CASE STUDY: In Touch Ministries. LOCATION: Atlanta, GA. GOAL: SOLUTION: Delivering a global message to over 2,600 Radio and TV outlets.

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY: In Touch Ministries LOCATION: Atlanta, GA. GOAL: SOLUTION: Delivering a global message to over 2,600 Radio and TV outlets. Primestream s FORK software-based platform for media asset management and production automation. ;

2 Gary Longenecker Production Manger - In Touch Ministries IN TOUCH MINISTRIES DELIVERING A GLOBAL MESSAGE TO OVER 2,600 RADIO AND TV OUTLETS. Undeniably, technology has changed the way houses of worship spread their message. It used to be that the primary means of reaching worshippers was through an on-site service once a week or so, and outreach was mostly limited to the people who physically came to the building and listened to the sermon. But there was no way to expand the ministry in any meaningful way short of building another building and establishing another in-person congregation. As technology has evolved, however, it s become possible for houses of worship to reach ever-greater numbers of people more easily than ever before. In Touch Ministries is one example of how technology can drastically broaden a house of worship s reach. In Touch Ministries, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, reaches people through worldwide broadcasts. An Overview of In Touch Ministries Founded in In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley can be heard around the world via radio and television broadcasts, podcasts, the handheld In Touch Ministries Messenger, In Touch Apps, and the Web. Programs are seen and heard on more than 2,600 radio and television outlets in more than 50 languages worldwide. The ministry produces CDs, DVDs, books, discipleship resources, and the award-winning In Touch magazine, delivered to more than 1.5 million households every month.

3 FORK is the heartbeat of everything we do. Every asset we have flows through that system. It streamlines our workflows, gives us checks and balances we didn t have before, and ultimately improves quality. John McKinnon, Director of Broadcast Operations, In Touch Ministries. Matthew Johnson System Administrator In Touch Ministries FORK HAS BECOME THE BACKBONE OF OUR FILE-BASED OPERATION It started in 1972 with a half-hour program called The Chapel Hour, which ran on two Atlanta-area television stations. A few years later, the Christian Broadcasting Network contacted Dr. Stanley about including the program on its new venture, a satellite distribution network to cable systems that today is one of the largest television ministries in the world. With that, the broadcast grew from a few thousand local viewers to a nationwide audience in a single week. Today, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley can be seen and heard around the world on more than 2,600 radio and television outlets in more than 50 languages, and also via podcasts, In Touch smartphone apps, the Web, and a solar-powered, hand-held audio device known as the In Touch Ministries Messenger. Clearly our ministry has embraced technological advancements, which have allowed us to get our message to many more people than we could have back in 1972, says John McKinnon, In Touch Ministries Director of Broadcast Operations. Part of this expansion is thanks to digital file-based media. The broadcast industry has been moving away from tape for the past decade, and the ministry decided to follow suit. After transitioning to digital cameras, they migrated away from our previous media asset management (MAM) system and began using Primestream s FORK software. In the several months that we ve been using it, McKinnon says, FORK has become the backbone of our file-based operation.

4 We migrated away from our previous media asset management (MAM) system and began using Primestream s FORK. In the several months that we ve been using it, FORK has become the backbone of our file-based operation. By John McKinnon, Director of Broadcast Operations, In Touch Ministries. David Possien Editor - In Touch Ministries PRODUCTION WORKFLOW THE HIGH-RESOLUTION RECORDINGS ARE LOADED INTO FORK, AND FORK MAKES LOW-RESOLUTION PROXIES AND TAGS METADATA. The television Ministry functions more like a post house than a broadcast operation, and it works on one primary program: In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley. To create the show, they start by recording two recitations of a sermon every Sunday. With the program feed plus nine different ISO cameras, they end up with 20 different recordings of the same sermon. The high-resolution recordings are loaded into FORK, and FORK makes low-resolution proxies and tags the metadata. From there, producers can access the proxies from their own workstations to make notes and rough cuts using the FORK Proxy Editor. Then our editors take those notes and create a project in Apple Final Cut for postproduction. One of the great things about FORK is that it works with just about any nonlinear editor, John McKinnon says, so if we decide to change systems, we know FORK will be compatible. During the week we ll create pickup segments, such as ads for in-house CDs or DVDs, programs, or commercials for our ministry partners, he explains, which are loaded into FORK to await integration with the Sunday sermons. Once the Sunday sermon production is complete, that show gets segmented into 30-minute and one-hour pieces. These get packaged along with the commercials or promos, published back into FORK, dubbed onto tapes as needed, and sent to the various TV and radio stations or distributed in other ways.

5 Anne MacMillan Archivist In Touch Ministries WHY WE CHOSE FORK WE CHOSE FORK BECAUSE IT COULD DO MORE THAN OUR PREVIOUS SYSTEM EVER COULD WITH PLENTY OF ROOM TO GROW. Director of Broadcast John McKinnon has a long list of reasons why In Touch Ministries chose FORK. The customizable scripting on the backend means we ve been able to create workflows that reduce our need for manual processes, like automatically notifying producers when projects are available from an editor, for example. Another factor that sold us was the relationship we developed with Primestream during the sales process, which played a key role in our decision to buy, he says. From the moment we met the Primestream team at NAB in 2011, we knew Primestream would be a long-term partner. We use multiple file formats and codecs because of our different cameras, however, Primestream didn t bat an eye; they just made it work. They also have a lot of old closed-caption files linked with their video which they wanted to do word searches on, but hadn t seen any systems that could. While we were still in the decision-making process, before there was even a contract, Primestream took the initiative to develop just such a workflow, John McKinnon relates. That dedication went a long way.

6 WHY WE LOVE FORK FORK HAS STREAMLINED AND AUTOMATED MANY PROCESSES. INCREASING COMMUNICATION AND ACCOUNTABILITY ARE STANDARD FEATURES. For example, when a project is created on an editor s desktop, FORK will automatically notify the producer if he or she needs to create a clip from that project for the Web or social media. The Producers can create clips on desktops and then send them to FORK, which will manage the transcoding and ensure the file gets uploaded. FORK also increases both accountability and communication a standard feature. An editor can place a project back into FORK, but FORK won t let it progress to the next step without the proper information and sign-off. The information required at each stage is specified during setup, McKinnon explains, and if a piece is not where it s expected to be at a given time, then we know to go back to the last person in the chain or to the producer for sign-off. The fact that they can record and manipulate content digitally rather than on tape makes it much quicker, easier and more costeffective to prepare programming. We ve reduced tape costs substantially because we no longer have to make dubs during the post process, and we re sending out fewer tapes every month, he says. Once the file is approved, it can be automatically transcoded with our in-house Telestream Vantage system and then distributed, with everything flowing through FORK.

7 PRESERVING THEIR LEGACY NEEDED: CONVERT 35 YEARS(!) OF TAPED FOOTAGE TO DIGITAL FILES, A MAM SYSTEM TO MANAGE 10,000-15,000 HOURS OF DIGITIZED FOOTAGE. Besides the desire to keep up with industry trends, another reason to go digital was that they were starting to lose tapes to degradation. In Touch Ministries knew they needed to convert those tapes to digital files, and once done, a MAM (Media Asset Management) system to manage the 10,000-15,000 hours in 35 years worth of tape. Because FORK can ingest content quickly, we were able to log about 350,000 assets into the system in the first six months, says John McKinnon, the Director of Broadcast Operations. At this point, we re about halfway through our archive. EASY TO LEARN When we moved to FORK we also completely changed our processes, so there has been a learning curve, but FORK itself was relatively easy to learn, he states. With a week s worth of training, the team picked it up and can find and distribute content quickly. The more we use it, the more we discover, and the more we re able to refine our processes. We ve already been able to expand the system to do things we didn t know were possible at first, and we re still scratching the surface.

8 COMPLETE WORKFLOW SOLUTION PRIMESTREAM SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS ENABLE BROADCASTERS AND MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS TO CREATE, MANAGE, AND DISTRIBUTE CONTENT OVER THE AIR, VIA SATELLITE, AND TO SECOND SCREENS SUCH AS MOBILE PHONES, AND TABLETS. The Primestream FORK line of products combine multiple modules in a single, integrated software suite. This feature-set includes industry-leading media asset management, advanced metadata and scripting that empowers media organizations to implement automated workflows freeing humans to do what they do best create. Based on an open and hardware-agnostic architecture, FORK integrates with a wide range of hardware and software solutions from multiple manufactures. This high level integration provides complete control for end-to-end management of the production process, with significantly improved efficiencies that maximize the use and value of our client s media assets. Primestream delivers its solutions through a dedicated professional network of partners and systems integrators a team that adheres to the industry s best practices and ensures the highest possible engineering standards. Deployed in more than 300 broadcast operations across 40 countries, Primestream s proven solutions are implemented by some of the world s leading broadcasters, news and sports organizations, uplink services providers, online digital media operations, production and post-production facilities. For more information about Primestream s solutions: United States & Latin America EMEA sales@primestream.com primestream.com 2014 Primestream Corporation. All trademarks remain property of their respective holders, and are used only to directly describe the products being provided. Their use in no way indicates any relationship between Primestream Corporation and the holders of said trademarks.