News Broadcasting
BBC triumphs at RTS Technology Awards
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster The BBC did well for itself at the Royal Television Society’s prestigious Technology Awards a few days ago.The RTS Technology Awards seek to recognise excellence in technological activities from ‘scene-to-screen and back’.
The BBC won in six out of the eight categories, including a Lifetime Achievement award for Chris Clarke of BBC Research and Development.
Clarke was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award for the outstanding ‘back room’ work done over the past 30 years. This included work on digital PAL decoding and TV standards conversion in the Seventies, making possible a worldwide agreement on digital video standards.
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) new technology head David Wood said, “Without Chris Clarke’s contribution, there would be no ITU Rec 601, the cornerstone of digital television throughout the world. His conclusion that a PAL signal could be decoded by any sampling frequency, backed up by thorough studies, was the key to unlock the agreement on component coding, which led to the worldwide standard Rec 601.”
Commenting on the award, BBC DG Mark Thompson said, “Digital television is a central part of our plans for the future, and for future services to the public. And without the kind of back room work that Chris Clarke has done, both on standards and on the development of DTT, we wouldn’t be able to look forward to the future with such confidence. So on behalf of the whole BBC I’d like to salute him and thank him for all his work.”
The technical team behind the BBC Two series, Coast, also picked up the Technology in Content Delivery and Technology in Consumer Electronics awards for its Coast Mobile service, a ground-breaking initiative in conjunction with Gavitec AG and Hewlett-Packard, which allowed users to access audio and video material using symbols captured by a mobile phone camera.
BBC technological innovation was also recognised in the following categories:
Judges’ Award – BBC General Election Results programme, for advancing the way information was presented to viewers.
Technology in Content Creation, Capture or Restoration – for the BBC’s use of mobile phones in the newsgathering process, which the judges cited as “a European pioneer in its field.”
Research & Development Team – awarded to BBC Research & Development’s interactive team for the creation and delivery of interactive TV services for all the main digital TV delivery platforms.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
