New Technology and the Human Element
Over the past few weeks, I have been working hard at Global BC to implement a new system that better integrates the scripting computers that the producers and reporters use with the on-air graphics systems that create all the names, numbers, etc. that you see on the screen during the broadcast.
For example, let’s say a viewer emails in a picture that we want to put on TV. With the old system, the graphics operators would take the picture, crop it, put it into the Deko (the graphics computer), and save the page to a number they could play back later, or make a movie that could be dropped into a story. With the new system, the picture is saved and put into a template through the producer’s scripting computer, and the graphic appears in the playlist that will go on air. This will free up time for graphics operators to create more complex graphics (like maps) and make it easier to share graphics across the different Global stations across the country.
When we put together the plan of how this was going to work, I had a few important considerations…
- We had to make it so the graphics would work across 3 on-air machines, as well as dozens of far-flung producer workstations.
- We had to create a process that would seem familiar enough to everyone who used it.
- We had to make the new process really fast. Sometimes we’re making graphics literally seconds to air, and any delay in the file handling would greatly impact our ability to cover live breaking news.
By far the most important part to me was that of the end-user experience. The graphics operators are very busy all day creating special graphics that go into the shows. Anything that would slow down their day would create undue hardship. So I ended up putting together a lot of computer code that would make moving the created graphic to the on-air machines as simple as hitting a button. This also had to be done with the producers and reporters computers. Their job is producing the news, not dealing with technology. The system had to take that into account.
Often when we go about changing the way a system works, we don’t pay enough attention to the motivations of the person who has to use the system. The benefit of the new system for producers is that they can see what their graphic is going to look like before it goes to air, right from their computer. The benefit for the people in the graphics room is we’re now going to be faster at doing the job in a facility that will be handing the news in 4 different markets and Global National.
When doing any kind of project, you can never go wrong when you begin with the end audience in mind.
