Sofie: open-source web based system for automating live TV news production
30 comments
·May 9, 2025chriscjcj
sitkack
It looks like great support (Blackmagicdesign) for building a small broadcast studio from scratch tho.
I could see BMD embracing this. There are lots of studios that are not commercial broadcast that could really use a system like this.
Isn't one of the problems with hardware support is that hardware vendors have agreements with the competitors you listed?
Computers are fast enough now that once you can get the signals into a machine, many of the special functions that previously required dedicated hardware can now be run in software? With proper timing signal distribution of course.
Seems like 12G SDI to SFP+ would enable server class machines to subsume most of the special function hardware.
chriscjcj
Disclaimer... I am a director and not an engineer. I can only give you my relatively limited understanding....
> It looks like great support (Blackmagicdesign) for building a small broadcast studio from scratch tho.
Agreed!
> I could see BMD embracing this. There are lots of studios that are not commercial broadcast that could really use a system like this.
Also agreed. Black Magic definitely makes a lot of reasonably-priced and very capable gear. They're not a major player in the TV automation space, but perhaps with the help of Sofie, they could make inroads.
> Isn't one of the problems with hardware support is that hardware vendors have agreements with the competitors you listed?
That's not a topic I'm knowledgeable about. It is my understanding that most shops who have a particular vendor's automation platform will also have that vendor's hardware running at its core. In all the shops I've seen, the switcher that's controlled by the automation system is made by the same company. Or if its another vendor's product, it's sold and provisioned along with the automation system when its purchased. Other stuff like audio mixers, robo-cam products, clip players, and CG/graphics platforms can be from other vendors.
> Computers are fast enough now that once you can get the signals into a machine, many of the special functions that previously required dedicated hardware can now be run in software? With proper timing signal distribution of course.
> Seems like 12G SDI to SFP+ would enable server class machines to subsume most of the special function hardware.
For audio, I think that would be a relatively easy lift with technologies like Dante. However, in most TV stations, you're going to need to literally plug upwards of 100 HDSDI video cables into a piece of hardware so that those sources can be switched to on TV, mixed and keyed on multiple mixed-effects banks, and viewed on multiviewer screens in the control room. I don't know that a regular-ol' PC has what it takes to take in and simultaneously process that amount of video. But just because don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. ;-) Just haven't seen it yet.
claudex
>For audio, I think that would be a relatively easy lift with technologies like Dante. However, in most TV stations, you're going to need to literally plug upwards of 100 HDSDI video cables into a piece of hardware
I don't know the TV stations requirements, but you can maybe have 10 interconnected servers that manage 10 HDSDI flux each (and can send them on another if required for processing) ?
randall
bmd is in a decent position to help with this. making davinci be the nle that ties into this like avid / airspeed or whatever ppl use now, seems pretty cool.
basch
I fall pray to this often. Internal complexity and growth over time lead to great giant feature charts and comparison matrixes. But sometimes you just need a tool that gets a job done.
It's one thing for something simple to not be a drop in replacement. But simplicity and minimalism can also be a virtue. Can this complete the task in an environment designed around using it?
randall
how are you still a director??? i miss tv fondly but the pain they inflict on everyone and the hours / pay / etc make the best people bounce.
someone on hn surely could use their talents for good elsewhere haha
chriscjcj
Thank you for the vote of confidence. :-)
I do ask myself that sometimes. It sounds weird, but I think it's what I was put on this earth to do. Yes, it is a cruel industry at times and pain is indeed inflicted just as you assert. I guess I'm just built for it. And I've been doing it for so long that I've built up a really thick skin and I'm just not that fazed by its unpleasant aspects. I can honestly say that it's a fun job. It's the job I always wanted when I was a kid and I still absolutely love it. (I'm fortunate enough to be compensated at a reasonable level, so that helps.)
People think it's stressful and I suppose it is. But the nice thing about it is that when the newscast is over, I'm completely done. And I have the luxury of knowing, down to the exact second, when that moment will be. I don't take my work home with me. There's nothing to stress out about (until the next day.)
Another thing... unlike an airline pilot or a surgeon, no matter how poor a job I might do, no one dies. That's kind nice too. :-)
delfinom
That's the thing though, this isn't really "free" software as much as open. NRK is funding it and created it for their use, that's cost money. They spent money on supporting the hardware they clearly had and wanted to for their production. Any other user with their own setups they want supported will have to spend money on developer time as well.
simonw
Free software has a well established meaning at this point, and it's not "didn't cost any money to produce".
Looks like this is MIT licensed https://github.com/nrkno/Sofie-TV-automation
Joel_Mckay
Indeed, people usually contribute to FOSS by supporting the authors group or nonprofit directly, and contributing features and bug reports/fixes.
However, from a maintainability standpoint it is important that a project solves their own needs first. The "eat your own dog food" advice is important, or groups end up fragmenting a project into every pet use-case.
Best regards =3
delfinom
I disagree with said meaning because it's been established by leeches trying to sound like they aren't.
rjmunro
It was mostly developed for NRK by Superfly.tv. They are available to extend the system to other hardware or customise it in other ways if the broadcaster doesn't have the expertise to do it themselves. It's already used by several other broadcasters, for example, the BBC use it for their Newsround program: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ryanwmckenna_great-to-see-new...
stephen_g
Very cool they decided to build this and release it to the world instead of just buying an extremely expensive commercial system. The backend play out server is CasparCG which is also open-source [1] (they run their own fork, for stability reasons I expect).
Another similar related automation system (shares some parts and libraries) is SuperConductor [2].
Joel_Mckay
Looks more practical, as when dealing with hardware access C/C++ is the only way to get the latency issues into tolerable playback stream formats.
Cool that it also supports OBS Studio by the way =3
eddyg
Very cool. You can even control the prompter using a Joycon!
https://nrkno.github.io/sofie-core/docs/user-guide/features/...
kfarr
May seem a bit niche but man I wished we had this 20 years ago when trying to start a student TV station on a budget. The pro tools at the time were ridiculously expensive.
hiatus
How does this handle things like replays that are queued dynamically during airing? For instance on a talk show there may be occasions where the host wishes to replay a section of a guest interview or to pull up a clip to play while talking over it. Would the operator override an existing Part or updating a piece in a part? Typically this is handled live with EVS.
myself248
From a skim of the docs, it looks like those are handled as "adlib pieces", and can be pulled from what's currently playing or from other buckets.
arboles
Can you write real-time shaders in it?
rjmunro
That's not what it does. You would have your real time shaders running on a server somewhere, and Sofie would activate them at the right moment in the show.
It's a tool that lets you drag and drop news stories in to a rundown and it will automatically play them. The news stories may have parts that are read from a teleprompter, parts that are pre-recorded video, live parts from outside broadcasts, interviews, graphics that need to be shown etc. Those are mostly provided by services or hardware that Sofie controls, not that are part of the show. Sofie is an automation tool.
fitsumbelay
meteorjs' an interesting choice ...
codetrotter
Meteor got a lot of attention and hype on HN a few years ago.
Looks at Wikipedia article
Well, 12 or 13 years ago probably actually.
rjmunro
According to Google Trends meteor js was popular from about 2012 to 2018. Sofie was started in about 2018, so when Meteor was established enough to have all the kinks worked out, but still popular.
tdhz77
Cool, going to create my ai tv station.
As a live television newscast director in a major market, I would be very interested to see a feature comparison between this product and its main competitors: Ross OverDrive, Sony ELC, and Grass Valley Ignite.
Due to the substantial complexity of these automation systems, they tend to have a lot of inertia. But if anything could drive a station group to make a change, the "free" part can be effective.
I did take a look at the supported hardware (1). I think that's the pain point for many shops. Free open source production software is great, but being forced to choose form hardware products you don't prefer is a pretty tough tradeoff.
Historically, I suppose that's been one of FOSS' big challenges.
(1) https://nrkno.github.io/sofie-core/docs/user-guide/supported...