Having selected the Octopus Newsroom system in the fall of 2017, and with Logic Media Solutions GmbH (LOGIC) as the primary integration partner, WELT successfully switched to Octopus in March 2019. The length of time from design to implementation was a testimony to WELT and the integration team of the depth and breadth that an enterprise system can bring in terms of major efficiencies to an organisation. It is a demonstration of what can be done when business needs and technology integrations are thoroughly understood and tightly coupled. WELT (formerly N24) is Germany’s leading television news channel. It also produces the main news shows for the three major broadcasters ProSieben, SAT.1 and KABEL EINS.
Before implementing Octopus, WELT was using a system from Norcom that no longer was state-of-the-art and had gone out of support. Based out of their Berlin office, WELT needed a new system that was quick and reliable, with the ability to customise modules to accommodate specific business needs. They also required a long-term platform to aid future growth and technological innovation.
The Octopus NRCS has evolved over many years in collaboration with many global broadcasters to address specific shortcomings and challenges of news production. A fundamental part of its design has been its collaborative features, including remote working functionality to allowing journalists and newsroom staff to operate more efficiently. The Octopus mission has always been to set the standard in performance and new feature functionality. One example of this at WELT has been the ability to display long and sophisticated rundowns as part of its news workflows. The new system also allows content overviews for four broadcasters at the same time.
In addition to its rich core functionality, Octopus also has an open API that allows customisations for additional workflows that are specific to a customer’s unique needs. Development can be provided by Octopus, their partners or can be used by a customer’s own development team. WELT benefited both from customised scripts provided by Octopus, and from own developed scripts, for different purposes, like migration of data or automating various tedious tasks.
From a technological perspective, WELT had a legacy of hardware that they wanted to reutilise within their new environment, which included years of historical news, media and metadata. All of which needed to be preserved. As part of the implementation, MAZ&MORE (home of SAT.1-Frühstücksfernsehen), a subsidiary to the WeltN24 company, had their own requirements that had to be included as part of the overall project, with their own separate system.
LOGIC is a German system architect and distributor with over 20 years of installing professional broadcast and telecommunications technology. They played a pivotal role in designing, implementing and testing of the newly implemented newsroom system for both WELT and MAZ&MORE.
Thomas Heyer from LOGIC comments “As usual, customers start a project with a defined set of requirements, but during the implementation period, a whole new world of opportunities is presented which they never knew existed. And then there is a hunger for more. The performance of the whole Octopus Team was outstanding. We were able to realise nearly all additional requirements which came up during this project. Octopus is an incredible and versatile system that evolved even during the implementation phase.”
By going live with the Octopus Newsroom computer system, WELT was able to improve efficiency. In the past, WELT was restricted by a system that was slow and lacked specific features, but now they have an environment that is responsive across the entire ecosystem.
In a world that is rapidly evolving, not just in terms of technology, but also news delivery, Octopus has been a major step-up system. Octopus prepares customers for future trends and shifts, offering an excellent base to stay ahead in the future while also providing a customised platform for the present. This flexibility truly empowers newsrooms to move at their own pace.
