Dalet drives the multimedia revolution in television and radio BX1

Brussels-based television, radio and digital media BX1 has recently integrated the Dalet Galaxy five platform to revamp and optimize all its internal processes.

BX1, which started as a weekly local community program broadcast on the Belgian public service broadcaster RTBF in 1985, is now the leading channel for the French-speaking community in the Brussels-Capital region. The organization has recently completed its transformation into a multimedia hub offering its audience programas across television, radio, digital media and social media.

This renovation is accompanied by a new production and distribution infrastructure, supported by Dalet Galaxy five, which enables BX1 to prepare and deliver local news, politics, business, culture, fashion, music and sports content from a single media technology platform.

Collaboration since 2015

BX1 and Dalet began working together six years ago, in 2015. That year, the broadcaster implemented Dalet News Pack, a lighter Dalet Galaxy five solution that allows journalists to share media and collaborate on news. In 2020, the system was upgraded to a full deployment of Dalet Galaxy five with Dalet Xtend for Adobe Premiere Pro editing, offering all the production and distribution capabilities offered by Dalet’s Unified News Operations solution. In addition to using Premiere, BX1 uses the complementary Dalet OneCut editing tool for quick program changes such as breaking news.

Thanks to this implementation, live production increased to seven hours a day and the lunchtime radio broadcast – now with video – was expanded from 30 minutes to 90 minutes, doubling the audience. The visual production of the radio is similar to television, with a more informal feel, almost like a “behind the scenes” video, and the format has proved popular with listeners and viewers.

Multidisciplinary professionals

Cédric van Uytvanck, technical director at BX1 since 2014, confirms that currently 40 employees work simultaneously with the Dalet solution every day. Likewise, he is clear that without the system they could never have expanded as tidily as they have: “By choosing Dalet, we avoided the mistake of buying a system that could only handle TV. We are equally fluent now in TV, radio, visual radio and podcast, as well as digital and social media”.

Johann Zemmour, Dalet’s general manager for EMEA and APAC, sees BX1 as a great example of how the tool can help expand its proposition to media of all types: “All BX1’s journalists now move effortlessly between TV, studio work, radio and digital – a perfect example of Dalet Unified News Operations. Not only can they work across multiple digital distribution formats, but can spread across multiple physical sites. The full commercial and audience engagement potential for visual radio is realized with the new upgrade. We’re proud of our part in bringing this ambitious media organization’s vision into an everyday reality.”