How can we support the work of journalists with reliable and efficient tools to realise new products and experiences for consumers?
This use case is led by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the international news agency, along with RTVSLO, the Slovenian public broadcaster. Both serve as “laboratories” to develop and test the TRANSMIXR newsroom toolbox. To illustrate how the Newsroom Toolbox can be used to create immersive content, the use case, in parallel to testing the tools in newsrooms, is producing the “Planica XRperience”: an immersive experience around an international sporting event: the world ski-jumping championships of Planica in Slovenia. On the technical side, the newsroom toolbox is developed by WLT and MOD (monitoring tool), CERTH-IDT (formatting tool), HSLU-TCD-INTEL (volumetric tools).
The Problem
Modern newsrooms face several challenges that impede their ability to effectively engage with audiences and manage the increasing demands of news production:
- High Production Costs and Complexity: Producing quality content, especially for breaking news, often involves significant expense and logistical complexity, making it difficult for newsrooms to respond swiftly and effectively in real-time.
- Limited Interaction and Engagement: Traditional news formats struggle to captivate and retain audience attention, particularly as consumers increasingly seek immersive and interactive content experiences.
- Underutilisation of Rich Media Archives: Many news organisations possess extensive archives of multimedia content that are underused due to the lack of tools to integrate historical media seamlessly into current news narratives.
The Solution
Focusing on the needs of contemporary newsrooms, the Newsroom Toolbox equips journalists with AI and XR tools to enhance storytelling and streamline news production:
- AI-Driven Content Curation: Leveraging AI to quickly sift through large datasets and archives, identifying relevant content that enhances current news stories and providing journalists with pre-curated information to enrich their reports.
- Immersive Storytelling Kits: Enabling reporters to craft stories that viewers can explore interactively, from exploring a climate change model in VR to following a live event through a 360-degree video feed.
- Integrated XR Workflows: Simplifying the integration of XR elements into daily news production, allowing for easy creation, editing, and broadcasting of immersive news content.
Target Audience
Geared towards news content creators and technical users in media:
- Journalists and Broadcasters: Utilize tools within the Newsroom Toolbox to enhance storytelling capabilities and workflow efficiency.
- Technical Directors and Media Technology Developers: Focus on integrating and optimising XR technologies in news production workflows.
- Public Institutions and Educational Organizations: Implement these technologies to educate about media and information.
- E-Sports Organizations and Sports Enthusiasts: Explore new formats for broadcasting events using XR to increase viewer engagement and interactivity.
- Innovators and Early Adopters: General users interested in experiencing the latest advancements in news technology.
- Monitor
- Capture
- Edit
- Experience
Pre-Pilot
1. Finding out what audiences want: what kind of immersive experiences?
Three online design workshops were organised. Each workshop corresponded to a different step of news content creation and how the TRANSMIXR tools could be used throughout the workflow: getting the news, writing the news, delivering the news. The aim of the design workshops was to examine how the current technological solutions can fulfil the needs of professional users.
2. XR guidelines for reporters: understand the must-haves with the goal to create a comprehensive, engaging, and accessible XR platform for (immersive) journalism. Definition of key concepts for the developemnt.
3. The Toolbox: Concept 1 Monitoring/Search Tool
Designed for journalists, providing breaking news alerts and a customizable search function with selectable sources. It also identifies trending narratives for ongoing stories, aiming to save time, offer a reliable open-source solution, and reduce dependence on big tech, ultimately increasing journalist satisfaction and re-engaging the public with traditional news.
4. The Toolbox: Concept 2 Formatting Tool
Helping journalists to quickly convert news into various formats for different platforms (e.g., TV reports to web with subtitles or TikTok videos). It also offers content adaptation features like video reformatting and text rewriting, plus XR content integration. Ideally, it would integrate with the monitoring/search tool for an all-in-one journalistic platform. Take a look at this description video of the video summarisation tool.
Pilot
1. XR Stories: The Planica Experience
To bring the Newsroom Toolkit into practice, we’re developing an immersive experience focused on a sporting event, driven by end-user interest in such content. Our chosen subject for this concrete example is the “Planica” Ski Jumping World Championships, Slovenia’s largest sporting event, leveraging TRANSMIXR tools to create this engaging virtual environment.
2. XR Stories: How it works?
Follow the step by step on how we used the toolkit for immersive experiences.
Post-Pilot
Stay tuned for what we have to offer!