OPUS Media Asset Management Raises Bar for NRK Olympic Coverage

DENVER — August 19, 2008 — OmniBus Systems, the award-winning provider of comprehensive automation and content management solutions to the broadcast industry, today announced that Norwegian national broadcaster NRK (Norsk Rikskringkasting) has created an unprecedented asset management and logging operation for its Olympics coverage. Using a customized schema based on the flexible metadata functionality of OmniBus' OPUS media asset management system, NRK's 12 regional production centers can rapidly locate clips with detailed search criteria in more than 140 data categories, and gain instant access to material as it is logged in Oslo.

Up to 15 simultaneous Olympic feeds are recorded using OmniBus Ingest Manager at NRK's main Oslo site, with a team of eight loggers working in shifts to add metadata. Using OPUS search tools, staff at NRK's 12 regional production centers can immediately access the material and view copies of required clips. Logged events can be used for shot selection to build highlights packages quickly or to trigger media transfers to any of the NRK sites across Norway. NRK's separate HD Olympic production team also uses the metadata system for quick identification of required material from each feed.

To ensure operators would be able to keep abreast of the workflow, NRK's technical staff devised a custom metadata schema with advice from OmniBus specialists. The custom metadata schema allows NRK operators to define material by each event classification and by key points of interest within the event, such as break points in a tennis match. Each event has its own further level of specific, custom data. To speed the logging process, the metadata fields are linked to a database of keywords, providing automatic completion of frequently used names and terms. OPUS G3 technology allowed NRK to create tailored interfaces for each event and, as a result, increase the efficiency of data entry. An additional "Kuriosa" event feature allows operators and producers to identify amusing or odd moments in the action that do not fit into any of the other categories.

"The essence of our operation for the 2008 Olympics is to provide the most detailed and powerful search capacity to our production teams, together with instantaneous access to the library of logged material," said Hroar Pettersen, project manager, NRK. "The Olympics are a competitive event for broadcasters as well as athletes, and we wanted to push our coverage up to a new level of performance. The volume of material we are handling from the games, and the very detailed data we are adding to it, required a carefully thought out approach so that we could ensure the most efficient access. With the layered and flexible metadata scheme we have devised with OmniBus, we have built a tool our producers are using to create coverage of unprecedented quality."

"For the team involved in the design and delivery of this complex OPUS project, it is tremendously rewarding to see the system being used for such a prestigious global event as the Olympics," said Stuart Pearce, vice president of development, OmniBus Systems. "This is the culmination of many months of hard work by the NRK and OmniBus design teams."

OPUS makes system-wide searches available to users across all 12 of NRK's regions, using either the OmniBus SmartClient, a leading edge Web-based technology, or the OmniBus G3 desktop applications for intranet searching, browse and keyframe viewing across the varied platforms comprising NRK's installations. In addition, staff at an OmniBus G3 Desktop can control routing and machine operation via a consistent and unified user interface, whether ingesting, browsing the archive, or making shot selections and exporting content to a craft editor.

More information about OmniBus Systems' digital asset management, automation and transmission technology is available online at www.omnibus.tv.

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About OmniBus Systems
OmniBus Systems provides broadcasting, cable and satellite organizations with comprehensive automation and media content management solutions that address every area of television-related operations. Its newsroom, content and workflow automation solutions include acquisition and recording of rich media material, low-resolution editing, media asset management and playout. OmniBus is a global company with headquarters in the United Kingdom and offices in the United States and Singapore. More information is available at www.omnibus.tv.

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