Octopus is using IBC 2015 to launch the breakthrough features that will be core to Octopus Newsroom 8. The new version changes the way teams across different departments collaborate and share stories, sources and data. Importantly, the software will also focus on connecting news teams with social media and online news channels, enabling them to publish stories fast on multiple platforms.
Topic Centric Workflow
Octopus 8 greatly extends the collaborative toolset available to editorial teams. Information and media sharing is now supported without the need to duplicate information: every topic and each element within a story is centralized and instantly available across editorial teams, with transparency between TV, radio and social media departments. Managers can assign entire stories, or individual sections within a piece, to particular users across the organization. Where features have multiple parts or sources, users can now filter within that topic, to get to relevant information fast.
“With audiences expecting to watch, hear and read bulletins on every device they own and at all times of the day, Octopus has focused development on making the sharing of news items and information across departments easier and faster than ever. With version 8, users can collaborate with other teams to deliver stories in multiple formats for every possible audience.” Noted Petr Stokuc, CEO of Octopus.
Efficiency – at a Glance
Collaborative news production has always been at the heart of Octopus. For Octopus 8 developers have enhanced the user experience by streamlining operations and workflows to be accessible from a single screen. All related material – news sources, clips and stories – and much more is now available to journalists at a glance thanks to a new dashboard.
“The pressure on journalists to hit deadlines is enormous.” Said Gabriel Janko, Sales Director. “The new dashboard brings together every assignment, notification and update. This will make a real difference to news teams’ working practices.”
Web-Connectivity
With audiences increasingly using the Internet for their news, media organizations are under ever-increasing pressure to publish stories to a channel’s website. Octopus 8 directly interconnects with CMS systems, enabling scripts and articles to be uploaded dynamically to web portals. This new web component allows TV news editors themselves to upload pages directly, saving considerable time and reducing the strain on the web team.
“Media organizations can ill afford duplication of effort. Now the news production department can take full control of news items, uploading them instantly to web pages and speeding up the cooperation with the online team.” Commented Gabriel.
Social Interactivity
As a workgroup product, new functionality in Octopus allows administrators to assign users to create content for social media. Reflecting the vital role of social networks, tweets and Facebook posts are thus treated like any other news story, with team managers able to assign and share tasks, and approve messages before they go live.
New features in the software also help journalists follow Twitter trends and track topics of particular interest to them across the social network in real time. The system automates the research process to give teams instant information and analyses trends over time. Editors can tweet, reply, re-tweet or favourite directly from Octopus as well as manage the channel’s relationships by following, or blocking Twitter users.
“Until now, newsroom solutions have treated social media as an add-on feature. With Octopus 8, Twitter and Facebook are fully integrated into the newsroom – it’s now treated with the same importance as a traditional news feed or a programme rundown. This is a big advance that reflects the huge importance of social networks to channel owners and audiences worldwide.” Says Gabriel of Octopus.
New Mobile App
Until now, mobile apps have been limited in their scope. The new Octopus App which ships in September 2015 offers journalists full news production on tablets and iPads. News teams working remotely are given instant access to all wires, rundowns and assignments. They can also edit stories within a rundown, preview prompter text as well as create wires and reports in the field. The new app supports both Octopus 8 and the most recent versions of Octopus 7.