Adobe Customer Story

NDTV, promos reinvented. ’s leading broadcasting television network standardizes on Adobe Creative Cloud workflow to deliver superior quality promos and advertiser tags.

“With access to the latest creative and video apps via Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, we can take advantage of new features without cost being a barrier.” K. Yegneshwara Iyer, Chief Information Officer, NDTV

SOLUTION RESULTS Adobe Creative Cloud for teams 40% 30% SAVED LESS TIME

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE PRODUCTIVITY PLATFORM CREATIVE CONTENT Reduced capital expenditures Improved productivity Designed an integrated, Produced more compelling on existing high-end system led to 30% reduction in efficient, and extendable content in-house with access by 40% turnaround time for promo platform for promo to more Adobe creative tools and advertising tags development and apps Adobe Customer Story

New Television Ltd. Ensuring quick turnaround time while maintaining content quality Established in 1988 Television Limited (NDTV) is an Indian commercial broadcasting television network founded New Delhi, India in 1988. NDTV is among India’s top broadcasters and has offices and studios across the country. Its three national news channels NDTV 24x7 (news in English), NDTV India (news in ), NDTV Profit (business www..com news), and NDTV Good Times (a lifestyle channel) form the core of the company. In the last few years, the Indian broadcast media industry has been going through a transformation. CHALLENGES With the availability of multiple news channels on television, there is also a plethora of news content broadcasted by digital media players on a variety of output platforms. This has led to an increase in the • Find cost-effective, easy to learn, requirements of news and associated edits and a drastic reduction in turnaround time for turning shoots into alternative to existing high-end edits, promos, and advertiser tags. “Today, we get merely three to four days to ideate, shoot, develop, and finishing system broadcast a promo,” says K. Yegneshwara Iyer, Chief Information Officer, NDTV. • Reduce software and storage upgrade costs NDTV had been using a legacy high-end paint, edit, and compositing system to edit promos. Although there were no particular issues with respect to the output quality and the comfort level of the editing team • Reduce focus and time spent on with the existing video editing system, NDTV faced multiple challenges with respect to cost, flexibility, mundane tasks storage capabilities, and productivity of the editing team. It was also challenging to manage multiple • Design efficient and flexible workflows formats obtained from digital cameras. for developing content to meet stringent timelines The legacy high-end finishing system was extremely costly to operate and maintain. “It was a standalone system with limited storage capacity for finishing work,” says Iyer. The company was reaching the limit in terms of storage capacity and adding storage was expensive. Software and hardware upgrades for the legacy system were also a costly proposition. The legacy high-end finishing system was a closed system operating as a standalone workstation. This limitation was leading to heavy movement of the editing work on multiple machines for processing using different tools. As promos moved from graphics-based to using footage from live shoots, the editing team was required to work on footage from multiple professional video cameras and in a variety of new formats. The legacy system did not support working natively with such a variety of formats, requiring footage to be transcoded before being imported into the editor’s timeline. “The video content production for a promo needs to move quickly and for multiple promos that would be delivered on a four-day turnaround schedule, one day devoted to copying files and transcoding was too much time,” says Iyer. NDTV needed a streamlined, efficient, and flexible workflow for editing the audio and video content to develop promos quickly. “We were looking for an integrated system that would work natively with different file formats to ensure that superior quality promos are developed and broadcasted efficiently with reduced per promo development cost,” says Iyer. Adobe Customer Story Standardizing on an all Adobe workflow After careful consideration, NDTV decided to replace its legacy high-end finishing system with Adobe Premiere Pro software and standardize on an all Adobe workflow. The company adopted Adobe Creative Cloud for teams including Adobe Premiere Pro CC, After Effects CC, Photoshop CC, Audition CC, and Media Encoder CC. “The tools in Adobe Creative Cloud for teams offer incredible integration, more robust features, enhanced media management, and a greatly advanced—yet familiar—user interface in which our editors can work with higher efficiency,” says Iyer. NDTV uses Adobe Premiere Pro CC to import footage into the system and edit natively without any transcoding with the help of wide range of codecs available. After Effects CC and Photoshop CC integrate with Premiere Pro CC in a transparent and seamless manner so that graphics can be incorporated into the video content. “Adobe Creative Cloud integrated with our systems “We were pleasantly surprised when we started putting Premiere Pro CC to use. We loved that we could bring in After Effects compositions or layers from Photoshop instantly,” says G. Srinivasan, Head of Promos, NDTV. more easily than our legacy The audio is processed by Audition CC while editors drag a project from the Premiere Pro CC timeline into a system and in many ways the watch folder in Media Encoder CC for up-front encoding. change was easier for users and NDTV uses advanced features of Premiere Pro CC, such as multi-cam editing and support for multi-format they adapted to it quickly.” exporting and delivery. The company now exports its video content to multiple output formats simultaneously, suitable for broadcasting to its channels. G. Srinivasan, Head of Promos, NDTV Streamlined migration process The migration to Adobe Creative Cloud went smoothly, without any work disruption. Post-implementation NDTV focused on training the editing team on the usage of Adobe Creative Cloud for teams tools. The company started with training users on Creative Cloud tools and then migrated raw and work-in-process footage. Once the users were comfortable with the new platform, NDTV switched all new projects to Creative Cloud and slowly phased out most of its legacy platform. “Adobe Creative Cloud integrated with our systems more easily than our legacy system and in many ways the change was easier for users and they adapted to it quickly,” says Srinivasan. Adobe held multiple knowledge sharing sessions to train the NDTV team on the Creative Cloud for teams apps. “Adobe was supportive and sent resources on more than one occasion to help us learn.” With simplified access to all of the apps in Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, NDTV’s edit and design team gets upgrades of the software upon release of new versions as well as additional new features between releases, enabling them to stay up to date on the video editing tools that are an integral part of their daily workflow. Adobe Customer Story “Producing content in-house Enhanced productivity reduces turnaround time using our own equipment and One of the biggest challenges for NDTV in its work is mixing footage from various sources in multiple Adobe Creative Cloud for teams formats and dealing with an array of audio formats. The ability of Premiere Pro CC to ingest almost any software, gives us full creative raw camera format without transcoding has enabled the company to migrate media from any DSLR, RED, or other professional video camera or hard disk into the Adobe workflow much more easily. control and helps us get the promo on air across India “We need to broadcast our promos as quickly as possible. We used to spend valuable time each day converting various formats before we could even begin editing,” notes Srinivasan. “Now, we drop everything within four days.” onto the Adobe Premiere Pro CC timeline and get right to work, helping us deliver content faster.” G. Srinivasan, Head of Promos, NDTV The large set of tools in Adobe Creative Cloud for teams for digital imaging, motion graphics, video editing, and finishing work, all integrated and working together on one system, is a time saver and productivity enhancer for NDTV. According to Srinivasan, there has been a discernable reduction in the editing teams’ need to move work in process between different tools and systems over the network. The processes of transcoding and exporting of files has been eliminated. Today, the promo team is better able to manage work, share source material, and deliver good quality content to all our channels and special events on time. “On an average, using Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, we have reduced the turnaround time for promo development by about 30%—quite significant considering our stringent timelines,” says Iyer.

Integrated tools offer multiple options Integration among the apps in Adobe Creative Cloud for teams makes it possible to import and edit media, insert graphics, process audio, and export the final media for broadcasting, without leaving the workflow. A workstation powered by Adobe Premiere Pro CC and other Creative Cloud tools enables the promo team to develop shoot-based promos instead of being limited to graphics-based promos. Although video editors spend the bulk of their time working in Adobe Premiere Pro CC, they also employ other tools in Creative Cloud. The team uses Adobe After Effects CC to do any enhancement to the video that is not part of the actual footage. “Adobe After Effects CC helps us deliver high‐quality motion graphics that enables us to broadcast more effective promos,” says Srinivasan. Editors can right-click in Adobe Premiere Pro CC to open Adobe Audition CC where they remove hums, wind noises, and other distracting sounds from audio. Using Adobe Audition CC, the team also mixes content such as voiceovers and music that begins in various formats and ends in cohesive, engaging promos and advertiser tags. “Producing content in-house using our own equipment and Adobe Creative Cloud for teams software, gives us full creative control and helps us get the promo on air across India within four days,” says Srinivasan. Adobe Customer Story

SOLUTION AT A GLANCE 40% reduction in capital expenditures • Adobe Creative Cloud for teams. Apps Adopting Adobe Creative Cloud for teams proved to be an incredibly cost-effective measure for NDTV. used include: The large capex associated with upgrading software licenses for NDTV’s legacy high-end system meant • Adobe Premiere Pro CC the expense was often lower on the budget priority list, resulting in the team having to work with outdated software. It also was tedious and time-consuming for the editors to shift machines for their work. “With • Adobe After Effects CC Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, every editor has his own integrated workstation eliminating the waiting • Adobe Photoshop CC period,” says Iyer. “The best part is that we can manage it at a much lower cost.” • Adobe Audition CC Adobe Creative Cloud for teams eliminates the need to manage software upgrades. Every editor has • Adobe Media Encoder CC automatic access to the latest versions, which supports compatibility among the team members. “With access to the latest creative and video apps via Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, we can take advantage of new features without cost being a barrier,” says Iyer. With Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, NDTV managed to reduce capital expenditure on high-end finishing systems by about 40%. “We have saved significantly on storage costs as well,” says Iyer. “Adobe Creative Cloud is an open and flexible solution that can easily work with any storage or media.” NDTV now uses a centralized storage using Quantum StorNext File system for its promo team.

Ingest once, use in many places simultaneously Adobe Creative Cloud for teams enabled NDTV to have a centralized setup with shared storage which allows editors to ingest footage once and use it in many places simultaneously. “The ability of Adobe Premiere Pro CC to export in a variety of formats helped ensure that our work on the Creative Cloud platform is instantly usable and accessible on a variety of open standard storage platforms and can be accessed by other systems in our larger workflow,” says Iyer. This resulted in a more efficient workflow and saved time and effort of editors and designers. “Thanks to Adobe Creative Cloud for teams, we have moved to an open and extendable platform that will allow us to build more functionality into the core environment as our needs expand,” says Iyer.

For more information www.adobe.com/products/creativecloud/teams.html

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