August 19, 2003
AP advances newsroom systems with ENPS 4.0
Building on core strengths that have made ENPS the world’s most popular new news production system, the Associated Press has put even more power, control and flexibility in the hands of tens of thousands of journalists with the feature-rich release of ENPS 4.0.
Leading the pack of new and refined functionality is the most advanced newsroom technology for simultaneously creating and publishing content to multiple platforms. Journalists armed with ENPS can now automatically send versions of their television and radio material directly to the Web, wireless PDAs, mobile phones and print systems. Text and media output are customizable for public access as well as for internal users and reporters in the field.
Other important ENPS changes include simplified workflow for the assignment desk; more efficient news wire browsing; instant access to AP GraphicsBank images and AP PrimeCuts sound bites, and improvements to ENPS Stats, which provides superior power, flexibility, and speed in aggregating and reporting election results – both on air and online. Dozens of other new or improved features include expanded keyboard navigation for rundowns, planners, and story items; easy access to the most-recently used rundowns and planners; and display color changes to improve at-a-glance production status. Coming to ENPS this Fall is OPENS, an automated, Web-based system to track school closings and event cancellations.
A central part of newsrooms in 42 countries, ENPS empowers journalists with simpler, more efficient ways of writing, editing, and producing. Easy-to-use features include rundown management, planning, contacts, messaging, news wires, third-party device control, scripting in almost any language, and no-compromise remote access capabilities for field staff.
One-of-a-kind Briefing functionality gives journalists instant access to all types of data stored anywhere in the ENPS system – even across a multi-newsroom enterprise – while forward searches provide customized breaking news alerts. ENPS scripting modules include built-in as-you-type spellchecking, a thesaurus, and a pronunciation guide. An invaluable versioning function automatically tracks changes to public scripts. Rundown layouts can be customized by program, by job function and by user, and include real-time status and approval indicators. What-you-see-is-what-you-get character generator control can be managed within each script for maximum flexibility and control.
At the heart of ENPS is the open MOS protocol, used to link newsroom computer systems and broadcast production equipment. MOS enables the functionality of many devices to be integrated and controlled from a journalist’s ENPS desktop, and more than 50 products from 32 companies currently work with ENPS via MOS.
ENPS has increasingly become the choice of broadcast and cable networks and local stations for the production of news and sports programming. It is now used in almost 500 newsrooms worldwide and has accounted for almost 70 percent of newsroom system installations and upgrades over the past five years.