Qatar Radio has replaced its existing radio automation with NETIAs Radio-Assist 8.1 digital audio software suite for all five of its main channels. The NETIA software, which Qatar Radio also uses as a disaster recovery solution, gives the broadcaster a more extensive and unified solution that addresses the entire production workflow.
The technical team at Qatar Radio selected Radio-Assists after performing site visits and extensive testing and evaluation of the software.
Systems integrator, Media Group International coordinated Qatar Radios full migration to Radio-Assist 8.1, overseeing the copying and conversion of all media, along with associated metadata, into the NETIA software system without interrupting operations and without the loss of any of the broadcasters 275,000 elements and assets. With this shift, Qatar Radio has been able to bring all radio production and broadcast functions on to a single platform. The Radio-Assist 8.1 software supports coordination, scheduling, and live broadcasting, as well as an archive of more than 300,000 hours of programming.
Radio-Assist 8.1 is installed on 34 workstations across two sites Qatar Radios main broadcast facilities and a disaster recovery site and used by 80 staff members on a daily basis. The software supports one principal channel broadcast in Arabic, another dedicated to Quran (religious/Muslim programmes), one channel in French (Oryx FM, with partner RFI), one channel in English, and a channel broadcast in Urdu. The transition of these channels on to Radio-Assist was achieved progressively over the course of a year. Early in the project, NETIA provided training both for administrators and users.
