Dalet Digital Media Systems has announced that the BBC World Service has chosen Dalet NewsPro as the digital production platform for BBC Persian Television, the new Persian channel that will be launched later this year. This 1.6m Euro Dalet system will empower BBC journalists to produce news and information programmes for Iranian viewers. The media asset management platform will control ingest of video feeds and field material, as well as provide 90 journalist desktop workstations with editing tools and seamless digital archiving.
“Finding the proper production platform for BBC Persian was a challenge in that whilst there are clear synergies with our BBC Arabic channel which was recently launched with success, we needed a system that will allow us to address the requirements of both news and long form programming which the Persian channel will be adopting,’ explains Mike Cronk, Controller Future Media Technology and Distribution, BBC Global News. “In addition, our deployment timeline is aggressive. Our experience of the Arabic development and review of proposals for Persian made Dalet the right solution.’
“This Dalet NewsPro platform is really a replica of the one that was deployed successfully for BBC Arabic a few months ago,’ comments Chris Wright, General Manager of Dalet Ltd. “In terms of workflow though, it will be configured to meet the specific requirements of BBC Persian. This really illustrates the flexibility that Dalet brings to large broadcasters.’
The system which is being installed two floors above the one already in operation at BBC Arabic will take advantage of Omneon Spectrum Media Servers for ingest and playout and integrate with a number of systems, including AP ENPS text newsroom computer system and an IBIS play-out automation platform. The media produced will feed the TV channel and also be repurposed for output on the web and for radio
broadcasts.
Dalet Professional Services will provide the project management, workflow analysis and specifications, installation and configuration, testing of workflows and integrations plus a full training programme for administrators, super-users and newsroom staff.
The new BBC Persian television service will initially broadcast for eight hours a day, seven days a week, from 5pm to 1am – peak viewing time in Iran. It will be freely available to anyone with a satellite dish or cable connection in the region and meet the strong demand for a BBC Persian television service expressed in recent surveys where 73% of Iranians with satellite access say they will definitely or are fairly likely to watch a BBC Persian television service.
BBC Persian will be editorially independent, in line with BBC’s long-held reputation for impartial, trustworthy news reporting and analysis and draw on 66 years of BBC experience covering the region in Persian – supported by the world’s most extensive newsgathering operation: 250 news correspondents reporting from 50 bureaux allowing a global rather than purely regional perspective.
