Recap: DW Innovation @ EBU TV Assembly

The presentation at the 21st TV Assembly, entitled “(A path to) innovative projects, tools and services” dealt with ways to be innovative. In particular, it focussed on the work we do at DW Innovation, and how we do it: namely to participate in future-facing R&D projects, co-funded primarily by the European Commission.

The overriding aim: to participate in innovative and collaborative initiatives that benefit the whole of Deutsche Welle by producing innovative solutions. These can range from know-how in selected areas via prototyping or software development to changed and improved ways of operating.

In order to highlight how projects work, which research areas they cover, and what can be expected as possible outcomes, the presentation included some examples of our projects past and present (i.e. AXES, SAM, YourDataStories and REVEAL). This also included pitfalls and constraints, such as administrative overheads, formalities, and the relatively long time periods that elapse between project idea and project start in case of successful application and evaluation e.g. in the Horizon 2020 framework programme. Nevertheless, participating in these R&D projects proved to be highly beneficial overall and over the years, as

• it gave us the opportunity to participate in future-facing R&D;
• it resulted in the generation of considerable know-how and expertise in a wide variety of areas;
• it allowed us to transfer results to other departments and operations of DW
• it resulted in numerous partnerships and collaborations;

In hindsight participating in the EUROVISION TV Assembly was beneficial on a number of levels:

Firstly, it allowed us to present ourselves and our work at DW_Innovation.

Secondly, listening in on interesting talks and being shown innovative projects and initiatives from other public service media organizations triggered off numerous ideas and provided the ground for future collaborations.

Finally, the exclusive behind the scenes look at the operations and workings of staff at BBC North in Salford was highly inspiring. The location–built on a former wasteland–was opened about three years ago. Today, it is the working home of about 3,000 BBC staff. All sports output, Breakfast News and a variety of other programmes (both with a regional and national audience) come from Salford.