ADN Kronos streamlines news production workflow with NavigatorX and Ci Media Cloud
Our integrated media asset management and workflow orchestration solution is helping Italian multi platform news agency with the digital transformation of its operations.
- Italian news agency wished to pivot towards data-driven media production model
- Needed to optimise workflow for quick, efficient creation and distribution of around 2,000 news articles every day
- Sony NavigatorX Media Assets Management and Workflow Orchestrator
- Sony Ci Media Cloud content production platform
- Quick upload of camera footage from anywhere in the world
- More efficient production of content in multiple formats and delivery requirements to large number of clients
Satisfying news clients’ content needs
Formed in 1963, news and content agency ADN Kronos employs around 100 journalists who produce 2,000 news items daily. As a large multiplatform content provider, the Rome-based bureau has faced several challenges in creating, managing and distributing content to its large client base of other agencies and broadcasters.
Addressing the challenges of modern news production
The MAM (Media Asset Management) solution formerly used by ADN Kronos was limited to Standard Definition formats, making it impossible for the agency to produce and deliver content to clients in HD and 4K resolution. Footage captured by camcorders in the field had to be physically uploaded via memory card into the system at ADN Kronos’ headquarters. This frequently delayed editorial teams in starting work on a bulletin while waiting for a journalist to return to base.
The previous system’s unintuitive interface also made searching and locating assets slow and laborious, restricting the ability of staff to work on stories quickly. What’s more, the inability to track workflows made it hard to manage each project’s progress through to successful delivery. Other challenges included security concerns around working on projects with external collaborators, and a lack of system redundancy that increased the risk of losing precious content with no backup.
Orchestrating workflow
As part of its drive towards digital transformation, ADN Kronos engaged Sony to provide a complete media asset management and workflow orchestration solution, allowing journalists to collaborate more effectively on the creation and distribution of new stories.
Central to the solution is NavigatorX, Sony’s MAM and Workflow Orchestrator that streamlines the cataloguing and management of all media assets. Capable of being deployed on premises or in the cloud, NavigatorX automates workflows to simplify distribution of content to clients in multiple formats.
Easy, efficient collaboration
Complementing NavigatorX, Sony’s Ci Media Cloud platform makes content production more collaborative, creative and efficient. Offered via a simple subscription based on storage and traffic levels, it simplifies secure media transfer, frame-accurate preview and easy-to-use collaborative tools for reviewing and approving stories.
The new solution by Sony allows ADN Kronos journalists to upload content securely from anywhere in the world, rather than travelling back to base to transfer media files. Giving teams instant access to content, this offers significant time savings in getting breaking news stories to air.
A huge step forward
“NavigatorX helps us in our daily life because it has allowed us to automate processes for distributing content to our customers” notes Federico Trappolini, Media Producer, ADN Kronos. “Specifically it allows us to send content in multiple formats and with different metadata, and this gives us the ability to customise the distribution of stories to clients. Ci Media Cloud has helped our workflow, thanks to a platform that facilitates sharing content and facilitates access also outside, in total safety. It’s a huge step forward.”
“The journalistic challenge today is being able to capture video at any time, in any format, and make it immediately available for video editing and then be able to distribute it to all channels that we manage” comments Eugenio Lauro, Head of Technology & Information Systems at ADN Kronos. “NavigatorX has made it possible for journalists to do this work in a simple and immediate way.”
