Broadcast Software

We were hijacking another thread with talk about software, so I thought I'd create a new one.

So then, broadcast software. Radio, TV, news production, anything. Ask questions, post thoughts, or whatever you feel like.

(from other topic)



I'm not too sure about this "national stations have different needs" argument. BBC Local Radio isn't really all that different to a combination of Radio 2 and Five Live.

One argument I read was that network need very fast turnaround times - which kind of make me go "oh really, so local radio doesn't ever need to get things to air quickly?".

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has used Dira though as to how well it's coping...?

To be honest, I bet VCS was specifically designed for running music stations whereas Radioman is very good at running a speech station in a journalist self-op environment.

VCS most likely has plenty of music scheduling and voicetracking options - something that Radioman is sadly lacking in any simplistic form. I know you said you can do it, but it clearly isn't an easy thing to do.

at BBC Shetland we use Dalet... and I know they use that in Orkney and a lot of the Scottish radio news rooms.

My goodness, welcome to the forum drlnet.

Sorry, I said WELCOME TO THE FORUM DRLNET.

Can you hear me right up there?

We've had our Jersey and Guernsey correspondents for a long while; nice to have you aboard from the other end of the world.

How does Dalet shape up then? Does it at least keep working?

Also, does anyone here use Avid iNEWS (it's used by Sky I think)? Just wondering how it compares to ENPS (which is mostly a lovely bit of kit)..?

It wasn't when they first introduced it!!!

Lucky I didn't have to use it then, then

But I have heard some horror stories. Didn't something along the lines of everyone at the World Service refuse to use it at one stage?

IIRC it was the NUJ Chapel at the World Service.

They all stayed on ENPS"]BASYS for quite a while after it was introduced to the regions.

Lucky old me, I was in the second station that got it ... I know what too much about how those macros work.

I've used both ENPS and iNews (had a training day at YTV for the latter through my uni course - it's used for Calendar and apparently This Morning use it too). Both were surprisingly similar, they both had wires coming in at the top of the screen and running orders by their very nature are very similar.

However, I did prefer good old ENPS, it just felt more robust and easier to use. But perhaps it's because I used ENPS first...

Of course all the stations have diffrent needs, Local radio being heavy based around news and a newsroom needs something along the lines of Radioman. But it isn't really made for 24 hour music channels - Radios 1,2,6 etc are far better off with a system made for broadcasting music.

Radio 4 and 3 again need something diffrent as they have mainly pre-recorded programmes, with very little that needs automation

Hehe, I spent 15 minutes making F11 toggle fullscreen the other day. The macros are really a bit insane, if they ever add or remove UI elements everyone would have to re-do them.