WOIO Accelerates Installation of Newsroom Workflow System from Bitcentral

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Raycom’s CBS Affiliate Installs Bitcentral’s Precis to Replace Legacy Workflow System

NEWPORT BEACH, CA. – February 22, 2011 – Bitcentral, dedicated to open news delivery, announced today that Cleveland Ohio’s WOIO, part of the Raycom Media Station Group, has gone live with Bitcentral’s Precis™ news production and playout solution in its broadcast newsroom.

Raycom is standardizing all of their newsrooms on Bitcentral’s Precis and Oasis™ solutions and WOIO, Cleveland’s CBS affiliate, is the latest station to benefit from the Precis workflow thanks to the responsiveness and flexibility of Bitcentral.

Operational requirements accelerated WOIO’s installation schedule with little advance notice, mandating Bitcentral’s engineers install Precis and train WOIO staff on a very tight schedule. Close coordination between the two organizations resulted in the station being installed and users trained on the new platform only six weeks after the order was placed.

“We’ve enjoyed sharing content with the rest of the Raycom group through Bitcentral’s Oasis for years, but have been waiting while our sister stations benefit from the improved workflow and extra functionality of Precis,” said Bob Maupin, Chief Engineer at WOIO. “Throughout the integration of Precis, Bitcentral not only delivered the flexibility and performance our operation requires, but they also satisfied an extremely challenging installation and activation timeline.”

Raycom is among the Top 20 U.S. station group owners, serving more than 12 percent of the nation’s TV households. Its Cleveland station operates in an incredibly competitive and progressive market. Cleveland was the first DMA in the country to boast that all four network affiliates had converted to high definition broadcasts, in 2007. WOIO’s 19 Action News team produces an estimated 29 ½ hours of local news per week.

Raycom selected Bitcentral products as its station group standard because of the company’s non-proprietary workflow. This allows stations to scale their systems and integrate with existing hardware and software in each local market.

“The non-proprietary nature of Precis enables Raycom stations to improve newsroom efficiencies within a fully-integrated, multi-vendor environment. Building upon this open foundation, stations within the group can dynamically upgrade their production systems when and where needed, maintaining total control at a reasonable cost,” said Alex Keighley, Vice President of Sales at Bitcentral.

WOIO is just the latest Raycom property to go live on Precis 4. The group’s flagship NBC affiliate in the Hawaiian Islands, KHNL on Oahu, installed Precis recently as it upgraded to 1080i high-definition broadcasts. KHNL operates in a very unique environment; it is co-located in the newsroom of CBS affiliate KGMB, along with KHNL sister station KFVE, a MyNetwork TV affiliate. This newsroom has become the central hub for all three stations, producing more than 40 hours of local news a week utilizing Precis, making it one of the most productive newsrooms in the country.

Bitcentral’s Precis 4 is the most efficient, open news production system available to news professionals today. This product works with most other broadcast newsroom solutions and hardware to streamline production processes, and provides a simplified workflow. Using this platform, Raycom journalists in the field or in the newsroom can seamlessly create and package content for immediate distribution to TV broadcasts, websites or mobile channels.

About Raycom Media Raycom Media, an employee-owned company, is one of the nation’s largest broadcasters and owns and operates 46 television stations in 36 markets and 18 states, including Hawaii. In addition to television stations, Raycom owns Raycom Sports, a marketing, production and events management and distribution company; Raycom Post, a post production facility; Broadview Media, a post production telecommunications company; and CableVantage, a cable advertising sales group.

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