Digital Studio - May 2010

CANON MOVESDoP makes stunning

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Digital Studio talks to the man behind the first sci-fi fi lm made in the UAE

Digital Studio talks to the man behind othe first sci-fi fi lm made in the UAE

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Vol. 12 Issue 5 May 2010An ITP Business Publication 1 Licensed by Dubai Media City

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www.digitalproductionme.com MAY 2010 1

CONTENTS

MAY 2010 VOLUME 12 ISSUE 05

16

22

38

42

32

16

5 NEWSMEIFF rebranded as Abu Dhabi Film Festival / Dubai Studio City chief to head Media City also / Classic Media buys rights to Al Jazeera’s kids’ series / GFF hands out US$131,000 in cash prizes / twofour54 boosts animation through partnerships / DMA Media undertakes archival project for ADMC / ADMC inks production deals with IMG and Endemol

COVER STORYVijaya Cherian speaks to the makers of the fi rst sci-fi fi lm in the Arab world.

POST PRODUCTION FEATUREAs motion capture has become an important tool in animation, our VFX expert Amitaabh Naaraayan takes us through some of the key areas of this technology.

22 ON LOCATIONDoP Harvey Glenn and Eye Squad Productions prove that a low budget and a Canon 5F Mark II DSLR camera are no hurdles to producing a sophisticated TVC.

INDUSTRY FOCUS With integration and collaboration being key to newsrooms today, manufacturers demonstrated how their solutions lived up to the demands of the modern day newsroom at NAB. Digital Studio looks at a few solutions.

28

42 CASE STUDYDubai Media Inc shows how the deployment of a VISLINK solution has enabled it to cost eff ectively produce and uplink live events without help from engineering teams.

38 FACE TO FACEIn an exclusive interview with Digital Studio, Karim Sarkis, executive director of broadcast at ADMC, reveals the company’s production plans for the EPL.

48 PRODUCTSHighlights from NAB.

56 WEB LOGCatch up on all the latest news at digitalproductionme.com.

MAY 2010

MAY 20102

COMMENT

In the last two months, we saw an impressive volume of award-winning content emerge from the region both at the Gulf Film Festival (GFF)

that is held annually in Dubai and also at MIPTV, Cannes. We have also seen more and more state-backed media entities, who were, thus far, focused entirely on revamping their infrastruc-ture, now turn their attention to their content.

News channels such as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have set high standards for a long time. Likewise, MBC and OSN have both been com-peting to ensure that they have a strong line-up of content on their respective bouquets. These operators did well because they were private entities or functioned as corporates would.

Now, Abu Dhabi Media Company has moved into that bracket by acquiring the rights to the English Premier League. We were surprised at how quickly the media company managed to alter its infrastructure to meet its contractual obligations and transition from a free-to-air platform to a partial pay-TV opera-tion. In addition, the state-backed broadcaster in an unprecedented move has also decided to embrace the new world order by ensuring that the EPL will also be streamed on the Web and available to IPTV users besides being available in the traditional mode.

This is an unprecedented step and unusual for a government backed organisation in the Middle East. But it is testimony to the fact that Abu Dhabi now means business. In addition, the UAE capital’s content development zone twofour54 took some massive steps last month

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BROADCASTERS TURN THEIR ATTENTION TO CONTENT

VIJAYA CHERIAN Editor

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ON THIS MONTH’S COVERDigital Studio speaks to the makers of the fi rst sci-fi fi lm in the UAE.Read the full story on page 16.

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in terms of partnering with a local entity to cre-ate the Arabic version of Driver Dan’s Story Train, a kids’ series that is hugely popular on CeeBeebies.

Programmes for children have especially been neglected in this part of the world owing to lack of ad revenues for the same. Besides twofour54, Al Jazeera Children’s Channel and its sister concern, Baraem TV have been proactively seeking to create local programmes for children. In fact, JCC’s kids’s series Nan and Lili was so good that Classic Media bought the worldwide distribution rights to the programme at Cannes.

These might look like small steps but the vigour with which local entities are now pursuing quality content must be applauded and followed.

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in terms of partnering with a local entity to cre

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IN BRIEF

ARAB FIRMS GO TO MIPTV Attendance fi gures at MIPTV were the same as last year, according to the organiser. This year, 144 companies from the Middle East also exhibited at the event.

“It’s clear that there is an appetite for international partnerships across the board,” said Laurine Garaude, MIPTV director. “With broadcasters still feeling the eff ects of the dip in ad revenues, there is a need to spread fi nancing across several partners. It’s been par-ticularly noticeable that Asian countries are increasing their co-production profi le, which is why this week’s MIPTV conference programme has provided dedicated sessions to co-production opportunities in Japan, China, Malaysia and Singapore.”

The UAE led the representation with 51 production companies, studios, post-houses, infrastructure providers and regulatory bodies in Cannes for the show, including twofour54 and En-demol Middle East. Lebanon was close behind with 35 exhibitors while Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Saudi Arabia also had representation there.

The Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) has announced that it will henceforth adopt the title Abu Dhabi Film Festival to strengthen the connection between the festival and the UAE capital.

Justifying the change in name, the festival’s execu-tive director Peter Scarlet stated: “It’s common practice for major international fi lm festivals to name them-selves after the town in which their principal screen-ings take place. We’re happy and proud to be based in Abu Dhabi, so why not say so? At the same time, our goal hasn’t changed: to be the principal place where the fi lmmakers of the Middle East can be discovered by international critics and buyers, and where the residents of Abu Dhabi can discover the best fi lms from the region and from the rest of the world.”

Sanad (which connotes support in Arabic) will provide development and post-production grants for feature-length narratives and documentaries made by fi lmmakers from the Arab world. Development grants will be up to US $20,000 while those for post-produc-tion will be up to $60,000. The selection committee will include members of the Festival’s programming and management teams along with highly qualifi ed fi lm industry professionals.

The fund’s selection committee will seek out bold and remarkable projects from both new and estab-lished fi lmmakers with the aim of encouraging artistic innovation. As the fi rst fund to be launched by a fi lm festival with the specifi c aim of supporting fi lmmakers

from across the Arab world, Sanad also aims to build stronger networks within the region’s fi lm industry.

“Sanad is a concrete way in which the festival can support the region’s fi lmmakers in developing their own voices and taking their place in the interna-tional fi lm community. There’s an amazing amount of untapped and unrecognised creative potential in the Arab world and these grants are an important building block in the creation of a vibrant and viable cinema here, especially since they come with the kind of inter-national opportunities and support we can off er,” said Peter Scarlet, the Festival’s executive director.

Applications for the fund are open until July 15, 2010. The application form can be downloaded at http://www.meiff .com/industry/sanad.

DUBAI STUDIO CITY CHIEF TO HEAD DUBAI MEDIA CITY ALSO AS PART OF RESTRUCTURING AT TECOM TECOM has consolidated 11 of its business parks into fi ve clusters, including one dedicated to media. The move will see Dubai Studio City, Media City and the International Media Production Zone (IMPZ) working more closely in the future.

Jamal Al Sharif, former executive director of Studio City will take over as managing director of both Dubai Media City and Studio City while Saeed Al Falasi will remain executive director of IMPZ.

“We have more partners and more responsibilities but this creates better opportunities for us as well as our partners,” said Al Sharif.

“I have been working with TECOM for the last nine years but I expect that this restructuring will make it easier than ever to connect the partners of each zone together. I have already announced a new internal structure that will see a part-ner relations development team put in place. Their job is purely to work closely with our partners in the media zones and see what we can do to help them im-prove their business. We are also putting together a database of our partners so that they can work with each other to create better synergies,” revealed Al Sharif.

MEIFF REBRANDED AS ABU DHABI FILM FESTIVAL

Scarlet said most major festivals are named after the towns in which they are hosted.

Jamal Al Sharif.

REGIONAL UPDATE


NEWS

world around them and play with their friends Badi and Hella. They are often accompanied by camels, sheep, goats and elephants as they play and learn together.

Two hundred episodes of three minutes each have been created in Arabic, English and French. One hundred more episodes are presently in de-velopment and will be delivered later this year.

Chloé van den Berg, EVP, International - Classic Media, called Nan & Lili “a fantastic show with a unique animation style and a fresh approach to pre-school learning – off ering entertainment while encouraging the building blocks of problem-solv-ing skills and emotional intelligence”.

IN BRIEFLIVE BOLSTERS HD CAPACITY WITH KIT FROM ALFACAMAbu Dhabi Media Company’s OB arm, LIVE, has acquired a large number of high-definition (HD) equipment from TV services provider Alfacam.

The new kit will enable LIVE to cover a range of programming, from live entertainment to sports events.

The new investment includes 16 GV HD cameras; four GV HD high-speed cameras for super slow motion (SSM); six EVS hard disc broadcast servers comprising six channels each; six HD Sony VTRs for the recording of HD video signals; HD Canon lens with a wide range of focal lengths and zooming powers and a range of Vinten tripods.

Abdul Hadi Al Sheikh, chief executive officer of LIVE commented that the production company’s “sus-tained investment in HD technology shows our commitment to be at the forefront of HD TV production in the Middle East”.

“It is essential that we offer our partners and customers a complete HD production facility that delivers the best production the region has ever seen and that we pursue the highest-quality standards for HD TV broadcast. This investment will help us to do that,” Al Sheikh added.

CLASSIC MEDIA BUYS RIGHTS TO AL JAZEERA’S KIDS’ SERIESNan & Lili, an Arabic animated preschool series created by director and executive producer Firdaus Kharas for Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC), will be distributed worldwide by Classic Media. The series, which was unveiled to buyers at MIPTV, is said to be the fi rst animation created for this age group in the Arab world.

Director Kharas stated that “for the fi rst time, an animated series made for the Middle East will travel the world”.

“This is a historic achievement that refl ects the quality of the programming broadcast on Baraem TV (JCC’s channel for preschool children)“.

Presented in 3D fashion, Nan & Lili explore the

GULF FILM FESTIVAL HANDS OUT US $131,000 IN CASH PRIZESThe third edition of the Gulf Film Festival (GFF) concluded last month with a total of US $131,000 cash prizes awarded to winners. The festival, which gives Arab fi lmmakers an exclusive platform to showcase their fi lms, screened 194 fi lms from 41 countries this year. Fifty four fi lms competed in the offi cial Competition for best fea-ture, documentary and shorts sections while 33 entries from students were entered into a separate competition for best documentary (12) and shorts (21) categories.

Nayla Al Khaja won the fi rst place for her short fi lm while Oman’s Amjad Al Hinai and Khamis Ambo-Saidi bagged the prize for Tasreeb in the students’ cate-gory. The fi rst place for documentary entries from students went to Iraq’s Hashim Al Efari for Ghuraba’a Fi Watanihem. In the short fi lm category, Saudi Arabia’s Abdullah Al-Eyaf won the fi rst place for Aayesh, while UAE-based Sanya Kirpalani’s documentary Dobuy – The Fabric of Faith, and Shawkat Amin Korki’s feature fi lm Kick Off won the fi rst prizes in their respective categories.

REGIONAL UPDATE

MAY 2010 www.digitalproductionme.com8

NEWS

In the meantime, the fi rst episodes are expected to be ready for broadcast by early 2011.

Although Blink will encourage internships dur-ing this production, twofour54 has also partnered with Cartoon Network to ensure that local talent can develop their animation skills locally.

Cartoon Network will undertake its expansion to twofour54 in two phases. The fi rst phase, which will include an Animation Academy and development studios, will become operational in September 2010. The Academy will work closely with twofour54’s train-ing arm tadreeb to off er specialised animation courses in the region.

As part of the second phase, Cartoon Network will also launch its production studios, which are sched-uled to open in early 2011.

Besides vocational training, students will also have the opportunity to work with international experts.

IN BRIEF

AL ARABIYA LAUNCHES LIVE HD STREAMING SURFACEAl Arabiya news channel has launched a live HD stream of its broadcasts available worldwide.

The service uses adaptive bit rate technology to ensure that the indi-vidual users receive the best possible quality that can be supported by their internet connection at that moment in time.

“This feature is extremely helpful as it enables us to provide the best picture quality to high speed internet users around the world and in parallel helps Al Arabiya to overcome problems caused by limited broad-band internet access which is still a common issue for the MENA region,” said Nasser Alsarami, head of media at Al Arabiya.

The technology underlying the service has been provided by Arvato Mobile.

“The way we are doing this is very unique. The challenge was to create a big reach and so everyone can access the video and simply click and view,” said Ingo Lalla, VP IPTV and platform services, Arvato Mobile. “That is why it was decided to base this service on Flash, which is on 95 percent of all computers rather than something like Silverlight which is on less than 40 per-cent of all computers,” explained Lalla.

“We started the pilot with Al Arabiya in July 2009. What it does is ensure that a consumer watches the video in the best quality possible. So if you begin with 2 Mb/s it will give you video at around 1.8 Mb/s,” said Lalla.

“If you are sharing your connection and someone begins downloading something cutting the speed to 1.3Mb/s, our technology recogn-ises this and adapts to 1.2 Mb/s. Normally, the video would try to operate without enough bandwidth causing it to buffer and sending the audio out of sync.”

TWOFOUR54 BOOSTS ANIMATION THROUGH PARTNERSHIPSAbu Dhabi’s media precinct twofour54 is slowly but surely moving towards its much espoused goal of striking deals with local and international players to enable the production of quality Arabic content and creating a self suffi cient content creation community in the country.

Last year, the media free zone secured its fi rst production deal to develop a children’s animation series in conjunction with UK-based 3Line Media. The series, Driver Dan’s Story Train, which featured a mix of live-action and animated sequences, became hugely popular on BBC children’s channel, CBeebies, and was moved to the prime slot eventually.

One year later, twofour54 has teamed up with Dubai-based production house Blink Studios to pro-duce an Arabic version of Driver Dan’s Story Train.

Wayne Borg, COO of twofour54 was quick to clarify that the Arabic adaptation will not be a dubbed version of Driver Dan’s Story Train. Rather, adaptations writers contracted by Blink Studios will “re-imagine” the story for the Arab world.

“The show will not be a dubbed version of the English content, instead we will use Arabic writers to provide the story telling element, Arab animators to create content and Arab children to make up the live action component,” he stated.

Blink Studios will produce 52, 11-minute episodes of Driver Dan’s Story Train in Arabic for the local market. The deal will also see Blink Studios open a branch in Abu Dhabi and relocate some of its staff to the UAE capital.

Mounir (l) of Blink and Wayne Borg of twofour54 at the offi cial announcement of their partnership.Mounir (l) of Blink and Wayne Borg of twofour54 at the official announcement of their partnership

TWOFOUR54 UNVEILS MODELS OF MEDIA FREE ZONE AT CITYSCAPE

Twofour54 unveiled the masterplan (pics above) for its new 600,000sqm campus in Mena Zayed at Cityscape Abu Dhabi 2010. Bernard Tschumi provided the concept master plan for the project. The development will be an integrated digital environment, designed by Diller Scofi dio + Renfro from New York.

Twofour54 unveiled the masterplan (pics above) for itsTwofour54 unveiled the masterplan (pics above) for its

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have physically degraded. Some brands of the old two-inch tape boxes had a fi lm lining inside and over time, that has melted on to the tape and again, with the analogue tape, we have articles sticking to it. What we will have to do is physically check each material at each stage of the process. This is not as much a heavy duty restoration project; it’s more of a preservation project,” added O’Hearn.

While new solutions will be brought in where neces-sary, O’Hearn added that SMA Media will try and work with some of the existing solutions at ADMC including solutions from Ascent Media and Spectralogic.

“Where we would probably like to expand the solu-tion beyond the current set up is on the editorial side. It is very much aimed at preserving what’s there. Part of our team will be an editorial team. As the material is being digitised, the editorial team will go through it and add the necessary metadata and so on.”

O’Hearn also points out that preservation is a big issue in the region and must be addressed soon. “The challenge at Abu Dhabi TV is virtually replicated in every place here. We’re bringing in a person to maintain the two-inch and one-inch machines. You are talking about 30-year-old machines and the people who know how to operate them are in their 60s. It’s very hard to fi nd parts for these machines and even more diffi cult to fi nd people who know how to operate them. The time to address this issue is now,” he added.

A team of 25 people will work on the project.

IN BRIEF

JCC FILM WINS AT DOCO FESTAl Jazeera Children’s Channel won the golden award for Baghdad’s Angel at the closing ceremony of Al Jazeera 6th International Documen-tary Film Festival last month.

The 52-minute documentary, di-rected by Rasheed Mashharawi, por-trays the torn life of children in Iraq through Hawraa, a young 10-year-old girl who walks the streets begging for alms to support her family.

As Mashharawi lands in Baghdad on a mission to produce a series of documentaries highlighting the labour of Arab children in December 2008, the war in his homeland Gaza erupts. The f ilm consequently il-lustrates the similar tragic situation between Iraq and Gaza and show-cases the grave influence of war and conflicts on the lives of children.

Speaking about the award, Mah-moud Bouneb, JCC’s executive gen-eral manager said the “gold award pays recognition to JCC’s production strategy in the last few years”.

“With more than 50 f ilms pro-duced in collaboration with Arab and international f ilmmakers and specialised production houses, JCC mounted top international stages and received prestigious prizes like the Ecumenical Prize in Berlinale this year for Aisheen a f ilm about the war on Gaza in 2008, and last year’s Special Jury Award at the Osian Cinefan festival in New Delhi for Wailing Wall.

DMA MEDIA UNDERTAKES ARCHIVAL PROJECT FOR ADMCMedia consultancy DMA Media has been contracted to undertake an extensive archival project for Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC). The project, which will take a minimum of three to four years to com-plete, will see ADMC digitise all of its existing footage and store them on future-proof systems.

“ADMC presently has a lot of material including its own footage and archives of the late ruler of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan,” commented Chris O’Hearn, general manager, DMA Media.

“The footage is on a mix of old formats. Film is the least problematic of the formats. The real chal-lenge is working with the two-inch and one-inch formats as well as several other old formats. There were problems with some of the material as they

Chris O’Hearn says preservation must be top priority for every broadcaster this year.

Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) will continue its co-production agreement with UK-based production company VSI Entertainment for the second set of the of pre-school series Every-thing’s Rosie.

The fi rst series is set to air on the BBC’s dedi-cated preschool channel, CBeebies this spring and the Arabic version will debut on JCC’s preschool channel ‘Baraem TV’ later this year.

“When we fi rst saw Rosie, we immediately realised the potential success of this animated series,” stated Malika Alouane, director of Channels’ Programming at Al Jazeera Children’s Channel and Baraem TV.”

ADMC’S NEW HQ AT TWOFOUR54JCC TO CO-PRODUCE KIDS’ SERIES

ADMC reveals the plans for new headquarters in twofour54’s Mena Zayed campus, Abu Dhabi’s fu-ture media precinct. The company’s new HQ will provide an environment that optimises integra-tion, cooperation and creativity among ADMC’s TV, radio, print and digital media platforms.

ADMC reveals the plans for new headquarters inADMC eveals the plan fo new he dqu rte s in

REGIONAL UPDATE


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The cast refl ects the multiple ethnicities portrayed in the fi lm and includes British actors Jason Flemyng and Natalie Dormer, renowned comedian Ahmed Ahmed and UAE national Saoud Al Kaabi. Famous faces from India’s fi lm industry include TV presenter Jaaved Jaaferi and Bollywood actor Sonu Sood. Also in the cast is Canadian/Iraqi hip hop performer Yas-sin Aslaman (The Narcicyst) and Romanian/German actor Alexandra Maria Lara, who has previously worked with Spike Lee and Francis Ford Coppola.

Tim Smythe, CEO of Filmworks and producer of City of Life stated that the “success of this fi lm was pivotal to the growth and development of the industry”.

“We’re thrilled about City of Life’s local release by Gulf Film. I am indebted to the wonderful crew and cast assembled by pro-ducer Leigh Clarke, who wrapped a fantastic production with extremely high production values. I hope Ali’s efforts will inspire and motivate others and act as a catalyst for more UAE films to be screened for an international audience in future. The UAE has a great deal to offer international production partners and local talent alike, and we hope to see more emerging regional artists walk the path that Ali has pioneered”.

IN BRIEF

AVID ACQUIRES EUPHONIXFollowing the recent acquisition of Blue Order, Avid has now also acquired California-based Euphonix, a major player in large-format digital audio consoles, media controllers and peripherals. The acquisition will enable Avid to deliver a gamut of audio and video control surfaces and consoles designed to cater to a range of end users from the independent player and high-end broadcasters. Avid will continue to support and sell both Euphonix control surfaces and Avid’s existing ICON solution, enabling customers to leverage existing invest-ments in industry-leading hardware.

Avid plans to further develop an open standard protocol that greatly expands the ecosystem of compat-ibility between the Euphonix control surfaces and a wide range of Avid and third-party audio and video applica-tions, including Media Composer and Pro Tools.

HME ACQUIRES CLEARCOMWireless intercom system specialist HM Electronics Inc. (HME) has acquired The Vitec Group’s Clear-Com Communication Systems. The deal will help HME, which has thus far provided digital wireless intercom solutions to the restaurant, hospitality, sports and pro audio markets, expand its operations into the broadcast market. Clear-Com will continue as a wholly-owned subsidiary of HME with no changes planned for its product portfolio in the near future.

The acquisition will enable HME to provide TDM Matrix and integrated IP and wireless solutions as well as off er an expansive selection of communication products and technology for intercom customers with diff erent applications and system requirements.

Matt Danilowicz will continue in his role as president of Clear-Com under the new structure within HME.

ALI MOSTAFA’S CITY OF LIFE PREMIERES ON UAE SCREENSAfter more than a year in the making, AFM Films and Filmworks released the feature fi lm City of Life in cinemas across the UAE last month. Emirati fi lmmaker Ali Mostafa made history as the fi rst person in the country to produce a feature fi lm entirely in the UAE.

The fi lmmaker received the Young Filmmaker of Year award at the Digital Studio Awards 2010 this year. His ambitious production, comprising more than 200 cast and crew, was Filmed entirely on location in the United Arab Emirates.

Mostafa’s previous works include Under the Sun. “Making a film is never an easy journey,” said

Mostafa. “However, dedicating three years of my life was incredibly fulfilling considering what we achieved. I hope the film paves the way for more local and international films to be made in this part of the world.

City of Life follows the lives and fortunes of three central characters living and working in Dubai. The fi lm depicts the very diff erent cultures and lifestyles that exist side by side in this complex, multi-cultural city. The destinies of a privileged young Emirati man, a disillusioned Indian taxi driver and a European woman are set to collide as their very diff erent lifestyles become interwoven in a tale of greed, ambition and betrayal. Dialogue is spoken in English, Arabic and Hindi, with subtitles.

PRINCE ALWALEED TO FUND 24-HOUR NEWS CHANNELPrince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, has said that he is considering funding a 24 hour news channel to compete with Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.

The chairman of Rotana Media Group has however said that this venture would not

involve his Kingdom Holding Company or Rotana telling newswire Bloomberg that the the channel “is something I will be doing personally” because it “needs a lot of investment up front”.

Alwaleed also revealed that he plans to sell a stake in Rotana on the public market within two years as part of plans to grow the business in the Middle East.

“An IPO will be happening in the coming two years,” said Alwaleed. “We need to brand the com-pany very well before we go into an IPO.”

News Corp recently purchased a 9.1 percent stake in Rotana for a reported US $70 million with the option to take a further 9.1 percent in the future.

Rotana has recently stepped up its activity in the Middle East partnering with Disney and Fox Inter-national Channels and committing to the launch of HD content later in 2010.

PriTalSaco24toJa

Rhth

REGIONAL UPDATE


NEWS

MOVERS & SHAKERSMARVIN TECHNOLOGIES

Adam Welsh has been ap-pointed general manager of MARVIN Technologies. Widely respected in the industry, Welsh brings a wealth of technical and sales experience to the new position.

Adam Welsh holds a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

and began his career in the 1980s testing the new fi lm scanning systems from Cintel. From there he worked his way up the ranks, progressing to postproduction engineering, a role which took him to facilities all over the world. In the mid-90s

Welsh moved into business development, becoming sales director of the newly formed Cintel International in 1998, and ultimately MD of the company’s global operations in 2001.

BBC ARABICHosam El Sokkari, former head of BBC Arabic, has now joined Yahoo’s Middle East opera-tions as its head. Sokkari, who worked with the BBC for the last 15 years, will further develop his interest in social networking at Yahoo, which recently acquired Jordan-based Maktoob. Sokkar will be based in Dubai and help Yahoo with its Middle East exapansion plans.

TELECAST FIBER SYSTEMSSteve DeFrancesco has been named new general manager of Telecast Fiber Systems, which was recently acquired by Belden. DeFrancesco will report directly to Glenn Pennycook, president of the Enterprise Solutions Division of Belden Americas. DeFrancesco joined Belden’s Business Development organisation three years ago and more recently served as director of sales and marketing for Belden’s Thermax business unit.

“Telecast Fiber Systems is the unquestioned leader in fi ber optic solutions for broadcasting transmission, so the company provides an ideal complement to Belden’s strategy centered around light, air, and connectivity,” said DeFrancesco. “I am delighted to be working with professionals of the calibre of the Telecast team and look forward to helping expand our global market presence.”

ent to BBC ARABIC

www.vsn-tv.com

Tapeless TV

Spain Miami Brazil Uruguay Dubai

Ingest NRCS News Room Live Production Playout Archive MAM MCR Automation Scheduling Traffic Advertising Graphics Generator SMS TV Legal Compliance Monitoring IP Contribution Web

15-18 June - SingaporeStand 7G3-05

Adapoiof MWiindwesane

dEl

NAB 2010


VOX POP

NAB was very useful. For the fi rst time in the last few

years, I could see really new products and technologies,

which could have an exciting impact on this region. I was

impressed with some new display technologies, espe-

cially OLED (Organic LED) monitors. 3D, of course, was the

buzz word. All suppliers wanted to show that they were

“3D ready” or future proof. Whether their products were

related to 3D or not, almost all stands had the 3D sign on

them. There were prototypes of several new 3D camera

systems as well and I look forward to seeing the actual

products later this year. It was interesting to note that nobody at NAB was talking about

HD anymore. HD has now become a given or “normal television” in the international arena.

The challenge for us in the Middle East is to ensure that all those creating content are

adapting to this shift in order to compete at a global level. Attendance was also good tak-

ing into consideration the economic situation especially in the United States. It was a bit

better than last year, but I don’t think we saw anything like the 2008 numbers. However,

exhibitors were able to spend more time with the “serious visitors” rather than the more

speculative window shoppers. I hope to go back to NAB next year. It would be interesting

to see how the market will fi lter out many of the new products introduced this year.

Hasan Sayed Hasan, head of twofour54 intaj

The technology is quite interesting. Everyone is still pushing the 3D side of things. From our

side, we went there to focus on the asset management side of things. Couple of things that

impressed us was the Sony Media Backbone family that is meant to link the various devices

and solutions used throughout a production workfl ow, from the ingest to the archiving

stages, providing centralised network-based management of AV fi les and metadata. They

dedicated a huge part of their stand to the Media Backbone as opposed to the cameras and

the more traditional standalone products. Equally exciting was their ELLCAMI high-speed

ingest and transcode engine. I was not very impressed with the 3D technology. I don’t

see it as being the driver that people are making it out to be. I don’t see myself at home

wearing these glasses and watching 3D entertainment regularly. As for the good, I had the

opportunity to see one of my friends who was looking at more cost eff ective equipment

than we generally look at here. Looking at the stuff Black

Magic is kicking out right now and some of the studio kit

that was available. He was able to sweep together an

actual HD studio for about US $120,000 dollars and that

was phenomenal. NAB was good but I think IBC is better

for us unless you are looking for something specifi c. The

travel and the time diff erence is just too much to justify-

ing going to NAB.

Nick Barratt, senior broadcast manager, MBC

th

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in

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HOW DID NAB FARE THIS YEAR?

NAB was very good this year. For the fi rst time, we exhibited in the North Hall as opposed to previous years, when we used to exhibit in the South Hall. That was

a bit of a novelty. From Day 1, it was very busy at the stand with many customers from Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Day 4 was a bit slow as most exhibitors

seemed to be visiting each other or perhaps, left owing to news about the volcanic eruption in Iceland and disruptions in fl ights. Axon’s own theme was “Glue

and Beyond”, where we had several new product launches for 3G, 3D and optical lines, as well as the entry level glue range “SynLite”. In addition to this, we

also announced cooperation with the American company PESA, thus strengthening our presence in North-America. Perhaps the main focus at this show was

3D. The good part of the show was having many visitors and new opportunities. We believed it was time and money well spent and also got excellent hotel

rates and good accommodation. The bad part was that most of us had trouble with the GSM networks for some reason or the other. The sad bit was that many

people got stuck in the US or missed their fl ights because of the volcano. I guess NAB 2010 will be known as the one about 3D in the year of the Volcano.

Mark Barkey, sales manager, Axon

Digital Studio catches up with a few industry pros who returned from NAB.

LEVITY


COVER STORYLEVITY

MAN AND MACHINEDigital Studio talks to the team behind the UAE’s fi rst sci-fi fi lm.

The Cyborg XE7 takes a trip back into history in Levity.

LEVITY

17

COVER STORY

www.digitalproductionme.

When the Gulf Film Festival was launched three years ago, most of the screenings were a refl ection of the rather poor fi lmmaking stan-

dards in the GCC. Most entries were shorts and in many cases, abstract pieces that failed to appeal to the public. Three years down the line, we have begun to see a more impres-sive line-up of fi lms that demonstrate greater

sophistication in terms of scripts as well as the art of fi lmmaking itself.

One entry that stood out at this year’s festival was a sci-fi short developed by CG expert Ashraf Ghori under the banner of his company Xpanse CGI.

The seven-minute fi lm entitled Levity – Xero Error Minus 1 was screened to a packed house at Dubai Festival City, and was a clear refl ec-tion of the growing talent in this region. The storyline is complicated. Scientists from the future create their fi rst time travel experiment and their fi rst natural intelligence

Cyborg — an advanced version of artifi cial intelligence. The Cyborg, named XE7 has been assigned the task of traveling back in time to recover earth’s lost history. Levity is a glimpse of the Cyborg as he revisits one event in history.

The fi lm generated a lot of interest at the festival for several reasons.

For one, this genre has not been attempt-ed by any other fi lmmaker in the region thus

MARCH 2010 17

xperiment and their fi rst natural intelligence

MARCH 2010

of t

at tioThfroexex

LEVITY


COVER STORY

far. Secondly, the character has been so well crafted that it could easily be mistaken for a produc-tion straight out of Hollywood.

That sophistication comes from combining passion and talent while also engaging the local com-munity in some of the fi lmmaking process, says Ghori.

Although a talented artist who studied graphic design at the Uni-versity of Houston, Ghori says he is a self-taught animator.

“I’ll go back to my roots. I used to do a lot of illustrations in the US and the UAE. Super heroes and comics fascinated me. After I came back from the US, I started doing laser shows and some commercial work but my love for sci-fi , comics and super heroes compelled me to think of a project that would combine all of these entities.

“Essentially, I wanted to use my skills to feed my passion. That’s how I came up with

the concept of Xero Error. This was in late 2007. Back then, it was just a short script and it was much smaller in scope than what we see now,” he says.

However, it’s not until Ghori and his friend Mohammed Mondal met Waqqas Qadir Sheikh, an industry specialist with a hand

in several fi lm ventures, that they began to dream of turning their small project in a basement into a big-budget venture.

“I had a look at some of their rough illustra-tions on paper and when I heard the story, I realised that we had something of interna-tional calibre here,” says Sheikh.

“I told them not to waste their time mak-

Although most of the shots were created at the desktop, a

shot like this required people to be fi lmed against a green

screen. They were then composited into the 3D environment.

ELLCAMI.Challenge your imagination.Introducing the ELLCAMI, 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 postproduction facilities.

The endless possibilities of an

ELLCAMI includes rapidly ingesting

video in a range of formats and

resolutions from up to four VTRs at

a time, processing and converting

a wide variety of baseband and

file-based formats controlling and

simultaneously digitizing content

along with providing file-based

transcoding at resolutions up to 4K

and automatically detecting black

frames and other file errors.

Currently, the ELLCAMI supports

formats including DPX, OpenEXR,

JPEG 2000 (Lossless and Lossy),

MPEG2 Long GOP VC-3, BMP, WAV

and BWF. Additional formats will

be supported via future software

upgrades.

For further information contactSony Professional Solutions MEA FZ LLCUnit C-50, P. O. Box 502050International Media Production ZoneDubai, United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 4 391 8400Fax: +971 4 390 9690Email: [email protected]/mea

ELLCAMI

LEVITY


COVER STORY

ing a short as it wouldn’t fetch any revenues. Rather we saw that the story had huge potential to be a made into 100 episodes or even into a proper trilogy. That meant thinking much bigger than a shoe-string budget. People go scouting for such proj-ects and these two had such a winning concept,” he explains.

With four months to go for the GFF, the team decided to create a small teaser short to give potential investors an idea of what they could put together.

“Our initial budget for this seven-minute short was US $27,000 but we overshot our estimates by $10,000,” says Sheikh.

“But it helped us put up a good fi lm and show people what the team was capable of. Of course, we have not revealed any of the action sequences. That would be giv-ing away too much of the fi lm.”

Ghori says he got the whole project

going “through underground virals”. “Word of mouth and social networks like

Facebook helped immensely. We told people that it was an independent project so a lot of people joined us. Some people volunteered to do bits and pieces of the production. Now, we have more than 1000 fans on FB,” he says.

Seven people worked on the production full time while several others volunteered to do parts of the project.

Ghori, however, reiterates that besides passion, there was no secret ingredient to creating the fi lm.

“We haven’t used many unique techniques to create the eff ects we have. We started with sketches, started building the model; we

had a couple of people on board to model the character and rig and set up the bone system. All of the 3D work was done on 3DS-Max while V-ray was used for rendering, and the compositing was done on Fusion. The motion graphics were put together in After Eff ects and a combination of Flash.

“When we couldn’t aff ord to do some-thing, we invited volunteers to come in and

KEY KIT3DSMax – Rigging and skinning of the character XE7Vray - rendering.Fusion - compositing.

After eff ects - Motion graphics.

Photoshop / illustrator – Creating various elements.

Vue – Used for the opening scene showing a vast Arabian mountain range.

Custom scripts were written to ensure better control of the hand/fi nger movements.

BOXX systems with the following specs:Dual QuadCore systems with Intel Xeon processors [2.83 Ghz].8 GB RAM.Windows XP 64 bit version.

The fi nal output for cinema projection was done on HD CAM at full HD 1080 at 25fps.

had a couple of people on board to model

ing a short as it wouldn’t fetch any revenues

The team in action.

LEVITY


COVER STORY

help us,” he says. One volunteer who deserves special mention is post production supervisor Tamas Tancos.

According to Ghori, the team saved a lot of time because of the way Tancos worked.

“The techniques he uses are not stuff I have seen used in commercial work. We used the EXR format and we had all our separate passes for render like our shadows, our refl ection, the highlight, the diff use, indirect lighting etc in one fi le. Usually, people tend to make each of these layers a separate fi le. Getting them all into one fi le meant they were easier to manipulate in post produc-tion. Additionally, we didn’t have to re-feed anything this way. We were also very short of time so we used to edit on the fl y even while

we were rendering,” he adds. In addition to Tancos, several other well known people and companies have come together to be a part of this project.

Phat Mo, who is quite well known for writ-ing songs, supplied the original song for this project. Tambi Studios helped with the audio production for the short while Abdul Razzak Al Busmait, popularly called Q in the com-munity and well known for composing music for several US singers, composed the theme music for Xero Error.

Though most of the work for this fi lm has been created on the desktop, there are a few scenes, where models have been shot against the green screen and then compos-ited back into the 3D environment.

According to Ghori, the team went with in-dustry standard solutions to create this project although he quickly adds that to do a series of episodes or a motion picture, they will require

much higher spec solutions and adequate funding.

“We did the rendering at our offi ce with just eight Boxx sys-

My love for sci-fi , comics and super heroes compelled me to think of a project that would combine all of these

entities. Essentially, I wanted to use my skills [as an artist and animator] to feed my

passion— Ashraf Ghori (left)

I had a look at some of their rough illustrations ... and when I heard the

story, I realised that we had something of

international calibre here— Waqqas Sheikh (above)

tems so we were hugely limited. As a result, we approached Blackstone Studios, who off ered to help us with 20% of our renders,” says Ghori.

“However, a full length feature fi lm will require the kind of budget that any proper international motion picture of this scale and size would require,” he explains.

The team is currently on the lookout for inves-tors to take this project forward.

“We know we have what it takes in terms of talent and skill to take this project forward. Perhaps our big-gest challenge at this point is fi nd-ing appropriate investors who believe in this project and will take us seri-ously enough to fund it,” adds Ghori.

Ghori at his desk.

WITH CANON DSLR CAM


ON LOCATION

WITH CANON DSLR CAM


ON LOCATION

DoP Harvey Glen and Eye Squad Productions prove that a low budget and a Canon 5D Mark II DSLR camera are no hurdles to producing a sophisticated TVC.

CANON STILL CAM ‘MOVES’ VIDEO PROS

MAY 2010 23

When ad agency Impact BBDO approached Dubai-based production house Eye Squad Productions to make a TVC on

the Mercedes E Class to showcase the new blind spot assist function on the car, it had a few additional requirements.

It wanted to experiment with an unconven-tional concept for a car TVC while also keeping budgets down.

The narrative, therefore, was unusual. In-stead of fi lming a car in motion (which would have sent costs soaring), this TVC involved a young frightened female rushing down stairs and through an eerie basement, past snakes and body limbs to the fi nale of nearly being maimed by a chainsaw, if it isn’t for help from the ‘blind spot assist’.

Set in the 1950s, the story was to be shot in black and white and was meant to have the look and feel of a conventional horror fi lm from the 50s era.

Producer Sami says that as a fan of horror

fi lms, he was excited by the concept as soon as he heard about it.

“We don’t get such briefs everyday so it immediately got our creative juices fl owing,” Sami says.

DoP Glen says he was just as intrigued and excited when he was roped in to do the project by Sami.

“I am always very keen to avoid the obvi-ous literal approach and so, I was naturally intrigued when I was told there would be no cars involved in the commercial,” says Glen.

When he walked into Eye Squad’s studio at International Media Production Zone, he was even more impressed.

The set, built and designed by Eye Squad’s in-house art department headed by pro-duction designer Matt Kruh, was dressed to

replicate an eerie basement complete with a 3.5 metre high staircase replete with rats, a snake and a mannequin’s body parts.

The surprises did not end there. Glen was told he’d be fi lming the TVC with a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera rather than a high-end HD CAM or RED.

The request was unusual. The Canon 5D Mark II is a DSLR camera primarily designed for still photography. It also works on a CMOS chip with a full-frame 36mm x 24mm sensor as opposed to CCD, which most traditional broadcast camcorders use. The CMOS chip helps achieve a shallow depth of fi eld and a cinematic look.

“Producer Omar Sami from Eye Squad Productions did not immediately convey that he wanted to fi lm the whole thing on the

Essentially, cinematography is all about lighting, framing and how you capture the mood, atmosphere and action of the scene.

Technology enhancements don’t change this basic principle— Harvey Glen


The Canon 5D Mark II is a DSLR camera off ers a cost-eff ective option for making TVCs, according to DoP Glen.

WITH CANON DSLR CAM


ON LOCATION

Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR camera. I had previously shot some dramatic recon-struction with the 5D for a BBC production when the camera was fi rst launched. I was pleasantly surprised by the image quality and shallow depth of fi eld, although at this stage, the fi rmware for manual exposure control wasn’t released until half way through the production. This made lighting and opera-tions for the fi rst part of the shoot challenging but interesting.

“With the release of the Canon fi rmware in-cluding manual exposure, which is absolutely essential, I was keen to give it another crack, although I did suggest that shooting on the ‘old faithful’ RED camera might be the better option. Everyone, however, wanted to give the DSLR a shot so we decided to embrace it and push it to the absolute max,” Glen explains.

The DoP worked closely with gaff er John Berro to create high-contrast lighting on set. This was achieved with a range of lights mainly comprising small tungsten fi xtures, 2Ks, 1Ks, Dado heads, dimmers, a hazier and practi-cal lights on set.

As the fi nal project was to broadcast in black and white, I wanted to light high con-trast to give distinction and create depth to the image.

Producer Omar Sami clarifi es that setting the movie in a basement in dim light condi-tions also helped the team keep a tight rein on budget.

“One of the major costs on any production is lights. Depending on what camera you are shooting with, your lighting requirements could go up signifi cantly. For instance, the RED camera needs a lot of light. This, in turn, means additional crew and that immediately hikes up your costs. We chose to shoot on the Canon 5D and that immediately meant our lighting requirements would go down. In addition, the ambience helped to keep these requirements at a minimum,” Sami adds.

Despite this, the production crew included about 22 people, of which 12 were freelancers, Sami explains.

Once the set was lit, the next step was to switch the camera to Live View mode.

This makes the 1920x1080 HD video func-tion on the camera operational and allows the cameraman to see the image on the back of the camera’s three-inch (76mm) LCD screen.

“With the 5D Mk II, you cannot operate through the viewfi nder as it is disabled once you are in Live View Mode and have a monitor plugged in. You also won’t want to operate via the LCD screen as it’s incredibly small.

If you use an additional viewfi nder like the Zacuto Z-Finder, it’s much better because it magnifi es the image. However, don’t use only this to judge lighting, contrast, focus or exposure. That will not give you an accurate picture,” he says.

The team fed a composite feed out of the camera to a Panasonic eight-inch HD monitor which Glen used as his monitor. They then fed a second 18-inch HD monitor for the agency and the client.

“This is not the ideal setup but it was the best option we had,” admits Glen.

“If you have the correct cables, you can take an HDMI feed out of the camera.”

An important part of this shoot was recreat-

ing the ambience of a 1950s thriller. To do this and perform smooth tracking moves, the team mounted the camera on a Pee Wee dolly.

“This was a rather funny and unconven-tional setup as there were more cables than camera with the DSLR on the Pee Wee dolly,” says Glen.

The next factor on the checklist was lenses. In this case, the team was armed with a range of lenses including the Canon EF 1.8 Primes, the F2.0 135mm and an EF 2.8 16-35mm as well as the 24-70mm Zoom.

“I had the focal length diversity that I would expect from any set of PL mount lenses and a very pleasing shallow depth of field,” explains Glen.

“I personally think this fi lm-like depth of fi eld is the main selling point in the Canon 5D Mk II for those attempting video. You cannot get a shallow depth of fi eld this close on any other camera in this price range. With a B4 mount camera, you would have to use a 35mm adap-tor with primes to achieve the same eff ect,” explains Glen.

As part of his eff orts to create the right ex-posure and look, Glen also set the ISO at 400.

“People claim you can take the ISO as high as 1600. Personally, I wouldn’t want to raise it any higher than 400 to avoid a grainy image. We also set the shutter to 60 fps, which is double

From left: Director Nizar Sfair, focus puller Alexandro

Martella, key grip Ibrahim Touma and Harvey Glen.

I personally think this film-like depth of field is the main selling point in the Canon 5D Mk II for those attempting video. You

cannot get a shallow depth of field this close on any other camera in this price range. With a B4 mount camera, you would have to

use a 35mm adaptor with primes to achieve the same effect- Harvey Glen

LEADING PLAYERS

Client: MercedesAgency: Impact BBDOProduction: Eye Squad ProductionsDoP: Harvey Glen

WITH CANON DSLR CAM


ON LOCATION

been reached. The video clips are recorded as Quicktime MOV fi les with H.264/MPEG-4 compressed video and uncompressed PCM audio at 44.1 kHz. HD and SD bitrates are approximately 38 and 17 mbps respectively,” Glen explains.

While many more cinematogra-phers may be tempted to attempt shoots on the Canon DSLR camera,

the DoP warns that shooting with the camera is not without its challenges.

“You still need the same amount of time for lighting, much of the same equipment and time to change lenses. This is just a more aff ordable option, and makes remote access fi lming much easier and lighter. Besides that, it also gives photographers the opportunity to experiment with video and expand their own horizons. Photographers shooting video have actually even sparked a new term called Cinephotography,” explains Glen.

Although the initial plan was to shoot only in black and white, the ad agency and the di-rector decided to do a second colour version of the TVC as well.

Although DoP Glen was not as impressed with the colour version, he says they were much better than expected.

“I lit it solely for black and white and as a result, the colour had a much higher contrast image than I would have normally gone for, which looked punchy and very strong. The DSLR camera reproduced the colours incred-ibly well and looked more cinematic than I would have imagined,” explains Glen.

The whole footage was edited on Final Cut Pro although some tricky bits were edited on Flame at Blackstone Studios, explains producer Sami.

Following the success of the Mercedes TVC, which can be viewed on www.harveyglen.com, the DoP has now been approached to do several more TVCs with the DSLR.

“I can see this camera catching on in the future. That is until RED releases Scarlet. When that happens, I believe cinematography, pho-tography and cinephotography will merge even more. It’s a changing world, you can‘t stop it, so it’s best to learn, experiment and embrace,” he says.

rwvabae

phsh

the 5D Mk II native frame rate of 30fps. Canon has now released 24 and 25fps. This wasn’t available when we shot. Even if it was, I would still have shot at 30fps to slow down the action a bit and take the ‘edge’ off ,” says Glen.

As this camera is primarily designed for still photography, Glen also decided to light the set almost exclusively from his Seconic light meter.

“I set my meter to the camera settings with an F Stop of 2.8 and lit almost entirely from it. It was quite refreshing to light from the meter. It almost felt like I was shooting on celluloid. In order to get the high contrast look, I also had a fi ve-stop ratio from the darkest areas to the correctly exposed, with some areas slightly overexposing at around 1-2 stops. I was quite impressed at how well the Canon 5D MK II captured the detail in these dark areas while maintaining the highlights remarkably well,” adds Glen.

Perhaps one of the challenges for people attempting to shoot with this camera will be to keep their shots steady. This wasn’t a prob-lem on the Mercedes shoot, as it was shot completely from the dolly and all movement very smooth.

“A lot of people are intimidated by the move-ment and the ‘jello’ eff ect that can be created if they don’t shoot carefully. Using the camera as a handheld might cause a lot of shake but on a dolly with smooth tracking, we personally experienced no problem,” he explains.

The DoP reckons that some additional accessories could have helped maximise the potential of the DSLR. However, the team had to make do with a follow focus unit.

“Alexandro Martella, my focus puller was amazing keeping sharps, especially on the close up shots i.e. a quick dolly into the ag-gressively shaking door handle. Unlike a 35mm prime lens, there are very small increments be-tween each focus point. This means that 5ft to infi nity is actually only a mere few centimetres on the lens. This can make precision focusing much more tricky than with traditional 35mm primes,” explains Glen.

As the team got into the thick of the plot, however, Glen claims the team forgot they were working with a camera designed primar-ily for still photography.

“We played a few clips back on the 18” monitor and they looked fantastic in black and white. Essentially, cinematography is all about lighting, framing and how you capture the mood, atmosphere and action of the scene. Technology enhancements don’t change this basic principle.

“With this camera, you can shoot clips up to 4 GB in size, which is approximately 12 minutes of 16:9 HD (1920x1080) or 24 minutes of 4:3 SD (640x480) footage for those still stuck in the stone-age. The camera also imposes a hard maximum clip length of 29 minutes 59 seconds if the 4 GB limit has not already

You still need the same amount of time for lighting ... the same equipment and time to change lenses. This is just a more affordable option, and makes remote access filming easier and lighter. Besides that, it also gives photographers

the opportunity to experiment with video...- Harvey Glen

The Eye Squad team sets the stage for the action at its studio in IMZPZ.

NEWSROOM SYSTEMS


TECH UPDATE

BREAKING NEWS

Digital Studio looks at some of the new features introduced by newsroom solution providers at NAB 2010.

The buzzwords we hear around newsroom systems today are increasingly about integration and collaboration. An inte-

grated newsroom solution that can help produce, publish and share content across all departments is the dream of every broadcaster. Besides seamless integration across the whole news chain, broadcast-ers today are also looking for collabora-tive platforms with extensive business management capabilities and built-in production tools.

As a result, most newsroom manufac-turers today are constantly adding new features to their respective solutions and

new attractive user interfaces, will provide clients with greater flexibility to design their production architecture. VSN will also introduce new client versions for the traf-fic & scheduling solution, vsncreaTV, and the vsnIPTransfer, the ultimate IP content exchange tool, both of them running on the Mac and Windows platforms.

DALET The latest Dalet Enterprise Edition that was showcased at NAB is an open Media Asset Management (MAM) platform designed to facilitate highly effi cient and collaborative workfl ows for news, sports, programme preparation, and archives.

many of them were demonstrated at NAB. Digital Studio looks at a few.

VSNSpanish company VSN that has had several success stories in the Middle East unveiled its new Mac platform at NAB. 2010 edi-tions of the company’s vsnnews terminal, vsnnetsharer/macsharer and vsnarchive can now run on MacOS and/or Windows platforms even within a single network.

Besides this, the VSN solution now sup-ports seamless integration with Apple’s FinalCutPro. Features like drag&drop be-tween different modules, specific plug-ins to assign editing projects to a playlist, and

NEWSROOM SYSTEMS


TECH UPDATE

Delivered with the comprehensive Dalet Newsroom Computer System (NRCS), Dalet Enterprise Edition provides a fully integrated end-to-end solution that can be adapted to any newsroom operation.

“Dalet Enterprise Edition is recognised as a standard in News by many broadcasters. Today, Dalet Enterprise Edition is the only fully integrated solution that manages the end-to-end and production workfl ows with a MAM layer at the core. Many prestigious customers, including BBC, NBC, Time Warner Cable, France Television, and Canal + have taken advantage of Dalet to streamline their operations and better monetise their con-tent,” commented Raoul Cospen, Director of Marketing, Dalet.

“In addition, Dalet Enterprise Edition has all the features to manage the various needs of Media Asset Management. Centralised ingest, and manual and automated QC are integrated within the MAM framework. These easy-to-use tools perform everyday prepara-tion and production tasks. The outstanding integration capabilities simplify connections of third-party systems such as traffi c or auto-mation into the Dalet workfl ow.”

The new release expands the collabora-tive end-to-end News Production workfl ow to include News wheel playout and pre-production workfl ow, a concept initially designed for Time Warner Cable’s 24/7

news production workfl ow. The new feature maximises playout automation effi ciency of news clips across multiple channels, with diff erent formats and languages. A compre-hensive web-based NRCS, WebSpace, Dalet’s Windows-based web client now includes a full-featured NRCS. In addition to video tools, newsgathering, planning, rundown manage-ment, and script editing are available to users from anywhere via web or PC clients. Web-Space runs on Mac and Windows platforms.

ENPSAt NAB, AP’s biggest announcement was that it would introduce new Twitter and YouTube integration for ENPS. Tight integration with popular social networking tools will enable journalists to quickly and easily monitor content from both Twitter and YouTube within ENPS using familiar workfl ows. ENPS users can also publish news updates to their station’s Twitter feeds without leaving ENPS.

This new functionality will enable ENPS us-ers to better engage with their communities and serves as a tool for enhanced news-gathering. The YouTube integration acts as a quick, simple method for viewers to submit their own newsworthy video content.

AP is also introducing the new ENPS Smartphone Client, which puts ENPS on mobile phones and lets users get more

work done in the fi eld and away from the newsroom. The smartphone client is part of an update to the ENPS Mobile Suite, which also includes enhanced script-editing capa-bilities in the ENPS Web Client and a new ENPS plug-in for Microsoft Outlook.

Other features include a new side-by-side multi-platform story editor; automated metadata enrichment; automated discovery of related content; the ability to easily link related stories; integrated story-based chat and enhanced contact viewer.

IRAQI NETWORK OPTS FOR AVID

Al Sharqiya TV Gets Tyrell Newsroom Tyrell CCT, a creative technology solutions pro-vider developed a complete end-to-end digital newsroom solution for privately owned Iraqi satellite TV channel’s new London news bureau earlier this year.

Al Sharqiya TV’s newsroom technology incorporates Avid Interplay and Avid Unity MediaNetwork for production asset manage-ment, together with Avid iNEWS for story creation to provide an efficient and flexible news solution for the rapidly expanding Arabic broadcaster.

The solution enables Al Sharqiya to embrace a tapeless workfl ow and facilitates collaborative news production processes and streamlined workfl ows between its regional production sites and external news agencies.

The combination of Avid Interplay and Avid Unity MediaNetwork systems ensures real-time media access and media management throughout Al Sharqiya’s newsroom enabling fast, effi cient story creation. The Avid iNEWS computer system provides the broadcast team with complete control of newsroom operations direct from their desktops. Al Sharqiya has also invested in Avid AirSpeed Multi Stream ingest and playout servers, Avid Interplay Transfer, and a number of Avid Newscutter and Interplay Assist editing clients.

This complete set of tools allows Al Sharqiya to generate news stories in their London offi ce from re-purposed agency feeds and in-house studio recordings and to manage the entire news pro-cess encompassing story creation, media ingest and logging through to editing and play-to-air.

Yellobrik-full-page-ol.ai 4/22/2010 9:58:20 AM

MOTION CAPTURE


POST PRODUCTION

CAPTURING MOTION

SFX specialist Amitaabh Naaraayan sheds light on the art of motion capture and how it is increasingly being used in Hollywood.

Motion capture, as the name suggests is a process of capturing Motion from live actors. Mo-tion capture requires more than

just actors; it requires talented perform-ing artists who are a good mix of actors, stuntmen and dancers. These artists have to wear a body suit with light points attached on the suit; these light points are usually placed to coincide with joints or on muscles with prominent movements like the facial muscles. The artists then rehearse to move their bodies to fi t the virtual 3D characters as per the scripts.

The motion capture cameras capture the light positions as the actors move and enact their scenes. The captured informa-tion is stored as lines (animation curves)and numeric data commonly referred to as keyframes. With the help of sophisticated software this data is then transferred to the 3D characters. The scenes could be a green screen setup, built to match the conditions

Motion capture based animation is es-sential for creating characters that move realistically, in situations that would be impractical or too dangerous for real actors. Director, Steven Spielberg is said to be using motion-capture technology, as it is allow-ing him to digitally recreate the look of the original Tintin comics by Hergé on the silver screen. Hergé wrote about fi ctional people in a real world, not in a fantasy universe. It was the real universe he was working with, and he used National Geographic to research his adventure stories. Not only are the actors represented in real time, they enter into a three-dimensional world.

Software tools for working with motion-captured data, such as Autodesk Motion-Builder have evolved to the point where animators now have the means to edit and blend takes from multiple capture sessions and mix and match them with keyframed an-imation techniques; allowing great control of style and quality of fi nal output, for anything

of the 3D scenes in any sequence of the fi lm. The moving characters are then simply placed in these 3D scenes.

With a combination of the new virtual camera software, fi lmmakers have realised unlimited freedom in computer-generated storytelling. The director can now move within a computer-generated 3D environ-ment, in and around CG actors whose infi nitely looping performances have been created using standard motion-capture technology, to get the results conceived by the writers and directors. James Cameron has set a new standard for fi lmmakers with his recent hit Avatar.

Cameron continuously maintained that Avatar was not a CG animated fi lm; rather that it was “motion tracked and CG rendered”.

An increasing number of fi lmmakers have begun to use Mocap to capture the entire performance, ie. the acting, body language and the voice, vis-à-vis just the voice of the famous celebrities.

MOTION CAPTURE


POST PRODUCTION

ranging from realistic to ‘cartoony’ motion. Motion capture is accomplished by

magnetic, electro-mechanical or optical technologies. While each technology has its strengths, there is not a single motion capture technology that is perfect for every possible use.

Magnetic motion capture systems utilise sensors placed on the body to measure the low-frequency magnetic fi eld generated by a transmitter source. The sensors and source

are cabled to an electronic control unit that correlates their reported locations within the fi eld. The electronic control units are networked with a host computer that uses a software driver to represent these positions and rotations in 3D space.

Magnetic systems use six to 11 or more sensors per person to record body joint motion. Although six sensor systems are less expensive, they are more likely to produce ‘joint popping’ since the IK solution needs to guess about a lot of the information it is re-

ceiving. The markers tend to move a bit dur-ing capture sessions, and require repeated readjustment and recalibration. Since each sensor requires its own (fairly thick) shielded cable, the tether used by magnetic systems can be quite cumbersome.

There are two main technologies used in optical motion capture namely, Refl ec-tive (Passive) and Pulsed-LED (light emitting diodes) Active.

Optical motion capture systems tend to utilise proprietary video cameras to track

The motion capture cameras capture the light positions as the actors move

and enact their scenes

MOTION CAPTURE


POST PRODUCTION

the motion of refl ective markers (or pulsed LED’s) attached to particular locations of the actor’s body. Single or dual camera systems are suitable for facial capture, while eight to 16 (or more) camera systems are necessary for full-body capture. Refl ective optical mo-tion capture systems use Infra-red (IR) LED’s mounted around the camera lens, along with

IR pass fi lters placed over the camera lens. Optical motion capture systems based on Pulsed-LED’s measure the Infra-red light emitted by the LED’s rather than light

refl ected from markers. Optical motion capture systems have

the advantage of being very confi gu-rable (you can put the markers on an elephant or fabric, or baseballs or foot-balls, etc.) A large active area is possible, depending on budget and space limitations. Optical systems are useful for capturing gymnastic types of moves. Optical motion capture is most often used ‘out of house’ at specialty studios, but is very popular

for animation for sports games as well as motion capture for fi lm.

Mocap can provide substantial time savings for animation projects. Motion capture can make the animation process much easier, especially when trying to recreate character animation that is realis-tic, such as the interaction of multiple 3D

characters, or characters engaged in sports activities. Simple ‘ambient animation, such as a character standing around doing nothing, is much easier (and more realistic) when cap-tured than if these subtleties where animated by hand.

Game development is the largest market for motion capture. With games drawing as much revenue as movies, it is easy to see why game development often calls for enormous

Cameron has maintained that Avatar was the result of motion

capture rather than CG work.

Game development is the largest

market for motion capture.

MOTION CAPTURE


POST PRODUCTION

quantities of motion capture. The immense competition to produce the ‘coolest game possible’ means that greater production capabilities mean higher quality. More time is left for aesthetic fi nishing touches and fi ne-tuning of game play.

Real-time motion is becoming popular for live television broadcasts. Motion capture can be used to place a virtual character within a real scene, or to place live actors within a virtual scene with virtual actors, or virtual characters within a virtual scene.

Motion capture for real-time broadcast requires mock-ups of any non-standard physiology (big stomachs, tails, etc.) to keep the performer’s motions from causing the character’s limbs to interpenetrate its body. Joint limits on the shoulders and knees (such as found in Autodesk MotionBuilder) also help maintain believability of the character. A real-time adaptation feature such as Motion-Builder’s real-time motion mapping (from the performer’s skeleton to a diff erent propor-tioned character’s skeleton) is essential when the character’s body is very diff erent from the actor’s body.

When combining live elements with virtual elements the real and virtual cameras must share the same properties (perspective, focal length, depth of fi eld, etc.) otherwise the illusion looks strange.

HIGHLIGHTSHardwareXsens Technologies B.V. (www.xsens.com)PhaseSpace Inc. (www.phasespace.com)Animazoo (www.animazoo.com)Innovision Systems Inc. (innovision-systems.com)

SoftwareAutodesk MotionBuilder (www.autodesk.com)

NaturalPoint (www.naturalpoint.com )

Otherwww.motioncapturesociety.comwww.motion-capture-system.com/index.htmlwww.metamotion.com

BooksMoCap for Artists: Workfl ow and Techniques for Motion Capture by Midori Kitagawa

Understanding Motion Capture for Computer Animation and Video Games: by Alberto Menache

3D Game Animation for Dummies: by Kelly L. Murdock

The Animator’s Motion Capture Guide: Organizing, Managing, Editing by Matt Liverman

Motion capture is being used more and more in fi lms nowadays. Motion capture based animation is essential for creating characters that move realistically, in situations that would be impractical or too dangerous for real actors (such as characters falling off the ship in Titanic. Motion capture was also used extensively in Titanic for

‘fi ller’ characters (fi t in between real actors) or in situations with virtual camera fl y-bys over a virtual ship.

Many of these shots would have been diffi -cult or impossible to do with real cameras and a real ship, or real models, so virtual models, actors, and cameras were used. Some fi lm characters require the use of motion capture, otherwise their animation seems fake. More and more independent companies are start-ing to put together desktop studios.

The idea of two or three people creating an entire movie is not that far off , if motion capture is used correctly. The Gypsy is ideal for small and large shops. Motion capture anima-tion can be done very quickly and inexpen-sively, without scheduling expensive motion capture sessions in a studio.

Other industries that use motion capture include Web, Live events, scientifi c research, Biomechanical analysis, Engineering, Educa-tion and VR Gypsy is a commonly used setup. It is easy to use and transport, and works well in most environments.

The use of Phasespace optical motion com-bined with Motion Builder makes it easy to use. Mocap is ideal for small set-ups and could prove to be cost-eff ective and quick as op-posed to paying expensive rentals to studios. Another newer solution is FacePro, a facial

motion capture toolset plug-in that is used with the VICON Blade system. SkinFlex is an additional feature that helps deal nuances like how the skin rolls as it stretches and moves and captures every lip curl and purse. Digital Concepts Group’s FacePro has helped take fa-cial motion capture to the next generation of game, fi lm, television and advertising media.

Alternatively, Motion capture data can be purchased off the net, and is very common with medium to small-sized production and special eff ects studios. You have various fi le formats, e.g. .bvh, .bip, .fbx that can be read by most of the software apps that are commonly used by artists. Amitaabh Naaraayan is a 3D and SFX professional based in Dubai.

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KARIM SARKIS


FACE TO FACE

Can you elaborate on the roles each of your pro-

duction partners will play? Will IMG undertake

all the English production and Endemol, Arabic?

IMG Sports Media is our partner in the UK while Endemol Sport is our partner in Abu Dhabi. We have the fl exibility of doing multiple languages with both of them but the way it is working out is that IMG will make sure that we have great access on the ground in the UK and help us with the programming from there while Endemol will help create some great shows here. Endemol will provide the entertain-ment twist in addition to the normal coverage that you would expect

for an event like this. As the offi cial channel of the EPL is part of our bouquet and we also have IMG on board, we will already have great English programming. As a result, the majority of what Endemol will focus on here will obviously be Arabic content.

Where will Endemol operate from?

Endemol will work with us. We have dedicated facilities here. We will have a big team working specifi cally on the EPL. This will be quite a large operation in terms of coverage for a football league. In fact, this is probably the largest single eff ort that any broadcaster has under-

In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, executive director of Broadcast, Karim Sarkis clarifi es ADMC’s partnership plans with IMG Sports Media and Endemol Sport.

ADMCFACE TO FACE

FOOTBALL

TACTICS

KARIM SARKIS


FACE TO FACE

taken in this part of the world to cover an event like this. Normally, you see the kind of intensity that we are applying to short term events such as the World Cup or the Gulf Cup but we are being very

We were under no illusion that we could do all of this from scratch ourselves so

the common theme that you will see with regards to the EPL is that we have partnered with strong and established players in their various areas of expertise whether it be STB

distribution or production— Karim Sarkis

x

Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC) has inked deals with UK-based IMG Sports Media and Endemol Sport for the production of the English Premier League (EPL) programming on its AD Sports (Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya) subscription channels.

The agreement with IMG will include live coverage of the major games from the EPL as well as pitch side reporters, pre- and post-game interviews and reports, interaction with fans at the stadium, and analysis from the on-site studio. The coverage will also be supported by daily sports news bulletins.

With Endemol, ADMC will work on a more regional level. Endemol Sport will join forces with its Middle East offi ce to support ADMC in the production of Arabic programming covering the EPL. These programmes will be produced at ADMC’s new state-of-the-art HD studios and will be broadcast along with all 380 EPL matches, as part of next season’s subscription package.

Two new EPL channels will be broadcast in Arabic and in addition to showing the games, they will be packed with other new content.

Speaking about the deals, Mohammed Najeeb, director of AD Sports (Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya), says: “The Premier League is the most exciting football league in the world. Our goal is to make AD Sports (Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya) the most exciting sports destination for football fans. Our audiences will have access to all games from the new Premier League season in HD. We will create a new line-up of programmes, not seen before in the region, to support our live coverage,” said Mohammed Najeeb, Director of AD Sports (Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya) sports channels.

Endemol Sport will also assist ADMC in recruiting the talent needed to create compelling football programming.

AMG INKS DEALS WITH IMG AND ENDEMOL

Mohammed Najeeb (above), director of AD Sports (Abu Dhabi Al Riyadiya).

ambitious and will cover this consistently with lots of people, not for the sake of having lots but because we feel they are essential to cre-ate these shows. We want to go beyond the typical live coverage. We will have teams of reporters on the ground in the UK, who will also do the studio programming from there. But once the live matches are over, we will also look at doing daily news, talk shows, entertainment shows and even game shows.

Are your partnership deals valid for the three

seasons for which you have the rights?

The contracts are valid for three years but like all contracts, there is a performance criteria that must be met. If it’s not met, we do have the right to terminate the contract but we are confi dent that our partners will meet our requirements.

How many studios will you have locally?

We presently have two HD studios on site and are building a third one in another location, all within the UAE.

KARIM SARKIS


FACE TO FACE

Who is your SI for this project?

We’re working with various partners like Sony and Harris on the exten-sion of the studios and the playout facilities.

If you are outsourcing most of your work, would

it be correct to say that ADMC is playing more of

an investor’s role?

Our role goes beyond that. We have hired some key talent directly. It is strategically important to have them on board and they work with us on some of the other sports programmes as well. Basically, Endemol and IMG will help us execute our EPL plans but we are the ones that drive everything in terms of deciding the channel line-ups, the shows, the programming and the guests. We devise the strategy and set the direction for the programmes. Having said that, we also have a very large production team at ADMC that will be working with our production partners on a day-to-day basis. We have free-to-air channels that we produce ourselves. They produce a lot of events here as well but of course, we are sure they will benefi t even more from their association with the diff erent experts and specialists we have brought in.

How many channels will you have as part of your

sports bouquet?

I cannot comment on the number of channels we will have because we will have diff erent mechanisms in place for this. However, I can assure you that there will be enough channels to ensure that every game that is being played will be shown live. There will be some channels that will be the core while others will have programming that go beyond the live matches.

Consumers seem confused about how to access

your programmes. Why?

The rights for the EPL are still with another company. While we need to be preparing operationally and from a production and planning perspective, we can’t talk to consumers just yet because of our con-tractual obligations. After the end of the season, we will market our plans for the EPL more aggressively.

When will it all come together?

Everything will have to be ready by the time the league starts of course. But we also have an implied deadline by when we need to have the service up and running and that is by summer. We are work-ing towards those deadlines. In the ramp up to the EPL, you will see a lot more marketing campaigns and we’ll be a lot more public about it.

What have been your biggest challenges in un-

dertaking this project?

Our biggest challenge has been trying to do an event in the space of 10 months when it would normally take twice as long to do some-thing like this. This was even more challenging because we were not an existing pay TV platform. Obviously, there were a technological

challenges in terms of the infrastructure, marketing challenges in terms of telling all the consumers about our off erings, the logisti-cal challenge of getting the set top boxes into the market, doing the deals with the telcos and getting the platform online. There is a month-to-month challenge. There is a content and production challenge but we have partnered with IMG and Endemol to help us accomplish this now. There is a Customer Service requirement as well, which we are looking to outsource.

We were under no illusion that we could do all of this from scratch ourselves so the common theme that you will see with regards to the EPL is that we have partnered with strong and established players in their various areas of expertise whether it be STB distribution, produc-tion or whatever. We’ve also tied up with du and Etisalat for the EPL.

Have you partnered with telcos outside the UAE?

More deals with telcos will be coming and we are applying this to as many markets as we can where the telcos have the capability to do this themselves.

It is widely believed that ADMC has spent a lot of

money on the EPL?

We have heard a lot of exaggerated fi gures in the public space. However, we believe that we got good value for our money and the test at the end of the day will be when we actually begin broadcast-ing the EPL. When a typical EPL fan sees what we have in store for them, they themselves will begin to see that what we have provided is unprecedented.

We have heard a lot of exaggerated figures in the public space. However, we believe that

we got good value for our money and the test at the end of the day will be when we

actually begin broadcasting the EPL— Karim Sarkis

DUBAI MEDIA INC.

MAY 201042

CASE STUDY


Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) has invested in an advanced RF network for its wireless camera op-erations, which is enabled by VIS-

LINK’s Cellular diversity technology in the Gulf region. The deployment brings immediate cost savings to the state-backed broadcaster, which is responsible for the live broadcast of several events in Dubai.

The city-wide wireless camera solution was

installed by VISLINK and comprises a wireless camera system that transmits low power sig-nals to a portable repeater system. This two-inch antenna can be rigged onto a building, a car, a boat or a helicopter as required. This then re-transmits the signal at high power to the diversity receive system that is located at the Dubai World Trade Centre and from here, back to the DMI studios. Dubai World Trade Centre is linked by fi bre to DMI’s studios. DMI

can use any standard professional broadcast camera fi tted with the LINK L1500 transmitter operating at 7GHz to make use of this solution.

“DMI is the fi rst broadcaster in the Middle East to benefi t from this technology,” says Mather Al Ali, Vislink’s general manager for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The other alternative is to rent an SNG vehicle for each newsgathering operation. Deploying a satellite truck requires more

LINKED INVijaya Cherian looks at why Dubai Media Inc. deployed VISLINK’s Cellular Diversity technology and how it will benefi t the broadcaster.

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DUBAI MEDIA INC.

MAY 201044

CASE STUDY


planning time, and it also needs a team of engineers to go with the vehicle. By doing this, you often tie up a lot of resources, man-power and capital equipment. Besides, you also tie down your satellite space segment, which can be quite expensive depending on how much you are leasing per year.

“This technology eliminates the need for any satellite space segment. You will get the same result; you will get a live, broadcast-quality signal without using any satellite equipment,” he adds.

According to Vislink, the traditional way of setting up such a broadcast requires several engineers to operate antennas and dishes, and carries the risk of losing the video signal because of human error. By comparison, the Cellular Diversity solution is easy to use.

The receiver covers an area within a certain radius of the antenna. Within this area, a cam-era operator can move around freely with the camera and the signal will be received at the centre. The concept uses a feature of COFDM wireless technology that enables digital sig-nals to bounce off the surfaces of tall buildings in the city centre, and reach the receiver even if there is no direct line of sight.

Al Ali says that some people use traditional microwave links as well to undertake the same operation. However, this technology again de-mands that both the transmit and the receive stay within line of sight to be operational.

“This again is a very engineering intensive

This system ... enables us to

capture live events — which [is]

what we do 95% of the time

— directly from the streets of

Dubai without using too much

eff ort or resources to set up

prior to going live.

— Hassan Chahine, CTO, DMI

A Link installation at the Chamber of Commerce roof in Washington.

Hassan Chahine, CTO, DMI.

DUBAI MEDIA INC.

MAY 201046

CASE STUDY


exercise that is cumbersome because it ties up a lot of human resources and obviously, capi-tal equipment. Additionally, it is not mobile so you cannot move easily from one location to another. The Link Research Cellular Diversity system gives us the best of all worlds. It oper-ates on a cellular level and it doesn’t have to be one cell. You can use multiple cells like you would in a GSM network, thereby, allowing the cameraman to move freely between the cells and enabling the signal to go back to the studio without interruption from one cell to another,” he explains.

Hassan Chahine, chief technology offi cer at DMI was the key person behind the choice of the solution.

“We acquired the system because we could see that it would enable us to capture live events — which is what we do 95% of the time — directly from the streets of Dubai without using much eff ort or resources to set up prior to going live. For broadcasting live, you require SNG or microwave and for cost reasons, we used to go with microwave tech-nology. Unfortunately, with so many high-rise buildings and cranes, microwave became a nightmare. That’s when I spotted this applica-tion in action for the fi rst in London,” he says.

“We have begun to test this application with one cell. What’s great is that it does not require any technical skills and does not work on the line of sight principle. We fi nd this technology to be very useful so eventually, we hope to switch all our OB vans and mobile units to have this kind of wireless application,” he adds.

DMI presently operates with one single cell that covers virtually all of the areas that it requires, all the way from the Dubai Airport

terminal to Burj Khalifa, Madinat Jumeirah, Burj Al Arab and so on. A fi xed receive site is installed at the World Trade Centre tower. Four antennae have been deployed at the tower to provide 360-degree coverage. This location, in turn, is connected to Dubai TV via fi bre.

“We have tested it all the way to Jumeirah Beach arena, which is 21.5kms away and it worked. We have also tested it all the way to the airport, which is 10.5 kms, Mamzar Beach, which is 12.5 kms and Madinat Jumeirah, which is 14.2 kms,” explains Al Ali.

“It’s based on a cellular system so if the broadcaster fi nds it is not getting the range it would like, it could very easily add a sec-ond and a third cell which will more than compensate and give it the additional range it requires. You can, of course, have literally as many cameras as you want. However, for each cell, you will require to have a corresponding diversity receiver and more portable repeater systems,” he adds.

With this solution, the creative people and the journalists will no longer be dependent on the engineering teams’ availability and resources, explains DMI’s Chahine.

The L1500.

Vislink Lynx receiver 2010.

“The cameraman and the reporter can go up by themselves to the fi eld. They just need to take the portable receive case and transmit case with them, place the magnetic transmit antenna on the top of the car and they’re good to go. In addition, this technology will help us to shoot from a moving car. This immediately opens up a lot of programming opportunities for DMI, where we can take the car and go to several diff erent locations and shoot and go live without depending on an SNG application. This system is not cheap but I believe that in the long run, this will be very cost eff ective for us,” concludes Chahine.

This technology eliminates the need for any satellite

space segment ... you will get a live, broadcast-

quality signal without using any satellite equipment.— Mather Ali, GM, Vislink ME

WHAT’S HOT

MAY 2010 www.digitalproductionme.com

PRODUCTS AT NAB

48

Ikan has launched the Stereoscope, a lightweight, portable solution for those needing a 3D Cam-era setup as part of its ELEMENTS range. Unlike other 3D camera mounts, the ikan Stereoscope is upgradable and customisable.

It is designed for use with prosumer, professional grade camcorders and the HDSLR. The cam-era mounts glide smoothly on two 15mm rail systems. It is extremely durable and lightweight. Its anodised aluminum construction is lightweight, strong and durable. It can be mounted on tripods, jib arms, or can be handheld with other ELEMENTS components.

IKAN UNVEILS STEREOSCOPE 3D

CAMERA SUPPORT SYSTEM

EditShare has begun shipping its new Ark 2.0 backup and archiving solution. Fully integrated with EditShare’s shared stor-age solutions, Ark 2.0 offers superior me-dia file protection for broadcast and post, providing digital and tape-based options for creating backups and archives. Ark 2.0 boasts a full array of media protection en-hancements, most notably its complete integration with EditShare Flow.

Chyron has unveiled Quintette, the latest system in a line of newsroom graphics, manage-ment and distribution solutions that off er broadcasters the best value and return on investment in the industry.

Quintette is the most fully featured and sophisticated graphics workfl ow production and play-out solution avail-able on the market. Off ering a full turnkey solution, including integrated electronic ordering and graphics asset management and collaborative cloud tools, Quintette includes compre-hensive and dynamic business intelligence and reporting that are built into the system.

Quintette is built on Chyron’s Lyric real-time graphics technology, with full intelligent transition and 3D animation support. The com-plete system is pre-packaged with remote system installation, setup and testing.

EDITSHARE SHIPS MEDIA ARCHIVING SOLUTION

CHYRON

LAUNCHES

QUINTETTE

“Ark 2.0’s flawless integration with Flow and broader support for tape loaders and libraries elevates it to a new level of asset protect ion,” stated Andy Liebman, founder and CEO of EditShare.

“In an integrated Ark and Flow environ-ment, archived material is made part of the content repository. Archived clips are automatically scanned and added to the Flow database in proxy format, providing

instant access to low-resolution versions of all archived materials.

"From the Flow Browse interface, users can search and retrieve archived media, organise clips into bins, assemble clips into sequences, and restore high-resolu-tion versions for editing. Thanks to these enhancements, Ark 2.0 is now one of the most reliable asset protection systems in the industry.”

WHAT’S HOT


PRODUCTS AT NAB

50

Sony has introduced a comprehensive response to the business issues facing professionals in the Media market. The Media Back-bone will link the various devices and solutions used throughout a content creation workfl ow, providing network-based manage-ment of AV fi les and metadata; and fully exploiting the advantages of fi le-based operation.

The Media Backbone includes a range of hardware and software platforms to support the fi led-based operating needs of custom-ers in the Media market. It combines Sony's deep technological expertise in the AV area with IT-based systems provided by Sony and other manufacturers. It can also link services and solutions to company-wide enterprise systems to support comprehensive effi ciency. The architecture does not diff erentiate against products from other manufacturers; rather it is designed to present solutions to meet customer needs on all types of products and systems.

A key hardware component of the Media Backbone architecture is “ELLCAMI,” a resolution-independent multi-format ingest and transcoding platform scheduled to arrive to the Middle East in the second quarter of 2010. Based on Sony’s Cell processor technol-ogy, with up to 128 cores per workstation, each system can be

SONY OFFERS MEDIA BACKBONE TO INDUSTRYconfi gured 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 base-band 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 fi le-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 in-gest, it also provides fi le-based transcoding at resolutions up to 4K.

The platform can automatically detect black frames and other fi le 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.

Silicon Imaging unveiled the SI-3D camera at NAB this year. The new SI-3D stereo camera utilises dual SI-2K mini heads integrated with a single processor, which mixes and synchs the left- and right-eye images into a single 3D QuickTime fi le. These can be recorded with the new SI-3D Minideck Recorder, or fed into the new SI-3D Live system for stereo-scopic SMPTE HD-SDI broadcast or 2K Cinema playback and projection.

The SI-3D off ers fi lmmakers built-in tools for checking and adjusting camera alignment and parallax shift between the two views. All of the controls are accessible through a simple touch-screen interface. The ste-reo data is processed in one system, eliminating the need for a separate stereo processor to mix the two signals for a stereo display.

Currently, 3D content is captured from two independent left and right cameras, each with its own settings, color controls, record start, timecode, content management and monitoring outputs. A variety of complex “workarounds” are used to synchronise the recordings or combine the outputs for viewing. Other systems use a fi xed optical system with highly compressed H.264 or J2K codecs to record, which either limit 3D depth for close-ups or large scenic views

“When you shoot with two separate cameras, you have to do everything twice, and you need all these other boxes to mix the signal together,” said Ari Presler, CEO of Silicon Imaging. “With the SI-3D, all you do is point the camera, shoot, edit, and then do your

SI DEMOS FIRST INTEGRATED STEREO 2K CAM

3D grading. This camera makes it all one streamlined process.”Using the overscan resolution of the 2K imager, the SI-3D provides

virtual alignment and parallax controls so that the cinematographer can digitally shift the position of the two images while maintaining a full 1080P HD output. All adjustments are non-destructive and are stored as metadata in the fi le. This allows for re-adjustments in post to fi ne-tune content for cinema versus TV, or Internet delivery.

“The system is very easy to use because everything is done through one interface,” said Presler. “In the camera, we have the ability to switch back and forth between left and right view. You can mix them and in anaglyph, side by side, or split screen without needing any special external hardware. We can also capture the timecode into the system. Everything that you need to shoot and manage 3D is built in.”

The SI-3D shoots uncompressed raw data encoded directly to a single stereo CineFormRAW QuickTime fi le, along with 3D LUT colour and convergence metadata. The stereo fi le can be played back instantly and edited in stereoscopic 3D on an Apple Final Cut timeline, without requiring proxy conversions. With the addition of CineForm’s Neo3D, convergence plus stereo or individual eye colour adjustments can be dynamically controlled and modifi ed, while viewing live 3D playback. Further grading and stereo sweetening can be done on Quantel’s Pablo, IQ, or IRIDAS’ SpeedGrade DI.

WHAT’S HOT


PRODUCTS AT NAB

52

Zaxcom has added the TRX900LT to its line of wireless digital audio trans-ceivers. The new TRX900LT combines wireless transmission, recording, and remote control receiving functions into a single lower-cost system for

the production of episodic television, motion pictures, and live broad-cast events. Designed to be extreme-ly light-weight and

durable, the TRX900LT is housed in a high-strength, impact-resistant nylon polymer casing that provides protection from both corro-sion and water damage.

The TRX900LT features 100% digital transmission for audio quality that rivals

WIRELESS DIGITAL AUDIO

PRODUCTION FROM ZAXCOMMiranda’s new Kaleido-Solo simplifi es monitoring of 1080p, HD and SD pro-grammes and their associated loudness and DIALNORM properties.

Kaleido-Solo converts 3Gbps, HD and SD SDI, with embedded audio, to DVI and HDMI for display on an inexpensive LCD screen. In addition to providing the high quality scaling necessary for display in professional applications, Kaleido-Solo provides continuous measurement of loudness, and overlays a histogram of the loudness and DIALNORM on top of the program video. Unlike traditional loudness metering solutions, the histo-gram conveys the progression of loud-ness and DIALNORM over a user defi ned period of time.

“Loudness issues continue to pre-occupy broadcasters at various locations in their facilities. This simple device allows broadcasters to monitor loudness while watching their programmes”, said Michel Proulx, CTO of Miranda Technologies.

“It’s a heads-up display for loudness.”In addition to performing the 3Gbps/

HD/SD to HDMI or DVI conversion and displaying the audio loudness and DIALNORM histogram, the Kaleido-Solo provides overlays of key audio and video parameters, including aspect ratio markers, AFD Codes, time code, and peak meters.

Kaleido-Solo provides automatic video input format detection, and supports a wide range of video resolutions, including 525i, 625i, 720p, 1080i and 1080p. To ensure the correct aspect ratio for video monitoring, it fully supports AFD, WSS, and VLI Metadata. To simplify embedded audio monitoring, Kaleido-Solo provides two RCA audio connectors to output a digital 5.1 stream as SPIDF, a 5.1 Downmix, or any two user selected channels. The Kaleido-Solo is designed to be attached directly on the back of any LCD screen.

MIRANDA

GOES SOLO

Sachtler showcased its ENG/EFP Video 18 S1 and Video 20 S1 fl uid heads at NAB 2010, thus relaunching two classics in this fi eld. Due to their expansive payload range, both heads are suited for use with DSLRs shooting HD videos, such as Canon‘s 5D Mark II or 7D.

Video 18 S1 and Video 20 S1 are the latest models of the ENG/EFP heads Video 18 and Video 20. The two principal new advantages included in the S1 models is that both fl uid heads now have a 16-level counterbalance, and the Video 20 S1 also has an extended payload range. Both heads retain the Video family‘s classic Sachtler Speedbalance tech-nology and a Touch and Go plate.

SACHTLER RELAUNCHES

TWO CLASSIC FLUID HEADSThe payload range starting from 2 kg al-

lows the heads to be used with DSLRs shoot-ing HD videos. Due to their heavy mass in comparison to the camera the tripod heads enable a distinctly precise panning. The new S1 tripod heads are currently available.

In addition to the new S1 fl uid heads, Sachtler has new modules, functions and up-grades to augment the current product line, as well as existing artemis systems, to meet future requirements. Product development of the camera stabiliser systems in 2010 will continue to be in line with the ACT2 philoso-phy, representing the second generation of the artemis component technology.

a hard-wired system, and it is superior to all analogue and hybrid wireless units. All audio transmissions from the TRX900LT are fully encrypted to eliminate the possibility of production audio interception and theft.

With a patented internal timecode-referenced audio recorder that backs up all wireless transmissions on a removable microSD card, the TRX900LT eliminates the possibility of audio loss due to inter-ference or signal dropout. Each TRX900LT unit will operate for up to fi ve hours on a single AA lithium battery and is compat-ible with all Zaxcom wireless receivers and IFB transmitters.

Included in the TRX900LT system is ZaxNet, Zaxcom’s new 2.4-GHz RF net-work that enables distribution of remote control signals, timecode, IFB audio, and metadata. With ZaxNet, TRX900LT users will be able to control gain and audio replays remotely via a timecode reference so that multiple Zaxcom wireless systems can replay audio in sync.

WHAT’S HOT


PRODUCTS AT NAB

54

FOR-A laid emphasis on media management for ingest, storage, and manipulation of content at NAB this year.

The manufacturer demonstrated products, technologies, and directions for its fi le-based and baseband lines including 3D and 3G-capable technologies for broadcasting and video production.

Many of its new products and technologies are based on its MediaConcierge media management system. Leading the way is the MBP-100MP Multi Format Player with the MBP-100SXA MXF clip server. The MBP-100MP off ers HD/SD-SDI baseband output of major fi le formats used in video production, including MXF fi les like GF, QuickTime (DVCPRO HD codec), XDCAM HD, and P2HD. With more powerful ingest software than the MCI-100, it allows a facility to col-lect multiple fi le formats into a central location, and then play them

out as baseband signals. The new Prism System is also worthy of mention. This is an on-the-fl y, multiple-output video clipping PC-based software application. With its built-in encoder, clipping, and transcoding tools, Prism is designed to provide a complete video content repurposing solution for Web and mobile TV distribution.

FOR-A ARMED WITH

FILE-BASED SYSTEMS

Solid State Logic launched a new, com-pact 16-fader version of the C10 HD Digital Broadcast Console at NAB. The new compact version of the successful C10 HD further reduces the console footprint and price point to appeal to space and budget restricted installations, while delivering all the advanced capabilities and sound quality of the larger C10 HD.

“The new Compact C10 HD off ers the end user a stunning array of advanced features in an effi cient 34-inch wide design that further delivers the SSL standard to every broadcast situation at a highly competitive price,” com-mented Piers Plaskitt, CEO of SSL, Inc. “We

SSL GOES COMPACTdesigned the new mini C10 to go where no broadcast console could go before, while still providing the functionality and sound quality expected from an SSL product.”

The C10 HD is a self-contained console with no additional processing racks and passive cooling making it ideal for any compact space. The C10 HD off ers many options to solve the production and workfl ow challenges of smaller broadcasters upgrading their facilities for HD content production.

Several options include a ‘Broadcast Produc-

tion Automation’ option that provides support for Ross and Sony production automation systems, a ‘5.1 Upmix’ option that generates multichannel surround output from stereo sources and a ‘Dialogue Automix’ option that ensures reliable, multi-mic talk show audio level management.

Eyeheight’s LE-2nM fully-featured HD/SD SDI multi-rate video legaliser made its US market debut at NAB 2010. Shown in prototype at IBC 2009 and now in full production, the LE-2nM auto-detects incoming SDI or HD-SDI video at 1080i/50/59.94, 720p/50/59.84, 625/50 or 525/59.94 and applies the appropriate legalising format. The LE-2nM then ensures incoming signal video is held within user-selected colour-space parameters: RGB; YUV; composite (PAL or NTSC); or RGB-and-composite combined. Legalisation can be performed to conform with EBU-R 2003 standard SDI settings and 7.5 IRE or 0 IRE Pedestal. Six user memories and common presets are provided.

Additional features of the legalizer include Eyeheight’s clob-berRing automatic luma overshoot and undershoot suppression together with luma and chroma gain, black level adjustment, hue rotation, adjustable clipping levels and soft clipping knee levels. An ‘out-of-gamut’ indication feed displays overshoot or undershoot severity and shows the user where on the picture any signal cor-rection is being performed. Supplied as a fully integrated package, the LE-2nM is designed to be operated from an Eyeheight FP-9 Flexipanel or via a Java-based graphic user interface running on USB-linked Windows PC or Apple Mac. Firmware and software are fully updatable by fi le upload.

EYEHEIGHT UNVEILS

LE-2NM LEGALISER

DPME.COM


WEB LOG

EDITOR’S CHOICES

MOST READ DS NEWS STORIES:

NEWS

GV TO SHED QUARTER OF ITS STAFF625 people lose jobs ahead of NAB.

See comments from readers below.

NEWS

OSN EXPANDS BOUQUETSix additional channels increase total High Defi nition line-up to nine.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, has said that he is con-sidering funding a 24-hour news channel to compete with Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.

The chairman of Rotana Media Group has, however, said that this venture would not involve his Kingdom Holding Company or Rotana telling newswire Bloomberg that the the channel “is something I will be doing personally” because it “needs a lot of investment up front”.

Alwaleed also revealed that he plans to sell a stake in Rotana on the public market within two years as part of plans to grow the business in the Middle East.

“An IPO will be happening in the coming two years,” said Alwaleed. “We need to brand the company very well before we go into an IPO.”

News Corp recently purchased a 9.1% stake in Rotana for a reported US $70 million with the option to take a further 9.1% in the future.

PRINCE ALWALEED TO FUND 24-HOUR NEWS CHANNEL

1 TECOM Investments merges Dubai media zones

2 MEIFF rebranded as Abu Dhabi Film Festival

3 OSN expands HD bouquet

4 ADMC announces production partners for EPL

5 Protec to grow distribution business


FEATURED COMMENTS ON “GV TO SHED QUARTER OF ITS STAFF”

My husband has worked for this company for 30 years and one of his friends was cut yesterday. The way it was handled was so unprofessional! This man had worked there for 20 years ... a real shame. - Grace

20 years, 30 years.... It is really old-fashioned to think you can keep your job for so long. Mobility and permanent changes are the key things these days. - Lucy

SPOT POLLHOW CONFIDENT HAS NAB LEFT YOU FOR THE YEAR AHEAD?

50% Great, lots of deals being done and new tech implemented.

31.8% Traffi c was ok; some exhibits were interesting.

13.6% Depressed. Besides 3DTV, everything was boring.

4.6% No signs of a drastic recovery in the N.American market yet.

April 28,2010

Cinelabs Dubai

Kodak Cinelabs Dubai - For all your film stock, processing and telecine requirements contact Leo Joesph Email: [email protected] Tel: +971 4 3671284 or visit www.kodakcinelabs.ae

18564705_Dubai advert205x275mm.indd 1 29/04/2010 14:14

Digital Studio - May 2010

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