Magnolia Launches Web Content Management Solution for the Broadcast Media; Magnolia-on-Air Dramatically Cuts Time and Costs for Transferring Broadcast Content to the Web.

M2 PRESSWIRE-4 December 2008-Magnolia: Magnolia Launches Web Content Management Solution for the Broadcast Media; Magnolia-on-Air Dramatically Cuts Time and Costs for Transferring Broadcast Content to the Web(C)1994-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:03122008

Magnolia, the Open Source content management vendor that delivers simplicity on an enterprise scale, has today officially launched Magnolia-on-Air, a new dedicated solution for broadcasters and organisations looking to manage their own broadcast content over the internet. The workflow within Magnolia-on-Air allows users to capture broadcast content and rapidly repurpose it for publication on the web by providing a seamless environment for transferring content between professional broadcast systems and a feature-rich interactive web-presence.

The system also allows users to draw online feedback and community content back into the broadcast production environment - a key feature as members of the public are now often the first to capture footage of breaking stories on mobile phone cameras and other devices.

"Based on the needs of Magnolia's existing customers in the broadcast industry, the system has been designed to cut production costs, get rich media content to the web first and then, to draw timely, online community-participation back into the broadcast environment," explains Magnolia's CTO Boris Kraft. "We have taken the best Open Source technology components to develop an open and highly interoperable system based on the real-world needs of the modern broadcast media. But with the web increasingly becoming a rich-media environment, we have already received much broader interest in the system from large corporate and public sector organisations looking to take their own broadcast channels online for corporate communications."

Magnolia-on-Air not only captures high-definition rich-media streams but also the surrounding broadcast metadata, including presenters' scripts, editors' notes and almost any other information required from the host systems. With all the relevant information in the Magnolia-on-Air system, web editors have one intuitive browser-based interface in which they can edit video and audio streams, create and re-size static photography, as well as to produce headlines, leaders and accompanying stories from the surrounding metadata.

Answering the call from modern television audiences for ever-more interactivity with programming, the Magnolia-on-Air also allows broadcasters to instantly draw comment back from the web into the broadcast environment to create real-time dialogue with viewers. The system even allows rich-media content, uploaded to the web by viewers, to be pulled directly into the broadcast environment. This allows broadcasters to capture and instantly broadcast first-footage of breaking stories caught on camera by members of the public.

Magnolia-on-Air has been developed in conjunction with FutureLab, a technology innovation think-tank and development company with extensive experience in the media, telecoms and cable businesses. FutureLab's existing customers include Cablecom (Liberty Global), Swisscom, SF-Schweizer Fernsehen (Swiss TV). The online content delivery platform within Magnolia-on-Air is based on Futurelab's high-perfomance Mediaflow architecture which has been proven in large ISP environment.

"We have already received a great deal of interest in the product, even ahead of the official launch. The broadcast industry seems genuinely amazed at what can be done with Open Source technology," concludes Kraft. "Our first commercial implementation of Magnolia-on-Air is already underway and will be announced early in the new year."

About Magnolia

Magnolia is the Open Source content management system that delivers simplicity on an enterprise scale. It is renowned for its outstanding combination of ease-of-use and flexible software architecture. Magnolia powers digital communication for customers ranging from governments to leading FORTUNE 500 enterprises in more than 100 countries on all continents of the world. Magnolia International Ltd. is the creator of Magnolia and provides services, support, implementation, consulting and training for its enterprise clients. Find out more about Magnolia at: www.magnolia-cms.com

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