Finland: Jutel Moves Yleisradio Oy to the Cloud

Finnish public broadcaster Yleisradio Oy was established in 1926, and operates three national television channels, 13 radio channels and services and 25 regional radio stations.

Jutel is a media and radio automation solution provider with headquarters in Finland. It describes its signature product, RadioMan, as “a full range cloud-based radio broadcasting system for commercial and public radio broadcasting.” The system handles content management, workflow management and distribution.

The two groups have been working together since 2018 on a project to switch Yle’s client-based legacy system to a browser-based cloud production environment. The project’s goal was to build a virtual browser-based radio production and playout system, where the audio playout and mixing is done in the cloud, replacing the need for specific hardware. Jutel’s RadioMan system is central to this infrastructure overhaul.

Virtual Production

According to Jutel, Yle’s RadioMan environment consists of more than 1700 workstations spread between four national Finnish channels, two national Swedish channels and 26 regional Finnish and six Swedish regional stations. All the servers are centralized in Helsinki, serving 10 different locations in Finland.

RadioMan is used as a media publishing tool that includes program information, scheduling and content. The system has a streamlined web architecture that supports traditional studio implementations and touchscreen virtual studios with IP audio. The browser-based user interfaces also allows for easy updates, service type operations, flexible production and playout.

Currently, three national channels are running on the new cloud-based system. The rest of Yle’s radio broadcasting operations are due to transition to the RadioMan 6 platform in 2021.