STV archive now available via ERA Cloud
December 8th, 2014. London & Manchester UK: ERA, a leading media IT solutions provider, today announced that Scottish broadcaster STV has engaged ERA Cloud hosted management services to drive its new footage sales website. Successfully launched by STV in October, the new clips sales website makes use of ERA’s cloud-based infrastructure and storage to manage and provide access to nearly 60 years of Scottish news and entertainment footage.
The STV Footage Sales archive – which comprises content from STV Productions, Ginger TV, Grampian TV and STV Glasgow – is recognised as one of Scotland’s leading repositories of regional social history, providing professional researchers with thousands of hours of news, politics, sports and entertainment footage from 1957 to the present day. STV’s clients – who include BBC, ITV, National Geographic, international broadcasters and independents, corporate & public media departments – can now access historic and contemporary footage on the website, from black & white interviews with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1964, right up to the recent Referendum on Scottish Independence.
“Working closely with ERA, we have revolutionized our video clip sales service providing an online shop window to our archive of over 50,000 pieces of regional and Network footage. We pride ourselves in supporting one of the best and most extensive TV archives in Scotland and now we have a clip sales system that is fit for purpose in today’s digital age,” commented Francesca Scott, footage sales executive and project lead at STV.
The new web platform powered by ERA Cloud services will transform the way users browse STV’s expanding catalogue of archived material. With a user-friendly interface, it provides easy access to clips in a variety of formats and features an integrated Twitter feed to notify followers of newly published clips as they become available online.
“We selected ERA Cloud because it offered the most simple and cost-effective solution available to address our business needs. With an off-the-shelf hosted application, it enabled us to launch a branded digital platform, with minimal IT expertise and risk to our daily operations,” commented Scott. “Flexibility and scalability are key – ERA Cloud services provided an intuitive workflow to go live quickly and secure scalable storage.”
Launched in early 2014, ERA Cloud offers a range of cloud-based services, including media asset management and publishing that enables content owners – both large and small – to simply and cost-effectively manage, publish and monetize video, audio and image files. It has been designed to handle large collections of content, from ingest through to browse, retrieval and distribution, all within a secure hosted environment. With ERA Cloud services, content owners can distribute and monetize their assets with ease through a branded web interface, enabling visitors to watch online, search detailed information and select clips for private viewing or commercial use.
ERA Cloud provides a secure and scalable hosted environment, integrating with existing systems and off-the-shelf applications, empowering cost-effective management and publishing of content – avoiding additional hardware expenditure, storage or IT headaches.
The project was managed and implemented directly by STV’s footage sales team. “Moving archival material to a digital platform can be overwhelming, but with guidance from ERA, the process of uploading and manipulating content couldn’t have been simpler,” continues Scott. “The ERA team was really supportive; they understood our business requirements and made the deployment painless.”
“We’re delighted to have helped STV launch this new clip-sales service,” said Sean Baker, ERA’s commercial director. “There’s growing confidence amongst broadcasters and media organisations in the use of hosted solutions to create, manage, deliver and archive content. As experts in media IT and workflow solutions, ERA is perfectly positioned to help them embrace cloud technology and realize the benefits it can bring to their business. With ERA Cloud, we have created a reliable on-demand services platform tailored to the needs of today’s media industry, providing the simplicity, security, scalability and affordability of the Cloud.”
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About STV
STV reaches 3.6 million viewers each month with first class programming including soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street, big drama productions, entertainment hits The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, strong home-grown productions from STV Productions and STV Glasgow and the most comprehensive local news service in the UK.
STV Productions produces a wide range of programmes for a variety of networks, including entertainment shows Catchphrase and Let me Entertain You for ITV, Antiques Road Trip and The Link for BBC One and The Lie for STV and TV3.
STV has secured two licences to deliver brand new city-focused TV for Glasgow and Edinburgh. STV Glasgow launched in June 2014 with STV Edinburgh to follow. STV Glasgow is available on Freeview channel 23, Sky channel 117 and Virgin channel 159.
