Octopus Newsroom
Octopus is a powerful newsroom system for TV, radio, sports and broadcast organizations. The platform facilitates collaboration between news team members at all stages of news writing and production, all the way to full and advanced management. Octopus Newsroom also provides the tools to publish content to online and social media from a single platform.
Octopus runs on Linux, Windows and Apple OS X. In addition, applications are available for Android and Apple iOS. Octopus Newsroom can be used by a small regional channel with limited news coverage to large news networks.
Managing scripts and summaries
From creating the summary, based on a template or from scratch, to final storage or archiving, Octopus Newsroom offers the most flexible and dynamic features broadcasters are likely to need.
Quick story creation buttons
As live production can be a very stressful job with minimal reaction time, Octopus 8.1. features quick story creation buttons which are available for each news source.
Accurate time management
In the timeline, Octopus 8.1 offers all the required information, including scheduled duration, actual duration, back-time, hit time, countdown and many other options. Customizable slug colors, status and forms are available to all users.
Script history
Identify changes to the script using history so that users can easily compare two versions of the same script and see the differences highlighted in different colors.
Library of unwanted terms
A list of unwanted terms/words can be defined in Octopus Newsroom along with recommended alternatives that users can choose instead of using the unwanted terms.
Workflow design and management
Octopus 8's assignment desk helps organize and assign tasks to one or multiple users, based on a modern scheduling calendar.
Flexible and customizable news feeds
Octopus can be easily configured and customized to meet the workflow requirements of any broadcaster, regardless of size, language or other factors. Should the workflow require changes in the future, the system can be easily reconfigured without any special development.
Contact and visitor management
Octopus includes an efficient contact manager that allows users to store and manage all their contacts in a secure, central location. Access rights and usage can be set for each contact individually.
Approval of editorial workflows
The system can ensure that all scripts, videos, CG and other content published in a current series, on social media or on the website are approved according to the requirements of each news outlet.
Management of all incoming sources
Octopus 8.1 helps you collect all incoming news feeds from various sources such as: news agencies, email, journalists and many other sources. The system can handle and display text and images as well as video and audio material in the same view.
Connect “anything to anything” easily
Octopus 8.1 supports easy drag, drop and link of any elements within the system. Users can link wires to topics, archived topics to active ones, media files to an assignment, URL, images or PDF files to a contact, etc.
Social media, internet and reporters
Octopus 8.1 enables multiple users from multiple and diverse teams to collaborate on various topics, regardless of production platforms (television, radio, social media, web CMS, etc.)
Social media integration
Octopus integrates with the most popular social media platforms in both directions, meaning users can search for content on these platforms and follow hashtags and keywords. They can also post to one or multiple accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other platforms. Octopus 8 Social Media Hub also tracks feedback from followers.
Website CMS Connectivity
Octopus 8.1 connects directly to web content management tools (web CMS), such as Joomla, WordPress or CoreMedia, allowing the uploading of broadcasts and articles to web portals.
Journalist App – Octopus Journalist App
Off-site users as well as in-house journalists can enhance their experience and access the system from their mobile phone or tablet using the Octopus Journalist App.
Same work environment everywhere
Thanks to the system's design and web-based technologies, users will always work in the same environment, regardless of whether they are in the newsroom, at home or on location.
Cross-Platform client & server
Octopus is designed to run on any operating system, be it Windows, Apple Mac OS X or Linux. There is no need for a parallel operating system, additional licenses and remote connections.
Support for all languages
The Octopus system supports all languages (Unicode). Even the work interface can be translated into any language. Simultaneous operation in multiple languages is also supported.
Flexible licensing model
Octopus system licensing is based on concurrent user connections. Instead of job assignment licenses, customers only need to purchase the number of licenses required to support concurrent users.
Compatible with MOS
Octopus 8 fully supports the award-winning MOS technology to ensure that the system can be integrated into any environment and workflow that supports the same protocol. It fully supports placeholder workflow, thumbnails, proxy preview, item status, channel assignments and many other commands.
HTML5 and MOS ActiveX plug-ins support
As a MOS-compliant system, Octopus 8 supports not only ActiveX technology, but also the latest plug-ins based on HTML5. As ActiveX is being deprecated due to its limited compatibility, HTML5 plug-ins are OS and platform agnostic, offering support for Windows (including Windows 10), OS X, Linux computers, tablets and mobile devices.
PostgreSQL database
Octopus uses a powerful SQL database to store data. This offers many advantages, such as better data security and maintenance, data consistency, and of course speed and efficiency.
REST API & exports
Octopus 8 provides an easy-to-use REST API, available over HTTP. This interface allows customers to create their own applications, which can communicate and exchange certain data with the newsroom system. Octopus 8 also supports manual and automatic exports and imports.