The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. This 24-hour cable news channel was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor, Ted Turner.
While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center in New York City, and studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. Its headquarter at the CNN Center in Atlanta is only used for weekend programming. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U.S. to distinguish it from its international sister network, CNN International.
As of August 2010, CNN was available in over 100 million U.S. households. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories. As of February 2015, CNN is available to about 82.7% of households with at least one television set in the United States.
Based in Atlanta, TBS, Inc. employs some 11,000 people worldwide. The company is well known for its cable news network, CNN, and entertainment networks such as TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, and others.
CNN chose Polycom to set up its global video conferencing system for all of its offices worldwide. Being a geographically-dispersed organisation, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) needed to enhance the quality and speed of collaboration of teams across its various campuses. The latter include Atlanta, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as operations in London, Buenos Aires, and Hong Kong.
Having functional teams that include creative content development, technology and research, and finance, TBS, Inc, needed an immersive telepresence solution that would enable face-to-face, collaborative communication for better real-time decisions.
TBS, Inc, also wanted to improve the quality of life of its employees by cutting down on travel time to weekly executive meetings across its many domestic and international divisions and business units.
More about the solution for TBS, Inc.
Already having used Polycom video and voice conferencing solutions, TBS, Inc. expanded into high-definition telepresence by deploying three Polycom RPX HD Fully Immersive Telepresence Systems and over one hundred Polycom HDX Series Room Telepresence systems.
TBS, Inc. looked at a variety of solutions available in the market and then settled on Polycom video conferencing and telepresence solutions. A key driver in the decision to purchase Polycom was standards-based interoperability that allowed TBS, Inc. to optimize their return on existing video and infrastructure investments, including third-party products.
Another factor that went into the decision to purchase these systems was ease-of-use and high-quality video and audio capabilities.
These systems are installed in TBS, Inc.’s Atlanta headquarters, in Warner Brothers offices in Los Angeles, and in Time Warner offices in New York. The solution greatly reduces travel time and enables participants to experience true-to-life meetings where they are able to read body language and see facial expressions without getting onto an airplane.
For example, creative teams from the Cartoon Network use immersive telepresence every day to collaborate on story ideas and share animation, video clips and other multimedia content in real-time.
In addition to the immersive telepresence and HD systems, TBS, Inc. has installed several components of Polycom’s conferencing infrastructure. The company uses the Polycom RMX 2000 real-time media conference platfrom to conduct multi-party conferences between sites, in both on-demand and scheduled modes.
So, now you know how one of the world’s largest news networks installed and used video conferencing and immersive telepresence to reduce travel time for their employees, even as they have a positive impact on the environment. Here’s to brainstorming about and the telecasting of real-time news all across the world!
For more information on how you can set up video conferencing and immersive telepresence systems and solutions for your business, contact Actis at 022-30808080 or at contact@actis.co.in.
(Content courtesy: www.polycom.com and images courtesy: www.polycom.com and www.presentationpartner.nl)