France 24 Streamlines Remote Guest Contributions with Qui...

France 24, the international news and current affairs television network broadcasting in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, has significantly improved its remote guest integration capabilities by deploying QuickLink's StudioEdge and StudioCall solutions. By integrating QuickLink's award-winning remote guest solutions into its production workflow, the global news network has achieved improved connection reliability, guest onboarding simplicity and enhanced contributions quality.

As a broadcaster producing content in four languages, France 24 relies heavily on remote contributions for live news and interviews. Faced with mounting challenges and persistent connection issues using traditional video conferencing tools, the team at France 24 sought a more robust solution. With the official retirement of Skype and the phase-out of Skype TX, France 24 turned to QuickLink to modernize its infrastructure and streamline its production guest workflow.

QuickLink's StudioEdge enables France 24 to seamlessly introduce highest-quality remote guests via Zoom, Microsoft Teams and QuickLink's own StudioCall platform, making it the ideal upgrade from solutions that rely on Skype TX. With StudioEdge, the video and audio quality of remote guests / callers can be optimized using ground-breaking AI-technology powered by NVIDIA, ensuring broadcast-quality results with minimal operator intervention.

StudioEdge resolved a lot of the issues we often encountered using Skype TX, says Eric Devoisin-Lagarde, Traffic & External Production Resources Manager at France 24. Today, while we initially planned to integrate StudioEdge gradually, the majority of our connections are already being made through the platform, as it is really simple to learn and deploy. Relying so heavily on QuickLink for our remote contributions helped ease any potential workflow issues with Skype TX being recently discontinued.

Initially, a single StudioEdge server was deployed into France 24's production infrastructure to support all three channels produced in Paris. Two additional servers have since been integrated, providing a dedicated server for each language-specific channel. Having dedicated servers for each language allows for increased flexibility and reduces any potential bottlenecks during simultaneous live broadcasts, says Devoisin-Lagarde. France 24 Colombia will also integrate the StudioEdge solution, further expanding the deployment across the network.

France 24's guest coordination team manages bookings, tests connectivity and ensures video quality prior to live appearances. Links for guest participation whether via Teams, Zoom or QuickLink StudioCall are managed within its internal media operations platform, which interfaces directly with the Master Control Room (MCR).

The transition to StudioEdge has been smooth for both staff and guests, many of whom were previously familiar with Skype TX. People don't feel lost when using StudioEdge, especially those that have used Skype TX in the past. They can very easily learn and use StudioEdge, as there is not a big learning curve from one to the other, says Devoisin-Lagarde.

In addition to StudioEdge, France 24 has also seen significant benefits from QuickLink StudioCall, one of the available supported platforms within StudioEdge. This solution enables operators to connect remote guests using nothing more than a web browser. Invitations can be deployed effortlessly via email, SMS, WhatsApp or by sharing a direct join link allowing contributors to connect within seconds. StudioCall provides a high level of operator control, ensuring a seamless and professional experience. StudioCall has been a great solution for those who don't want to use Teams or Zoom; it's easy to use and the quality is the best, adds Devoisin-Lagarde.

Additionally, Zoom integration within StudioEdge further streamlines workflows by allowing France 24's production team to generate meeting links directly from the web-based interface. With the full three-server deployment, France 24 has experienced enhanced reliability and scalability for its multilingual programming. QuickLink has helped us take a step forward in reliability and efficiency, says Devoisin-Lagarde. We're confident that this setup will continue to serve us well as our programming demands evolve.

LINK:	https://kitplus.com/news/france-24-streamlines-remote-guest-contributi...
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