NewsTouch: press reviews and multi-touch multimedia applications

NewsTouch di Media PowerNewsTouch is the solution, developed back in 2012 by MediaPower, to respond to the demand for a specific solution for press reviews and multi-touch multimedia applications.

It allows to make presentations of great emotional impact live “at your fingertips”, which are not limited in the number of contents and maximum elements that can be loaded.

The NewsTouch system, is a cost effective software solution that relies on a Windows™️ workstation.

The NewsTouch competes in all respects with similar solutions which are much more expensive and less flexible.

Based on multi-touch tactile operation and a touch screen, it becomes an electronic whiteboard with HD and 4K UHD outputs. Although originally created for live press reviews, it has also evolved towards webclipping.

It is no coincidence that it is also perfect in presentations dedicated to the web, with maps, applications in HTML5 and today it is used daily by a long series of customers in the press, TV and web industry.

It perfectly applies to the description and reasoned analysis of sporting events, as well as in news and in all those situations where engaging overlay graphics contents are required.

It is possible to integrate still images in many formats and video clips on almost all known standards.

The advanced television journalist-presenter can stop the video in play, enlarge and detail the whole image or portions, but he can also insert graphics, draw and highlight areas on the screen, in real time.

Thanks to mixed and advanced entertainment capabilities, NewsTouch allows to broadcast video segments, pause them, comment on them and increase their visual impact using perfected drawing tools, customizable for each user profile, and recalled on the fly by those who are using the system live.

To simplify the procedures dedicated to the web, it has a built-in browser that allows to apply a “live outline”, that is to highlight the various useful contents on the web and also save them to be able to present them again at a later time.

The same is applicable to texts, graphics and in general to multimedia contents that can be used immediately live, or that can be saved on the local disk for re-use on a deferred basis for subsequent reviews.

Once stored locally, the contents become even more fluid, without the waiting times or the instability typical of live download from the internet, in order to guarantee a high profile webclippling.

NewsTouch is completed by a wide range of presets that allow to create an infinite number of news, entertainment or sports reviews on the fly and then recall everything in one click. Indeed, in a touch.

From HD to 4K UHD

Since its inception NewsTouch has worked in HD and today it is able to perfectly manage contents in native UHD 4K 16: 9.

The IT hardware, provided by Media Power or pre-existing at the customer premises, can be hosted without problems in the studio or in an engine room; it interfaces in SDI, HDMI, HD-SDI and, through an option, can drive a video mixer for secondary functions, such as switching between cameras, transitions and more.

The system consists of a studio “broadcast” core on which it is possible to load the ready-made press reviews and a client software that allows to prepare everything that is useful in deferred offline and in a very easy way.

It is the journalist who chooses and loads the review he has already prepared to broadcast and comment on live.

Another important advantage is the constructive simplicity of NewsTouch: it was created to be a powerful and versatile system, but deliberately very friendly in use by non-technical personnel who do not have to possess or learn technical skills.

The journalist / presenter must be at ease immediately and must be able to operate intuitively, as on a normal tablet, with multi-finger zoom and all the gestures that are now commonly used on mobile phones and portable screens.

An “electronic marker” allows users to interact with the images, underlining or circling titles, phrases, photographs and portions of newspaper articles.

Four very simple presets of color, shape, transparency and background, applicable with the marker, allow to highlight what is needed live, annotate and then delete everything.

Appropriate “anti-panic” functions come to the aid of the journalist in the event of an error, such as excessive zooming on a page that causes the interesting narrative focus to be lost, or being ended up in a corner of the screen: a simple gesture and you can immediately return to the center of the screen.

Other tools allow improved readability of content.

The graphical interface, fully customizable, includes customer-tailored backgrounds, icons, menus, and resources.

NewsTouch boasts a graphics engine that has been greatly improved over the years and is now in its fourth generation.

It is a very mature solution, adopted by broadcasters of great importance who daily use it extensively without any problem, with great fluidity.

Installation and training costs are minimal and a remote webinar is enough to have no more secrets in the complete use of the system.

It supports and works with all popular file formats, including multi-page PDFs, and is able to place single or multiple pages side by side on the screen for better commenting.

Architecture

In terms of architecture, the system is based on modular software that guarantees presentations with great visual impact in the television broadcasting of press reviews, web reviews, in “whiteboard” mode with graphics, weather, maps, video reviews, Skype calls, YouTube video play in full screen mode and even in cropped portions.

The multi-touch screen in the studio can be from small dimensions, such as 24 ”, perhaps placed on a stand; but it can also be integrated into very scenic situations with large 72-84 ”monitors positioned on the wall, vertically or on an impressive flat table.

There are two ways of use: with the typical conductor who updates the review on air live as new contents are made available by colleagues who upload them to the local disk in shared folders.

Or according to an advanced mode that relies on automatic loading, through local folders on the network, thanks to an external application, supplied as standard.

The graphic interface has been developed from the beginning so that the operator can always check the program on the air.

The operator sees on screen on the left side some thumbnails of all the pages of the review, whose name is, of course, customizable.

In the lower part, a customizable contextual menu bar changes according to the activated function. The background, which can be customized for each show, is made up of still images or videos, an animated logo or else.

Obviously, the press review can be composed of very heterogeneous documents of different nature, still images, moving images, graphics, internet pages with bookmarks, which automatically update and integrate perfectly into the live narration.

NewsTouch really guarantees great showmanship.

Even the “blackboard” mode allows to set a specific background and position graphic objects from the most simplified to the most complex, all with great manageability and immediacy.

There are many examples of employment at high levels in the real world, such as the Mediaset Group which hires NewsTouch on a daily basis for the morning press review of TG5 and for sports.

NewsTouch is also used by RAI and abroad by France 24 and by many companies, even not typically Broadcast, which create daily press and web reviews.

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