In 2020, FMM initiated a project to transition to CGI OpenMedia solution, run by a team with a strong focus on change management
France Médias Monde (FMM) is the French international broadcasting group comprising of the news channel France 24 (in French, English, Arabic and Spanish), the international radio station RFI (in French and 15 other languages) and the Arabic-language radio station Monte Carlo Doualiya. FMM broadcasts to the world in 20 languages. Its journalists and correspondents offer viewers, listeners and internet users comprehensive coverage of world events, with a focus on cultural diversity and contrasting viewpoints via news bulletins, reports, magazines and debates.
Challenge
FMM had relied on a legacy solution for many years to manage its broadcast news workflow, meaning its newsroom processes had been finely tuned and optimized over time, specifically for their existing technology.
For example, the system's user interfaces featured heavily customized colors, content displays, keyboard shortcuts and content management. To maintain operational fluency, the new interfaces had to be designed to mirror the legacy system as closely as possible, encompassing the familiar look and feel, shortcuts and content terminology that FMM's team had become accustomed to.
Solution
In 2020, FMM initiated a project to transition to CGI OpenMedia solution, run by a team with a strong focus on change management. Dedicated infrastructure was provisioned for OpenMedia rather than trying to share resources with existing systems, while workflows were reviewed and redesigned to be optimized for OpenMedia rather than mimicking their legacy solution.
The OpenMedia newsroom computer system (NRCS) acts as a collaboration platform and provides over 200 users with the information, functionality and transparency they need to stay on top of everyday news production challenges. The platform manages the complete journalistic workflow, including:
- Innovative research
- Story-centric planning
- Scripting
- Multi-platform output
- Rundown management
FMM took a gradual rollout approach, which included extensive load testing to validate the infrastructure. OpenMedia training was delivered in small batches to groups of users over several months instead of all at once. Each user went through three training sessions: theoretical, rehearsal and live simulations. Dedicated on-site user support was also provided for the first few months.
Benefits
The project proved to be highly successful, with editorial staff benefitting from the significantly streamlined workflows OpenMedia delivers. The infrastructure easily handled peak usage loads, while the focus on change management ensured a smooth transition for users.
Additionally, OpenMedia provides better capabilities for sharing between radio and TV newsrooms. This allows staff to coordinate on topics, guests and resource sharing. FMM is now looking to further improve integration between radio and TV with OpenMedia UNITED for centralized planning and content sharing. OpenMedia UNITED is an additional backend application service that allows users, who have OpenMedia Client or Anyplace, to log in to several OpenMedia servers at the same time to enable working across different locations. It also supports linking and copying objects between systems with all the necessary mappings.
