Avid Everywhere Provides WTTW with a Fast, Efficient, and Collaborative Workflow

Avid® (OTC: AVID) today announced that WTTW Chicago, one of the most-watched public television stations in America, has adopted the Avid Everywhere vision and employed the Avid MediaCentral Platform. By implementing a fully integrated, end-to-end Avid workflow, WTTW is able to accelerate its entire production process, expand real-time collaboration, and deliver high-quality, engaging content to millions of viewers in the US.

“The Avid Everywhere vision for the future of the media industry falls perfectly in line with our goals for WTTW,” stated Mark Jahnke, vice president and chief technology officer at WTTW. “The Avid MediaCentral Platform is helping us to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and raise the level of quality we are able to produce. It speeds up our workflow by 40 percent, which really impacts our ability to do more. We can now manage, produce and distribute media much faster than before.”

WTTW is one of the premier public media organizations in the Midwest, and is one of the top producers of local television content in the country. In order to expand its content production capabilities even further, the station needed to upgrade its linear, tape-based production workflow. By leveraging solutions from Avid’s Artist Suite, Media Suite, and Storage Suite, all built upon the MediaCentral Platform, WTTW is now able to create, manage, and distribute a massive amount of original content with greater speed and efficiency.

“Broadcasters like WTTW are facing unique challenges in today’s media industry, including tight budgets and increased competition from network, cable, and web outlets,” stated Chris Gahagan, senior vice president of Products and Technology at Avid. “By selecting the Avid MediaCentral Platform, WTTW is now able to expand its production capabilities and deliver even higher quality, more engaging content to viewers. The station has improved their current capabilities while laying the groundwork for future growth and expansion.”

With the Avid MediaCentral Platform as the foundation for WTTW’s workflow, cutting-edge media management tools from the Avid Media Suite and powerful shared storage solutions from the Avid Storage Suite have enabled editors, producers, and journalists at WTTW to upload, access, edit, share, log, track, and sync media and projects in real time, from any location.

To enhance collaboration between media professionals across the entire public television organization, WTTW has deployed Media Composer | Cloud, part of the Avid Artist Suite. This powerful workflow makes it easier than ever for WTTW to collaborate within the organization, with outside production companies, and with other PBS stations across the US. Now, contributors are able to access media remotely, make edits, and check projects in for approval. This allows WTTW to keep production going continually without stopping to re-conform media.

“Now we’re all on one platform, which makes it easy to share and collaborate within the organization and with external contributors,” Jahnke says. “We can share media assets—from video and audio to graphics—all underneath one hood with ISIS shared storage and Interplay. It’s easy to collaborate now.”

For Jahnke, Avid is the clear technological leader in a rapidly changing broadcast industry. “The Avid Everywhere vision is making it possible for broadcasters like WTTW to share media everywhere, work more efficiently, and break down barriers so we can get where we need to be.”

About WTTW

WTTW is a premier public media organization committed to creating and presenting unique television and digital media content across four distinct television channels – WTTW11, WTTW Prime, the Spanish-language channel WTTW Vme, and WTTW Create/WTTW WORLD, and on wttw.com. Recognized for award-winning local and national productions such as Chicago Tonight, Check, Please!, and MEXICO – One Plate at a Time, WTTW presents the very best in cultural, nature, science, public affairs, and children’s programming to almost 2 million weekly viewers across a four state area. WTTW is unique in its commitment to serving the children in our community, with half of its weekday broadcast schedule devoted to educational and non-commercial content. Visitors to wttw.com can connect with others in the community and access a full library of local and national video content for kids and adults, interactive features, event and membership opportunities, and robust microsites dedicated to WTTW and PBS series and specials.