CGI deploys dira! solution across South African Broadcasting Corporation’s entire radio portfolio

South Africa’s public broadcaster invests in CGI’s dira! solution for new playout, production and music scheduling system

CGI, the leading newsroom and radio system provider in Europe, has announced the successful rollout of its dira! solution across eight of the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) 19 radio stations. The rollout to the remaining radio stations continues in 2022.

The contract, won via a competitive tender process, has seen the SABC invest in CGI’s full dira! Solution Suite, including Onair Player, Highlander, Scheduler, Startrack, Orion and Broadcast Report. The proof of concept and subsequent implementation by CGI has achieved the SABC’s goal to enable dira’s use throughout the company’s radio environment—from sales, sports, news and current affairs to education and drama.

“The dira! solution provides complete integration to our music, sales and news systems, allowing users to work on an integrated platform from a single screen or workstation. Of particular benefit is the installation of a Commercial Player, which plays radio advertisements promptly within the specified window of the booked time. This will assist with accurate reporting and also ensure that skipping of advertisements, which leads to revenue losses, is a thing of the past,” comments Nada Wotshela, Group Executive for SABC Radio.

Established in 1936, the SABC provides a range of distinctive, creative and top-quality programs in all 11 official languages across its radio and television portfolio. The recent rollout of the dira! solution has helped the SABC to continue to achieve its mission to be a digitized national public broadcaster that provides compelling, informative, educational and entertaining content via all platforms.

Michael Thielen, Vice President–Radio Solutions at CGI says: “The current digital revolution phase of broadcasting is characterized by the transition to a unified working environment, where users can access all the applications that they need, in one place. We’re thrilled to be supporting the SABC’s full portfolio of radio stations with production workflow and visual radio solutions.”

In the March/April 2022 issue of RedTech magazine, group executive for SABC Radio Nada Wotshela said the rollout is part of a project to refurbish the network’s studios and upgrade existing systems.

“We chose dira! after our technology department explored a few international systems,” said Wotshela. “A group of experts in the field visited several countries and broadcasters of a similar size and mandate to SABC, to look at the best systems they are using.”

Wotshela told RedTech that SABC’s old playout system was causing problems, sometimes freezing or losing content in the middle of broadcasts. With dira!, she said, “that will soon be a thing of the past. We’ll get accurate music reports that are generated directly from the playout system, as well as the accurate and prompt playing of adverts.”

Read the full article on RedTech .