Jan 27, 2020 | Customer Focus, News
Westfield, Ma., January 28, 2020—Myers, a pioneer in broadcast management solutions, has announced that Colorado Public Television (KBDI), a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station serving Denver, Colorado, is returning to Myers’ broadcast management solution, ProTrack, as part of a station-wide technology update. ProTrack will be the primary system within KBDI’s broadcast operations to manage content from the point of acquisition through to play-out and long-term storage. In addition, it will provide KBDI with a highly capable and proven platform to schedule, monetize, and traffic all of their media distribution activities.
Utilizing the latest version of ProTrack, which features an entirely new web-based sales environment will allow KBDI-TV to automate its sales workflows and more effectively monetize their broadcast assets. KBDI will also leverage ProTrack’s robust integration to their automation system, creating a more seamless and automated workflow to playout.
“Deploying ProTrack has better positioned our station for a more sustainable and profitable future, equipping us with the necessary tools to be more deliberate and efficient in our sales efforts and also more agile across our entire operational workflow,” shared Sally Wicks, Director of Content Management, KBDI. “We’ve known Myers for years and are excited about once again being able to take advantage of all the incredible feature sets they’ve developed for independent media facilities like us.”
“There is something really special about a returning customer as it validates the quality and value our people, products and services,” said Crist Myers, President and CEO of Myers. “As Colorado Public Television re-positions itself for the future of content distribution, we look forward to playing a key role in helping them reach their objectives in an effective and cost-efficient manner.”
For more information, visit myersinfosys.com or contact Myers at sales@myersinfosys.com.
ABOUT MYERS
Founded in 1982, Myers has been a pioneer in developing broadcast management software for the rapidly evolving media landscape. Myers’ extensive domain knowledge and systems integration expertise has served as an integral part in the development of a suite of software products and services that drive distribution workflows across multiple departments and systems. Media facilities large and small utilize and benefit from our unique, scalable broadcast management solution, helping them improve operational efficiency and profitability. For more information, please visit: www.myersinfosys.com.
Jun 8, 2016 | Customer Focus
The Challenge
The Gospel Broadcasting Network (GBN), an American Christian satellite broadcast network, had reached a point where it become necessary for the station to move away from its existing in-house system processes and implement a fully integrated broadcast management solution that could provide complete control over its produced and acquired content. The new system would also be tasked to play an instrumental role in helping the network create new opportunities to connect with their audience and increase viewership.
Gaining Universal Control of Back-Office Operations
GBN found the solution they were searching for with ProTrack, the industry-leading broadcast management system developed by Myers. ProTrack was selected by GBN for its ability to offer a centralized system for metadata, scheduling and traffic. In addition, with ProTrack, GBN could finally automate numerous tasks that were manual and repetitive in nature, allowing them to shift valuable human resources towards content creation and audience engagement strategies.
“What ProTrack has essentially done is provide GBN with a higher level of visibility into our operations,” said Mark Teske, Director of Operations and Programming at GBN. “Our station had reached a point where we needed to adopt a more unified environment for accessing, managing, and scheduling content. In ProTrack, we now have a proven and scalable solution – one that can take our operation to the next level today – but also provide us with a foundation on which we can grow moving forward.”
Simplifying Through Seamless Integration
“What also made ProTrack the right choice for GBN, was the fact that it had the ability to fully integrate with our network’s existing Florical Automation System,” explained Teske. “This helps unify our workflow by providing a comprehensive broadcast log containing both primary and secondary events to automation for playout.”
In turn, Florical will return an As-run file to ProTrack for schedule reconciliation purposes. Also, GBN can now leverage ProTrack’s broadcast management tools to further automate additional tasks. For example, by using ProTrack’s program template schedule and spot auto-insertion rules, GBN is now able to streamline populating their program schedules and breaks. In addition, ProTrack will provide an automated media listings export to Rovi and Gracenote.
Providing Viewers With Accurate & Timely Schedule Information
In addition to streamlining their schedule process, GBN was also looking for a seamless means to provide more up-to-date program content to their audience. This made the ProWeb Add-On Module the prefect solution for producing and delivering accurate and interactive program schedules to the network’s Web site – ultimately making it easier for GBN viewers to engage with program networking.
May 19, 2016 | Customer Focus
The Challenge
Since launching in 1995, The Washington Public Affairs Network (dba TVW) has provided its viewership with unbiased, unfiltered access to state government deliberations – covering all three branches of state government, as well as public policy events of statewide significance.
Seeking a way to increase the visibility of their program assets during scheduling, TVW recently put forth an initiative to implement a new broadcast management solution that would allow them to introduce and control the addition of new content metadata in a more streamlined and controlled manner. It was also critical that the new system seamlessly integrate with their existing technologies in order to create cost- and time-saving economies of scale.
Gaining Control, Reducing Tasks, Improving ROI
After conducting a comprehensive search for a new solution, TVW ultimately made the decision to partner with Myers to install ProTrack as its broadcast management system. By utilizing the workflow tools and advanced functionality that ProTrack provides, TVW was able to leverage their programming content across their entire broadcast workflow to ensure that their content was where it needed to be, when it needed to be there.
ProTrack’s unique and streamlined API allowed TVW to gain better control over new content as it is introduced by creating a configuration that allowed for the ability to auto-populate their program metadata from the state of Washington’s data. This eliminated the need for programs to be input manually. In addition, with the ProTrack API, TVW can now write requests to add and update metadata from their source partner.
“By automating redundant tasks, ProTrack provides our organization with numerous operational efficiencies that will help maximize performance and improve overall ROI,” explained Scott Freeman, Director of Information at TVW. “In addition, the ability to further integrate with our Crispin Automation System via the BXF Standard Protocol creates a more open and bi-directional workflow between two key systems, resulting in fewer manual and hand-on tasks, reduction in errors, and significant time savings in areas such as media updates, playlists, as-un and reconciliation.”
In order to extend their ProTrack capabilities and create an even more robust system, TVW is utilizing ProTrack’s API to query necessary program metadata for more accurate schedule views and then exporting their own JSON notated format to the cloud for consumption of their sites and services.
Sep 18, 2015 | Customer Focus
The Challenge
The NRB Network launched in December of 2005 with an internally developed traffic solution that was found to be inadequate for their scheduling, sales, and traffic needs. Additionally, they were unable to support key integrations that would facilitate cross-departmental workflows and media management tasks across disparate systems (e.g., web, PSIP, automation, etc.). The NRB Network needed a system that did more than just “traffic and billing.”
Building a Partnership
Looking out across the media landscape, the NRB Network discovered that PBS member stations had a near identical broadcast model to their own in that they acquire, produce, schedule, monetize, and manage their own content. Upon further investigation, and impressed with the extensive relationship held with 95% of PBS member stations, the NRB Network partnered with Myers to install ProTrack as their sole broadcast management solution.
Implementing ProTrack equipped the NRB Network with the robust scheduling and traffic capabilities that they required to be productive and efficient. Furthermore, key integrations made possible by Myers provided the network with a highly streamlined workflow across their broadcast distribution chain.
A great example of the efficiency gained is in the integration between ProTrack and NRB Network’s Avid automation system, which is outsourced and managed by Northstar Studios. ProTrack is able to not only automate routine tasks like play-out, as-run, recording, dubs, and purges, but it’s also able to generate invoices and affidavits based on the as-run reconciliation being imported back from automation. From there, ProTrack invoices are generated and exported to the NRB Network’s Great Plains accounting system, eliminating the need for double-entry.
The NRB Network also implemented ProTrack’s ProWeb module, which plugs into their existing website and provides interactive schedules and program information, allowing viewers to view up-to-the-minute schedule line-ups.
Streamlined Traffic and Scheduling Provides Efficiencies and Savings
Today, NRB is staying focused on the future. Allen Beckner, Director of Channel Distribution for the NRB Network sums up their feelings on ProTrack and Myers very well: “ProTrack not only gets the job done, it saves us time and money by automating our workflows. In addition, Myers has been especially good about meeting our evolving needs with responsive support, timely updates, and even taking on custom projects to help us get the most out of our ProTrack investment. This is more than just a solution, it’s a partnership.”
Sep 18, 2015 | Customer Focus
Challenge
The AIB Network was managing core responsibilities independently across their broadcast operations, making workflow efficiency a challenge. With each department acting as an individual silo, proper metadata management required manual intervention; a time-consuming process resulting in repetitive tasks and several opportunities for errors. The AIB Network needed a solution that could provide an automated and centralized workflow, in order to monetize their program schedules. Additionally, the new solution had to integrate seamlessly with their existing automation system and provide proof of performance invoices for their advertising partners — all within a tight timeframe.
A Responsive Partner
After an extensive search, The AIB Network selected Myers’ ProTrack to serve as their centralized broadcast management system. ProTrack not only provided the automated functionality that The AIB Network needed to increase profitability, but also could serve as the primary hub for managing all of the content metadata up and down their broadcast chain. Departments could now work more efficiently as broadcast operations could be managed in one centralized system that seamlessly integrated with their automation system. Also, Myers was able to meet the tight timeframe The AIB Network was looking for by getting them up and running on ProTrack within just seven weeks. “Myers was an extremely responsive partner to work with,” said Mark McGraw, Director of Network Operations, The AIB Network. “We knew we needed a new solution to help our operation progress, and ProTrack exceeded that expectation and has significantly advanced our capabilities and operational workflow efficiency.”
Maximizing Their ProTrack Investment
In order to maximize the full potential of their investment, The AIB Network decided to implement ProTrack’s Sales and ProWeb modules to further enhance their operation. The Sales Module allowed them to increase revenue opportunities by tracking avails, creating affidavits, and producing invoices. Its robust revenue reporting delivered the insight needed to measure sales effectively by program, daypart, client, agency, and more. Additionally, ProWeb automated the production and updating of web schedules with all pertinent program information. It also facilitated the promotion of content, which in turn not only enhanced The AIB Network’s programming, but the user’s experience.
Jun 30, 2015 | Customer Focus
The Challenge
Prior to implementing ProTrack by Myers, JSU-TV managed their scheduling, sales and traffic roles independently from one another — resulting in labor-intensive workflows, redundant data entry tasks, and inadequate reporting capabilities. In addition, they did not have an integrated sales management tool which limited their ability to optimize ad revenue. To keep pace with their increasing viewership and sponsorship, JSU-TV made the decision to evolve to a unified and automated system to maximize their operational efficiency. After researching and evaluating multiple solutions, JSU-TV selected ProTrack for its ability to provide a robust, integrated and efficient workflow — from program acquisition and ad insertion through to playout and invoicing.
Improving the Bottom Line
Upon installation, ProTrack seamlessly integrated into JSU-TV’s existing infrastructure, providing the station with the immediate benefit of automated workflows. By centralizing their broadcast operations with ProTrack, JSU-TV is now able to drive workflows across departments and technical systems, ensuring that insight and content is where it needs to be, when it needs to be there — thereby increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.
ProTrack also provided JSU-TV the ability to acquire and pass through content from a third party feed while maintaining scheduling autonomy and avails at a local level. Adding secondary events to their live sports enhanced programming and sponsorship opportunities across their operation. However, it was the ability to utilize ProTrack’s sales environment that proved the most valuable, as JSU-TV was able to capitalize on ad sales and therefore significantly grow revenue.
A Highly Valuable Investment
ProTrack has given JSU-TV the capability to prosper. By enhancing operational inefficiencies through centralized broadcast management and intelligent software integrations, the station has realized increased profitability by its ability to reduce costs and grow revenue. According to JSU-TV Station Manager, Keith Collins, “ProTrack has proven to be a highly valuable investment that has enabled us to take our media facility to the next level without breaking the bank.”
Today, ProTrack provides JSU-TV with total control in one solution.
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