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24 TVBEurope Workflow


France’s MBT managing the broadcasters


French broadcasters are managing their workflows with the help of a boutique MAM systems developer, MBT. Neal Romanek toured Parisian broadcast facilities to see how they did it


IN COMMON with many broadcasters, French TV channel TF1 has migrated from merely having a digital, multiplatform strategy to making that strategy the core of its operations. The channel’s digital departments used to occupy a building adjacent to its main offices and studios — an extra wing next door. But as of May, TF1’s digital department — totalling 800 people — moved into the main TF1 building and only seems destined to grow further. Patrick Guillou is TF1’s engineering broadcast manager and his responsibilities have expanded along with the need for a file-based broadcast infrastructure. “It’s important to have system information and broadcast working together,” says Guillou.


Until recently, TF1 has relied exclusively on its in-house team to create its file management solutions — including a media management system for news and traffic management. Its migration to file-based workflows has been careful and methodical, overseen by the company’s CTO, Hervé Pavard. “We would like to have zero per cent tape,” says Guillou, echoing sentiments of broadcasters around the world, “but we’re not there yet, especially with post production.” TF1 has links with other French channels, including M6 and Canal Plus. The companies often need to exchange files amongst themselves, but the promise of an interconnected,


M6’s new control room has been built upon a completely file-based infrastructure


www.tvbeurope.com August 2014


“A file produced at M6 will also work at W9, 6ter or any of the other M6 channels, which is cost-saving for us in terms of quality control and ingest control”


Mathias Bejanin, M6 Group


file-based utopia is still a few years away. “We would like to start in a practical way to have a simple file exchange between the broadcasters,” says Guillou of the plans to streamline inter- organisation workflows.


MBT makes news MBT (Media and Broadcast Technologies) has specialised in developing software for broadcasters since the company started in 2004. MBT’s CEO, Bedro Bengouffa, is no stranger to the workflow needs of big broadcasters, having spent five years as assistant technical director of France’s M6.


A company of no more than 30 employees, MBT has become a key partner in the digitisation of TF1’s workflow.


The need to make news and sports reporting more engaging, in a world where viewers are inundated with graphics and animations, means that broadcasters are having to push graphics production to the fore of all they do.


News is a key component of TF1’s offering. “In news, we need more and more graphics,” says Guillou.


“Graphics is very important for news, and news is very important for TF1.”


A member of the M6 broadcast team uses MBT’s MAM system on its first operational day


MBT’s NewsGraph was just the solution TF1 needed. The NewsGraph MAM system was developed specifically for TF1’s needs and manages the broadcaster’s entire graphics workflow. NewsGraph is a new concept for TF1. It manages the workflow of pictures, graphics, animations and After Effects projects and integrates with Avid Newsroom. Its first function is as a MAM to manage these various assets. Secondly, it operates as a ‘workflow processor’ that tracks all stages of the process in producing a graphic or onscreen


visual element, from job assignment, to artist versioning and approvals, to archiving. Before working with


MBT, TF1 had no enterprise- wide solution for graphics management.


Currently, TF1 is working with SintecMedia to develop further software solutions for its rights management, which are scheduled to be up and running later this year.


A French revolution at M6 While TF1 has taken a phased approach to its adoption of file-based workflows, fellow French broadcaster M6


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