WIN streamlines complex live production with nxtedition

nxtedition is implementing a new solution for WIN Network, based in its headquarters in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. The nxtedition integrated platform replaces legacy technology which was life-expired and inflexible to the rapidly changing demands of a modern broadcaster.

WIN is seen as a trusted provider of news, as well as general programming, across regional Australia. To deliver comprehensive coverage, its output delivers 14 different regional variations. Managing all this material, making sure it is readily available to journalists from other regions where required. Delivering each output has previously been labour intensive, requiring considerable engineering support to keep the existing multi-vendor systems running.

Seeking a new platform that would bring real economies while being better tuned to the expectations of young media talent, WIN selected the nxtedition platform. This is a software solution designed around storytelling, providing a frictionless experience for scripting and production. The nxtedition environment provides all the infrastructure required to track, manage and move media, making it a one-stop solution for the entire production workflow, serving journalists, editors, graphic designers, planners, archivists and more.

As well as supporting the 14 simultaneous regional news bulletins, it also enables the creation and delivery of online and social media content. Journalists create the story once, then re-purpose it as required. Central media consolidation makes for simple and seamless collaboration by journalists who may physically be thousands of kilometres apart.

“Our legacy systems had reached end of life, and we saw the opportunity to completely rethink the way we work,” said Matt Cable, network operations manager at WIN Network. “nxtedition brings a very complicated collection of technical products into a single platform, creating workflow efficiencies and enhanced features. We looked but were unable to identify any other vendor that could do all this in a single platform, and we were not prepared to restrict ourselves through the constraints of another multi-vendor architecture.

“We also value the collaboration we have found with nxtedition,” Cable said. “They are very approachable and open to customisation of their already impressive system to cater for our unique set of challenges. They bring a real enthusiasm for innovation, which perfectly matches our need for a future-ready platform. It also frees up our people to focus on content quality, rather than overly complicated production processes.”

Roger Persson, head of sales and marketing at nxtedition, added “In working with WIN, we are able to demonstrate how emerging technologies can help them deliver better news coverage more effectively. The plug-in for automatic native transcription of all media assets is a great example: it lifts the burden of indexing from busy journalists while simultaneously making the archive richer and more valuable.

“This is a great implementation at a major broadcaster, and we very much enjoy our relationship with WIN,” Persson said.

The new platform and workflows are currently being implemented at WIN in Wollongong, along with familiarisation of the system for journalists, editors, designers and producers. It will go live later in 2025.

For more information on the nxtedition microservices-based production platform and its capabilities, see nxtedition.com.