Octopus, a major broadcasting technology provider, will be exhibiting at the NAB Show in Las Vegas in 2022. From April 23 to 27, the company’s offerings will be on display at booth C1420 (Central Hall). Octopus’ leadership team and workflow experts will be on-site to present the company’s latest release, Octopus 11, showcasing its latest innovations in the user interface and additional features aimed at improving user experience. This will be the first opportunity for the public to interact with the most recent version of the software. Attendees will also learn about the other two offerings: iReporter, a modern video gathering tool that enables broadcasters to collect unique footage from crowd reporters, and KO:R, a planning and collaboration tool that supports structured and inclusive workflows for newsrooms.
“At Octopus, we’re thrilled to be returning to in-person trade shows. This NAB, in particular, is very important for the company. It will be the venue to present Octopus 11 to our customers and partners. During these years full of challenges and learning, we have taken more time to carefully listen to what our customers have to say. This has been a rewarding experience since we have learned what consumers like and dislike about our system, as well as what they find very and less useful, and we have included many of their suggestions into our development roadmap. Octopus 11 is the result of this. Updates are purely customer-driven, providing the greatest possible experience to Octopus users.”
Gabriel Janko, COO & Sales Manager, Octopus NewsroomOctopus 11, the newest member of the family
With an even more user-friendly interface, Octopus 11 rich features enable script-to-screen management of story-centric and rundown-centric production. The system’s look has been redesigned and sculpted in response to customer feedback. Improvements in the UI make navigation across the system easier and facilitate a quick adaptation of new users. Octopus 11 is also designed to blend with users’ workflows by providing greater plasticity in the toolbar and menu, making it more robust and adaptable than before. Congruent with the customer-focused approach, Octopus 11 is also bringing a dark mode to serve the natural low-light newsroom environments.
Besides visual upgrades, the functionalities of the system have been strengthened. Remarkably, Octopus 11 has been fully tested to run on AWS. The system now serves users customers considering a fully-cloud, or hybrid installation. Moreover, it continues to be a forerunner in
- Quick newsgathering
- Integration with third-party devices
- Centralized planning
- Linear and digital publishing
- Multisite production
KO:R, the planning and collaboration tool for newsrooms
KO:R, the youngest of Octopus’ products, will also be displayed at NAB this year. As a stand-alone planning and collaboration tool, it can be used in newsrooms with an outdated news production system that lacks planning features. As well as can serve the needs of newsrooms that do not use any software to manage news production. KO:R supports collaborative workflows and incorporates planning to story-centric production by offering spaces for newsgathering, storytelling, task management, and collaborative content creation.
It supports broadcasters of all sizes. Being subscription-based, it adapts to the budgets and requirements of small and large enterprises. Plans and modules are customized to the requirements of the organization. Likewise, as a cloud-based solution, it operates in any browser and device with an internet connection. Relieving organizations from upfront infrastructure investments or having an IT team in-house to manage the upkeep.
iReporter, a video gathering platform to collect unique footage
iReporter is an innovative video gathering platform that facilitates the exchange of multimedia content between organizations and crowd reporters. Videos offered by this product are fresh and unique as it extends the reach of typical camera crews. Also, it empowers broadcasters to directly engage with contributors and put them at the center of their storytelling. This product enables video gathering for breaking news, traffic updates, special events such as elections or summits, sports, and entertainment shows.
iReporter responds to forward-looking media trends by triggering a direct engagement with the audience. This tool allows organizations to develop a deeper connection with audiences, that are no longer passive spectators but are actively engaged in storytelling.
Altogether, Octopus products bring a new take on storytelling to the NAB Show
Octopus’ experience with newsrooms of all kinds has been the detonator for a new concept of storytelling. The company gives broadcasters a holistic approach to storytelling based on technological efficiency to conduct all phases of news/show production. This takes on storytelling promotes hands-on and functional production powered by essential tools centralized in the newsroom. This is demonstrated in the capabilities of the 3 products to be displayed at the NAB Show. As powerful newsroom tools, these complement each other’s workflows to offer organizations the opportunity to command production from Octopus NRCS, plan stories and tasks while fostering collaboration with KO:R, and gather unique footage to illustrate news with iReporter. Making the newsroom self-sufficient.