The Briefing Room

New web-based, workflow management system visualises production and post processes in interactive 3D

CEITON, a developer of Workflow management systems for the entertainment industry, has launched Web Workflow PPS – an advanced, web-based, management system for production scheduling and control. The system provides a unique interactive 3D-visualisation of any process, and can be customised for any workflow to streamline entire business processes, boost operational efficiencies and leverage profitability. With successful installations in Germany and Austria – at broadcaster MDR and at post-production studios like Sony DADC – CEITON is now also rolling out Web Workflow PPS to the VFX, DI and post-production community worldwide.

Web Workflow PPS is the first real workflow management system specifically designed for the broadcasting, motion picture, post production, and pre-mastering industries. Unlike off-the-shelf systems, this web-based tool can be easily implemented into, and configured for, any workflow – from a simple service procedure to the most complex production processes.

Web Workflow PPS features a unique and interactive 3D visualisation engine, which provides a dynamic overview of the workflow, and the status of every part of a process. Quotations, order production, scheduling, time and activity recording, contacts, QA, billing and content archiving of whole production chains are all unified into one powerful, but easy-to-use, system. Web Workflow PPS also prints the labels of managed assets, and connects easily to any other enterprise software or machine.

“Our approach to workflow is inspired by Japanese principles of workplace management to increase efficiency. Or to quote Henry Ford… ‘Good work requires good tools in a good organised environment’,” said Tobias Soppa, managing director of CEITION. “Web Workflow PPS is the easiest way to build, visualise, plan, control, manage, bill and optimise any media production process today and tomorrow.”

Soppa added, “The media and entertainment industries are facing a paradigm shift: everything is becoming digital, with production and accounting for the diverse delivery platforms (HD-TV, DVD, UMD, IPTV, VoD, mobiles, radio) becoming more complex. Web Workflow PPS allows users to design their own specific operational tasks, automate administration and gives more time for operative personnel to get on with their jobs.”

Early customers to have streamlined their production processes with CEITON‘s Web Workflow PPS include German broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) or Sony DADC, which produces DVD, Playstation UMDs and BluRay discs worldwide.

Robert Nagel, business leader of the production unit at MDR said, “MDR chose CEITON Web Workflow PPS because the assignment and accounting processes of programme production can be arranged in a substantially more efficient manner. Also, optimal integration into existing systems, such as SAP, is possible. Other special advantages are the flexibility for future workflow adjustments, the simple station-wide installation, and future security due to open architecture.“

Paul Leitner, managing director of Sony DVD Centre Europe (now DADC) in Austria, commented: “CEITON‘s Web Workflow PPS system plays a key role in all divisions at SDCE, to meet the varied and changing needs of our business model. Without Web Workflow PPS, it would not have been possible to reach our current production level of more than 1,200 DVDs and UMDs per year without substantial increases in equipment and personnel. To our knowledge no other tool offers the level of control and customisation than that of CEITON.“

CEITON‘s Web Workflow PPS will be fully-deployed in early 2008 at the broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB), where it will be used by all departments involved in the station‘s television and radio ordering, scheduling and settlement processes.

CEITON Technologies GmbH was founded in 2000, and is a privately-owned software development and process consulting company based in Leipzig, Germany. Its products include: Web Workflow PPS, a management system for production scheduling and control, and WinLIKE, a Web window managing technology. CEITON supports high-tech customers around the world in a wide range of industries including entertainment, media, software development, telecommunications, research and defence. For more information, please visit www.workflow.tv,