France 2: Digitization Project Transforms Broadcasting
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Client:
France 2
Challenge:
Digitize the process of creating its four daily television news programs
Solution:
CSC assisted the general management at the channel in creating a framework for and managing the entire project.
Results:
Faster information handling; Easier image-sharing among users; Richer, more creative images; Lighter means and independence of reporting teams.
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It's nearly 8 p.m., and there is a rush in the news rooms. As footage tapes arrive, the intercom barks and journalists and technicians hurriedly try to finish their editing or sound mixing. That was France 2 then. Fast forward a year and there are no more bottlenecks in the editing and mixing rooms and no more "pre-TN" (television news) fever. The tension is clearly far less palpable.
How did it happen?
France 2, France's largest state-owned television channel, partnered with CSC to digitize the process of creating its four daily television news programs. CSC assisted the general management at the channel in creating a framework for and managing the entire project.
A digitized whole—the natural choice
Faced with competition and a tough economy, France 2 wanted to improve the quality of its news bulletins and be more responsive in handling information—while remaining within the framework of its state contract. Its goals were:
- Faster information handling
- Easier image-sharing among users
- Richer, more creative images
- Lighter means and independence of reporting teams.
To accomplish those goals, France 2 chose to move away from videocassette production and toward a digital server for the creation of news bulletins. Now when images arrive, they are recorded on an IT server connected to all peripheral stations that can hold an entire year's worth of news items and several days of images from multiple sources.
CSC's involvement with France 2's management board
CSC provided a framework for the project and implemented the management plan, including identifying who will pilot the project, dividing the work into different stages, and defining criteria for acceptance of the work and conditions for passing from one stage to the next.
The consultants highlighted the technical, organizational and social nature of the project, from IT matters and job development to adapting organizational aspects and editing. Each of these projects affected each of the stages of the creation process behind television news.
CSC then assisted the management board by undertaking the administrative and human resources tasks. The management board's aims were to coordinate the different parties concerned, involve users, obtain the company's membership, transform working methods and, of course, succeed in turning around the five television news programs. These aims were achieved with the turnaround of the last program at 8 p.m. ("Le Journal de 20 Heures").
A vast project for change
This project was an opportunity to improve working methods and organization around the creation of news bulletins. Among the editorial staff, the work and relationship between journalists and editors changed and a new position, editorial administrator, was created to act as a liaison between the technicians in charge of the server and the editorial staff.
France 2's IT department also developed a user-friendly interface that allows existing editing applications to be used with the new system servers. At their workstations, journalists can now search using a super-powerful engine, view images and integrate them into their news item. Production assistants can also select images as soon as they arrive and an on-line archive has replaced the traditional task of researching from videotape.
"What motivated our approach, aside from technical development, was modernizing the organization of and creation process for television news," says Bernard Couhault, secretary general of France 2's information department. "Improving the quality of the creation process, the editorial content of items and the editing process itself was our first priority. In addition, the project allowed some professionals to move toward other jobs thanks to qualifying training courses. This project gave us a solid foundation which will in turn allow for future developments toward a digitized whole: reporting, archiving and storage."
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