Broadcastpro Middle East

ABU DHABItAckles ePlADMC ahead of the game in football coverage

JORDAN IN FOCUSRSICA delivers new wave of f ilmmakers

NEWS BREAKERS Dubai facility to link Emirate with Pakistan

Technology inTelligence for TV, film and radio

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issue 1 | July 2010

Welcome to the first edition of BroadcastPro Middle East – an issue that I hope will reflect the dynamic changes in the Middle East film and television broadcasting landscape.

One question I’ve been asked often last month is, “Does this market need one more magazine?”

My response is a resounding “yes”. I strongly believe that the Middle East market is a hugely underserved market in terms of products, services and information.

This is a growing market. Despite the recession, the number of free-to-air channels catering to Arab viewers still went up by 2.7% in the period between March 2009 and April 2010, according to the Arab Advisors. Many dormant state-backed players who rested easy on government funding have now moved into full gear in an attempt to become profitable.

Saudi TV is a case in point. The state broadcaster is looking to adopt a corporate business model so as to have greater accountability. Once the desire to be profitable kicks in, policies will begin to reflect that.

Al Jazeera, Orbit Showtime Network (OSN), MBC and more recently, Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) have all amazed us with the kind of technology they have deployed.

The same is true of the film industry. I was delighted to see The Circle, the first feature-length film directed by Emirati filmmaker Nawaf Al Janahi at DIFF last year. Seven years ago, Al Janahi had rued the lack of a film industry in the region and vociferously declared that he would continue to make films even if there were no government initiatives to support local filmmakers. Today, he and many others have the support of the Dubai International Film Festival, the Abu Dhabi Film Commission, and even Imagenation. We even have twofour54 that invests heavily in Arabic content creation.

These changes within broadcast and film have created the need for a talent pool in the region.

Alongside this, new technologies have called for new skills. In production, shooting with the RED camera has made the role of a DIT crucial while filming in 3D has made the services of a stereographer invaluable. Likewise, distribution of content across different formats such as IPTV, mobile TV and online has called for greater collaboration between IT and broadcast engineers and this, in turn, has given rise to a new generation of professionals that understand both technologies.

For such a market, that is still booming, there are not enough dynamic and interactive channels of information to educate and inform the industry about new technologies or new installations. Only a handful of local players even invest in local workshops to educate the local industry.

BroadcastPro Middle East wants to change that and open the lines of communication between different sectors of the industry. This magazine, along with its parent company CPI will extend the brand beyond a magazine and a Web site to include a blog, local workshops, roundtables and other events so that we can all share the role of educating, informing, learning and disseminating information among us. When we work together, we will better understand the challenges this market faces and together, we will contribute to equaling global standards. This is the ethos that BroadcastPro Middle East will create in this market and we trust you will walk hand in hand with us to fulfill this vision.

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Welcome

Vijaya Cherian, Senior EditorBroadcastPro Middle East

PublisherDominic De Sousa

COONadeem Hood

Commercial DirectorRichard [email protected] +971 4 375 5684

Senior EditorVijaya [email protected] +971 (0) 50 768 3435

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CIrCulAtIOnDatabase and Circulation ManagerRajeesh [email protected] +971 4 375 5679

PrODuCtIOn AnD DESIgnProduction ManagerJames P [email protected] +971 4 375 5685

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Cover Sarkis Semaan, ADMC.

10

18 IntErvIEW Ricky Ghai speaks about

catering to online viewers.

22 WOrkSHOP End users learn the benefits of a tapeless workflow at

Advanced Media event.

32 CAbSAt 2011 David Roberts speaks about changes to CABSAT MENA next year.

34 CASE StuDy TSL builds compact news, and

production playout facility for Dubai company.

40 IPtv New offerings from providers

to boost IPTV uptake in the MENA region.

SOCCEr In tHE CIty Abu Dhabi Media Company gears up for football fever

in this issue

JULY 2010nEW kIDS On tHE blOCk In jOrDAn26

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July 2010 | www.broadcastprome.com | 3

| www.broadcastprome.com | July 20104 July 2010 | www.broadcastprome.com | 5

rEgIOn’S lArgESt grEEn SCrEEn AttWOfOur54 IntAj

PrOnEWS

EMEA GAtEwAY offErs oUtsoUrcinGFormer ATG Broadcast staff and sales expert Guy Elliott has set up a new sales outsourc-ing company called EMEA Gateway to provide sales and marketing support to technology manufacturers looking to expand their business into the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. The company will look to provide both direct and indirect sales channels across EMEA.

fgC WInS MEnOS COntrACt In kSA

if YoU hAd thE bUdGEt, whAt kit woULd YoU LikE to bUY?

El Binni: “If I had a high budget, I’d buy the Sony XDCAM-HD PDWF800 with its full gear and accessories and, of course, ensure full compatibility with FCP.

“With a lower budget, I’d be satisfied with the Sony XDCAM PMW-EX3 semi-shoulder mount camcorder. I like the smart features in it for creative shooting such as slow & quick motion and the Interval Recording well known as time-lapse shooting.

“I had the opportunity to use this camera with an interchangeable lens, the professional viewfinder and several accessories. It’s like a Transformers mini monster. I used it with the Canon KH10 super wide angle lens. The only problem is balancing the lens and the camera body. The lens are heavier. When you shoulder mount the camera, all of the weight goes to the front. If you have a tripod, it works perfectly.”

Saudi-based systems integrator First Gulf Company (FGC) secured a contract from the Kingdom’s Ministry of Culture and Information (MOCI) last month to undertake the first phase of the Multimedia Exchange Network over Satellite (MENOS) project in the country, BroadcastPro Middle East can reveal.

The US $10.5 million project will see FGC install a secondary hub in Riyadh as well as 80 satellite terminals for radio and TV across the whole Kingdom to facilitate the exchange of multimedia content.

FGC will partner with Newtec, which developed the MENOS solution for the Arab

States Broadcasting Union (ASBU), for this project.

The broadband IP-based satellite network was designed to enable the exchange of multimedia content between ASBU members spread out across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It received international acclaim when it won a special award at IBC last year.

Saudi Arabia will use the MENOS concept internally to facilitate the exchange of multimedia content between its different production sites, both radio and TV, using the new hub that will be built in Riyadh. Later phases will seek to expand the satellite

network project to cover more geographical areas.

Naim Saidi, CEO of FGC stated that the systems integrator would undertake the MENOS deployment and also provide technical support.

“This is a strategic project that will revolutionise the way audio and video content is shared in the Kingdom. As a leading player in the satellite business in the region, we have the skills to execute this project successfully along with our manufacturing partners. We will also provide the client with all the necessary technical support,” he added.

The project is scheduled for completion in March 2011.

PrOnEWS

Abu Dhabi-based content creation zone twofour54 intaj recently installed a new ProCyc Hard Infinity Cyclorama, claimed to be the biggest in the region.

The ProCyc, with a 12m x 4m curve x 6m height, enables directors to take tracked, crane or fixed shots and add a new dimension to their productions. Set up in twofour54 intaj’s main 650m2 studio, camera operators benefit from extensive manoeuvring space around the ProCyc, allowing them to film freely without fear of shooting off screen.

Commenting on the new ProCyc Cyclorama, Hasan Sayed Hasan, head of twofour54 intaj, said: “Our

goal is to allow production companies to create content of the highest possible standard in the region. As a result, we constantly need to ensure that the facilities we offer are in tune with the needs of our clients. Already, we are creating content with the ProCyc and we look

forward to the market seeing what we can do at intaj.”

The ProCyc Cyclorama will be an integral part of the set for the Arabic version of Driver Dan’s Story Train, which is currently being produced in Abu Dhabi by twofour54 in conjunction with Blink Studios.

Last month, a compelling documentary entitled The Blue Line Dispute was broadcast on Al Jazeera’s English and Arabic channels to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Israel’s withdrawal from South Lebanon. Produced and directed by Al Jazeera’s documentary producer/director, Abdallah El Binni, the film explores the political ramifications of living at the Shebaa Farms or the Al-Ghajar Village in south Lebanon that are occupied by Israel.

“It’s a rather complicated political situation,” explained El Binni, who has addressed several political, military and human rights issues over the years through his documentaries.

As El Binni’s investigations often taken him to politically volatile areas, shooting with discrete cameras is always key to capturing the right moment.

“I never go anywhere without my Sony HDR-SR12, which has 120 GB memory,” El Binni explained.

“This tiny camera gives amazing colour contrasts and performs very well even in the most difficult, low-light conditions.”

The filming of The Blue Line Dispute took the filmmaker and his team to the disputed borders, where crews typically

need special permission from the Lebanese Army to shoot.

“You are permitted to film only in specific areas but I kept pushing my luck as I knew the area well. The Kfar Shouba hills and the occupied Shebaa Farms are carefully monitored by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) so when we got quite close to the Blue Line in both areas, the UNIFIL alerted the Israeli and Lebanese armies. We were questioned but later, let off.

“We had two small Sony HDR-SR12 cameras hidden in our cars, however, and were able to capture first-hand the tension at the Blue Line,” El Binni claimed.

As investigative docos are not easy to make, El Binni minimises the challenges by working with Al Jazeera crews in territories where he will be filming. However, in areas

DOCO-MAkEr brIngS lEbAnOn IntO fOCuS

“With the economy showing signs of recovery, this is the perfect time for technol-ogy manufacturers and SIs to expand their reach beyond their immediate markets,” commented Elliott, managing director of EMEA Gateway.

“We have a strong and estab-lished knowledge of the region and contacts that would typically take months or years to develop. EMEA Gateway will provide vendors with instant ‘feet-on-the-street’ in new territories, allowing them to quickly capture market share in an arena where they did not previously have a local presence or market experience,” Elliott claimed.

where there are no crews, he rents equipment from the local market, he said.

“Renting equipment is a lot easier than having to deal with customs. I usually go for one of the Sony cameras – either the HDW-730 HDCAM or the PDW-700 XDCAM as they are easily available. In some instances, I have also used the DVW-970 DigiBeta or the DSR-450 DVACAM. It depends on the availability of cameras formats, and, of course, budget,” he added.

El Binni is presently working on a new investigative series that he claims will “reveal some mysteries and untold stories”.

“I am currently investigating the attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and am scheduled to visit Turkey to meet families of people who were killed aboard the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara,” he stated.

On less eventful days, El Binni trains journalists on war zone coverage and how to protect themselves in hostile environments.

He also delivers training in investigative documentary productions.

roYAL wEddinG in hdThe wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden to Daniel Westling — the first royal wedding in Sweden in more than 30 years — was covered by national broadcaster SVT with Grassvalley cameras. SVT used a High Definition (HD) OB truck hired from Mediatec Broadcast Sweden to cover the festivities on the eve of the wedding.

Three additional trucks helped cover the formal wedding ceremony and relied exclusively on Grass Valley LDK 8000 Elite HD cameras, with more than 60 cameras to be used. Grass Valley provided on-site support for Mediatec for its coverage of the royal wedding.

oMnEon sUpports M-nEt workfLowSouth African private subscription TV service M-Net has expanded its Omneon platform to include two Spectrum media server systems and a MediaGrid active storage system. The solution will support the playout of M-Net’s short-form content to 3.6 million subscribers in 41 countries across Africa.

Geoff Stedman, senior VP of marketing and business development at Omneon stated that M-Net “has raised the bar once again” with this solution.

“When M-Net first created its digital archives, the broadcaster used the Omneon Spectrum media server to enable reliable ingest of more than 200,000 hours of content. That groundbreaking project represented the largest such installation in Africa. Now, as M-Net extends our digital media workflow further to accommodate playout, it has raised the bar once again, taking online an Omneon platform that supports the entire broadcast chain,” he added.

IntErnAtIOnAl

Naim Saidi, CEO, FGC.

Guy Elliott, MD, EMEA Gateway.

STOP PRESS OSN will close down its broadcast facility in Bahrain and move all related operations to Dubai.More in the next issue.

| www.broadcastprome.com | July 20106

PrOnEWS

Dubai-based MBC Group’s new media department recently invested in two high-powered HP Z800 workstations to efficiently undertake multi-format transcoding using different applications. The end user claims that the time taken to transcode to some formats with these systems is one-third of the time taken by most competing systems.

“We transcode from and to different formats – such as AVI, MPEG1, MPEG4, H.624 – using different applications to perform these tasks,” commented Jamil Haifa, systems administrator at MBC Group.

“With our SHAHID Online product, where people can view existing and previous MBC video content online, the amount and type of video we need to edit and transcode has increased

dramatically. The new systems allow us to keep up with that demand in an effective manner.”

The new HP workstations also provided greater flexibility in terms of accommodating third-party applications, stated Haifa.

“With Mac, we would have been limited in the types of applications we could use. Additionally, there were limitations on the types of corporate applications we could run on these systems simultaneously. With HP, we were able to take advantage of high-end video cards such as the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800, and integrate plug-ins to reduce the time to render. In fact, transcoding to certain formats took one-third of the time taken by some of the other systems we evaluated,” he added.

Ali Radhi, head of IT at MBC Group added that HP’s solutions are used extensively at the media group’s facility owing to the adequate regional support provided by the manufacturer.

“Work becomes easier with new higher specification hardware. We evaluated several vendors. Technology was a key criterion but so were support, partners, regional presence and logistics. HP scored on the high side for most of these categories,” Radhi claimed.

Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) has opened its first office in Jeddah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to enable Saudi advertisers to connect more closely with the UAE broadcaster for its various broadcast, print and digital media brands. The move is

also aimed at enabling ADMC to report more dynamically from the local market.The broadcaster plans to open a second office in Riyadh soon.

Edward Borgerding, CEO of ADMC called the Kingdom “one of the most strategically important territories for the media industry in this region”.

The new KSA team in Jeddah will represent the company’s brands and business units across broadcast, publishing, and digital.

Raja Halabi, executive director of ADMC’s Commercial Division stated that “establishing on-ground presence in KSA is a definite milestone for ADMC”.

“It was important for us to make this strategic move and be within closer reach of our clients, advertisers, media agencies and partners. Having a solid existence in KSA will give us a more hands-on approach to dealing with the demands of the market and help us to quickly address the needs of all our stakeholders.”

strEAMbox dELivErs rEAL-tiME vidEo froM MoUnt EvErEstThe Streambox Live broadband video contribution service provided a vital communications link for 13-year-old climber Jordan Romero’s ascent of Mount Everest. Romero, the youngest person ever to attempt and reach the summit of the world’s highest peak, used the service to send up-to-the-minute, high-quality video reports of his progress from various locations on the mountain — one of which was included in CNN’s broadcast coverage of the expedition.

“We commend Jordan for such a monumental undertaking, and for relying on Streambox Live as a means of keeping family, friends, and the public updated on the expedition’s progress,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox. “Jordan’s summit of Everest is just the type of application for which Streambox Live was designed: a remote and physically demanding location lacking in network services, from which an organisation needs a reliable and easy-to-use method of streaming live or file-based video.”

Armed only with a laptop running the free Streambox Live encoding software, a camcorder, and a lightweight Thrane Explorer-700 BGAN terminal for satellite uplinking, the climbers were able to record, encode, and uplink video to the cloud-based Streambox Live service, where it may be browsed, downloaded, and decoded for broadcast or other use by any Streambox Live subscriber.

“Streambox Live offers huge potential not only for remote newsgathering by the media, but also for other organisations, such as Jordan’s, that need an easy and cost-effective method of streaming live video from remote locations that can’t be reached by satellite trucks,” said Graham Sherman, director of marketing for Network Innovations.

“Jordan and his team members are highly experienced mountaineers and adventurers, but they’re not satellite engineers. Nonetheless, they were able to set up the equipment and get up and running in minutes for the CNN live shot, without any training. This speaks volumes to the Streambox Live software’s ease of use,” added Hildeman.

IntErnAtIOnAl MbC IMPrOvES EffICIEnCy WItH HP Z800 WOrkStAtIOnS

ADMC OPEnS fIrSt OffICE In kSA

Ali Radhi, head of IT, MBC Group.

L to r: HE Ahmed Mankoush, consul general of the UAE in KSA; Abdel Mohsen Al Iraki, Saudi MOCI; and Mohammed Al-Hammadi, head of ADMC’s KSA office.


PrOnEWS

ibc to focUs on sportThe International Broadcasting Convention (IBC), which will run from September 9-14 will tackle sports broadcasting in a huge way from several different angles at its annual conference this year.

Manolo Romero, MD of Olympic Broadcast Services, will give the keynote and show clips of great Olympic moments. Following his presentation, Roger Mosey, who is in charge of the BBC’s plans for the 2012 games in London will talk about the innovations he is planning for interactive, multi-platform coverage.

Peter Angell, the director of production and programming for Host Broadcast Services (HBS), and the the man responsible for all World Cup coverage, will be at IBC to share his experiences in shooting and delivering stereo 3D, as this year sees the coverage of 25 of the games in stereoscopic 3D, the most high profile use of the new format since Avatar.

A follow-up panel discussion will look at the commercial prospects for 3D sports.

The conferences will look at opportunities for rights owners, sports federations, and teams and clubs while the final session will showcase how the latest technology can greatly enhance the viewing experience.

bskYb opts for GvGrass Valley has been awarded the contract to provide the key live production tools for BSkyB’s new sustainable broadcast facility in West London. The contract includes 20 LDK 8000 Elite WorldCam multi-format HD cameras and five Kayenne Video Production Centres. The GV equipment supports Sky’s drive for operational flexibility as well as the highest possible HD quality.

Sky’s Harlequin 1 development is a sustainable broadcast facility that will provide studios, technical support, and operational space for Broadcast Operations, Sky Sports, and Broadcast Services.

When fully completed, Harlequin 1 will contain multiple HD production studios for a range of programming including sports, light entertainment, music, and game shows. Supporting these studios will be four audio mastering suites fully equipped to provide flexible, 5.1-capable, multi-platform content production services.

Mhz bUiLds ob trUck for coUntY crickEtMHz recently delivered two custom-built vehicles to Mediatec UK. The OB vans will be used in conjunction with modular and mobile LED screens at major sporting, music and corporate events, including coverage of all international and domestic cricket matches.

The 2010 season will see more than 100 televised matches including the international series against Bangladesh, Australia and Pakistan. Mediatec UK provides the latest LED screens as part of a range of integrated broadcast and communications solutions for sports, music and corporate events throughout the world.

“LED screens are an integral part of the cricketing experience. Being awarded the contract by the England and Wales Cricket Board for the next three years made it imperative to appoint a company that had vital knowledge in the outside broadcast field,” said Mike Bone, general manager at Mediatec UK.

iMprEssA Adopts vizrtPortugese media firm IMPRESA Group recently chose a number of Vizrt apps including Escenic, MAM and Adactus products to complete its multimedia strategy.

Francisco Maria Balsemão, VP and CTO at Impresa stated that the media conglomerate decided to “deliver content on a variety of platforms in order to improve our presence and enable us to access multiple revenue streams”.

“We chose Vizrt because of the high level of integration and efficiencies that it was able to deliver. As Vizrt Web Content Management solution is specifically tailored for our industry, this influenced our decision.”

Several solutions were used in this project including the Escenic Content Engine for content management, Escenic Mobile Solution for cross platform publication, Escenic Community Engine, Adactus Mobilise Transcoding platform for ingest, transcoding and publishing as well as the Viz Video Hub as a media asset management system.

hAivision sUpports MAtch rAcE GErMAnYHaivision Network Video’s Makito HD H.264 encoder and Mako HD H.264 decoder were employed by Alcatel-Lucent during the Match Race Germany 2010 in May, in the first use of 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology for a live mobile broadcast. In partnership with online video technology provider stream5 and network operator Teledata, Alcatel-Lucent used Haivision equipment to stream the popular yacht race live online.

The Makito encoder supports SD and HD all the way up to 1080p60, and is capable of producing multiple stream resolutions from a single source (HiLo-Streaming), sending high bit-rate video-to-performance endpoints and lower-bandwidth video for mass consumption. With the Makito, the user needs only to encode once, using its powerful networking features combined with the ubiquity of H.264, to reach all possible viewers.

The Makito encoder and Mako decoder deliver 70-millisecond end-to-end latency. With advanced features such as WXGA encoding, multiple stream output, Adobe Flash compatibility, and traffic shaping, the systems are designed for any network video challenge over LAN, WAN, or satellite.

During the German stop of the World Match Racing Tour at Langenargen, held on the banks of the 536-square-kilometer Lake Constance, Haivision Makito systems were installed on competing yachts to encode video from on-board cameras in real-time.

The live signals were in turn broadcast as IP streams over an LTE radio cell to a mobile television studio for decoding by the Mako system. The decoder’s SDI output signal was delivered to the studio director and mixing desk for live broadcast cutting, graphics, and audio overlays.

Tens of thousands of online spectators watched as 12 teams, including the world’s top 10 helmsmen and the top six in the World Match Racing Tour, took the start line for the race.

IntErnAtIOnAl IntErnAtIOnAl

PrOnEWS

Twofour54 will launch an Arabic applications development fund for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad called AppsArabia. The fund, provided by twofour54 ibtikar, will offer support to start-up and early stage Arabic content initiatives.

AppsArabia will seek to invest in the best ideas for apps from entrepreneurs, app developers and businesses. It will provide commercial guidance, resources and marketing support to make them successful. A related web site, appsarabia.com, has been established to provide a supportive marketplace for all stakeholders in apps development.

Tony Orsten, CEO of twofour54 stated that iPhone OS “presents a huge opportunity for developers in the Middle East”.

“iPhone OS is the world’s most advanced mobile platform with more than 4 billion apps already downloaded from the App Store. Mobile adoption in the region is soaring and AppsArabia will empower Arab entrepreneurs to create apps that address the growing demand for local content,” he said.

The media precinct’s training academy twofour54 tadreeb was also recently appointed a Pro-Apps Apple Authorised Training Centre (AATC).

AlHurrA tv gOES lIvE WItH ItXUS-based Alhurra TV has migrated to the OmniBus iTX broadcast automation and playout platform for its multi-channel services to the Middle East and Europe.

The broadcaster went live with iTX last month, delivering three Arabic-language news and information networks — Alhurra, Alhurra-Iraq and Alhurra-Europe from its HQ in Springfield, Va.

Alhurra migrated to OmniBus iTX to provide both streamlined integration of its master control infrastructure and greater workflow efficiency.

Configured for three fully redundant SD channels with four ingest and four preview channels, Alhurra’s iTX implementation integrates with third-party graphics, asset management and traffic systems.

Exchanging data with Alhurra’s BroadView traffic

system and BitCentral asset management system through a file-based BXF interface, the iTX platform provides a high degree of efficient workflow automation. The platform’s ability to incorporate last-minute changes gives Alhurra the opportunity to respond rapidly to breaking news in its 24/7 broadcast schedule.

“Alhurra’s implementation of iTX provides the core of an extremely efficient and agile broadcasting operation,” said Mike Oldham, OmniBus Systems’ CEO.

“Because of the responsiveness of the iTX platform, combined with its state-of-the-art automation and ready integration with external systems, Alhurra has been able to achieve a far greater level of productivity, while delivering a more compelling service to its viewers.”

tWOfOur54 lAunCHES DEvElOPMEnt funD

iMAGEnAtion boosts EMirAti fiLMMAkErsImagenation Abu Dhabi has taken six Emirati film projects under its wing. It will help develop, finance and produce them. The chosen six include the drama Million’s Poet, the horror thriller Djinn, the adventure comedy Alaska, the romantic comedy Monsoon, Alis and Aishas and Sea Shadow.

The first film in the slate, Sea Shadow, a coming-of-age story scripted by Mohammed Hasan Ahmed and to be directed by Nawaf Al Janahi, was announced at Cannes Film Festival this year. Filming for Sea Shadow will begin in winter 2010/2011. These six projects will be developed over the course of the next two years.

Imagenation Abu Dhabi’s CEO, Edward Borgerding said “each of the films on this slate has the potential to resonate with international movie audiences”.

“Not only are we aiming to make commercially-viable films, but we are also hoping to share the local Emirati culture with movie-goers around the world,” he stated.

MOrOCCAn rADIO StAtIOn gOES tO AIr WItH rADIO ASSIStMorocco’s Luxe Radio has deployed the latest version of NETIA’s Radio-Assist 8 suite of digital audio automation software. The software supports and streamlines the end-to-end production and broadcast workflow at Luxe Radio.

One of just four new stations to have received a private broadcast licence from Morocco’s Higher Council of Audiovisual Communication, Luxe Radio broadcasts from Casablanca to six cities in the country.

The NETIA installation includes 15 workstations for

journalists and technicians, with two dedicated to playout and a backup used to provide redundancy. Together, these production workstations cover the entire production workflow, providing tools such as NETIA’s Radio-Assist 8 Feder-All, which automatically designs and generates schedule templates while giving users all of the functionality required to prepare a playlist.

Two servers run NETIA’s DBShare, which maintains the synchronous redundancy of all the metadata the system produces and the

consistency of database contents. The media logging module within Radio-Assist 8 records everything that is broadcast, with its Feed-In/Feed-Plan automatically capturing and recording all audio feeds for compliance with legal requirements.

The project was deployed in partnership with local systems integrator AVTM - EUROCOM Morocco.

rtS tElEX COnDuCtS trAInIng In DubAIRTS Telex recently conducted a two-day training workshop in Dubai for some of its major resellers, systems integrators (SIs)and clients as part of its efforts to familiarise them with some of its new products.

“Along with our SIs and partners from Jordan, UAE, Oman and Ethiopia, some of our major clients such as twofour54 and Dubai Media Inc. also attended the

academy,” stated Ammar Fawzy, regional sales manager for RTS Telex, Middle East and Africa CCS.

“The idea was to introduce them to some of our new products and also show them how to design a complete intercom system, whether for small enterprises or for larger companies, based on RTS Telex products,” he added.

Attendees were introduced to the ADAM_M matrix that was launched at NAB and the KP-12 CLD, which will begin shipping after IBC.

“Seeing the success of the Academy, we’ve decided to make this an annual event. It is part of our efforts to train our partners in the Middle East,” added Fawzy.

Nawaf Al Janahi (top) and Moham-med Hasan Ahmed below.

Tony Orsten, CEO, twofour54.

Ammar Fawzy, regional sales manager, RTS Telex.


When Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) bagged the rights to broadcast the English Premier league (EPl) in the Middle East and north Africa (MEnA) region, many industry players were sceptical. Would the state-backed broadcaster that was, thus far, a fully free-to-air (FTA) business operation, be upto the task of revamping a portion of its operations and technical infrastructure to accommodate the pay TV model? Would it be able to provide High Definition (HD) content?

Sceptics, however, have been silenced as ADMC has dropped one shocking surprise after another in recent months. On the one hand, it has partnered with some of the world’s best production studios such as IMG Sports Media in the UK and Endemol Sport to produce English and Arabic content respectively. But the most impressive announcement was its plan to deliver the Premiership across three distribution platforms including satellite, IPTV and the internet.

“HD, 380 games live, reporters on the ground in the UK, presence at the big matches, interactive live shows from Abu Dhabi and England, daily news updates, an official Barclays Premier League Channel, English/Arabic commentary, and analysis by well-known guests. This is football like never before.”Karim Sarkis, Executive Director of Broadcast, ADMC.

PrOEXCluSIvE

gears up for EPL fever

PrOEXCluSIvE

Karim Sarkis (l) and a user at ADMC (r).

broadcastPro Middle East had the exclusive opportunity to visit ADMC’s headquarters in the uAE capital in time to see many of the backend components coming together before the action begins in August. We bring you the complete story.

Abu Dhabi Media Company


For more FilmLight credits, visit www.filmlight.ltd.uk/our_customers/credits

Operations and sales were more complicated, the deputy executive director confides.

“Operations demanded more strategic planning. For sales, we had to launch a fully-formed retail operation which starts with manufacturing and goes right through to the customer in the shops. We have a great product and top programming is being planned. However, we have to ensure that it’s accessible, affordable and our customers are well serviced,” Semaan explains.

Essentially, there are two main parts to the encryption process: a conditional access system that will encrypt all of ADMC’s Al Riyadiyah channels and a subscriber management system that will service its customers.

Security apart, the broadcaster was clear that it wanted to move to a tapeless workflow all the way from production to transmission.

“This is a groundbreaking move in the region,” claims Semaan.

“Football has never been produced like this before in this region, where everything will be done in full HD and where everything follows a genuinely tapeless workflow.

With the three distribution formats, the media conglomerate plans to reach out to the farthest corners of the region for which it has the broadcast rights and is leaving no stone unturned to ensure it’s done.

The last ten months, however, have not been without its challenges, says Sarkis Semaan, deputy executive director for Operations and Technology – Broadcast Group, ADMC.

“Due to the nature of the rights and having to broadcast them on an encrypted platform, we had to act very fast to establish our business model and install the infrastructure to fit the strategy that was established,” he says.

“We wanted to provide a viewing experience like never before. Our first decision was to produce, edit and transmit in HD; secondly, we wanted to provide all 380 games live. Along with this, we also had to devise a strategy to create a pay TV platform for the first time and make sure our encryption technology truly kept pirates away,” adds Semaan.

Moving to a partial pay-TV business model, however, was easier said than done.

Semaan says three main areas needed to be addressed in order to successfully launch a pay TV platform – the technology, the sales and the operations part.

“Technology wise, it was not complicated. Here, the most important issue was security as piracy is the biggest challenge in this region. We decided to partner with Irdeto as it is one of the world’s leading software security and encryption technology companies.

“We are confident that their newest technology will not be cracked. It is a smart card technology that only works when paired with a secure set-top box. It supports dual encryption, which means both the cards and the boxes are encrypted and will only work when they are paired and recognised,” explains Semaan.

Would you consider showing a portion of the EPL in 3D? 3D Premier League coverage is currently not being widely sold to broadcasters. If we get the opportunity

to buy 3D coverage, we will explore the possiblility of bringing it to the MENA region. However, it will require much bigger bandwidth because it will be two streams of information and to fully enjoy it, you have to have 3D sets.

Sarkis Semaan, Deputy Executive Director for Operations & Technology – Broadcast Group, ADMC.

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Sarkis Semaan.


“Our transmission will be in HD – MPEG4/DVBS2 and our format will be 1080i. Our infrastructure is 1080p ready. All of our platforms and infrastructure are tapeless end to end, meaning even in our studios everything will be file based. We have installed high-capacity servers to handle the increased space needed for HD content.

“The cameras will be connected to the galleria and the output of the cameras will be connected to the encoders that will ingest directly to our servers,” explains Semaan.

Two of ADMC’s studios have been upgraded by Sony Professional Solutions Middle East from Standard Definition (SD) to support High Definition (HD) as well.

At the time of going to press, two new large studios that can accommodate eight to ten cameras were in the final stages of being integrated by Sony. They are scheduled for completion in mid-July.

“Nothing will be up-converted so we had to upgrade our studios to HD. However, all our FTA channels continue to transmit in SD so it was important that our studios support both formats. The new studios will be in HD and are necessary to accommodate the content required for our newly-launched sports channels,” Semaan explains.

From the studios, the content will be directed to the post-production department if they are recorded shows, or directly to playout if the matches are live.

“Our producers and journalists will browse and rough edit using Invenio. Final Cut Pro (FCP) will be used for the final editing of the Premier League production, but we also have other products such as Avid that we can use. It will all be seamlessly integrated,” Semaan explains.

The playout and transmission part of this project is again significant as it was awarded during CABSAT 2010 to Harris Middle East and completed last month.

Semaan calls the deal with Harris Middle East “extremely important”.

“The installation includes the playout, the video servers, the entire tapeless workflow and a media asset management installation as well. Harris also provided on-air graphics solutions. We will be using graphics heavily to complement our EPL offering and make the analysis deeper and more easily digestible for the fans. The Media Asset Management (MAM) bit will be handled by Harris’ Invenio. It will manage all of our media from our studio production and post to promos and playout and then, to the archives.

“This is the whole Harris One solution. We will have a new ADC automation system in addition to our existing one for our new playout centre. Besides this, we have adopted the Broadcast Master as our traffic management system,” explains Semaan.

Broadcast Master will be employed to create the grids, transmission lists and schedules. It will create the playlists and a link will be created between ADC, Broadcast Master and Invenio.

“The material on the online server will be played out and for repeats, anything in our tapeless archive can be pulled out and transferred for transmission,” explains Semaan, adding that ADMC will use Arabsat and Nilesat for satellite transmissions.

One key reason for adopting a tapeless workflow was to enable the distribution of EPL content across different platforms – satellite TV (with the HD box and smartcard), IPTV (cable), and by streaming over the internet.

“Once you have file-based content, it is very easy to manage and distribute on different platforms. This makes it much easier and efficient when you’re tapeless. It will be just a matter of editing and tuning and sending it to any platform,” explains Semaan.

Three months after being awarded the contract, Harris Middle East delivered a complete end-to-end tapeless workflow including the production and playout infrastructure for nine new HD sports channels to support ADMC’s EPL and other sports rights.

An entire workflow was built from scratch to ingest content from various sources including satellite, cable TV, live venues and other sources; manage the content in production and post; and finally, to play it out.

One significant part of this project was the addition of the Harris Nexio servers to the ADMC installation. All of ADMC’s existing and new studios have been fitted with the Nexio servers to enable operators to ingest content directly from the studio to the servers without tape. From here, the material will be sent for editing on either FCP or Avid before it is placed in the sched-ule for playout.

For ADMC, which has used the Omneon platform for several years, adding the Nexio platform to its facility was a strategic decision, says Said Bacho, managing director of Harris Middle East, adding that it was a “huge win for Harris”.

“The key reason for adding the Nexio server was to accommodate ADMC’s

plans to move to HD. Besides that, it’s important to see how the servers talk to other components within the system and how they support failure and multiple platforms,” says Bacho.

Harris provided the glue, Platinum routers, Videotek Test and Measure-ment equipment as well as the entire infrastructure for the installation.

“All of these products support 3GB/s to enable transmission for 1080p or 3D in the future,” explains Bacho.

Another important addition to the ADMC project was the Harris Isilon storage systems.

“This is nearline storage and is not just redundant but also flexible in terms of connecting to various plat-forms. It’s connected to Harris on one end and can be integrated with other solutions from third parties whether it’s the editing elements or other components,” explains Bacho.

From a software perspective, the key components of the workflow are the Harris Broadcast Master sales and scheduling solution, its Invenio digital asset management system and ADC automation (for playout).

The Invenio plays a key role in this project as it supports “nearly 50 differ-ent workflows within this installation”, according to Bacho.

“The Invenio is handling 50 different automated processed here such as transferring content from one area to the other, or managing material or scheduling data. It a hugely sophisti-cated system,” he adds.

Bacho calls this a “very good example of the Harris ONE solution” and justifies the approach stating that “when installing systems on such a huge scale, no end user wants to work with different components from differ-ent vendors”.

“Making all the components work together is more easily said than done. If one manufacturer can provide all parts of the workflow, end users prefer this because they don’t have to call six or seven different parties when something goes wrong,” Bacho claims.

stUdio sUppLiEr And si: sonY profEssionAL soLUtions MiddLE EAst

Sixteen Sony HSC 300 camera chains Sony mixers and monitors Vinten support. Jimmy Jib BDL Telepromoters Pixel Power CG EVS slo-mo servers. Red Bee Piero telestrator systems Calrec Omega console Belden cabling Sennheiser mics Evertz central router and multi-viewers. Clear Com intercom systems EVS Slo mo servers

New studios

PrOEXCluSIvE

Production and playoutsoLUtion providEr: hArris MiddLE EAst

PrOEXCluSIvE

Said Bacho, MD, Harris Middle East.

The Isilon storage systems can be connected with other third-party components.


Can viewers who have chosen the STB option only use the new Humax HD box? Yes. The HD Humax box is the only one you can use because they are incorporated with Irdeto’s new security solution. Right now, it’s a zapper box because it is the first. However, in the future, we want to be able to offer subscribers a PVR function that will allow them to record shows.

Once people have bought a box and card that are compatible, they can activate it through our call centre or alternatively through an online application. Sarkis Semaan, Deputy Eexecutive Director for Operations & Technology – Broadcast Group, ADMC.

20 cameras will be used within Abu Dhabi TV’s studios for the EPL. Outside the studios, many more ENG cameras will be used for field reporting and interviews.

Every channel will be broadcast with full 5.1 Dolby sound. Each match will have two audio streams – English and Arabic – giving viewers the ability to choose which language they want for commentary.

The viewing experience will be unprecedented, reiterates Semaan.

ADMC also claims to have a very skilled systems integration team in place to carry out such projects.

“At any one time, we had about 12 people in-house doing the systems integration. We have been quite efficient. Harris provided the technology but the technical integration itself was done by ADMC,” claims Semaan.

Perhaps the one area where ADMC fell short was with the encryption.

“It’s not just about installing the equipment; you have to get the workflow right and train your people. We have brought in people on the encryption side as this is quite new for us. Everything else was handled in-house. We have begun training our people and it will be ongoing as we continually strive to improve,” says Semaan.

For Abu Dhabi, bagging the EPL was a huge coup and part of the UAE capital’s vision to become “a city of sport”, says Semaan.

As part of that strategy, state-backed ADMC has continuously increased its portfolio of sports rights in recent times. It acquired the rights to Formula 1, the Wimbledon and the Australian Open and more recently, the Gulf Cup as well.

The EPL, however, will be ADMC’s biggest test. Will ADMC be able to engage fans across the

Middle East like nobody has ever done before? Indeed, it has put in place the infrastructure

and teamed up with several international and local partners who have worked on such events before. But only time will tell if the EPL experience in the coming seasons will be a truly entertaining experience. - Vijaya Cherian PrO

PrOEXCluSIvE


Why has ADMC decided to go with so many different distribution platforms?The EPL was the perfect opportunity to make a premium content offering. I represent only one string – online – from the three distribution platforms namely IPTV, set-top box (STB) and Web streaming. This was designed to give maximum choice and reach to the broadest audience for the EPL. If you had only the STBs, you would have eliminated a large portion of the audience.

The fact that the internet is a way of life may be arguable in terms of broadband and connectivity but it is becoming an adopted form of everyday life.

Will your online offering be unique from what we have seen so far in the Middle East? I am sceptical about picture quality because of broadband inconsistencies in the region. Watching premium content online is now common practice in international markets. Baseball especially has attracted millions of fans around the world. ESPN streams content all the time. In the Middle East, the Champions League and now, the World Cup have been streamed by Al Jazeera.

The fundamental difference is that up until now, most of the experience viewers have had with online viewing has been a YouTube kind of experience, where the stream is erratic because it is a single encoding rate. The image quality largely depends on your connection with your

service provider and other factors such as the date of your PC, its processor power and so on. In short, all of that was left in the hands of the customer to solve. That experience is, therefore, imperfect.

When you are putting out something like premium football, you have to take some of the responsibility to, at least, create the very best output. We have done that by partnering with a company in the UK called Perform – which is an expert in the space of online content especially sport – together with a well-known content distribution network, whom we can’t name just yet, but they are one of the top three in the world. These are the ingredients designed to bring to the last mile the very best streaming quality.

Up to that point, we have delivered the best quality stream we can. We have even gone one step further to create adapted bit rate streaming. Rather than encoding the stream at one level, which means everyone has to fit one glove, we encode it at four different levels from very low bit rate such as 300kbps right up to 1 MB. Because this is adaptive, the stream actually senses your broadband capacity and gives you what is possible on your PC. If your broadband quality goes from high to low half way through the stream, you won’t lose the stream but your picture quality might suffer a little bit.

As a media company, from our side, we will do whatever is necessary with technical capabilities to offer

What about pricing?We figured that the pricing for the internet would be the lowest price point to try and make this available to the widest audience. Online streaming is a good option especially for those for whom a dish or STB is not a viable option because of economics. It’s also ideal for those who are outside of an IPTV or cable network.

We have two kinds of price points; US $100 for the GCC per season and $60 for non-GCC per season.

Internet streaming provides three things – an affordable price point, mobility and eventually, we’ll start looking at pay-per-event as well. If you are only transiting through the Middle East, you do not need to commit to a subscription. You could probably just pay premium for one match.

Is that service already available?Not yet. Initially, we want to deliver a quality service at a consistent price point.

How would you counter pirates and hackers online? With every platform, there’s a risk of piracy. There’s less worry of piracy online because we are monitoring the bandwidth that is being streamed. Now, if you tried to place a camera in front of the screen and try to multicast from that, the quality would be very poor.

With regards to hacking, all the territories are geo-blocked because our rights are only for the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region. We can geo-block the MENA region as a whole; we can isolate individual countries and we can also isolate individual ISPs.

Since Digital Media is a different entity at ADMC, how do you work out your technical infrastructure with the broadcast team?We are a well-integrated company. Although there are three verticals within ADMC –

broadcastPro Middle East talks to ricky ghai, the man behind the distribution of the English Premier league to the most demanding audience today — Internet users.

Man of the Match

all of the best options to the end customer. Of course, your ISP or the telco needs to take the battle from your hand and do their part as well.

Are they doing their part? I hear you’ve partnered with Etisalat and du?Indeed, we have partnered with Etisalat and du. Business wise, the lessons to be learnt are that broadband providers are looking for new forms of revenue. A lot of customers are now asking their providers for more broadband to stream more content. Here is the perfect opportunity then for such companies to stimulate broadband uptake in the region because uptil now, I would have been happy with my 256 kbps and probably didn’t need it for anything more than email. Tomorrow, however, I might want to stream live football and hopefully, HD movies. The sky’s the limit. In Hong Kong, there are speeds of upto 100 Mbps available to suit individual customers.

We hear that a telecom partner in Saudi Arabia is now talking of making such speeds available in the future. With E-life from Etisalat, you can get 30 MB which is more than sufficient for what most customers here need. What we are sending down the pipe typically requires only 512. Half-a-meg should be enough to stream very good picture quality. If you have about 1 or 2 MB, you should really have a great viewing experience for the EPL.

“The Internet kind of opened up a candy box of choice. The problem with it is that initially, it was perceived to be free but this candy now comes in different ranges, and varies in terms of the layers, the quality and people’s preferences, and just as people tend to leave out the coffee ones or the orange ones, we now have to find a way of monetising the premium peanut ones or the truffles.”Ricky Ghai, Executive Director, Digital Group, Abu Dhabi Media Company.

PrOIntErvIEW PrOIntErvIEW

Ricky Ghai, Executive Director, Digital Group, ADMC.


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was first launched, it gets 15 million unique hits a month and they have had more than four billion streams so far. It was such an amazing success story in North America. ADMC will bring VEVO to the Middle East for the Arabic market. We hope to make announcements of the launch plans in the near future.

Any final comment on Web streaming and generating revenues?When I look down from the top and all the changes that are happening in the digital landscape, to me, the buzz word used to be just internet all the time.

The internet kind of opened up a candy box of choice. The problem with it is that initially, it was perceived to be free but this candy now comes in different ranges, and varies in terms of the layers, the quality and people’s preferences, and just as people tend to leave out the coffee ones or the orange ones, we now have to find a way of monetising the premium peanut ones or the truffles. This candy box of choice brings about a lot of exciting opportunities but also some tough challenges with regards to monetisation. Our EPL is one attempt to monetise premium content.

It’s a long journey but we will get better with time. - Vijaya Cherian PrO

broadcasting, publishing and Digital Media – at the top and the bottom, we are very closely interlocked. I work very closely with Karim Sarkis and his team in Broadcast to ensure that we are adopting a seamless 360 degree approach to football.

Our platforms are technically compatible and integrated straight into the broadcasting procedures, so encoding will be done as the feeds come into the studio and the commentaries are layered on top. Then, there’s real time encoding into the four levels of bit rate we spoke about.

What are some of the challenges of putting this whole thing together?By any standards, taking on a premium, high-calibre sport event that runs for ten months is a huge challenge. Specific skill sets are needed and workflows have to be changed. This is a product that you cannot afford to promise and not deliver. We have not taken any chances. We have employed and partnered with companies who have done this many many times, whether it’s Endemol or IMG Sport and Perform. These are companies that have understood the end-to-end workflow. The challenge was really getting ADMC’s internal units aligned.

If you look at the USPs of our new production, we have Arabic, English, new programmes and we are showing every single match live. That is unique in itself.

“… Eventually, we’ll start looking at pay-per-event as well. If you are only transiting through the Middle East, you do not need to commit to a subscription. You could probably just pay premium for one match.”

Ricky Ghai, Executive Director, Digital Group, Abu Dhabi Media Company.

Where must people go to view the matches online?The landing site is called www.admcsport.com. This will have a dedicated live player which is being developed specifically for sport in conjunction with Perform but it is being used principally for the EPL.

Tell us about some of Digital Media’s other initiatives.We have just launched a special kind of Digital Signage solution. Business for this will roll out from July. The plan is to provide a collected digital network of signage. These advanced HD streams will be integrated with kiosks that provide interactive information such as location maps, mobile applications and, more importantly, voucher systems.

You may also have heard that we are a shareholder along with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music in VEVO, which is a great platform to showcase new premium music videos. The announcement was made in December 2009.

Available free-of-charge to internet users, VEVO features the most extensive array of professionally-produced music videos, exclusive premieres, concerts and more anywhere on the Web from most of the major music record companies.

In North America, where VEVO

PrOIntErvIEW


“If you look at this camera as a separate entity, it is difficult to identify any special features but when you place it within the context of a tapeless workflow, end users are quickly able to see the benefits in terms of post production and archiving. Additionally, many individual end-users only use a small percentage of the features on their cameras. Such workshops help shed light on many features that individuals are sometimes not aware of and help maximise the potential of their cameras,” he says.

Many end users also expressed interest in the Adobe CS5 application.

“Adobe CS5 is a native 64-bit application and this suddenly places Adobe firmly in the professional space within the post production environment,” explains Farnam.

The workshop also provided the perfect platform for Advanced Media to announce that it would be selling HP and Adobe products to the local market, according to Farnam.

“This workshop is also part of our efforts to showcase our non-linear editing and digital archiving capabilities at Advanced Media. We have an IT department that takes care of these areas and this department has become a lot stronger within the company,” explains Farnam.

Besides the cameras and the editing systems, Advanced Media also introduced the newly released ProxSys MA-10 solution at the event to give end-users a taste of a personal archiving solution.

Speaking about the archiving solution, Edwin Hartounian, technical manager at Advanced Media says: “The MA-10 is a very cost-effective solution designed for individuals or small businesses that want a small archiving solution with about 2TB of internal storage. What we have shown end-users here is that you can have an entire workflow all the way from the cameras

to the editing and archiving for as little as US $15,000. This gives more creative freedom and power to small-budget end-users,” he explains.

This is only one of several workshops hosted by Advanced Media at its partner production house Colonia Film in recent months.

As the company also distributes still photography solutions, it aims to do a photography workshop in the near future.

“We have plans to consider a workshop where you can shoot video with a DSLR camera. There’s a lot of demand for this,” Farnam adds.

Advanced Media is one of the few distributors in the region that has taken a two-pronged approach to selling. While it, no doubt, markets the brands that it represents in the region, it has also invested time and money to ensure that its training workshops don’t just become a marketing and advertising tool but genuinely inform and educate end users about upcoming technology trends. Its previous workshop on 3D was also hugely successful and received a lot of response from the marketplace.

As Alaa Rantisi, general manager of Advanced Media points out: “As a reseller and distributor, we feel that at least some of our time and effort must be spent in educating end-users in this market. We hope to do at least four workshops annually. Like Kaveh said, our next workshop will tie in the use of DSLRs and video production as there is a lot of interest in this now.” PrO

Unwinding at Colonia FilmManufacturers and distributors join hands in Dubai to train end users on the benefits of a tapeless workflow.

Dubai-based distributor and systems integrator Advanced Media trading hosted a free workshop last month to showcase the benefits of a tapeless workflow in conjunction with Sony Professional Solutions Middle East. Adobe and Apple also participated in the workshop along with HP and distributor MediaCast.

The main objective of the workshop was to educate and train end users on the tapeless workflow using the new Sony XDCAM EX series of cameras. Two separate workflows were created in post production to cater to both Mac and PC users. Final Cut Pro (FCP) was loaded onto the Mac while Adobe CS5 was deployed on a HP machine although the latter software app works on both Mac and PC platforms.

Several end-users from across the GCC including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE attended the two-day workshop.

“The uniqueness of the XDCAM EX is best realised when you show end-users the entire workflow. We showed them how they could use the footage shot on this camera on different software applications and operating systems,” says Kaveh Farnam, CEO of Advanced Media Trading.

PrOEvEnt PrOEvEnt

“If you look at this camera as a separate entity, it’s difficult to identify any special features but when you place it within the context of a tapeless workflow, end users are quickly able to see the benefits in terms of post production and archiving.”Kaveh Farnam, CEO, Advanced Media.

Edwin Hartounian (l) and Kaveh Farnam of Advanced Media. .

Awad Mousa (Sony Profesisonal) & Amit Ahuja, Sony Gulf.

Amjad Desai of Grapheast shows end users how to edit footage on Adobe CS5.

Alaa Rantisi(r), GM, Advanced Media.

Pierre Guidera, MediaCast.

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21 aspiring filmmakers emerged from rSICA this year, confident and ready to work on their first film projects. If any of them were evenly remotely sceptical about a future career in filmmaking, those doubts were erased by the end of the course.

As one of the graduates, 29-year-old Mervat Aksoy, points out: “We lived and breathed filmmaking every day for the last two years at RSICA. After that, filmmaking becomes a life choice.”

Unlike most other academies in the region that offer short-term courses in filmmaking or make it a part of their applied media porgrammes, RSICA is a dedicated film school.

It claims to be the first and only academy in the region that presently offers a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Degree programme in Cinematic Arts for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Based in Aqaba, Jordan, RSICA is a collaborative effort between the Royal Film Commission (RFC) of Jordan and the University of Southern California-School of Cinematic Arts.

The effort is not surprising. Jordan’s beautiful and historic locales have increasingly appealed to Hollywood and Bollywood directors and many films shot in the Kingdom have been nominated for the Oscars in recent years.

In june 2010, the first batch of students graduated from one of the most rigorous filmmaking courses in the history of the Middle East region. broadcastPro Middle East looks at how the red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts (rSICA) in jordan is giving rise to a new wave of filmmakers in the Middle East.

Jordan’s cinematic dreams

In fact, the 2010 Academy Winner for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow, was shot almost entirely in the Kingdom.

RFC, an autonomously-run government initiative, has been aggressively promoting the country’s locales and has launched several training programmes to ensure that the country has a substantial talent pool to support foreign crews that come to the Kingdom to shoot.

Interestingly, Aksoy previously worked at RFC as a graphic designer before she enrolled at RSICA.

At RSICA, the filmmaker directed four films and produce eleven. Today, she is looking to combine her creative skills with what she gained at the film school, and also has a film in development.

“There’s a short film that I am creative producing with two Jordanian filmmakers. It is in development. I really want to gain as much experience as possible in creative producing,” she says.

Having been exposed to different aspects of filmmaking, Aksoy says she was eventually able to nail down her own role in the whole chain.

“At RSICA, you have the opportunity to be well rounded in all aspects of filmmaking. For the first time, I understood the importance of design within filmmaking and began to appreciate the role of a producer. You realise how important it is to work with a team and what a huge impact it

has on what you produce. I also previously never gave much thought to financing and budgeting. But in our production class, we focused heavily on both business and finance. We were shown how the film industry as a business was very beneficial. At the end of the day, being just an artist without the business skills can be detrimental to what you’re doing,” she says.

Deema Amr, another graduate from the same batch, has a more ambitious project at hand.

Amr was in Abu Dhabi recently to solicit funding for her feature film Crossing Borders. She produced and directed more than 10 student films in the fiction and documentary genres at RSCIA.

Today, she needs a development fund of $200,000 to take her film forward.

“Crossing Borders is about an Arab widower who has two daughters, both on the verge of getting married. However, one will marry in the conventional way and the other will do just the opposite. It’s a bit of drama and comedy; it explores the father-daughter relationship in the Middle East and while it is set in Jordan, the story is universal in nature,” says Amr.

The 27-year-old Jordanian, who has always had a passion for film and photography, has, in fact, done other courses in the same disciplines.

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However, she says RSICA gave her the strong foundation she needed to move forward in filmmaking.

“When I went to university, there was no filmmaking course in Jordan so I took up marketing and business. After a couple of years, I went back to photography; later, I went to the New York Film Academy (NYFA) in London for a short one-month course in filmmaking and came back to Amman. I joined SAE in Jordan but didn’t find the programme strong enough. I was lucky to get into RSICA. I believe I’m the last student to have been taken into the first batch,” she says.

Amr explains that many students discovered an inner talent at the course.

“I liked the way they went into every aspect of filmmaking including scriptwriting, directing, producing, sound and so on. Even if you didn’t like something, the course opened your mind to new things and you began to see those components in a new light,” she says.

26-year-old Issam Uraiqat is a fine example of that. He became interested in scriptwriting and is a freelance cinematographer and scriptwriter today.

With a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and a job as an animator, Uraiqat was well set in his career.

“In order for our students and graduates to be competitive with other potential crew members and to get the jobs that will move them up in the industry, they need to know at least the basics of celluloid film.”Rebecca Flores, instructor, RSICA.

Rebecca Flores with the RSICA kit at a shoot.


Advanced Media Trading LLCNo. 410, 4th floor. Al Khaleej Center, Bur Dubai P.O.Box: 44156, Dubai-UAETel.: +9714 3529977 Fax: +9714 3529976 Email: [email protected] www.amediallc.com

Deema Amr, 27 years.

Mervat Aksoy, 29 years.

Issam Uraiqat, 26 years.

“We want to create sound designers, not sound operators. Operators work on the machine but sound designers and recordists understand the creative part of the process and can engineer good audio.”Baha Othman, Faculty.

RSICA’S FIRST BATCH

However, he says, “something was missing”. “I never looked at filmmaking as an

option in the past. I joined RSICA to fill that gap inside me,” Uraiqat says.

“I am now writing my own feature in Arabic and love the comedy genre and am good at it as well. Most of us want to do our features in Arabic although the medium of instruction in RSICA is English. It would defeat the purpose if we did not make films for this region,” he says.

Uraiqat is focused on short films for the moment, justifying that it is easier to get funding for this. “There are organisations that fund shorts. Ideally, people should not venture into features without having a good grasp of what they are doing. Features are a huge investment and I believe I’m honing my skills as I make shorts,” he adds.

None of the above graduates have any illusions about the market they are working in. They have stepped in fully aware of the challenges of making films for the local market. But they are determined to pursue their passion.

“A big issue in this part of the world is the lack of a film consciousness,” says Uraiqat. “We need film to be part of our culture. Film must be an integral part of any society but it’s not the case with Jordan yet.”

Amr seconds that. “Audiences here must go to the theatre to

watch cinema. Here, most people rent DVDs

and usually watch only Hollywood films. They don’t get a chance to view films made in Jordan and we must change that,” she says.

What all the three filmmakers have in common though is the belief that content is king and tools are secondary.

Aksoy makes it clear that she has “no preference for formats as long as I have a team who can work with any tool”.

“I don’t care what equipment we use. We will not tie ourselves to any equipment to ensure we don’t lose the art of good story telling. The story comes first; the visuals will follow. We understand the importance of cinematography and that the story has to be told well. But an audience that hasn’t been to film school will want to emotionally involved. I believe content will triumph over tools,” says Aksoy.

The digital format, however, seems to be the default choice among these filmmakers.

“I’d use the Sony EX1 camera or the Canon DSLR, says Uraiqat. “I find these cameras very exciting.”

Amr has her sights set on HD.“We learnt to work on HD and also had the

opportunity to work with the Red Rock lens adapter in the second year. The idea was to try and get the 35 mm look. I’m quite happy to work with the digital format since the technology is very good these days. The story should be good enough to capture the audience. This is what makes the difference,” she says.

Rebecca Flores, instructor and coordinator, Production Programme at RSICA Flores, however, feels that all students should at some point be exposed to celluloid although the academy boasts 20 Sony EX1 HDCAMs.

“Film is cost prohibitive for many young and established filmmakers, and HD has made it easier for artists to use a medium that won’t break their bank. In Jordan, there are no processing labs and film cameras must be brought in from outside of the country. At RSICA, we wanted to put our students on the HD “track” because it is the way the industry is heading plus it is what is readily available in Jordan. Most local filmmakers here still can’t afford to use film anyway.

“However, it is important for students to understand how film works and is used because many of the international films that come to Jordan to shoot still work with film. In order for our students and graduates to be competitive with other potential crew members and to get the jobs that will move them up in the industry, they need to know at least the basics of celluloid film. This is especially relevant in the camera department where crew need to understand film speeds, exposures and how to load the film itself,” she explains, adding

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that the academy hopes in the next five years to buy the longer format cameras and also to invite regional professionals to take part in workshops that will expose RSICA students to film.

“Not only will this give them a competitive edge, but it is also exposing them to the companies in the region that will be part of their future careers. It is a win-win for everyone, because the companies will also gain clients,” she adds.

Although it may be wanting on the celluloid side, RSICA has invested heavily in all the other components of a production including light, grip and sound to provide what Flores calls a “a well-rounded film education”.

Besides its basic kit and facilities, RSICA has invested in a lot of lighting gear as well. On its shooting stage or out in the field, students use a combination of Arri open-faced and Fresnel lights.

“They vary in intensity from 300 watts to 2000 watts. We have a set of 1000 watt and 2000 watt soft scoop lights on the stage. We also recently acquired four sets of Mole Richardson portable Baby lighting kits,” says Flores.

RSICA also has a lot of grip gear including silks, solids, cutters, c-stands, and a whole array of the smaller but essential gear needed to get the lights up, Flores adds.

One area perhaps that students don’t give much thought to when they join is sound but Baha Othman, instructor and head of the sound department says that student attitudes changed over the duration of the course.

“Most people want to become directors or producers but sound can make a huge difference and students begin to appreciate it at RSICA. We have good mixers and one of the best sound recording studios in Jordan. But people who are just trained on the equipment will do the job of an operator. We want to create sound designers, not sound operators. Operators work on the machine but sound designers and recordists understand the creative part of the process and can engineer good audio,” he says.

The facility boasts more than 15 Protools LE machines among other solutions.

hd screening room: Can accommodate 50 people. Full sized screen with 5.1 stereo and multi-region playback of a variety of digital formats.shooting stage: Sound proof, with background flats, capable of housing entire scenes or multi-camera television set-ups.hd Editing room: Has 20 HP workstations, each with dual 20-inch displays and Avid edit-ing software. All computers are connected to a high-speed, Unity server which allows for remote work from workstation to worksta-tion and sophisticated file-sharing and screen-sharing capabilities.Library: Houses a huge collection of videos, screen-plays, and books related to cinema, arts and culture. computer Lab: Each workstation is loaded with MS Office, Final Draft (screen writing software) and Movie Magic (budget-ing and production planning software). The lab is acces-sible to students 24/7.production services: The Production Services Depart-ment, managed by RSICA students, helps to facilitate student shoots, track produc-tion schedules, and maintain a database of locations, actors and local production facilities.

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RSICA itself boasts a fantastic faculty, some of who have come in from the University of Southern California or other international schools and teach full time at the academy.

At the graduation ceremony of the first batch, one organisation that felt gratified was the Royal Film Commission. For years, RFC has been conducting training workshops to build a local talent pool but the course at RSICA brought something more to the table.

George David, general manager of RFC proudly declares that Jordan now has “20 more well-trained directors, producers and cinematographers who are ready to go out and create a better local film industry”.

“Students at RSICA have been put through an intense course. As a result, some of them already have ready scripts. We have two films in development, one of which is being produced and the other, directed by two RSICA graduates.

“The idea of having these programmes and courses is to eventually ensure that we can nurture the film industry in Jordan and slowly but surely, we are getting there.” - Vijaya Cherian PrO

Facilities at RSICA

At RSICA, Jordan.

George David, GM, RFC. The library at RSICA.


PRO: What are your plans for CABSAT 2011?DAvID rObErtS: For one, we have brought the show forward from March to February in line with requests from exhibitors and visitors. CABSAT will run from February 8-10 in 2011.

We will also move the show to the Sheikh Saeed Halls at the Dubai International Exhibition and Convention Centre (DIECC) next year to give us one continuous exhibition and additional floor space. These halls are close to DWTC’s Metro Station.

A study done in conjunction with the RTA (the Roads & Transport Authority) suggests that a significant proportion of visitors to all shows at the Trade Centre in the future would use this form of transport. I expect it will have a positive reception with international exhibitors, who can now stay in hotels as far afield as Ibn Battuta in one direction and the airport in the other, and still be only 20 minutes commute away from the show.

This venue also provides additional benefits such as more catering outlets, and a vast outdoor area where we can feature outside broadcast and satellite technology solutions.

PRO: How has the industry reacted to the change in dates?DAvID rObErtS: We were careful to consult our clients before arriving at this decision. We are now further away from several of the big international broadcast and technology shows, so there should be fewer issues in terms of date clashes.

PRO: We hear you have renamed the Conference The Academy?DAvID rObErtS: The Academy was previously called Knowledge Exchange. We were conscious that after several years in the same format, we needed to expand our conference proposition, give it a greater appeal, and a wider focus.

With regards to the Conference, it’s a question of variety, target audience and format. Broadcast is a vast industry, and successfully representing the entire workflow process in one conference programme is challenging. We will now have a format whereby we can offer C-level knowledge exchange (aimed at CEOs, CTOs, CIOs and CFOs) alongside educational workshops for entry-level professionals. This also allows third parties the opportunity to bring in their own ‘ready-made’ tutorials and master-classes, and maximise the ROI because of the sheer scale of the CABSAT MENA visitor numbers.

The Conference will continue to be the central event within the Academy. However, we will also offer exhibitors the opportunity to make presentations to visitors in a specially designed Vendor Presentation Theatre throughout the duration of the event. This will give exhibitors a point-of-reference beyond their stand. I expect it to appeal to not just the big players, but also some of the smaller, first-time exhibitors who cannot afford to have a special presentation area on their own stand. We will publicise all Vendor Presentations well in advance to preregistered visitors, so that appeal and exhibitor ROI is maximised.

In tandem with this, we will also include an educational element to The

broadcastPro Middle East caught up with David roberts, industry group manager for CAbSAt MEnA at DIECC, to find out about some of the key initiatives the event organiser will undertake to make the broadcast show bigger and better in 2011.

CABSAT announces changes

PrOCAbSAt PrOCAbSAt

Academy – a workshop and tutorial area where interactive, half-day, free-to-attend sessions will be held. Having transformed this component of the event, it also made sense to rebrand it.

PRO: Any other value additions?DAvID rObErtS: The Creative Media Zone feature, which debuted at CABSAT 2010, was very exciting. Sponsors’ equipment will be used in the exact context they were designed for – live, interactive, end-to-end broadcast. It gives sponsors the opportunity to put users in direct contact with their equipment.

PRO: What were the statistics for CABSAT 2010 and what was the strong point of the show?DAvID rObErtS: Visitor numbers were slightly up year-on-year, with 8,837 attendees from 104 countries. However, what was really impressive was the type of visitor we attracted. For a fairly niche B2B show in a developing market, it’s all about quality, and the large amount of deals that were done on the CABSAT MENA show floor are testament to that. We invested heavily in targeted marketing campaigns designed to bring in the right kind of visitors to the show – people with real buying power from both local and international markets.

We also invested in visitor-driven features designed to bring people to the event on the strength of their proposition alone. The Creative Media Zone is a perfect example of this. Not only did it succeed in bringing in new visitors from different industry backgrounds who wouldn’t normally attend, it also provided the sponsors

of the feature with additional ROI. As a result, we received better exhibitor feedback than ever in terms of the quality of visitors we attract, and hope to further build on this for 2011.

PRO: Have companies confirmed bigger stands? Do you have new exhibitors?DAvID rObErtS: It’s still early days, but in terms of a year-on-year comparison we are significantly ahead of where we were at this stage last year. Al Mazroui, Gulfsat, Harris, MediaCast, Newtec, Noorsat and Vizrt have all confirmed bigger stands. Advanced Media Trading, Arabsat, Blusens, Evertz, Sony, Tek Signals, Telespazio and Televes are some of the other big exhibitors that have confirmed their space.

We have expanded the profile of the event to appeal to a more creative audience and anticipate this will be reflected in the exhibitors we attract. The next couple of months will be key, so expect some major announcements in this respect, and a few surprises as well!

In terms of new exhibitors, the big news is that we have just confirmed twofour54 from Abu Dhabi as a first-time exhibitor with a 100 sqm stand. We are also talking to them about a wider involvement in the event, and The Academy in particular. PrO

DID YOU KNOW?cAbsAt 2011 will not be held in March as in previous years. It will be held from February 8-10, 2011.

shEikh sAEEd hALLs will be the new venue for CABSAT 2011.

thE AcAdEMY at CABSAT will include C-level broadcast conferences, workshops, tutorials, vendor presentations and round table discussion groups.

twofoUr54 Abu Dhabi will participate for the first time at CABSAT.

cAbsAt 2010 attracted 8,837 attendees from 104 countries.

David Roberts, industry group manager, CABSAT.

vEnUE Sheikh Saeed Halls, DIECC, DubaidAtEs Feburary 8-10, 2011


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First Media goes state-of-the-artDubai Studio City company works with tSl to build a compact news, and production playout facility to produce local content for Pakistan-based channels. broadcastPro Middle East reports.

As the united Arab Emirates (uAE) is home to a large Pakistani expatriate community, channels like CnbC Pakistan and Samaa felt the need to incorporate uAE-based content into their channels.

Seeing huge potential to create local content for such channels, First Media FZ LLC, a production and services firm – established by Zafar Siddiqi, well known as the founder of CNBC Networks in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan – decided to establish a news operation, including a small virtual studio and playout centre at Dubai Studio City (DSC).

Systems integrator TSL was awarded the project as it had previously built a news centre for CNBC Pakistan.

Based in a boutique studio at DSC, the project includes a three-camera virtual studio with full lighting grid, a file-based infrastructure, a newsroom computer system, asset management, editing and production playout.

At the heart of the First Media project is a powerful and flexible asset management and workflow system, developed by TSL for this installation using the Sienna toolkit.

“This modular system allows systems integrators to develop highly-functional workflows that are stable, intuitive to use and cost effective,” says Colin Sherriff, general manager, TSL Middle East.

“It also integrates very tightly with the ENPS newsroom system, as well as other MOS compliant news systems.”

The project included a number of satellite dishes that were installed on the roof of the facility for the reception of contribution feeds and off-air monitoring of news sources. This comes from an array of two x 3.7 metre dishes, two x 2.8 metre dishes and two x 1.8 metre dishes.


nEwsrooM And post prodUctionAs Samma in Pakistan employs the ENPS newsroom computer system, the team decided to deploy the same solution in Dubai so that both facilities could be linked over a virtual private network, explains Sherriff.

“The installation includes a mirror redundancy server, and the systems at First Media in Dubai and CNBC in Islamabad are linked,” he explains.

The five ENPS workstations in the First Media newsroom run on XP inside fusion 3 virtualisation agents that operate within a Mac environment. This allows the computers to also provide Final Cut Pro (FCP) editing. An additional craft edit suite also uses FCP. This has an adjacent voiceover booth for commentaries.

The editors have an FCP plug-in called StoryCut installed. This is part of the Sienna asset management system and links directly to ENPS through the MOS protocol. It allows whole packages of information and clips to be associated as a MOS object, and linked to ENPS, as well as incorporating WordLink which links the script of a story to the video timeline, thereby helping the editor to match pictures to the story duration. As the script changes in ENPS so it is reflected on the FCP timeline.

Post production is completed in a graphics room that includes four HP 8000 series workstations running Vizrt and Adobe software. All of these systems are networked together to share and deliver materials.

stUdioDubai Studio City has a range of boutique studios that have floor areas ranging from 100m2 to 250m2 with adjoining offices for production and facilities.

These are typically designed to be self-contained facilities for small broadcasters such as First Media.

“As First Media required only a virtual environment for its news bulletins, it required only a small studio floor,” explains Sherriff.

“A mezzanine floor was constructed over a part of the studio floor to serve as a production gallery and central apparatus room (CAR). The rest of the three sides were used for a permanent green cyclorama,” he adds.

In addition, to provide precise camera tracking to feed the Vizrt virtual studio, First Media uses Vinten Radamec’s Free-d system.

The studio boasts three Sony cameras, mounted on Vinten Osprey pedestals with Autoscript prompters and Trilogy intercom headsets. The studio features a saturation lighting grid using lamps, hoists, dimmers and control systems from Photon Beard.

Besides this, the production control uses a Ross vision mixer and a Yamaha O2R digital audio mixer. Monitoring is on large flat panel displays using Evertz multi-viewers. Signal distribution throughout the whole centre is via a Snell router and modular infrastructure products.

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AssEt MAnAGEMEnt sYstEMAt the heart of the First Media installation is an asset management and workflow system developed by TSL in association with Sienna and Isilon.

Sherriff explains that this system was specially designed to ensure that the facility could operate “without high capital or running costs.”

“Sienna is based on Mac computers, the Quicktime video format and Apple communications technologies including Bonjour to provide seamless connectivity. The use of Quicktime allows very rapid turnaround of video content, including allowing live feeds to be buffered, trimmed and played to air while still coming in,” explains Sherriff.

The Sienna installation is a modular solution and a number of its modules have been deployed at First Media. Ingest, for instance, is handled by Sienna PictureReady, which can accept content from lines, by controlling attached VTRs. File-based acquisition formats such as P2 and XDCAM can be ingested using StoryCut directly in the FCP suite. During ingest, a proxy version is also created. This is stored in the Isilon server attached to the Sienna network.

This is available to any journalist or editor within approximately 15 seconds of the start of ingest, allowing them to start work on the content immediately, explains Sherriff.

Picture Ready is also capable of recording the output of the studio, and enough clients are provided for recording from the three

cameras. These can then be cut in FCP’s multi-camera mode. Editing can start while the recording is continuing if required.

“Sienna OriginOne is the data hub of the system. As well as hosting the proxy server and managing assets on external storage devices, it provides the MOS gateway to other devices. In this case, it links to ENPS, and also provides the link for StoryCut, the FCP plug-in that matches scripts to video timelines. The link allows a placeholder in a rundown to be automatically replaced with the finished video once the editor has published it, updating timings and making it available for playout,” explains Sherriff.

FCP and StoryCut can also be used on a laptop for field editing, he adds.

In this case, when the story is complete, a 1Mb/s H.264 proxy is generated and sent in first before the full resolution cut. The proxy is good enough to be used on air if time or bandwidth constraints mean that the full resolution version cannot be transferred in time. Output channels from Sienna are called Virtual VTR with the playout rundown managed by a module called Automation X. This plans to use Virtual VTRs in rotation, allowing for fast cutting from story to story. When breaking news stories are likely, one Virtual VTR can be taken out of the pool to be used for manual playout, putting feeds to air.

More commonly at First Media, live stories are sent straight to the production switcher, but fast turnaround edited material can start playing out before recording is completed into Sienna. Automation X can be driven by MOS, or under manual control, or by a combination of the two if required.

“Sienna OriginOne is the data hub of the system. As well as hosting the proxy server and managing assets on external storage devices, it provides the MOS gateway to other devices.”Colin Sherriff, GM, TSL Middle East.

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The control room at First Media.

At the studio.

First Media has installed Vinten Radamec’s Free-d system at its facility.


AXONglue and beyond

3D signal processingAxon also provides modular solutions for 3D-TV: the G3D100 (3Gbps version,

also available in HD version: H3D100). This product, part of the Synapse family is a pragmatic toolbox for customers that are involved in 3D production and need to

monitor, process and transmit stereoscopic images.

So, when you become involved in 3D production, select Axon as your technology partner and partner and you will be in good company. Many major broadcast companies have

made the same choice, and they also discovered that Axon is really all about ‘glue and beyond’. www.axon.tv/G3D100

Committed.

production base and to create local content for two popular Pakistani channels. The capital budget was limited, and operationally, it had to be straightforward, allowing it to be run with minimum staff,” Davies explains.

“Despite the tight timescales of only about six months from initial contract to handover, the decision was taken to pre-fabricate the entire system in TSL’s workshops in the UK. This allowed performance to be fine tuned, including TSL and Sienna engineers collaborating to ensure the best possible performance from the network. The project plan included eight weeks to install and commission on site in Dubai.

“In fact, the process was completed in about six weeks, allowing extra time for the engineers and operators from First Media to gain familiarity with the operation of the system. The complete production centre is now operational,” Davies confirms.

“TSL has developed a highly innovative architecture. The use of Sienna and Isilon, in particular, gave it high performance and an intuitive user interface, while at the same time representing a significant saving over other, perhaps more well-known vendors of comparable technology. Use of virtual studio technology gives very high production values from a small studio space,” Davies adds.

The specified performance was confirmed during pre-assembly off site, and installation and commissioning on site was completed ahead of schedule, he explains.

Today First Media boasts a compact but state-of-the-art news production centre that is fully capable of producing extensive local content and news and delivering them to its clients. PrO

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The online storage architecture is a cluster of Isilon storage nodes that present themselves as NAS to clients. This uses an Infiniband internal network for very low latency, with the Isilon customer operating system called OneFS managing content distribution across the discs. When material is selected, the Isilon node pulls the required content together from anywhere in the cluster and buffers it in non-volatile RAM ready for delivery.

The architecture of the storage was designed to achieve high levels of redundancy and therefore security, while at the same time maintaining high levels of utilisation and efficiency.

Externally, content is moved over a fast ethernet network under IP, managed by Sienna. This makes it a very responsive architecture as well as cost-effective, but the absolute reliance on the IP network meant that TSL system engineers had to design for very high reliability with careful attention to load balancing.

The IP network uses a pair of Cisco 3750E switches. Design calculations, which were proven during systems integration and testing, called for at least five concurrent streams per Final Cut Pro seat, and this was achieved successfully.

Once used, content is transferred to LTO4 data tapes in a Spectralogic archive. The archiving process is controlled by Sienna using XenData software. This allows a partial restoration of content from the archive. A journalist can research using the browse proxy content, which is always kept online, identify the clips required and if necessary make a rough cut edit. The full resolution clips are then recovered from the archive and loaded into a new bin in Final Cut Pro.

sYstEMs intEGrAtionTSL Middle East’s business development manager Andrew Davies explains that the system architecture and workflows were developed by TSL after discussions with First Media, and the whole project was delivered within a very tight deadline.

“The requirement from First Media was to take a studio shell in Dubai and convert it into a highly efficient, file-based news

“The use of Sienna and Isilon, in particular, gave it high performance and an intuitive user interface, while at the same time representing a significant saving over other, perhaps more well-known vendors, of comparable technology.”Andrew Davies, Business Development Manager, TSL Middle East.


by the end of the first quarter of 2010, the number of IPtv subscribers around the world stood at 36.3 million, up by almost 8% in the first three months of the year, according to a report released last month by research firm Point topic.

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) was described as “beginning to show serious growth for the first time”, with the UAE and Egypt singled out as the most significant markets in the region. But overall, the region lags far behind the rest of the world with a meagre 0.4% of the world’s IPTV subscribers in the MEA region compared to 49% in Europe, 32% in Asia and 18% in the Americas.

Georges Dabaghi, general manager for the Middle East at On Demand, the content management subsidiary of IPTV firm Seachange, says that in the Middle East, the Gulf nations have the more advanced IPTV deployments.

“Uptake of IPTV is a derivative of fixed broadband growth – anywhere broadband uptake is high, IPTV will follow,” he says.

“We have seen in the past five years that there is a general trend from GCC countries, and, in particular, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, in rolling out IPTV systems, and that they are way ahead of other Middle East markets.”

For the region’s incumbent telecom operators, their extensive legacy infrastructure and subscriber bases that

run into millions are the driving force behind the IPTV market in the Middle East. These are spurred on by the desire to roll out additional offerings to boost declining revenue from voice, and retain brand loyalty.

“Triple and quad play is a hot topic among the regional operators,” says Stéphane Le Dreau, vice president of Solution Marketing at Nagravision, a supplier to on-demand and digital TV operators over broadcast, broadband and mobile platforms.

“They are deploying fibre to the home (FTTH) in the UAE, KSA and Oman to be able to offer 100Mbps for internet and also bandwidth-heavy content such as HD and 3D,” he says.

In Qatar, Qtel’s IPTV offering ‘Mozaic’ was rolled out in 2007, and the telco recently completed a pilot project for the introduction of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services in the country, which it says will be capable of delivering speeds of up to 50 Mbps.

Saudi Arabia incumbent STC, the only operator in the Kingdom with a broadband network that reaches across the nation,

Although tv over IP is a given in many countries now, the technology is still in its infancy in the Middle East and Africa. However, as more providers look to offer faster broadband, and a wider range of products and services in this sector, the IPtv landscape will get stronger, says george bevir, telecommunications editor at CPI.

IPTV gets a boost

“It is important for providers to embrace services such as internet browsing, replay, application stores and widgets along with their IPTV services to really leverage the IP connectivity.” Frederic Bonnard, VP Marketing, Soft At Home.

is planning to launch an IPTV service “probably” in summer, according to Dabaghi.

In the UAE, he says, “there is an obvious lead from Du and Etisalat, with both having infrastructure that is ready made for the extending of services to tens of thousands of users across UAE”.

broAdbAnd boostA comprehensive broadband connectivity is the lifeblood of IPTV; without robust connections reaching out to homes and providing high speed access, there can be no IPTV. On Demand’s Dabaghi adds that in order to create an environment where IPTV will flourish, public and private sector need to collaborate.

“Governments need to be there, but even more so, a country’s regulator,” he says.

“Investment could be public, or the private sector could be induced to undertake this. It’s a collective effort really — regulators and policy makers need to come together; governments, regulators and vendors must work together.

PrOIPtv PrOIPtv


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Make it local Arabic content is expected to play an important role in the take-up of IPTV in the region. Soft At Home’s Frederic Bonnard says that in the Middle East, there is an opportunity to provide Arabic content and interactive services tailored to the local community. One example he gives is a prayer time service where the STB could time shift the content while prayers are played on the TV screen.

“We need more information on this region, but what is expected is that Hollywood, Bollywood and Arabic will constitute a larger portion of the content,” says On Demand’s Georges Dabaghi. “Also, educational, religious, and also some content targeting youth will be important, because they are among the first that adopt change.”

“The Middle East population includes locals but also expatriates,” says Stéphane Le Dreau of Nagravision. “More variety of Arabic content like Lebanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Turkish movies and series seem to be well suited to the local population, while expatriates are eager to watch what they are accustomed to viewing back home.”

“In some parts of the Middle East, this is happening. For example, today Abu Dhabi is a fiberised city, and KSA is planning to do the same. But in other parts of the Middle East, countries are still taking up DSL. IPTV can be delivered over DSL, but as providers offer more differentiation, HD and more, they need higher bandwidth capabilities.”

The UAE’s IPTV sector has benefitted from significant investment, and a readiness to make quick decisions and adopt new technology. Together with low levels of piracy and a high GDP, the business case for IPTV is much easier to make than in other parts of the region such as Egypt and Morocco.

kEY diffErEntiAtorsFrederic Bonnard, vice president marketing at Soft At Home, a France-based provider of IPTV technology services that is part-owned by Etisalat, says that while it is important for an IPTV provider to focus on quality of service to compete with cable and satellite providers, they also need to leverage the interactivity provided by IP – something that is not as strong in broadcast offering.

“They need now to compete with new entrants such as connected TVs that are providing services ‘over the top’ (OTT). So it is important for providers to embrace OTT services – such as internet browsing, replay, application stores and widgets along with IPTV services to really leverage the IP connectivity.”

The high level of interactivity means that from the moment a service is launched, IPTV providers can delve into the data produced by their viewers, compiling figures on viewers’ preferences and viewing habits. They can then build promotions and packages around the most popular programmes and services.

Says Dabaghi: “Where IPTV is maturing, operators such as Du have started to do more than linear TV such as VOD. Providers can assess what customers can and will pay for, so cost and revenue streams can be made to run in parallel.”

Le Dreau says that personalisation is one of the factors that can make IPTV a successful venture for an operator.

“It is especially relevant, because of the web, where personalisation features have become the norm, and this is increasingly blending with TV,” he says.

Services can be personalised on a number of different levels, from VOD to time-shift functionalities, and the technology now allows for advanced capabilities including a personalised user interface, favourites and recommendations based on a subscriber’s profile and usage. As well as affording users greater control over the service, providers that offer widgets and targeted advertising could also be tap into an extra source of revenue.

LookinG AhEAdOne way to overcome the challenges of low IPTV penetration, according to Dabaghi, is to make the services more affordable. He recommends that cheaper set-top boxes (STBs), or hybrid STBs with satellite receivers could be one method of making it more accessible in countries with lower GDP. Awareness of IPTV’s capabilities is another factor that the industry will need to focus on over the next couple of years, with marketers tasked with informing the public about the interactivity, convenience and ability of IPTV to integrate with other IP-based services.

For Bonnard, the key development in IPTV over the next couple of years will be adopting OTT.

“IPTV will be focusing on delivering high quality premium content such as major sport events or movies, while OTT will deliver catch-up TV, VoD and third party application services. The Internet will become an access mechanism for the TV and not just a me-too of the PC, while convergence of services and screens, such as TV, PC, web and tablets, where content coming from anywhere can be played on any device will be a major factor,” he says. PrO

Soft At Home’s Bonnard says IPTV will focus on high-quality premium content such as major sport events and movies.

“Uptake of IPTV is a derivative of fixed broadband growth – anywhere broadband uptake is high, IPTV will follow. ” Georges Dabaghi, GM, On Demand.

PrOIPtv


Sony Ellcami, a key hardware component of the Media Backbone architecture, will debut in the Middle East by Q2 2010. Media Backbone, which links the various devices and solutions used throughout a content creation workflow, provides network-based management of AV files and metadata; and fully exploits the advantages of a file-based operation.

“Where traditionally Sony has focused on providing standalone devices to this market, we are now offering total solutions that will provide frameworks for connecting devices and services,” said Steve Stubelt, director of Sony Electronics’ Systems Solutions Group.

The Media Backbone includes a range of hardware and software platforms to support the filed-based operating needs of customers in the Media market.

Ellcami is a new component of the Media Backbone architecture. It is a resolution-independent multi-format ingest and transcoding platform. Based on Sony’s Cell processor technology, with up to 128 cores per workstation, each system can be configured to meet a number of challenges faced by broadcasters and post production facilities.

This high-speed processor can rapidly ingest video in a range of formats and resolutions (from 4K to proxy), can

process and convert this video without reducing quality, and can output the results in a variety of ways.

The Ellcami is a high-speed platform with up to eight baseband I/O ports (4 HD-SDI inputs, 4 HD-SDI outputs, and support for dual link). It delivers high-speed ingest from up to four VTRs at a time; it can process and convert a wide variety of baseband and file-based formats, from 4K to proxy, while maintaining the original quality; and it can output results in a variety of ways.

The Ellcami can control and simultaneously digitise content from two VTRs using double-speed dual link, or from four VTRs through HD-SDI or SDI connection. In addition to high-speed ingest, it also provides file-based transcoding at resolutions up to 4K.

The platform can automatically detect black frames and other file errors, reducing the time required for visual error checking.

When used with multi-client software, multiple users can carry out ingest and transcoding work at the same time. ELLCAMI supports the following formats: DPX, OpenEXR, JPEG 2000 (Lossless and Lossy), MPEG2 Long GOP VC-3, BMP, WAV, BWF. Additional formats will be supported via future software upgrades.

riEdEL Artist 1100 sEriEs The Artist 1100 Series OLED control panel is Riedel’s new premium control key panel for Artist digital matrix intercoms. The 1100 series features the next generation of high-res colour OLEDs. With 65,000 colours and a resolution of 140 dpi, these new dis-plays provide great readability and are able to show up to eight highly detailed characters of up to 24x24 pixels, ideal for displaying icons and Asian charac-ters. Definable marker colours for the keys complete the labeling options and provide instant function identification and signalisation.

The panel provides individual rotary encoders to adjust the listen level of every talk key. Furthermore, all 1100 Series control key-panels provide five dedicated function keys, a built-in high-power loudspeaker with im-proved audio quality with higher vol-ume, an XLR headset connector and a removable gooseneck microphone. 3 GPIs and 3 GPOs are available for system-wide programming as stan-dard. Two sets of balanced line level audio inputs and outputs are also provided as standard. An expansion slot for future expansion modules prepares the control panel for future technology developments.

For the entirely digital connection to the matrix via AES, the panel provides both BNC and CAT-5 connectors as standard. The second audio channel of the AES signal allows the panel to transport broadcast quality audio in ad-dition to the intercom application – an ideal feature for commentary positions.

The efficient circuit design of the 1100 series panel results in ultra-compact design with an integrated power-supply. The panel consumes 50% less power than the 1000 Series and generates therefore also less heat.

Thomas Riedel, managing director of Riedel Communications said the Artist 1100 series of panels is in response to growing demand “for the more flexible labeling of talk keys and additional functionality”.

“With this series, we are able to cater to these demands. As studio technology integration is progressing, we at Riedel see intercom panels becoming a more universal user interface, which could also include audio or video routing. The 1100 series panel is already prepared for this,” he added.

lAtESt PrOtECHlAtESt PrOtECH

soMMEr hdMi cAbLEsThe Sommer Cable Transit High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet offers the latest HDMI stan-dard and will provide a perfect picture and sound transmission both in the field of professional media technology and in home entertainment. It is particularly suited for laying in cable ducts.

As a special feature, Ethernet high speed channel has been integrated to ensure a network data rate of up to 100 Mbit/s. By using a back channel (audio return channel), sound signals from the DVB tuner can be sent directly from the TV to your home cinema A/V receiver and hence to the end user’s loudspeakers.

The cable consists of 5 x 2 x 0.22 mm² + 4 x 0.22 mm² wires (AWG 24) in a rugged PVC sleeve with an overall diameter of 9.8 mm and has a high-quality triple screen made of a wire mesh + AL/PT foil and a shield wire.

It is downward compatible with all former HDMI standards. Compared to the previ-ous HDMI 1.3b standard with a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, the SC-Transit HDMI, combined with the HICON HI-HDMI-M HDMI connector, will transmit a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels at 30 Hz – or 4096 x 2160 pixels at 24 Hz.

Sony Ellcami


foUr-chAnnEL dELtA-cAst vidEo cArdThe DELTA-hd-e 40 is a new four-channel addition to the DELTA-hd range of video cards for OEM applications. The DELTA-hd-e 40 doubles the per-slot capability of PCI Express cards to ingest SD or HD-SDI channels to a PC server, allowing developers to design higher-performing and more economical solutions for a variety of professional video applications.

The DELTA-hd-e 40 is the latest addition to the DELTA-hd fam-ily, designed to take advantage of the increased CPU power of the high-specification servers, and it is supplied in a package with the VideoMasterHD OEM software SDK and with integration support from DELTACAST. Offering a feature set including audio and timecode de-embedding, ANC and VBI extraction, uncompressed 8-bit/10-bit/12-bit digital video capture/playback, and system development tools for Microsoft Windows and Linux environments, the DELTA-hd-e 40 allows OEMs to build new high-end applications with multiple inputs per PCI Express slot, or cost-effective applications using only one card to provide all the required channels in a single slot.

“In order to manage four chan-nels simultaneously on the same card, we had to use other hardware technologies than those used in the other boards of the DELTA-hd family,” said Christian Dutilleux, DELTACAST CEO. “This technological progress is essential not only for the DELTA-hd family, but also for future boards us-ing 3G, DVI, and HDMI formats.”

The DELTA-hd-e 40 requires a PC or server with at least one free four-lane PCI Express slot and a high-performance CPU capable of handling four HD-SDI streams. The DELTA-hd-e 40 will be available for purchase from this month.

lAtESt PrOtECH

Nucoda and Phoenix get new touchDigital Vision’s Nucoda grading and Phoenix restoration products for 2010 include significant features and tools for the post production community.

The new release of Nucoda is scheduled for delivery at the end of July. This grading and finishing platform will now have a new pricing structure and two new solutions. The premium flagship Nucoda Film Master solution, as used by leading content creators including Pixar, now has an entry price of $90K. To address the mid-range DI grading and dailies market, Digital Vision will release Nucoda Fuse and an ingest, conform and edit solution called Nucoda Compose.

Digital Vision has also released a new product range with Phoenix. Phoenix Finish is the flagship end-to-end restoration, re-mastering and delivery system, the mid-range solution Phoenix Refine, will provide a complete toolset for advanced image restoration and enhancement, and the entry-level Phoenix Touch will provide automated and manual image clean up and retouch.

As part of the 2010 software release, Digital Vision has included applications to increase the performance of these new products. The first, Turbine, introduces integrated and distributed background rendering for Phoenix and Nucoda solutions allowing rendering of multiple projects and compositions without tying up the client’s workstation. DVO Clarity, the next-generation of noise and grain reduction technology features automatic profiling of the source media for producing stunning images, virtually artifact free that retain original sharpness, whilst the speed and ergonomically enhanced DVO Fix automatically repairs imperfections associated with degraded film and image media.

The new release also includes additional stereo 3D tools and viewing modes, a new colour isolation keyer (I-Keyer) and updated file format enhancements including Arri Alexa support, MFX OP1a publishing and ALE file export.


PrOguESt

It’s been reported that Etisalat is bringing 3Dtv to the uAE making it only the fifth country in the world to have launched a service so far. And a recent survey predicts 64 million 3D televisions will be sold globally by 2018. Exciting news for the broadcasting industry? Or a costly distraction?

I watch these technological developments with amusement. Most countries in the world do not have sufficient HD content, never mind 3D content, to fill the airtime on terrestrial or satellite TV channels. There are millions of ‘HD ready’ TV sets out there and most people still can’t access the services. As for 3D, one movie does not a revolution make.

But, is there a different revolution underway? And are the broadcasters largely ignoring it in the race for greater picture quality?

Wherever you look on the global television landscape in the free world, the programmes that are becoming hugely popular are those that are based on viewer participation; American Idol, the UK’s award-winning Britain’s Got Talent and Millions’ Poet in the Middle East.

Audiences for dramas, news broadcasts and documentaries are falling. The most popular serial dramas are no longer ‘appointment-to-view’ experiences, and are instead being watched by increasing numbers of fans online as downloads or via HDD recorders or Video on Demand (VOD) platforms like the BBC’s iPlayer.

Documentary is finding a new home in cinema and news is becoming a subject mainly for specialised channels.

The one area that television broadcasters can still rely on for high ratings is the live event, usually sports, like the FIFA World Cup, but it won’t be long before anyone can live stream with a mobile phone.

Broadcasting has to change. The word means to ‘transmit, to disseminate, to spread widely’ and that model has to be killed because the new generation of viewers no longer wants to be passive receivers of content. The challenge for the television industry is how to share the broadcasting space.

Traditionally, broadcasters have denied access on the grounds of ‘quality’ but this cannot continue. The lesson from the internet is that consumers are more concerned with content quality than technical quality and if the industry doesn’t grasp this fact, television could wander off into a decade of naval-gazing while a new generation of producers head straight for the net.

You only have to watch YouTube for a few minutes to see the incredible array of content being generated by the consumer. Very little of it is HD or 3D but it is usually fresh and inventive. And to the new generation of viewers, there is no distinction between professional and amateur content. It’s just good or bad.

I would like to see broadcasters spending money on technical innovation that encourages more interaction. Google

TV, due out later this year, is an exciting foray into this market bringing the ‘surfing’ experience directly to your television screen. Others need to follow and take it further; the next stage has to be the ability to ‘upload’ content into television shows.

Imagine news programmes in which viewers send instant video ‘vox pops’ via televisions equipped with webcams. Imagine talent shows in which voting is instantaneous (and continuous) through remote control buttons rather than SMS or calls. Imagine television debates where viewers participate with studio guests.

In the recent British elections, there were three live political debates on television and some commentators hailed this as a triumph of the traditional media over the digital. But they missed the point. The leaders’ debates were remarkable for the huge amount of complementary traffic on Twitter, IM platforms and Facebook. The viewers, excluded from the conversation by the broadcasters, decided to have one of their own.

The broadcasters need to find a way to bring these people into the fold. They have to find a way technically, and more importantly, culturally, to accept that the days of talking at the masses are over.

This is the future of television. It’s time to share.

Interactive TV and the joy of sharing

“You only have to watch YouTube for a few minutes to see the incredible array of content being generated by the consumer.”

Eric MacInnes is a TV veteran and currently the Thomson Foundation’s Faculty Head at twofour54 tadreeb.

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