Blackbird selected as US Department of State video platform provider

(Sharecast News) - Cloud video editing platform provider Blackbird has been chosen by the United States Department of State for video production, including the publishing of fast turnaround digital news to its own and other online news outlets, it announced on Wednesday.
The AIM-traded firm said the contract, awarded to its US partner Aperture Solutions Group, was for one year, with multi-year extension options.

It said the contract value was a six-figure dollar amount for each year of the contract.

The company explained that the US Department of State's video and production teams would be able to use Blackbird to rapidly clip, edit and publish news broadcast seconds after airing live to its social channels including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, as well as delivering longer-form content to its own website and other digital news outlets.

Working across multiple US-based sites, production teams would also be able to instantly access videos kept in Blackbird format from the department's archive, for the repurposing of content across its social and other online channels.

Blackbird said it would be replacing both SnappyTV and traditional on-premise editing systems.

"We are delighted to win this publicly competed tender from such a high-profile international customer," said Blackbird chief executive officer Ian McDonough.

"As a large-scale non-traditional video broadcaster who is expanding their output, the US Department of State had the entire plethora of available technology and more traditional tools to choose from."

McDonough said the Department of State had chosen Blackbird because it could do things that no other cloud video platform was able to do.

"We can deliver unparalleled speed, high quality, full interoperability and scalability which is ideal for both large and small teams alike.

"The deployment of Blackbird is designed to raise the quality of output and drive engagement as well as internal productivity."