News Broadcasting
Zee Media’s WION opts for Dalet unified news solution
MUMBAI: Computing and creative technologies aid workflow, storage and infrastructure solutions for all aspects of the media and content creation industry. IT solutions providers help with latest computing, networking, media hardware and software to provide the best output.
Specialised companies bring extensive product knowledge and world-class engineering to industry. Installation of video servers enables content producers and journalists to upload content from the field directly to the broadcaster’s customised Content Management System (CMS), an action that automatically creates planning events.
Dalet Digital Media System recently announced that the youngest venture of Zee Media Corporation World Is One News (WION) has utilised Dalet Unified News Operations. Dalet solution is powering and supporting the international news channel with comprehensive media logistics, newsroom computer system and news production workflow facilitated by the Dalet Galaxy Media Asset Management (MAM) and orchestration platform, with full ingest and playout operations relying on Dalet Brio video servers.
WION delivers news coverage from across the globe with a South Asian perspective to the international audience across the web, mobile devices and TV. Operated by Zee with headquarters in India and bureaux in 37 global locations, WION is the first India-based network to have a presence in the U.K., U.S., China, Russia and Africa, making it south Asia’s first truly convergent, multi-media English news network.
A critical aspect of the installation for WION was to enable journalists and producers to upload content from the field directly to the broadcaster’s customized Content Management System (CMS), an action that automatically creates planning events thanks to the Dalet Unified News Operations collaborative workflow.
“Our philosophy of ‘being one with the world’ holds that news is the common thread that binds us all together and makes critical the ability to deliver news in the moment, from anywhere to any channel,” says WION editor-in-chief Rohit Gandhi. “We sought and found a partner in Dalet to provide the backbone to our network-wide news infrastructure. The solution not only accelerates time to air but enables better collaboration with a highly efficient and agile set of tools, from remote content creation to centralized content curation and onwards to publication on the digital and TV platforms our audiences are choosing.”
WION is the first broadcaster in India to deploy the Dalet Galaxy-based Unified News Operations workflow.
Easy-to-use production tools via web-based Dalet WebSpace and relevant story content are readily available to every user in the newsroom and in the field. When WION journalists receive a notification about an assignment, they can search, browse and access every asset in the Dalet platform from their desktop, laptop or mobile device, whether it is news wires and footage that just came in, or existing stories and video packages. Beyond the walls of the newsroom, WION journalists use the Dalet On-the-Go mobile app to check assignments and create packages, exporting content to the CMS, as well as to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Video and scripts can be logged and edited within Dalet OneCut, or sent to Adobe Premiere via Dalet Xtend for craft editing. Media and associated metadata are tracked and managed by Dalet Galaxy every step of the way, including playlist export and import to and from the CMS. Once approved by a producer, final content is readily available for use in the built-in production control room automation and exported to the CMS as a multimedia story object.
Beyond the comprehensive set of tools and services natively built into Dalet Galaxy, the advanced web-services API integrates and unifies the full ecosystem of technologies and in-house tools used at Zee WION, including the custom CMS based on Kentico that drives workflows within the Dalet solution. Other integrations include WINBDL teleprompter, WASP graphics system and Quantum SNFS with NetApp E series storage.
“This installation is a perfect example of the Dalet Unified News Operations solution. Having the NRCS, the production tools and the archives fully integrated, along with a flexible workflow engine and web-services API, enables WION to truly implement a ‘digital first’ approach to deliver the right content, on the right device, to the right audience, ahead of the competition,” says Dalet Asia Pacific general manager Raoul Cospen. “Deployed in record time, the end-to-end workflow was on air within a few short weeks of signing the contract for Dalet Unified News Operations.”
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News Broadcasting
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
