StudioEdge and StudioCall provide France 24 with connectivity

France 24, the international news and current affairs television network broadcasting in French, English, Arabic and Spanish, has significantly enhanced its remote guest integration capabilities by implementing StudioEdge and StudioCall solutions from QuickLink.

By integrating these solutions into its production workflow, the global news network has achieved a greater connection reliability, greater simplicity in guest incorporation and better quality of contributions.

As a television network that produces content in four languages, France 24 relies heavily on remote contributions for live news and interviews. Faced with growing challenges and persistent connection problems with traditional video conferencing tools, the France 24 team was looking for a more robust solution. With the official retirement of Skype and the phasing out of Skype TX, France 24 turned to QuickLink to modernize its infrastructure and optimize its guest production workflow.

QuickLink's StudioEdge enables France 24 to seamlessly present remote guests at the highest quality via Zoom, Microsoft Teams and QuickLink's own StudioCall platform, making it the ideal upgrade for solutions that rely on Skype TX. With StudioEdge, the video and audio quality of guests and remote callers can be optimized using NVIDIA's innovative AI technology, ensuring broadcast-quality results and minimal operator intervention.

Eric Devoisin-Lagarde, director of external production traffic and resources at France 24, highlights that "StudioEdge solved many of the problems we used to encounter with Skype TX. Today, although we initially planned to integrate StudioEdge gradually, the majority of our connections are already made through the platform, as it is very easy to learn and implement. Relying heavily on QuickLink for our remote contributions has helped us alleviate any potential workflow problems with the recent discontinuation of Skype TX."

Initially, a single StudioEdge server was deployed in France 24's production infrastructure to support the three channels produced in Paris. Since then, two additional servers have been integrated, providing a dedicated server for each language-specific channel. “Having dedicated servers for each language allows for greater flexibility and reduces potential bottlenecks during simultaneous live broadcasts,” he says. Devoisin-Lagarde. France 24 Colombia will also integrate the StudioEdge solution, further expanding the implementation across the network.

France 24's guest coordination team manages bookings, checks connectivity and ensures video quality before live appearances. Links for guest participation, whether via Teams, Zoom or QuickLink StudioCall, are managed within your internal multimedia operations platform, which connects directly to the main control room (MCR).

A smooth transition

The transition to StudioEdge has been seamless for both staff and guests, many of whom were already familiar with Skype TX. "People don't feel lost when using StudioEdge, especially those who have used Skype TX in the past. They can learn and use StudioEdge very easily, as there is no big learning curve between them," says Devoisin-Lagarde.

In addition to StudioEdge, France 24 has also seen significant benefits from QuickLink StudioCall, one of the supported platforms available within StudioEdge. This solution allows operators to connect remote guests using only a web browser. Invitations can be easily sent via email, SMS, WhatsApp or by sharing a direct link, allowing collaborators to connect in seconds. StudioCall provides a high level of control to the operator, ensuring a smooth and professional experience. “StudioCall has been a great solution for those who don't want to use Teams or Zoom; it's easy to use and the quality is the best,” adds Devoisin-Lagarde.

Plus, Zoom integration into StudioEdge further streamlines workflows by allowing the France 24 production team to generate meeting links directly from the web interface. With the full deployment of three servers, France 24 has experienced greater reliability and scalability for its multilingual programming. “QuickLink has helped us take a step forward in reliability and efficiency,” says Devoisin-Lagarde. “We are confident that this setup will continue to work well as our programming needs evolve.”