ENEX Technical Committee Meeting at Red Bull Salzburg / Austria

ENEX Technical Committee brought together the technology leaders from global commercial TV stations in Salzburg, Austria on May 4th and 5th, 2023. Over 50 ENEX partners met at the Bulls Corner at the Red Bull Arena, home of FC Red Bull Salzburg coming from Mexico to Kurdistan.

The conference started with the welcome from the organizers from Servus TV and Red Bull Media House, both part of the Red Bull. Servus TV is the leading commercial TV station in Austria with a wide a range of activities in the Austrian broadcast landscape. Red Bull Media House provides world class global video production for the Red Bull brand.

During the event the discussion on the Technology trends panel brought together Hans Martin Paar, News Director Servus TV, Fabian Dorschel, Global Head of Media Techology & IT Red Bull, Frederic Bochart, Director of Technology RTL Belgium, and Martin Boronski, CTO BCE, and raised some question about the future of broadcasting. Technology could help the media industry under cost pressure by simplifying the production chain. Moving to IP and the cloud to use serverless microservices is the way forward. Challenges are the lacking competences needed for this transformation as well as that the cloud technology is dominated by the US providers.

After hosting the Technology trends panel, Sime Jurlina, ENEX Head of Finance and Operations said: “It seems that broadcast and broadband have finally met. There is an evolution happening and we are looking forward to excitement around new and improved ways of reaching our audiences. We would like to thank Servus TV, Red Bull Media House and Red Bull for providing us an opportunity to have this discussion in Salzburg.”

Gerry Collins, Director of Product Management Mobile Networks from Intelsat provided more information on the interesting topic of how 5G, IP and Satellite are converging to give us a seamless network for contribution and distribution of our stories and signals.

Also watch out for SaaS as a service! Is everything in the cloud built for the cloud and providing you optimal usage? CEO of Fonn Group, Haarvard Myklebust gave us some industry insights as the leading software developer for newsroom production systems.

Our partner 1+1 from Ukraine closed the conference with their impressive presentation on how they are using Starlink terminals to cover the frontline, but also all other news in Ukraine. They see it as very resilient and reliable and are sure it will improve with more satellites in orbit. Ukrainian media received the terminals for free and is not paying any service fees.

There were many networking opportunities, from drinks and dinners to teambuilding exercises. The most exciting one was the Red Bull Gravity Challenge! 12 different teams had to land an egg unharmed from the height of 15 meters. It was a real team effort and… something really unbelievable happened. Two teams actually landed the egg uncracked on hard cement path in the FC Red Bull Salzburg stadium. “The Omellets” took the win with a minimum advantage.

To get ready to jump into the rich day full of new information and exchange of views we needed some help. And the perfect recipe was breakfast on the 15th floor of hotel Cool Mama with the most wonderful view of the Alps.

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ENEX Coordinators Meeting Sofia, Bulgaria

bTV, Bulgaria proved to be a wonderful host of ENEX’s annual coordinators meeting on March 30/31.  The meeting was attended by over 60 editorial representatives from across the ENEX partnership including many ‘first-timers’.  In a busy two-day schedule, Sky News presented the first plans for the Coronation of King Charles which will take place on May 6 at Westminster Abbey in London. 

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Global Media Congress and ENEX General Assembly in Abu Dhabi

Enex has held its annual General Assembly in Abu Dhabi November 15-17 with digital media integration as its key theme.  Geert Deawale, Head of News City Creative, DPG Media, presented their project to build a coordinated media business across all platforms which serves the Flemish speaking audience in Belgium.  DPG’s Headquarters, based in Antwerp, incorporates tradtional print and magazines combined with broadcast, digital streaming, radio, podcasting, sports and business outputs.  Journalists retain core skills but also contribute freely and efficiently to other outlets.

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ENEX held its latest Editorial Meeting in Cologne, Germany

ENEX is an association of the world’s leading commercial TV broadcasters with a collaborative approach: members share content and resources to provide each other with trusted and verified news. This is particularly useful during breaking news situations, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine. On Thursday 9 June and Friday 10 June, ENEX members travelled to RTL Deutschland’s main location in Cologne, Germany, to meet each other face-to-face and exchange on key topics.

“The core of ENEX is networking and collaboration”

The Editorial Committee Meeting was opened by Sonja Schwetje, Editor-in-Chief at NTV and RTL News and Chair of the Board of Enex. Sonja welcomed the attendees to RTL Deutschland and praised all members for remaining close to their audiences during the Covid-19 pandemic. She also mentioned the ongoing war in Ukraine, in which Enex and its members are doing their best to fight disinformation, uphold independent journalism and maintain media coverage in Ukraine.

“Video material is the lifeblood of Enex”

The meeting continued with a welcome and editorial update from Mark Evans, Head of News at ENEX. Mark covered the latest trends and developments since the last editorial meeting in Belgrade, which took place over two years ago. 

Thanks to Donald Trump, 2019 was a highlight year for ENEX in terms of editorial content, with the upward trend of “hits over time” (when a partner uses content) continuing into 2021. Clear peaks could be seen for the Covid-19 pandemic, with a total of 2,300 stories published in April 2020, followed by further peaks for the US election and Russian invasion. The most popular videos between March 2020 and May 2022 were from hospitals in Bergamo at the beginning of the pandemic, provided by Sky UK, followed by footage of a baby being rescued in Beirut, also provided by Sky UK, and a massive explosion in Beirut, sourced by ENEX.

ENEX provides its members with two types of content: content from other partners, and content which is sourced directly by ENEX news editors. Using the Russian invasion as an example, Mark showed a moving video with footage from Ukraine – showing stories which would have otherwise remained untold. After sourcing and seeking permission to share the video, ENEX verifies the information to check it is true and accurate. The content is then published for all Enex members to use on their news channels.

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Sad Passing Of ENEX Legend

Enex is sad to report the death of Michael Bach who was Enex’s Deputy Managing Director from 1994 until his retirement in 2013.  He was 68. Michael joined Enex at its creation working alongside its founder Nic Jakob. 

A native German from Glatten the Black Forest region,  Michael still lived in Luxembourg with his wife Geli enjoying frequent trips abroad to escape the winters. Prior to joining Enex, Michael was the Head of News for RTL Germany’s Breakfast programming which started broadcasting from Luxembourg before being relocated to Berlin.  

All his colleagues and friends remember his positive and generous spirit.  Post retirement Michael returned to work at Enex on several occasions including during the terrorist attacks on the Bataclan venue in Paris. His experience was much appreciated and admired by all those who worked with him. 

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