FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 7, 2015

NewsMaker Systems and Octopus Make News with NewTek for Radio Liberty

TV NEWS PROGRAM "CURRENT TIME" A JOINT PRODUCTION OF RADIO LIBERTY AND THE VOICE OF AMERICA USE NEWSCASTER WITH OCTOPUS AND TRICASTER

MOORPARK, CA – October 7, 2015 - NewsMaker Systems™ today announced NewsCaster™ has been chosen to automate the Octopus™ newsroom computer system (NRCS) and the NewTek™ TriCaster™ for the new TV program Current Time, a daily half hour mix of live news coverage, interviews and original features. It is a ground-breaking news partnership undertaken with public and private broadcasters and Internet portals in Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, and Ukraine. Drawing on a network of reporters throughout the region, it offers content not available on state-controlled media to provide a new angle on local events.

Radio Liberty’s video broadcasting team opted to use Newtek’s TriCaster video production system to work with Octopus via Newsmaker’s Newscaster automation tool set. Using watch-folders, files and data are copied between Tricaster and Octopus, creating place holders, scripts and rundowns ready for playout.

For this new video-based venture, the specialists of Radio Liberty leveraged its existing news experience, as Systems Administrator Michal Weiss explains: "The workflow is extremely effective, leading to a huge increase in productivity. Octopus’ automated rundowns and collaborative features are exceptional and the system is extremely stable. Importantly, the whole system has been significantly cheaper than a typical broadcast solution, which is crucial for us as we develop our video presence."

Milan Varga, Technology Partners Manager at Octopus Newsroom observed: "We were delighted when RFE contacted us regarding their plan to start news broadcasting. They already had the right tool, but it wasn't used to its full potential until now. It was a great experience to work closely with RFE team and to integrate with NewsMaker Systems on this interesting project."

This new solution with NewsCaster means that journalists can now make full use of Octopus’ feature set together with the production power of the TriCaster. In addition, they are now able to work as a team on stories, organize reporters’ activities, track the progress of reports and preview CG text, graphics, audio and video clips.

About NewsMaker Systems
NewsMaker Systems provides enabling automation technologies to bring together the NewTek TriCaster and the worlds largest and most widely used news room computer systems. With over 40 years of expertise in electronic newsroom automation, NewsMaker Systems solutions bring the efficiencies of automation and the operational and cost savings of the TriCaster to any market size and budget.


NewsMaker Systems PR Contact:
Dean Kolkey
President
Tel: (805) 529-7000
Email: Dean@NewsMakerSystems.com