The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a dramatic reshaping of media workflows. Tasks, processes and business functions never seriously considered as candidates for being done outside the TV studio have moved wholesale offsite as organizations implemented strategies to reduce the risk of employees contracting the virus.
Widespread adoption of working offsite that looks to continue post COVID-19.
One of the latest surveys charting this trend is from remote production tech firm Teradici in conjunction with TV Technology.
It found a wide swath of employees have been affected, ranging from management and others in the business office to those in the newsroom, production and master control rooms, traffic department and on air.
Many newsroom workflows are now being done remotely. More than eight of 10 respondents said digital workflows, including social media and web distribution of news, as well as video editing are being done offsite. Seven in 10 respondents said title creation, newsroom computer functions and editorial meetings are also being done remotely.
READ MORE: How Broadcasters Will Adopt to Working from Anywhere Post-Pandemic (Teradici)
With one year of experience working during the pandemic, the prevailing attitude is that remote workflows will remain once the pandemic has passed.
Reasons range from improved job satisfaction and productivity to reducing the real estate footprint of the studio and the ability to attract fresh talent to the operation.
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Significantly, over 75% of respondents said that more than half of their organization’s staff could work remotely, further pointing to a future in which more employees execute their duties from home.
The survey also revealed a fairly even mix exists among organizations that prefer their employees remotely access existing workstations on site and those that prefer they work in the cloud. However, twice as many respondents said their organization’s preference depends on what workflow is involved.
Further, there appears to be a high degree of uncertainty over whether or not the economics are right at the moment to move media workflows to the cloud.
However, regardless of how they do it, it appears media organizations — and broadcast and cable TV, in particular — have made a breakthrough of sorts in attitudes about and implementation of remote workflows. While not as apparent as the changeover from black-and-white TV to color or SD television to HDTV, the transformation in how the work of television gets done to a model largely rooted in remote workflows may one day prove to be no less significant.
