India’s News J Selects Grass Valley’s End-to-End Workflow

India’s popular regional news channel, News J, has selected a range of Grass Valley solutions to underpin playout and production operations at its new facility in Chennai. At the heart of the system, Grass Valley’s iTX integrated playout platform gives the Indian broadcaster increased flexibility and scalability as it drives to deliver more content, across more devices. News J standardized on Grass Valley’s production solutions across its facilities, including the video production and content management tool GV STRATUS, nonlinear editing software EDIUS; and GV Korona K-Frame S-Series and V-Series video production centers. This deployment was completed in partnership with Prime Associates.

“News J’s mission is to ensure consumers receive the high-quality content they demand, from breaking news updates to general entertainment, and delivered to any device, anytime, anywhere,” says Mr. Mani, News J’s chief technology officer. “Grass Valley was the right partner to provide us with the future-proof solutions we need to keep ahead of what our audiences want thanks to its wide-ranging portfolio and the integrated end-to-end workflows it supplies. Agility is critical to our ongoing success and we are now able to quickly add more channels knowing that the iTX platform can handle both our current and future needs.”

Chennai-based News J, part of the Mantaro Network, provides 24/7 365 free-to-air content across its news, music, and general entertainment services – News J, J Music, and J ET respectively. To meet the demands of a fast-evolving market, News J needed an agile solution capable of handling large-scale integrated playout – across multiple platforms – with greater scalability, flexibility and efficiency. Grass Valley’s iTX solution delivers a highly advanced, integrated playout platform, combining IP/SDI flexibility and scalability for future-readiness, along with end-to-end workflow tools for greater process automation and lower OPEX.

“We selected Grass Valley for the unmatched combination of an end-to-end production workflow and the ease of integration,” says Mr. C. Ve. Radhaakrishnen, News J’s managing director. “This is a vendor that truly understands the requirements for news platforms and its strong regional team was able to lead us through a smooth and seamless integration with no disruption to our service.”

Grass Valley’s GV STRATUS video production and content management toolset simplifies News J’s workflows with a combination of tools and customization for fast ingest to on-air, efficient asset management, integrated social media publishing and management of metadata. Also part of the deployment is Grass Valley’s fast nonlinear editing software EDIUS; GV Korona K-Frame S-Series and V-Series video production centers; and Grass Valley multiviewers.

“As consumer viewing habits become more fragmented, news broadcasters have to address a wider range of digital platforms alongside traditional linear services,” added Greg de Bressac, Grass Valley’s vice president of sales, APAC. “With often static budgets, this must be achieved without any change in resourcing, making it even more critical for newsrooms to invest in optimal tools and technology. We are very proud to have expanded our relationship with News J and to help prepare its operations to meet its needs today and in the future.”