Customer Success Story
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University is a public university located in Flagstaff, Arizona, United States. First opening it’s doors in 1899, NAU has extended its reach to over 30 state-wide campuses across Arizona. With their Student Media Center,
NAU’s School of Communication grants students the chance to gain invaluable experience in the field of broadcast and multimedia operations. It is from this media center, that NAU’s own local news program NAZ Today is operated.
The Challenge
In 2008, a local television station in Flagstaff ceased operation. This station was the sole provider for local television news coverage for the whole of the Northern Arizona region. To fill this void, Northern Arizona University expanded their television news program and created NAZ Today, an operation that involves students and professionals working together to bring local news to the people of Northern Arizona. As their operation has evolved and grown over the years, they decided it was time for an updated newsroom system that expanded their capabilities.
The Solution
Northern Arizona University was looking for a newsroom upgrade but had a limited budget for the project. After looking at various systems that simply weren’t right for their needs, Northern Arizona University received word about Ross Inception and it caught their attention.
Brandon Neuman, Senior Lecturer for NAU’s Creative Media and Film Program, as well as the Faculty Advisor & Operations Manager for NAZ Today remarked, “The system had the features we were looking for, plus a lot more. Best of all, it fit nicely with our budget constraints and allowed us to quickly upgrade.”
With Inception, Northern Arizona University would be able to fulfill their duties to both their students and the residents of Northern Arizona. Brandon added “We felt the more advanced features in Inception would optimize the operation of our NAZ Today program, while providing our students with the opportunity to gain practical working experience with a professional newsroom system.”
The Result
After a simple set-up and hands-on training with Ross, NAZ Today was upgraded without a hitch:
“The transition between EZNews and Inception was seamless and had minimal impact on our nightly newscast. Once everything was set-up Ross came out and provided us with very detailed training and walked us through the integration during a live production. This really helped carry us from one product to the next,” continued Brandon. “Since the operation of Inception is very intuitive, we were able to get our professionals and students running on the system in no time.”
The Inception News system has allowed NAZ Today to simplify and centralize their news operations:
“The system allows us to collaborate and have a much more organized workflow. With the new tools the system has provided us, including the assignment manager and advanced social media tools, we are able to organize and move content between media platforms at our leisure,” concluded Brandon. “Inception has saved us a lot of time and effort by having everything centralized in one place. The ability to access Inception anywhere there is an Internet connection has greatly improved our operation. Our reporters can work more easily regardless of where they need to be.”