Dalet wins RAI tender for 18 regional sites
Dalet Digital Media Systems has announced that its Dalet News Pack product has won the tender issued by RAI, the Italian national broadcaster, for the new, end-to-end production and broadcast system in 18 of its regional sites.
Dalet News Pack provides a complete, turnkey solution that includes the Dalet Brio server for ingest and playout as well as optional Dalet software, including a comprehensive newsroom computer system (NRCS), and built-in tools for production and editing. Dalet will deploy the project in concert with two key partners, CVE and MediaPower. A staged rollout is planned with the first installation beginning this fall at Campobasso.
The scope of the project is based on the operational model that each regional site is autonomous. With a mandate to provide regional news and bulletins, each site must have standalone capability so that they can reach the specific regional audiences for any type of local emergency. RAI stated that Dalet News Pack was compliant to the technical specifications of the tender, which aimed to find a very cost-effective solution with all the necessary hardware and the requested easy functionality for journalists at each location to independently produce and broadcast news content. Another benefit is that as each site is deployed, the built-in Dalet media asset management platform and exchange tools allow easy access for journalists in other regions to browse and share content from a centralized content catalogue. So while regional broadcasts remain autonomous, the content can be optimized throughout the entire country.
“Full, fast and easy integration with the enterprise-wide Rai Media Asset Management System (T-Cube/RaiCloud), which is being deployed in the coming months, is surely another great benefit we are expecting from this new strategic business with Dalet,” says Ubaldo Toni, head of television engineering of RAI.
In each location, Dalet Brio servers will handle four channels for multiple forms of ingest (feed ingest, VTR, file-based) and four output channels, including A/B roll playout. The Brio, built on standard IT hardware, delivers rock-solid performance. It supports SD and HD ingest and playout in multiple and mixed formats, including P2 and XDCAM and many others. As content is ingested, Dalet automatically creates proxy versions, which users can immediately access via Dalet client workstations and via the web using Dalet WebSpace. Each of the regional sites has approximately 20 journalists who will be working with Dalet content creation tools, including desktop video editing, rundown management and playout. A Dalet plug-in provides a simple MOS integration with RAI’s existing iNEWS system. In addition, Dalet Xtend modules facilitate media and metadata exchanges with NLE’s when high-end craft editing is needed. Dalet OnAir supports playout in manual or automated mode.