Whilst the nasty and indiscriminate nature of the global Covid-19 pandemic has inflicted a terrible cost and been hugely disruptive to everyday lives, it’s reassuring to see how communities are pulling together to manage the crisis.

At Red Bee, we quickly adapted our business to protect our employees and ensure continuous delivery of the critical real-time services we provide and on which our customers depend. It has been truly inspiring to see the dedication and commitment of everyone in Red Bee in playing their part in keeping broadcasts up and running and to bring news and entertainment to people all over the world. Most of us have been working from home for some time now and for our essential on-site staff, we have established the safest possible conditions and routines to minimize risks to their health and safety.

Overall, the media industry has been dramatically affected. We have seen a massive increase in VOD consumption and a huge hole in schedules due to the absence of live sports and events. Physical meetings have been cancelled as have industry gatherings including NAB and IBC. All of which has required us to be extra innovative in how we go about our business, communicate and maintain our networks.

Although we are starting to see some relaxation of local lockdowns, it is fair to assume ongoing disruption for a time, and some impacts of Covid-19 will most likely have a permanent affect. Having seen how we have managed the situation so far, I have every confidence in our ability to continue supporting our customers and their audiences and developing and growing our business, no matter what. Our operational capabilities and technology platforms give us the flexibility and resilience needed and, more importantly, our people will make sure it happens.

During the Covid-19 crisis, whilst keeping critical operations up and running we continue to make good progress on our platform transformations, have signed up and onboarded new customers, and delivered several significant customer projects. This includes successfully taking over playout operations of the BBC’s Persian and Arabic channels. Another notable event was providing live and catch-up subtitles for “One World: Together at Home” in multiple countries around the world using our global Access Services delivery platform, with all our live captioners working from home.

Red Bee remains available to support you. Whilst things are a bit different and the business has been tested, we know we can carry on and deliver. The disruption caused by Covid-19 necessitated fresh thinking and innovation. We have risen to the challenge and are ready and available to help you evolve your business with industry leading, innovative solutions and services.

Stay safe!

Steve Nylund
CEO
Red Bee Media