Background
News UK is one of the most influential media companies in the UK and Ireland. Proudly positioned at the heart of the national conversation, News UK reaches 40 million people each month through its brands. The company's portfolio encompasses a wide selection of both print media and national broadcast networks, catering to a wide range of audience interests.
Challenge
Audience engagement is everything when it comes to live radio production. Previously, radio brands of News UK interacted with their audience through a UK short-code. However, as News UK's radio stations serve both British and Irish audiences, such a method made interaction with Irish listeners impossible.
The solution was to implement WhatsApp, so that anybody with an internet connection could reach out to the studio regardless of their geographical location. While this addition was successful, managing and using incoming messages or media files during live shows was inefficient for presenters and producers.
Solution
That's how Pluxbox No-code Platform met with News UK needs. Will Trueman - Broadcast Network & Systems Engineer - was the one who got his hands on the platform. Flexibility and personalization were determining factors in his decision to choose Pluxbox Platform over alternatives.
Using the platform as a base, Will, together with our customer success team, designed two applications: one for presenters and one for producers. The ultimate goal was to make the whole workflow as efficient as possible while keeping all essential functionalities within one system.
But it doesn't end there! Thanks to Pluxbox Platform's flexibility and open architecture, the designed solutions can be further modified, scaled and integrated with other apps as business needs evolve.
The first roll out was to Virgin Radio UK. After receiving positive feedback from the team, News UK adopted the applications across their other national broadcast networks: Times Radio, Talk, and TalkSPORT.
How Pluxbox made the difference
With Pluxbox integration, News UK redefined its radio production, breaking through past limitations and elevating efficiency. Here’s how we made a difference:
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Tailored User Interfaces: Now both producers and presenters have their own tailor-made work environments, where they access only functionalities and information needed for seamless live radio production. While producers manage and edit all the incoming communication, presenters can instantly view pre-selected and formatted messages.
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Enhanced WhatsApp Features: Standard WhatsApp features are too limited for a truly efficient workflow. But thanks to API integration, News UK could set up custom features to match their needs, including user-specific filters and tags, message editing, automatic filtering of explicit content, categorising of phone numbers, and advanced message navigation capabilities.
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Expanded reach with SMS integration: In addition to WhatsApp, SMS communication capabilities have also been integrated through Dynamic Mobile Billing (DMB). SMS messages can now be managed in the same manner as WhatsApp, creating a more seamless cross-channel communication
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Unlocked Collaboration: Team collaboration can now happen seamlessly within one shared system minimising the risks of miscommunication. All team members have access to the same real-time information, and tools, enhancing efficiency and reducing errors.
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Seamless Media Management: All required media assets and messages can be seamlessly downloaded based on custom filters, archived, shared, and transferred to the playout system through the Dropbox integration without needing to exit the application.
“The biggest advantage is the flexibility Pluxbox Platform offers, not just in terms of where it can be accessed from, but also in terms of how quickly new systems can be integrated and new Pluxins created”
- Will Trueman, Broadcast Network & Systems Engineer -
We seamlessly integrated
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