LCI, the News Channel, assists Orange, the mobile telephone operator, in developing new live video services

Over 100 video clips available on Orange...and new subjects are being added daily. Thanks to LCI, Orange now offers live news and sports videos : live news flashes and sports action in small video clips.

The project

• Enable journalists to produce their features in two different-length versions: one for traditional TV broadcast and another for cell phones.

• Stream to Orange short reporting and news flashes up to one minute 45 seconds.

• Produce the news and sports features most often requested by cell phone subscribers.

• Implement an automatic system so journalists avoid performing technical chores.

• Create a reliable, unique production system that can feed other platforms.

The Manreo solution

• Manreo CAFÉ software automatically digitizes, encodes, and uploads video programs and is directly connected to the "Preview" system.

• Manreo CAFÉ automatically detects reporting and newscasts for cell phones through key image recognition ("studio cards") inserted by journalists in their features.

• Manreo CAFÉ automatically transcodes over 13 programs into WM9 format on a 24/7 basis.

• Manreo CAFÉ automatically extracts the feature's image and title, populates this program metadata, and transfers it to the Orange streaming platform in http.

Advantages

• Fully automatic digitizing, transcoding, and uploading: no technical manipulations for journalists.

• A reliable system requiring no human intervention.

• Ongoing production of over 13 programs, 24 hours a day including weekends

• Video files and the associated metadata automatically feed the mobile program presentation portal (feature image, title, etc.)

Benefits

• Journalists focus on their traditional editorial work while feeding a new channel.

• Creation of new features for a new distribution channel at reduced cost.

• Optimized productivity: no technical manual tasks required.

• A single production system for distribution to other mobile platforms.

The next step

After starting up a program production system for cell phones, LCI will try to leverage this distribution by offering the same type of service to other mobile platforms.

The figure below shows a scalable architecture for feeding an i-mode platform.