Archive notice: This article was originally published on August 21, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
MDR’s Thüringen regional broadcasting center will use BFT Nanobit technology for current television reporting. After a five-month test phase, production-services provider Media & Communication Systems (MCS) GmbH Thüringen placed the first official order. In cooperation with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, the technology will be used for the daily regional magazine “Thüringen Journal.” “This lets us report even more promptly from every part of Thuringia,” said MDR product manager Benedikt Otto.
Video reporters use BFT Nanobit to transmit broadcast-ready interview soundbites and short news reports from the field to MDR’s Erfurt center. Journalists can now produce at the location until shortly before airtime, independent of travel time, allowing events to enter the program that previously would have been omitted or broadcast the next day.
Reporters use a notebook with editing software and BFT Nanobit. They edit their DV footage and compress the source file with BFT to about one third of its size, then transfer it over the internet to the broadcast center using the integrated FTP module. Only internet access is required, often provided wirelessly through UMTS.
In Erfurt, the files are downloaded from the FTP server and decoded before playout. “Despite the high compression, quality loss is minimal and the material can be processed further as desired,” said MCS head of production and technology Klaus Sandig.
Nanobit managing director Mark Seitz said the pilot confirmed the success of BFT: “We are pleased to have gained MCS Thüringen as a respected customer. We have achieved our first business objective of establishing Nanobit BFT as a standard mobile video-transmission solution. We are convinced other broadcasters will also recognize and use its advantages.”
The patented BFT technology has already been rated “excellent” by the Institut für Rundfunktechnik and was brought to market maturity through Patentpool Innovations Management GmbH’s TRUST I innovation fund.
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