Program

There’s great utility in the television newscast, even in a media ecosystem awash in social, mobile, streamed and online news. But the format is way overdue for an overhaul. News, technology and digital media futurists gather to talk about how they are envisioning, testing and implementing changes to the format, storytelling approaches, data visualization, design and more as they assess how technology can enable the process.

CBC started a major overhaul of its approach to news storytelling, production and distribution with a bold remake of its flagship newscast, The National. Michael Gruzuk, Head of CBC News Studios, and Andree Lau, Senior Director of digital news Publishing and streaming, talk about the ups and downs of this dramatic effort during a keynote interview with NewsCheckMedia Chief Content Officer Michael Depp. What has CBC’s news leadership learned, what supporting technology helped facilitate the changes and how do FAST channels figure into the company’s distribution strategy?

PTZ cams, control rooms in the cloud and a new generation of teleprompters and robotics are reshaping the news studio, control room and production workflows. How is technology enabling more creativity, efficiency and productivity, lightening the load and inspiring news production leaders and their teams? How are teams using that technology to build tomorrow’s news studio & workflows?

Hubbing, news sharing and collaboration, AI, the cloud and cutting edge video acquisition strategies are enhancing the ability of content creation teams to expand their productivity while avoiding burnout and keeping the budget under control. How are technologists and technology helping to power this critically important mission?

Weather is the news these days and audience demand for content has only increased. You need to produce more weather content for new channels like OTT without adding additional staff. What if your resources across your entire station group could quickly and easily collaborate to produce content? What if your resources could create high-quality, differentiated streaming content from anywhere? Learn how you can elevate and scale your weather storytelling to drive more engagement and revenue.

The changing role of the anchor and other presenters, the rise of investigative reporting and explainer stories, augmented reality, video walls and even synthetic talent: all contribute to reinventing the way news is packaged and presented for a multimedia, personalized world. How are leading futurists shaping these changes and how are technologists and technology powering new approaches, remote presentation and other changes?

Barry Nash will present new original research, commissioned by FX Design Group, to study the impact on-set technologies have on viewer perceptions of newscasts and newscasters. The study features head-to-head comparisons of viewer reactions to the use of traditional monitors, touch screens, 3×3 and 3×6 arrays, large and seamless LED arrays and AR/VR sets and graphics. Viewers also shared their opinions on the authoritativeness of anchors who stand compared with that of anchors who sit behind a desk.

Low earth orbit satellites, 5G, LAN, WAN, internet gateways and other technologies offer new options for news operations chiefs looking to expand their connectivity tool chest while allowing reporters and videographers to shoot more stories and producers to reversion them for many media. How are technologists and technology facilitating this effort to produce more content for more outlets while allowing creators to work from anywhere?

Remote production and the cloud have led news organizations to rethink the way their teams approach the story, from reporting and editing to production, reversioning and multimedia distribution. How are cloud based technologies shaping this trend? How are roles in the newsroom changing and how is technology facilitating that?