Octopus version 8 features an advanced dashboard GUI that brings together every assignment, notification and update. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram become fully integrated into the newsroom. Social media are then treated with the same importance as a traditional news feed or a program rundown. This reflects the huge importance of social networks to channel owners and audiences worldwide.

Octopus 8 enables administrators to assign users to create content for social media. Tweets and Facebook posts are treated like any other news story with team managers able to assign and share tasks, and to approve posts before they go live. Journalists can now follow Twitter trends and track topics of particular interest to them across the social network in real time. The research process is now automated, giving teams instant information and analyses trends over time. Editors can tweet, reply, re-tweet or favorite directly from Octopus as well as manage the channel’s relationships by following or blocking Twitter users.

The latest version of Octopus now directly interconnects with CMS systems such as Wordpress or Joomla, allowing scripts and articles to be uploaded dynamically to web portals. This valuable web component allows TV news editors to upload pages directly, saving time and reducing the workload on web managers. Another new feature is the ability to publish social media posts directly from the rundown.

The Octopus Mobile App offers journalists full news production capabilities on tablets and mobile phones running Apple iOS or Google Android. Reporters and editors working remotely gain instant access to all wires, rundowns and assignments. They can also edit stories within a rundown, preview prompter text as well as create wires and reports in the field. The new app supports both Octopus 8 and the most recent versions of Octopus 7.

"At IBC2016 we are celebrating 17 years of success in the broadcast marketplace market with 200 customers around the world and more than 50 MOS partners interconnecting to our solution," said Petr Stokuč, CEO at Octopus Newsroom. “We have expanded the company's representation into Asia where we established a new office in Thailand headed by APAC Director Miro Rusko. This is dedicated specifically to providing local sales and after-sales support to the APAC countries. The new office enhances our ability to respond quickly to enquiries both from new and existing customers in essentially their own time zone.”