Working with the threat of Covid-19 hanging over the entire world, there is no shortage of concern for peoples’ welfare as organizations collectively try to minimize the vulnerable and do their best to flatten the curve. And Octopus Newsroom is no exception. News and communications within the media are critical for keeping the population informed and as a major supplier to the broadcast industry, the employees of Octopus Newsroom are doing their part in working from home. But business must go on and one piece of good news is the ability for Octopus to adapt and continue to roll out major new systems even in times of crisis.

One such recent example includes a new customer installation completed under heavily restrictive measures which was the roll-out and implementation of an Octopus Newsroom Collaborative  System within Canal33 from El Salvador in South America.  But the unusual thing for Octopus, was the challenge to complete this remotely. This included delivery, installation, integration and training with on-air coaching in both Spanish and English language.

Broadcasting nationally since 1995, Canal33 is a privately owned channel whose owner Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador has the aim of providing news and entertainment for the whole family. This has resulted in a major growth in popularity over the last years.

As the first newsroom production system that Canal 33 has ever installed, this was a major milestone and its aim was to boost the daily workflow and productivity of the channel. With 11 daily shows, the Octopus will improve workflows within the station and has the aim of reducing human errors and to eradicate redundant tasks.

The overall project was delivered in cooperation with Octopus’s longtime partner Primestream, who are a leading provider of asset management and automation software solutions for media production and a customer of Canal33. Octopus Newsroom has been easily integrated with the latest version of Primestream’s Fork, their Asset Management and automation toolset, due to the proven MOS open connection.

Gianluca Bertuzzi, Sales Manager of Octopus for LATAM comments “Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the most challenging part of this project has been completing the remote training for the journalists as we normally provide this on-site.  But thanks to a perfect coordination with Canal 33, we managed to train 10 super-users in different sessions plus admin training for the engineers. This meant they had a working understanding which they put into practice immediately enabling them to go live with no issues.”

Not only implementing the Octopus Core for 20 concurrent users, the channel will also use Octopus’s email ingesting platform, the social media tools and the management reporting tool for improved co-ordination, sharing of information and management across the organization.

Benjamin Navarro, Head of Engineers at Canal 33 added “Octopus is the tool we were searching for to automate our workflows in the newsroom. We foresee it will improve our daily newscast and reform the tasks of our editorial team. We are sure that thanks to Octopus, we will produce better quality news and ultimately increase the audience of the channel.”

Octopus will continue its responsibility of preventing spread of Covid-19 by all means possible and continue to innovate in new working practices and so to enable their customers, both old and new,  to benefit from the functionality that the Octopus NCRS has to offer. For Octopus, its important that they continue to provide resource and support for their customers through these torrid times with the aim of triumphing over the epidemic with satisfied customers and employees alike.