Sky Deutschland’s Sky News HD newsroom sings with Mosart automation
Sky Deutschland has chosen Mosart Medialab’s newsroom automation system for its upcoming 24/7 channel Sky Sport News HD. The Munich-based rolling news channel is scheduled to go live with Mosart at the channel’s launch during the winter of 2011/2012. Already in use at Sky Italia, Mosart was chosen for Sky Sport News HD in Germany because it combines enhanced production values with reduced operational costs.
“We wanted to get the biggest bang for our newscasting buck,” says Pat McGuinness, consultant project manager at Sky Deutschland. “With Mosart, we will deliver a sophisticated look and feel that we simply couldn’t achieve without high-level newsroom automation, and the budget that we save on the newsroom process can be put into news gathering. The system’s ability to concurrently trigger multiple devices allows us to create complex live sequences that would otherwise require pre-rendering or rehearsal — for which there’s no time in 24-hour rolling news.”
Another key advantage of the Mosart system for Sky Sport News HD is its ability to integrate with almost all studio devices, without being tied to any manufacturer’s hardware. Mosart now supports five manufacturers of vision mixers, eight audio mixers, seven brands of servers, six graphics systems, and six camera robotics protocols.
“We’re delighted that Sky Sport News HD — an entirely new channel starting with a clean sheet — has chosen to construct a news production environment that takes full advantage of Mosart’s market-leading capabilities,” adds John Kjellevold, managing director at Mosart Medialab. “They are in the ideal position to build the most advanced control-room from a green-field, but the Mosart system is also renowned for its wide support of third-party systems, so it’s equally beneficial to broadcasters with established newsroom operations and legacy equipment.”
Mosart version 3.0 features enhanced handling of macros, sequences, loops, and continue points. Mosart’s sequences tool enables separate parallel rundowns that can be executed on a studio back wall. Macros and continue points simplify automation setup, allowing the director to program once, but then proceed through multiple events or effects. Looping can now be applied to rundowns, segments, sequences, and clips.
Content repurposing/reuse is enhanced with Mosart’s delivery of news as-run information to continuity control and MAM systems. Through the news as-run integration, continuity and MAM systems are able to reuse individual stories or events from earlier recorded Mosart productions. Mosart can also be user-configured to query MAM systems for metadata information.
Mosart’s customizable graphical interface makes it easy for story elements such as cameras, clips, and graphics to be assigned to on-screen buttons for easy and quick access. A range of interface overviews can also be assigned to buttons, making the GUI a virtual shot box for touch screens, and easily adaptable for any TV production. Story scripts from the newsroom computer system are shown directly in the Mosart GUI, and Mosart operators can store clips and graphical elements in a pool ready for execution on request.
Mosart offers greatly simplified operations in multi-gallery, multi-studio environments through one-time broadcast template creation and the ability to have one newsroom script aired from any studio. Mosart’s industry-leading open systems compatibility is extended with new support for Dalet News and Annova’s OpenMedia, in addition to ENPS, iNEWS, Octopus, and NorCom.