Image: Diarmuid Doran
HOW PLATFORM-BASED PLANNING REDUCES
A
complexity
cross the broadcast industry, organisations have typically built their technology systems around the needs of individual departments. That’s completely understandable; requirements often vary and budgets can be allocated at different times. The main downside of this approach, however, is that workflows are often quite fragmented, particularly as multiple specialist systems are integrated, sometimes more successfully than others. For Ireland’s national broadcaster, RTÉ, the design of its new IT strategy provided an opportunity to shift the emphasis to platformbased planning and improve workflows across the organisation. This philosophy has recently helped shape the search for a replacement production scheduling and resource management platform that could operate across departmental boundaries rather than serve a single team or use case. As RTÉ project manager Brian Cash explains, many broadcasters have been “hemmed in” by procurement driven by individual departmental needs, with the almost inevitable knock-on effect on operational complexity. “We identified that, as part of our wider IT strategy, moving to
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platform-based planning had enormous potential. The opportunity was to move away from isolated systems and towards platforms that could operate across departmental boundaries, and support a much broader range of activities. “Our existing scheduling platform had been end-of-life for some time,” says Cash, “but we also viewed the project as an opportunity to address broader operational opportunities. For instance, we wanted greater flexibility in the way information was shared and managed, as some of our existing reporting processes and templates had been in place for a decade.” A genius move The research phase lasted two to three years and involved discussions with more than ten broadcasters. By the time RTÉ initiated the formal tender process, the field had narrowed considerably, with only two suppliers making the final shortlist. One of them was dzjinius, a software company that had already established a successful relationship with RTÉ through its work with the broadcaster’s long-running drama series, Fair City. The company has developed a modular production management
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