Unicode-based versions of Comyan's media system are now in use at Mathrubhumi and the Times of India.

The German developer says that the system has been rolled out to more than 1200 users at Times of India publisher Bennett, Coleman & Co following the upgrade, and also at new user Mathrubhumi in Kerala.

Comyan co-owner Peter Resele says the use of unicode means text, images, audio and video can now be received, searched, stored, edited and exported in local Indian languages, as well as automatically translated.

Resele says the Times upgrade of an existing system took zero downtime. "It was like throwing a switch," he says.

The existing system has also been migrated to two new data centres with new hardware and operating systems, again with minimal impact on the daily operation.

At Mathrubhumi, (pictured) content from three different legacy archives is being migrated into the new Comyan system. Resele says migrations are routine: "We have been always been developing integrations with editorial systems ourselves, and always done the migrations.

"This makes it easier for the publisher and allows us to achieve a much better quality in the newspaper articles, which are used both in the asset management and in our hallmark epaper products."