ARD signs framework agreement for improved newsroom workflow with CGI

CGI, a newsroom and radio system provider, has signed a framework agreement with German public service broadcaster group, ARD, to help facilitate the deployment of CGI media management and planning systems throughout the ARD’s nine regional broadcasters. The agreement signifies the ongoing, trusting relationship between the ARD Group and CGI that spans more than three decades.

The agreement was signed at the end of 2021 between Norddeutscher Rundfunk and Bayerischer Rundfunk, ARD’s lead buyers for the dira! and OpenMedia products, and CGI Deutschland, and covers key legal, procedural and economic data for the long-term deployment, operation, and expansion of CGI software solutions. This allows all ARD broadcasters and their subsidiaries to benefit from the pre-agreed terms and conditions, and provides the opportunity for further standardisation of workflows between them.

The framework covers deployments of dira!, OpenMedia, and Viura. The dira! product family covers all workflows required for media management in radio journalism, from the production of broadcasts and the exchange of materials and programmes, to broadcast planning and actual broadcasting, to post production and archiving.

The newsroom system OpenMedia is already used worldwide as one of the standard tools for researching, planning and producing newscasts, magazines and sports formats. Meanwhile Viura is a software solution for intelligent camera control in the broadcast studio for editors and presenters. The tool can be integrated into different playout and newsroom environments, regardless of manufacturer, and is based on the selected video hardware and our control software.

“We are delighted to have signed this extensive framework agreement with the ARD, which confirms our strong partnership and provides the basis for long-term planning security on both sides, ” commented Thomas Roth, senior vice president and BU leader at CGI. “As well as providing the ARD with increased efficiencies in the buying process, it provides the basis for increased standardisation efforts in the ARD community and will potentially enable its members to gain further powerful workflow benefits via the common use of system resources.”