Octopus Newsroom, a globally active producer of television broadcast newsroom automation systems, has promoted Lukas Kotek from project director to chief technology officer. Reporting to founder and CEO Petr Stokuc, he will be responsible for development, project delivery, training and support across Africa, America, Asia and Europe.

Kotek said, “My role will be to ensure that we continue to deliver the most effective possible solutions matching the latest news production workflows, new delivery channels and the widest possible range of viewing platforms.”

Kotek studied cybernetics, information and control systems at the University of West Bohemia before joining Prague-based MAM and broadcast automation specialist Aveco in 2004 where he advanced to the role of projects and support director. He joined Octopus Newsroom in 2015 to making greater use of his widened experience and face new challenges. 

Established in 1999, Octopus Newsroom is a producer of standalone newsroom computer systems. Octopus Newsroom advocates an open ecosystem using the MOS protocol which enables customers to choose freely among high-quality providers of graphics, playout, MAM, prompters, traffic-handing and advertising solutions. Octopus Newsroom has successfully installed systems into more than 200 channels around the world. Based on Unicode, Octopus Newsroom products support all major character sets including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese.