineering team is second to none in thoroughness, detail-orientation, efficiency and sheer expertise in taking a regional leader like WCSC into a digital workflow,” said John King, vice president of engineering at Bitcentral. “WCSC took multiple big steps all at once – converting their entire station in one fell swoop. Our team’s ability to tailor intensive training schedules to the particular needs of a station in real time is a valuable capability in an operation as complex as this.”
The station is also building an advanced high definition control room in efforts to convert to HD in the near future – further sharpening their edge over regional news rivals.
“For us to have launched four new, major platforms like that – and have the capability to seamlessly integrate everything at once – that is the leading edge of what you can do in news,” added Gurthie. “It’s the efficient workflow of how quick you can get your content to air that helps keep you competitive. When I have a guy out on the field editing a package on a laptop and he can send that file to the station and have it on air in multiple markets within minutes – that’s huge.”