Transmission
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ProSieben
develops its own management software Integration
in IT4TV
Requests for special software
products for news, production, administration and playout are rising rapidly.
Proprietary solutions have so far failed to cover all requirements to support
clients' needs. The ProSieben Group has developed its own software product,
dedicated for use as an in-house solution and employed successfully over
recent years. After implementing
third-party products into its own solution, the Group defined its
requirements and developed a complete system solution. The first results were
presented at NAB and IBC 2000. In the meantime, a beta version is under test,
and the product, developed by ProSieben Information Service GmbH and
distributed by system integrator IT4TV, is being readied for the broad
television and production market. ProSieben Information
Service is a daughter company of ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG (100% shareholder);
IT4TV, a subsidiary of ProSieben Information Service, is the distributor of
the software products. Although it is unusual to market a product that was
originally created for the needs of one particular commercial broadcaster,
IT4TV now offers the Managing Software product -- created for the in-house
use of the ProSieben-Group -- to everyone. "We are looking for a
refinancing opportunity of our developing cost by reselling our
products," says Sven Sinner, communication manager, ProSieben
Information Service and IT4TV. MAKING CONNECTIONS The first module was a
booking system, which was very closely related to invoicing and accounting.
Requests from partners inside the ProSieben Group led to development of
modules for playout and program planning, facility management and an
archiving system. "Our system
engineers, who work as software architects, create user cases for workflow
optimisation before the first line of code is programmed," explains
Sinner. "Internal beta tests, in conjunction with dedicated hard and
software, are made for first verification purposes. This makes our products
reliable and ensures a high level of quality." The system runs on
Informix and SQL databases and will be ported to Oracle in the future. CORBA
is used as middleware. All dataset changes are performed in realtime on each
client. All modules are available to the open market as standalone
applications or an all-in-one-system solution. ProMeSa is the
AirTimeSales module, ProRun and ProPlan support scheduling, and ProLicense
covers acquisition purposes and rights and management of material. ProArchive
controls an archiving solution, ProNews is used in newsrooms, ProTrailer
manages trailers, and ProCast monitors and controls human and machine
resources. Playout-IFs perform
connections to third-party (Harris, Louth, Abit, etc.) playout/automation
systems. UNIX systems are used for database servers, and client stations run
either on Linux (SuSe) or Windows (98/NT/2000) OS in conjunction with
100BaseT networking, where there is no need for realtime. For all newsroom
applications together with ProNews, Gigabit Ethernet is proposed. ProNews
runs on a decentralised model, so administrative work on a single client PC
is unnecessary. It is available in Unicode, and Java allows
location-independent working. For administration of
content (video, audio, text and data), ProContent and ProArchive are
available. With this application solution, This system was developed
in cooperation with tecmath. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management
will be available in a future release currently under development. The
upcoming system will be an asset management system, because it manages
content and rights -- which is increasingly important for secondary and tertiary
use of material on the internet. "Our modules and the
all-in-one-system solution will be available at IBC 2001," says Heiko
Gerdes, director, CMS, at ProSieben Information Service. "Since March 1,
the call-in centre at Sendezentrum Munchen (SZM) has offered a 24-hour
service and maintenance hotline. Anyone who shows an interest in our products
can have a first look at our facilities in Munich." Uwe Fritz, general
manager, ProSieben Information Service GmbH, adds, "We are looking at
the implementation of watermarking technologies and the global control of
rights. But we believe our main market benefit is that we offer an all-in-one
solution." |
