BroadcastPro ME June 2018 by BroadcastPro ME

Issue 96 | JuNe 2018

Publication licensed by Dubai Production City

UNITED AGAINST PIRACY The broadcast industry lays out a winning strategy at the inaugural MENA Anti-Piracy Conference

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GROUP Managing Director Raz Islam raz.islam@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5471 Editorial Director Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5472 EDITORIAL

Welcome

Editor Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 55 105 3787 Assistant Editor Supriya Srinivas supriya.srinivas@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5478 Sub Editor Aelred Doyle ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Sandip Virk sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 50 929 1845 +44 (0) 773 444 2526 DESIGN Art Director Simon Cobon MARKETIING Marketing Manager Sheena Sapsford sheena.sapsford@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5498 CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION Production Manager Vipin V. Vijay vipin.vijay@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5713 Circulation Manager Sunil Kumar sunil.kumar@cpitrademedia.com +971 4 375 5476 DIGITAL SERVICES Mohammad Awais Sadiq Siddiqui FOUNDER

Why should we take piracy seriously in the Middle East? Because it has started crippling our media companies to such a great extent that if we don’t collectively do something about it, we may be left with an impotent media industry incapable of flourishing profitably – and consequently, our entertainment options may dwindle substantially. The media is not crying wolf. And we will have only ourselves to blame for not paying attention. This is why BroadcastPro ME decided to bring the industry together for the inaugural MENA Anti-Piracy Conference last month. We were not surprised by the united calls from CEOs for regulators to take piracy seriously and mete out harsher punishments to pirates. Most of the big media houses invest heavily in investigations, track down culprits and present evidence to the relevant authorities, only to find that the resulting nominal penalties do nothing to deter others. The reasons behind slap-on-thewrist punishments are often rooted in the culture and colonial history of the region, one delegate observed. Also, when judges are faced with a hardened criminal who has murdered someone on the one hand and a man who has been selling illegal boxes on the other,

the latter’s crime looks insignificant, and he gets away with a small sentence. A lawyer on our panel urged that increasing awareness within the judiciary could lead to harsher sentences. Piracy is not a victimless crime, and delegates agreed that awareness is necessary for everyone in the chain, from parents, teenagers and consumers to regulators and judges. This led us to the third panel, where international experts shared some of the technical and operational strategies successfully employed to outwit the pirates. And lastly, there was a collective call to Google, YouTube and Apple to be more vigilant, as their platforms are the greatest enablers of piracy. There was so much first-hand information shared at our conference that media heads haven’t spoken about in the past, so I encourage you to read about what they had to say and the strategies shared by experts to counter piracy. Later this month, our team will be making our annual trip to Singapore for ConnecTechAsia. See you there.

Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director

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ISSUE 96 | JUNE 2018

Publication licensed by Dubai Production City

Printwell Printing Press LLC, Dubai

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UNITED AGAINST PIRACY The broadcast industry lays out a winning strategy at the inaugural Anti-Piracy Conference

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June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 1

HABTOOR GR AND HOTEL / DUBAI / UAE

1 day / 1 evening / 4 panels 23 speakers / 19 awards 1 gala awards dinner 13 November 2018 BroadcastPro ME Summit & Awards is our annual flagship event to promote and celebrate excellence in the broadcast and satellite industry across the MENA region. Featuring extensive networking opportunities, seminars and awards presentations by key industry and government leaders.

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PROCONTENTS

Inside this issue 07 NewS ASBU Radio & TV Fest winners; Twitter and STEP Group tie; Emirati filmmaker launches studio; Canare opens ME office; Intigral launches app, brings Starz Play on board; iflix sets up Cairo hub; and more

June 2018 ASBu lAuDS meNA meDIA NewS fROm AROuND meNA

CeOS ON meNA CONTeNT pIRACy

18 CeO pANel - ANTI-

pIRACy CONfeReNCe The inaugural conference sees more than 120 industry delegates in attendance. The CEOs of MBC, OSN, ZEE Middle East and Starz Play decry lax enforcement and call for greater regulation

05 77 STRATegIeS TO fIghT pIRACy NewS fROm AROuND meNA

28 The lAw AND pIRACy

pRODuCINg ReAlITy TV

Litigation can be long, costly and yield little by way of deterrence, but persist, says the legal panel

34 BuIlDINg A STRATegy

Panellists call for consistent deployment of technology and a centralised registry for content

40 pIONeeRINg ReAlITy TV We go behind the scenes with the team that shot the series I am a Nat Geo photographer

34 whAT'S TReNDINg OTT NewS fROm AROuNDIN meNA

44 STAND-OuT OTT TReNDS

40 INNOVATIONS AT BROADCASTASIA

Consumer experience and not content is king, says Massiveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ron Downey

48 BROADCASTASIA 2018 Innovations from Lynx Technik, VSN, Aviwest, ChyronHego, Rohde & Schwarz and more

52 TIpTOeINg TO Ip? Kieran Kunhya of Open Broadcast Systems urges a more vigorous shift to IP

48 June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 5

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PROnews

MENA broadcasters lauded at ASBU Radio & Television Festival The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) organised the 19th edition of the Arab Radio and Television Festival last month in Tunis, as the first event at the newly opened Tunis Cultural Centre. The annual festival, which was bigger than previous editions, was organised in cooperation with the Tunisian Radio and Tunisian Television Establishments and in partnership with Arabsat. This year’s agenda also saw a special focus on Saudi Arabia, with the Kingdom having opened up its doors to media and entertainment. The gala opening ceremony was presided over by the Cultural Minister of Tunisia, accompanied by Abdelrahim Sulaiman, Director General of ASBU,

and other dignitaries in attendance. The four-day festival hosted ASBU’s partners from the MENA region and global suppliers, with a busy exhibition floor and a series of seminars and workshops showcasing the latest technological developments in the media industry. The festival concluded with an awards ceremony recognising achievements in television and radio, among other media sectors. For interactive radio programmes, Bahrain Radio and Tunisian Radio walked away with top honours. The prizes for the best documentaries on the Palestinian cause went to NMA, Egypt (Madinet Assalat) and Emirates FM/ Abu Dhabi Radio Network (Sanarjiou Yawman). For the Newscast category, Tunisian Radio (Nachrat Abdelrahim Sulaiman, ASBU's Director Anbaâ Adhohr) got the General addresses delegates at the event. top honours, with the

B4U ME introduces drama series on B4U Plus B4U Plus, which has previously featured only movies and other variety entertainment programming for its Middle East viewers, has recently launched three drama series from Pakistan on the channel. The three series include Nayab, a love triangle; Akeli Reh Gai Main, the story of a young female protagonist, who braves many challenges; and Weham, a horror show. Speaking to BroadcastPro Middle East, Zeeshan Sajid Amin, Business Head of B4U MENA said: “B4U Plus was one of the first free-to-air general entertainment channels (GEC) to

target the South Asian audience in the Middle East. At present, we are rated as the #2 Asian channel among female viewers in the 25-44 age bracket, according to IPSOS. This age bracket is the core target audience within the GEC business.” So far, the channel has showcased a mix of classic and new movie releases, cooking and reality shows, among others. The addition of drama series and local productions will make the channel more complete, Amin said. “We are also looking at creating a local series with local talent soon," Amin added.

MENA radio and TV broadcasters at the awards ceremony in Tunis.

second prize going to Abu Dhabi Radio (UAE) (Nachrat Al Imarat Al An). In the television category, Iraqi Media Network was judged the best in the News Report category. The Sultanate of Oman got top honours in the Talk Show category. Algerian Public TV won in both the entertainment/evening shows and kids’ programmes. SNRT from Morocco received the top prize for the best social and comedy series. A Kuwait TV documentary titled Gold Threads was judged the best in terms of supporting the Palestinian cause. Prior to the closing ceremony, Saudi Arabian films were screened in line with the special focus of the festival on the Kingdom.

Arab Format Lab’s first TV drama premieres on Abu Dhabi TV The first TV drama from Arab Format Lab, a content developer, producer and distributor with offices in Dubai, Cairo and Jeddah, premiered on Abu Dhabi TV last month. The series is an Arabic adaptation of teen drama Red Band Society, an American medical comedydrama that aired on Fox for the 2014–15 American TV season.

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 7

PROnews

Mubadala to sell EMI stakes to Sony for $4.75bn Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi has announced the sale of its consortium’s 60% equity interest in EMI Music Publishing to Sony Corporation at an enterprise value of $4.75 billion. Over the past six years, Mubadala Capital – the financial investment arm of Mubadala – and Sony have worked together as

partners to create value alongside Sony/ATV, Sony’s music publishing arm. Sony/ ATV has been administering the EMI Music Publishing catalogue’s legacy of iconic writers and artists including the Motown catalogue, and along with the consortium, the company has been reinvesting in existing writer relationships and growing the catalogue by signing

new writers on a 50/50 basis. These actions, coupled with the global rise of streaming and paid streaming services, have led to an appreciation in value of the EMI Music Publishing catalogue as millions of new consumers have been provided access to innovative distribution channels. The original transaction and investor consortium

that partnered with Sony and the Michael Jackson Estate to acquire EMI Music Publishing from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Citigroup Inc. was sourced and assembled by Mubadala Capital’s private equity business, which has controlled and managed EMI Music Publishing on behalf of Mubadala and other thirdparty investors since 2012.

Emirati filmmaker rebrands and launches studio

Globecomm to transmit Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa in MENA

Image Nation and O3 Productions to co-produce Saudi films

Nayla Al Khaja, an Emirati filmmaker and CEO of Nayla Al Khaja Films LLC (NAKF), made several announcements on the eve of the opening of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, including the rebranding of her company (previously known as D-Seven Motion Pictures) and the launch of her Creative Studio at Sidra Tower, Dubai. Al Khaja also announced that she has been chosen to pitch her first feature film to some of the most influential decisionmakers at the Producers Network at Cannes. She is the first Emirati to be chosen to be part of the Producers Network. Al Khaja’s studio will not only serve as an incubator for her ongoing and future projects, but also look to provide a creative hub for local talent. This new working

The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) awarded a five-year contract to Globecomm to provide satellite transponder, teleport and terrestrial fibre services for Middle East Broadcasting Network’s (MBN) channels. Globecomm will facilitate the transmission of MBN’s Alhurra TV HD and SD video and Radio Sawa audio content to the MENA region. This is the first project awarded by the BBG to Globecomm for turnkey satellite and terrestrial-based broadcast services. It is also Globecomm’s first deployment on the new $2.5bn GSA Complex Commercial SATCOM Solutions (CS3) IDIQ contract. e The content will be delivered via satellite to more than 58m DTH users and multiple rebroadcasting stations across the region.

O3 Productions, the drama and film production arm of MBC Group and Image Nation Abu Dhabi, has announced a new partnership to cofinance and co-produce a slate of Saudi films for local, regional and international audiences. Although specific details of the four new feature projects are under wraps, genres are likely to include action, thriller, real-life drama and comedy. Projects will aim to film in Saudi Arabia and use Saudi talent in front of and behind the camera. Development has begun on all projects, with production set to commence in 2019. This new deal comes in the wake of the first cinemas in two generations opening in Saudi Arabia following the lifting of the 35-year-old ban on cinema halls.

Filmmaker Nayla Al Khaja's new studio to be a platform for newcomers.

space will eventually provide wannabe filmmakers and content creators with a place where they can discuss their projects, receive advice and occasionally develop projects under the supervision of an experienced team and the support of Canon Middle East, whom Al Khaja has represented as an ambassador for the past seven years. The studio will also enable NAKF to showcase its expertise to potential and existing clients and contribute to the promotion of the UAE film industry.

8 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

PROnews

Canare’s Middle East operations in full swing

"We supply to all broadcasters in the region," says Momen Nabil, GM, Canare ME.

Japanese cable specialist Canare has opened a new office at Dubai Airport Freezone (DAFZA) Industrial Park to support the growing needs of the MENA market. The office is headed by Momen Nabil, GM of Canare Middle East FZCO. The company is a well-known supplier of

electronic cables, connectors, cable assemblies and patch panels for the broadcast, audio and video markets. “We felt we needed a subsidiary company in Dubai because we have businesses in Egypt as well as Africa, and needed to support our business plans there,” Nabil told BroadcastPro ME. “In addition, we also address other markets including Pakistan, Turkey and some of the CIS countries from here. Canare has eight subsidiary companies in the world and our office in Dubai is one of them. 80% of our line-up is available as part of our inventory in Dubai.”

UAE’s NMK Electronics bags award at Shure summit

The NMK team received the awar d from Shure representatives.

Shure MEASA recently held a summit and awards ceremony for its distributors across the region at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, at which the UAE-based NMK Electronics was recognised as Distributor of the Year. The company has four physical offices in the region and a network of channel partners spanning more than 30 years.

Fourth episode of YallaFeed's live MENA Twitter show attracts 1m viewers

From left: Kinda Ibrahim of Twitter with Bahaa Moussalli of STEP Group.

YallaFeed, a STEP Group platform for Arab millennials, which partnered with Twitter to launch their first live MENA show #HawanahZein attracted 1m viewers to its fourth episode, which hosted Egyptian actor Mohamed Henedy as its celebrity guest. The biweekly evening show, which is approximately 20 minutes long, attracted 496,000 viewers to its first episode, 390,000 to its second, 410,000 to its third and a whopping 1m to its

most recent episode. The show focuses on what’s happening in the Arab world on Twitter during Ramadan. It is hosted by two content creators, Abdullah and Nour Ali Saad Fakhr (Aboud and Noor), who are identical twins. Elaborating on the format, Bahaa Moussalli, Co-founder and CMO of STEP Group, told BroadcastPro: “We’re taking a decades-old TV format and re-interpreting it into today’s social news entertainment. The show airs postprimetime TV and pre-Suhoor during Ramadan, when people are relaxing and browsing on their phones to see what’s happening. The show has two segments. The first segment has a theme and our hosts offer funny, insightful takes into the social news of the day and what is trending on Twitter. They also comment

on the popular TV dramas during Ramadan. We have a reporter on the ground in Jeddah. In the second segment, we have a guest with whom the hosts play a game. Guests are not necessarily celebrities; we are number-agnostic.” #HawanahZein is being produced by YallaFeed with support from Hollywoodbased production company, Propagate. Describing the show, Kinda Ibrahim, Director Media Partnerships, MENA, Twitter said: “We have been looking at live content for the past two years with major deals, more than 30, signed with organisations such as Fox Sports, major league soccer and more recently with Disney, NBC and Viacom, among others. We have been working with STEP Group for some time helping them monetise their video content. With people consuming live feeds in a big way given the success of the likes of BuzzFeed’s morning show, it made sense for us to bring the current social conversations among Arab millennials in a curated live stream format."

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 9

PROnews

Uganda’s NBS Radio deploys Lawo crystal

From left: Ralf Schimmel, Director Sales for Africa, Lawo with Hamza N’Mbago, Chairman NBS Radio 89.4FM.

Lawo has reported the first installation of an IP audio console in Uganda at Kodheyo TV and NBS Radio 89.4FM. Located in Jinja, northeast of the country’s capital of Kampala, the station opted for a 12-fader crystal to ensure audio quality, operations, workflow, social media and flexibility. Further adoption of Lawo equipment is reportedly also in the pipeline. Commenting on the installation,

Hamza N’Mbago, Chairman of NBS Radio 89.4FM, stated: “The installation of the Lawo crystal IP radio broadcast console strengthens our leading position within the Ugandan radio broadcast landscape. The integration of this technology enables us to advance our workflows, making our radio production faster and more efficient – and the user-friendliness of the crystal console allows our operators to concentrate on their work while doing their radio shows.” The crystal console, the release stated, offers a cost-effective point of entry into the Lawo world of mixing. With crystal, RAVENNA/ AES67 compatibility is available. The crystal mixing console comes with VisTool, a touchscreenoptimised PC software.

Sennheiser’s evolution series comes to Middle East The region got its first look at the evolution wireless G4 series of wireless mic and in-ear monitoring systems at events recently conducted by Sennheiser in the UAE and Kenya. The seminar in Dubai, hosted by Sennheiser’s long-standing UAE distributor Venuetech, centred around the company’s audio-for-business solution range, while in Kenya the event took a more technical approach, with detailed workshops covering all aspects of wireless audio capture.

The Sennheiser seminar in Duba

PlayBox Technology’s AirBox Neo boosts workflows at Ghana’s Citi TV PlayBox Technology has announced the completion of a major project for Ghana’s Citi TV by systems integration partner TV & Communication Systems (TVC) in cooperation with Vision in Motion. The project encompasses the design and integration of two live production studios, programme storage and media asset management, fully tested and commissioned at the broadcaster’s headquarters in Accra. At the heart of the installation is a fully automated broadcast playout system centred on AirBox Neo.

“Key parameters for Citi TV were the need for reliability, operational efficiency and futureproof expandability,” said TVC’s Television and Communications Systems Manager Andrej Brickij. “Neo allows the channel’s staff to preschedule all content and interstitials for fully automated playout while retaining the freedom to switch into live broadcasting mode whenever they choose. Neo is also highly spaceefficient and therefore easy to accommodate in often crowded apparatus rooms. “The system we have produced for Citi TV includes

10 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

a PlayBox Technology DataBox Neo server with a 32-terabyte networkattached storage archive including RAID5 protection. This provides instant access to more than 20,000 records simultaneously. It is being used to hold media files ranging from stills and production clips to complete programmes. Each file can be classified by characteristics such as type, category, keyword, credit and format. This allows tasks such as logo overlay, content storage and retrieval and playlist construction to be simplified or completely automated.

Archived content can be easily accessed using multiprofile search as well as by multi-criteria filtering." Commenting on the upgrade, PlayBox Technology CEO Pavlin Rahnev said: “African broadcasters are investing in HD services with increasing confidence, reflecting very strong sales of HD displays for home TV viewing. "The AirBox Neo platform also gives channel managers the option to introduce terrestrial, satellite-based or online UHD services when they consider the market is ready.”

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PROnews

Matthias Gueckel.

Lynx Technik expands EMEA sales team Terminal equipment solutions provider Lynx Technik AG has appointed Matthias Gueckel as International Sales Manager. In his new role, he will focus on partner and key account management, developing new opportunities to address and implement Lynx Technik’s international sales strategy.

Karl Chapman.

Calrec appoints International Sales Manager Calrec Audio has appointed Karl Chapman as International Sales Manager, primarily concentrating on EMEA territories. With a wide range of industry experience, Chapman said: “I’m looking forward to expanding Calrec’s business, following the recent launch of Type R into the radio market.”

Qligent and GatesAir team up in Ethiopia Qligent has partnered with GatesAir to roll out a QoS/QoE monitoring and compliance verification platform for Ethiopia’s second-generation DVB-T2 network. The comprehensive deployment of GatesAir’s StreamAssure solution will allow operators to access detailed performance data and compliance recordings from 26 transmitter sites at central and regional headends, without the need for complex and expensive hardware.

The StreamAssure deployment in Ethiopia will cover nine monitoring points at each transmitter site, with all performance data and compliance recordings accessible on local dashboards. Using StreamAssure’s multiviewer at the central headend and 11 regional monitoring facilities, operators can monitor performance live, and access recorded files, to understand baseline performance and establish long-term trend analysis. StreamAssure

also automates content monitoring and compliance logging to strengthen visibility into proof of air and content quality. Rich Redmond, Chief Product Officer for GatesAir, stated that StreamAssure’s scalable footprint will enable simple expansion to new transmitter sites, with Qligent’s networked intelligence also enabling simple migration to a full cloud-based monitoring platform via a simple software upgrade.

Omantel upgrades with Imagine Comms’ Selenio Imagine Communications recently completed a major upgrade for Omantel aimed at boosting the performance and resiliency of the telco’s contribution and distribution networks. The new project saw Omantel migrate its operations from an outdated transmission technology to synchronous optical networking (SONET) and synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) through the addition of networking modules to the Selenio MCP, which supports both digital video and long-distance connectivity over fibre in the same 3RU chassis. Omantel leverages Selenio MCP to operate a network linking 55 sites over dedicated fibre, providing HD contribution and distribution services to studios and transmission centres across the country. The same platform also supports backhaul operations for remote productions, including sports and national events. The Selenio MCP solution’s support for baseband and IP protocols enables Omantel to use a single device for both SDI and MPEG-2 transport streams on the broadcaster side. Signals are encoded or transcoded as needed for cost-optimising

12 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

From left: Anas Hantash, Sales Director ME and S. Asia, Imagine Communications with Said Abdullah Al Ajmi, VP of Operations, Omantel.

the Omantel fibre network, while helping to ensure resilience through redundant paths. In addition to feeding all terrestrial transmitters in Oman, the telco’s network provides contribution circuits for live broadcasts, such as sports and major public events, to the broadcasting centre. This ensures a reliable solution while reducing operational costs typical of traditional link vehicles from remote areas.

PROnews

Intigral launches TV app, plans new box roll-out with STC in July Last month, Dubai-based Intigral announced the launch of Jawwy TV, its OTT streaming service. Alongside that, Intigral, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC), has also designed a new box to be rolled out in July 2018. The new HomeBox, which has an integrated OTT element, will feature all of STC’s premium content including the Saudi Football League, to which the telco secured the exclusive broadcast rights for the next ten years. HomeBox will initially be available only through the telco operator, though it will eventually be available for direct sale to customers in the future. Explaining the new launches, Intigral's CEO Hamoud Al Rumayan said: “We have two different products. The full version is our HomeBox, which we

Intigral's CEO Hamoud Al Rumayan (r) and Tony Saab (l), VP of Products & Content.

will launch in July along with STC. On this box, we have both FTA and encrypted content. A basic bouquet is available, and subscribers can upgrade based on their requirement. “The other product is a TV app which will cater to the whole MENA region, although at this time it is available only in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Once you register on our website, you can download

the Jawwy TV app from Google Play or the App Store. This app allows you to see the content on both the mobile and the tablet, with no possibility of mirroring to the big screen.” For a monthly subscription fee of $8, Jawwy TV boasts more than 7,000 assets thanks to Intigral's partnerships with Wide Khaleeji, Blu TV, Starz Play and OSN, among others. While HomeBox will

have the entire Starz Play collection, a lite version will be available on Jawwy TV. The platform will also stream highlights from Saudi Football League matches. “Intigral’s aim is to make Jawwy the MENA region’s best OTT platform and we are exploring partnerships with numerous platforms including Shahid, in addition to creating our own content and acquiring Arabic content,” commented Tony Saab, VP of Products & Content, Intigral. “Our USP is our original Arabic content and the Saudi Premier League. We have content from all of the five major studios on Jawwy TV, including content from Bollywood. We have our own drama productions and will have 900 to 1,000 exclusive assets. We aim to have our own productions and co-productions, starting July,” he added.

Jawwy TV to host Starz Play content in three-year deal SVOD service provider Starz Play has signed a three-year partnership with Intigral to offer its range of Hollywood and Bollywood movies, same-time-as-the-US series and Arabic dramas to subscribers. The new deal, which spans the MENA region, will make all of Starz Play’s 10,000

hours of content available through both the Intigral box and app. Access will also be available on-the-go through mobiles and tablets. Starz Play features Arabic subtitling plus Arabic and French audio and user interface options.

From left: Hamoud Al Rumayan, CEO of Intigral and Maaz Sheikh, CEO of Starz Play sign the deal at Intigral's office in Dubai Studio City.

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 13

PROnews

iflix sets up Cairo hub, partners with Vodafone iflix has set up a new regional centre in Cairo while also partnering with Vodafone in Egypt to offer the telco’s subscribers access to the streaming service for $0.06 a day. The firm is looking to tap into Egypt’s large reservoir of content by establishing a hub in Cairo. With this new regional headquarters bringing together regional marketing, content and business development teams, iflix is looking to expand its business

in Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Speaking about the partnership, John Saad, CEO of iflix MENA, said: “Egypt is the nerve centre of culture and creativity in the region. We are thrilled to set up our new regional head office here and partner with Vodafone Egypt, the country’s leading telecommunication service provider, to make our service available to tens of millions of customers across the country.”

RTS Intercoms unveils ODIN digital matrix at regional event RTS Intercoms officially unveiled the ODIN OMNEO digital matrix to MENA broadcast professionals at a launch event held in Dubai. Sanjay Kumar, Sales Manager, RTS At the ODIN launch in Dubai. Intercoms MEA, revealed a detailed demonstration that the 16-port ODIN of the ODIN OMNEO retails for approximately digital matrix, part of $8,260. Speaking to BroadcastPro ME at the RTS’ development of launch, he said: “Our its IP-based intercom aim is to familiarise the product line. While industry with the ODIN the product is relevant while also showing them in several verticals, how to leverage our new Anderson stated that in IP technology to future the broadcast market proof their studios.” ODIN is aimed at both Shawn Anderson, Head OB trucks and TV studio of Product Management control rooms, where for RTS Intercoms, gave space is at a premium.

14 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

John Saad, CEO, iflix MENA.

Sony Pictures Television teams up with Kenyan producer

India’s T-Series appoints exclusive GCC licensor

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has signed a development deal with African producer Quite Bright Films Lifestyle (QBLF) for a series of cookery shows. Formed by Creative Director Daniel Prior and Director Kiran Jethwa, QBLF’s reported aim is to become the region’s leading producer in factual and lifestyle entertainment. Jethwa is a chef, restaurateur and TV presenter who has previously made cookery adventure shows including The Fearless Chef for National Geographic and Extreme Foods on Channel 4. SPT will distribute the shows that will emerge from the partnership, the release stated.

Indian music label T-Series has authorised Dubai-based SAM Events Management for the licensing of master sound recordings and audiovisual songs in its music catalogue for GCC countries. SAM Events Management will have the exclusive rights to collect royalties and the authority to take civil and/ or criminal actIon against any infringement of the T-Series music and video catalogue in the GCC. SAM Events Management will have the exclusive rights to collect royalties for usage of the master sound recordings and audiovisuals of each song of the music album/titles forming a part of the T-Series music catalogue, excluding all mobile and digital platforms which T-Series will continue to licence directly.

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PROnews

KSA offers 35% rebate for global productions Saudi Arabia will offer stiff competition to twofour54 Abu Dhabi with its announcement of a number of new incentives designed to attract international film productions to the Kingdom. A 35% rebate or even higher for all international productions and 50% funding for all Saudi talent hired on such productions was announced by Ahmad Al-Maziad, CEO of the General Culture Authority, on the sidelines of the 71st Cannes Film Festival last month. “We’re developing guidelines on how to get even higher than 35%. That will be for all spend consumed in Saudi Arabia,” commented Maziad at a press conference held at Cannes, adding that the General Culture Authority will fund 50% of all money spent on Saudi talent. With the rebates, Saudi Arabia hopes to attract international productions while also developing the Kingdom’s own talent

pool. Maziad added that once the Kingdom attracts more productions, other related services and infrastructural developments will also evolve. Maziad also announced a national grant programme “aimed at developing Saudi talent to help them produce movies in Saudi Arabia”. The programme will be open to Saudi nationals who produce or post-produce content in the Kingdom and meet eligibility criteria, the details of which “will be shared shortly on our website” according to Maziad. A number of training programmes and multi-week summer camps will take place in Saudi Arabia, Los Angeles and Paris through education partners, covering the full spectrum of skills within filmmaking, including directing, editing, screenwriting, sound design, VR/AR and 2D/3D animation.

Akkad’s The Message to screen in GCC after 4K restoration Trancas International and Front Row Filmed Entertainment have announced that Moustapha Akkad’s masterpiece The Message that underwent 4K restoration will be screened during the Eid al-Fitr holiday starting on June 14, 2018. The Oscar nominated film from producer/director Moustapha Akkad chronicles the life and times of Prophet Muhammad and serves as an introduction to early Islamic history.

16 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

New KSA TV channel to cater to youth Saudi Arabia launched a new public TV channel, SBC, on the first day of Ramadan for young viewers and to project a modern image beyond the Kingdom’s borders. “This is a general channel that seeks to attract the new generation of Saudis,” said Saudi Broadcasting Corporation Executive Chairman Dawood Shirian, a former TV host. Shirian added that around 75% of the content will be geared towards 15- to 35-year-olds.

Imax, Saudi Arabia ink deal at Cannes Imax and Saudi Arabia’s General Culture Authority have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly seek opportunities to identify and develop local Imax-format films. The GCA and Imax will look for opportunities to help Saudi studios and directors release films with cross-border appeal and eventually tap Imax’s global distribution platform to export their films to non-Arab markets. Earlier this year, Imax opened its first commercial multiplex theatre together with VOX Cinemas in Riyadh. The company expects to build 15-20 theatres in Saudi over the coming years.

Saudi content creator Telfaz11 wins $9m in funding Telfaz11, a Saudi digital media company with 20m YouTube subscribers in its network, said it has received $9m in funding from lead investor Saudi Technology Ventures (STV). The investment will be used by the company to build capacity, accelerate revenues and scale operations. Listed among the top 50 start-ups in KSA, the company recently screened short films as part of the Saudi Film Council initiative at Cannes.

PROnews

Pulse 95, Sharjah’s first English language radio station opens Pulse 95 Radio, Sharjah’s first English language radio station went on air last month. At a pre-launch event held at Al Majaz Amphitheatre off Sharjah’s corniche, the station’s presenters walked the audience through the various programmes the station will air including The Morning Majlis, Musafir in the City and Yalla Home. Inaugurating the first show on-air was guest of honour Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Media Council (SMC) who took on-air questions from the presenters. The team includes Emirati, Arab, and international presenters. Speaking to BroadcastPro ME, on the sidelines of the launch, Head of the station, Mohammed Yanez said: “We want to promote Sharjah at every level – for investment, tourism as well

as to live and work here. This is one of the first English radio stations that has a mix of Arabs and other nationalities as presenters. We already have rich content drawn from interviews with everyday people on the streets, taxi drivers, to hospital The Pulse 95 team with dignitaries at the launch event. staff and individuals from other walks of life. As for music, we will play covers appeal to a 15-year-old as well.” which make us unique including big With the theme ‘The Heart of hits from the 50s to the present day.” Sharjah’, Pulse 95 is described as “a Commenting on the target audience, fun, positive, feel-good station” that he elaborated: “We may be targetting can be accessed on 95 FM or from audiences above 30, but we will also the Sharjah Media Corporation’s play the current top-40 hits. So it will (SMC) web and mobile application.

twofour54 showcases partner projects and new films

twofour54 Connect event under way.

twofour54 showcased works of partners in both English and Arabic at the annual twofour54 Abu Dhabi Connect event. Representatives of the free zone, media firms and government entities came together to learn from each other about the work being done by Abu Dhabi’s media industry, and media company Vice Arabia premiered its new Arabic short film documentary Tal El Ro’b, from

twofour54 provided production services for Bollywood film Race 3. Cast pictured here.

Bahraini director Razan Alzayani. Among the twofour54 partners present were Mental Images, which demonstrated its new virtual reality educational experience on Mars; Bidaya Media, which is preparing to film the third season of children’s TV show Iftah Ya Simsim; animation firm Blink Studios; Arabic TV channel Quest Arabiya; and live streaming service Swoo TV.

Vuclip to provide Viu to Omantel customers VOD service provider Vuclip has partnered with Omantel to offer Viu, Vuclip’s OTT video service, to the telco's mobile customers across the country. The partnership comes as part of Viu’s expansion into the Middle East market. Through this association, Omantel will provide its mobile customers access to localised regional and local premium TV shows, movies and Viu Originals through the Viu app on mobile devices for $0.52 (0.2 OMR) per day. The video content is tailored for both local and expat customers and is available in several languages including Arabic, Hindi, English and Tagalog.

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 17

PROanti-PiRacy

A CAll to collaborate

From cross-border criminals to eager teenagers wanting to access the latest content by any means, BroadcastPro's inaugural Anti-Piracy Conference addressed the multi-dimensional nature of the MENA piracy problem 18 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

PROanti-PiRacy

The CEOs were candid about the region’s ambivalent attitudes towards piracy. Technology providers outlined their successes, but admitted that measures need to be implemented consistently, otherwise the problem merely gets displaced from region to region. The lawyers urged the industry not to be discouraged by the cost and length of litigation. The three panel discussions at the inaugural Anti-Piracy Conference held on May 2 at Dubai’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel underscored the need for a collaborative, multi-faceted approach towards combating piracy. It also called for regulators to play a more active role to check piracy. The half-day conference organised by BroadcastPro ME played host to more than 120 of the region’s

broadcasters, satellite operators, telcos and solution providers. Speaking to BroadcastPro ME, delegates believed that the views expressed were candid and eye-opening, and a useful platform for discussing the sensitive issue of piracy in the region. Delegates were also given an exclusive report on antipiracy by MUSO. The event drew attendance from the wider region. Nigel Rosette from a Seychelles-based IPTV provider, for instance, commented that the rampant piracy in his island nation drew him to attend this conference. Raz Islam, Managing Director of CPI Trade Media, publisher of BroadcastPro ME, added: “We are encouraged by the turnout and the quality of debates at the conference, and we hope to make this a regular annual feature.”

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CEOs CAll FOR more regulation

From lax enforcement in the region to big perpetrators in Silicon Valley, CEOs of MENA-based broadcasters offered a candid breakdown of the menace of piracy at BroadcastPro ME’s inaugural Anti-Piracy Conference held on May 2 at the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai

at KearNey Middle eaSt

Christophe Firth

Starz Play

Maaz Sheikh

OSN

Martin Stewart

The Middle East is notorious for its piracy, but also for not having enough regulation in place to protect the media business. A 2017 report from MUSO, for instance, points out that the UAE is ranked “29 in the world for the volume of TV piracy consumed, seeing a total of 750.90 million visits to all piracy sites in 2017”. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have even worse records. Over the last couple of years, the MENA Anti-Piracy Coalition, which launched in 2014, has had a number of successes in closing down pirate channels thanks to close collaboration between partners, which mainly comprise broadcasters, satellite operators, production and distribution companies, telcos and more recently anti-piracy firms. The broadcasters have put their legal teams to work, undertaken significant investigation in most cases and spent time, money and effort to bring pirates to book. But is it enough? At BroadcastPro Middle East’s inaugural anti-piracy conference, the CEO panel, moderated by Christophe Firth, Principal at AT Kearney Middle East, was unified in its call for regulators to up their game in the MENA region. Sam Barnett, CEO of MBC Group, pointed out that regulation is currently the single biggest missing element in the fight against piracy. “Today, we can take down a site in three to six weeks, which is good. The challenge is it takes them only an hour

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zee Middle eaSt

Mukund Cairae

MBC Middle eaSt

Sam Barnett

to return with another name. We now need the support of regulators to ensure they stay down ... People are very keen on building media cities, studios and infrastructure which supports the production and development of media assets, but without the protection of those assets, you are limiting the development of what should be a vibrant and successful media industry in the Middle East,” Barnett said. Martin Stewart, CEO of OSN, agreed, reiterating that “the tolerance of piracy in this region is damaging to everyone” and must be curtailed “in order to have a successful media sector”. He reiterated the economic implications in terms of the jobs at risk from online piracy. “If more is not done through regulation and empowering telcos to take down sites by putting pressure on rights holders and international players like Google, none of the ambitions that are being sought in various documents will be realised.” Mukund Cairae, CEO of Zee Middle East, asked why the same measures put in place to curtail traffic violations couldn’t be enforced where content rights are concerned. “Pay TV for us as an Asian player should be four to five times what it is today, and the reason it is not so is because people have this perceived demand that they should have 300 channels, even if they only watch four or five. If they can’t get this in the present geography, they deploy illegal means and they know there is

PROANTI-PIRACY

The panel explored if broadcasters could learn from the music industry that seems to have cracked the code to fighting piracy and making money.

nobody to check them. This can only be curtailed if people know that they can be fined for downloading illegal content. It’s like traffic violations.” Barnett stepped in at this point to add that “enforcement should be on the supply side and not on the demand”. Firth introduced the notion that there are three types of pirate users: unashamed, where they knowingly use an illegal service and have no issue with doing so; unaware, where they are using an illegal service but do not know it is a pirate one; and unwilling, where they knowingly use a pirate service and would prefer to use a legal one, but there is no legal service available with the content, features or price that meets their needs. Firth pointed out that content owners and service providers are spending a lot of effort blocking unashamed users

“We are taking down half a million links every quarter and they are done pretty quickly. We put fingerprints on our legal content and we are in discussions to have [illegal content] removed from Google search and that has been effective” Sam Barnett, CEO, MBC Group and educating unaware users, and questioned whether they are doing enough to address unwilling users. As the only CEO representing an exclusive OTT platform, Firth asked Maaz Sheikh, CEO of Starz Play, if the streaming service was doing enough with its packages and pricing

to make illegal services irrelevant. While agreeing that packages tailored to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of the region served as a differentiator and acknowledging the success stories of the anti-piracy coalition, Sheikh queried why the studios, Google and Apple did not share the burden of curtailing piracy along with telcos, satellite operators and broadcasters, as most people tend to download content from the internet. He pointed out that legal platforms like Starz Play have had to provide “heaps of information” to the likes of Google and Apple to prove they had the rights to the content they have paid for, while studios turn a blind eye to their content being downloaded illegally on apps available through these platforms. “Their latest movies are being pirated on Apple apps that are

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 21

PROANTI-PIRACY

available globally. I think the Googles and Apples and Facebooks of the world must be a part of this antipiracy effort, because the latest movies and shows that are being pirated online and being shown on apps are downloaded illegally from their stores. Why are the studios and Hollywood not doing anything about that? Why should regulators and telcos alone bear this burden?” Barnett agreed that packaging content for local consumers certainly helped make a regional broadcaster’s bouquet more attractive than illegal alternatives. He pointed out that today’s kids are not going to websites to download content, but “to illegal apps that are easily available” on the internet. “This is why regulation and cooperation with telcos is important. But it is equally important for the studios to work with Google and Apple to block these apps,” he reiterated. Barnett took the opportunity to point out that MBC has also tried to differentiate its user experience by tailoring it for a regional audience and highlighted the network’s recent

“If more is not done through regulation and empowering telcos to take down sites by putting pressure on rights holders and international players like Google, none of the ambitions that are being sought in various documents will be realised” Martin Stewart, CEO, OSN kids’ VOD offering, which he says will be particularly attractive to parents concerned about their children downloading pirated content which may also have content deemed unsafe. “We package our content for local values. If you watch a movie with your family, you won’t be embarrassed. That’s a value-add, because we chop out what’s embarrassing. You don’t get that on the pirate sites. People may

Stewart of OSN decried how a lot of the premium content turns up on YouTube and the tortuous process of taking them down.

22 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

watch pirated content, but they are often concerned about what content their kids can watch, and on a pirated site, nothing is censored. We have launched Goboz, which is our kids’ VOD, and I suspect that people who download movies for themselves will be much more willing to pay money for Goboz so they can guarantee that what their children are watching is safe,” commented Barnett. He cited a recent example, where what looked like a harmless version of Peppa Pig on YouTube had some objectionable content in the middle of the video, whereas packages from legitimate sources would protect children from such material. OSN’s Stewart pointed out that the pay TV network had a similar discussion with the studios, but it was futile. He also decried how a lot of the premium content that OSN pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for turns up on YouTube and “then we have to go through the same tortuous process of taking them down, and it takes weeks”. Stewart brought the discussion back to regulation, raising the very valid point that if certain videos, VoIP services and the like have been blocked effectively in this region and never show up on YouTube or Google, then it’s evident that such content can be blocked but is being overlooked because regulators don’t view content piracy as a serious criminal offence. “It’s just a matter of will. If you take it seriously and think it is important to protect intellectual property and genuinely want the media sector to properly flourish, you can make it happen. You don’t make it happen at present because you don’t think it’s important,” he commented. Cairae explained that an Indian anti-piracy coalition seems to be successfully taking down 100,000 links every month. “In the last four months, the content from main broadcasters doesn’t seem to be available [on those illegal sites] anymore. That

PROANTI-PIRACY

means a concentrated effort to speak to Google, Facebook and Apple has worked for them.” Barnett stated that MBC has had a lot of success with YouTube, “where

“The challenge we have is that algorithms and AI are being used to place these ads. So there is no human behind assessing whether a site is legal or not legal … This is why I said this problem has to be addressed in Silicon Valley”

Sheikh of Starz Play queried why the studios, and Google and Apple did not share the burden to curtail piracy as “they are the biggest enablers of piracy”.

Maaz Sheikh, CEO, Starz Play

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we are taking down half a million links every quarter and they are done pretty quickly. We put fingerprints on our legal content and it disappears, and we are in discussions to have them removed from Google search and that has been effective.” The issue, he pointed out, is new entities coming to the region and having to start a fresh dialogue with them and waste another two to three years in the process. “It would really help if the regulators have that conversation with them. Then it is less about us individually trying to persuade big companies to obey the law, and it would be a much quicker and more effective way of doing it.” The panel also decried the sale of Kodi and similar illegal boxes that can easily be bought on shopping sites in the region. Stewart mentioned at this point that while regulation and customer experience, including the price and the packaging designed for a safe experience, are relevant, awareness and education are equally important. Taking the example of the controversial BeoutQ box, which is readily available side by side with legal boxes in some markets, Firth queried if enough is being done by law enforcement agencies to contain this. “Governments have to decide what their priorities are. Most of the countries that we operate in say they want to support the media sector, and places like the UAE are doing this, but if BeoutQ is able to go into countries and steal huge amounts of content, that ultimately weakens the sector,” Barnett said, but he also added that the coalition has had many success stories through collaboration. “Awareness goes a huge way. It’s not just about the consumer. The success of our coalition was that we pulled the broadcasters and the satellite operators together and were able to show them that there were about 75 channels among the 800 channels that were stealing content. When

Cairae of Zee ME, said that there are proven successes with coalitions working and talking in one voice to regulators, and the combination of these with technology will help beat the pirates.

“Pay TV for us as an Asian player should be four to five times what it is today, and the reason it is not so is because people have this perceived demand that they should have 300 channels, even if they only watch four or five” Mukund Cairae, CEO, Zee Middle East operators and satellite distributors were told that they were carrying some pirate channels, the vast majority stopped doing it. That’s how we got those channels taken down. But there are operators who refuse to acknowledge that at the moment.” Barnett cited the example of MX-1, a new entry into the MENA market, which is selling capacity to some channels identified as allegedly running illegal content. “They have 8-12 pirate channels and we sent them notices saying some

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of the channels on their platform are pirating content, but they say it has nothing to do with them because they are just providing a platform. “That does not work when you are selling stolen goods. I doubt anyone wants to be dealing with organised crime and taking cash from pirates. We have a challenge to communicate that to the executives at the company. I’m sure that once they understand it, they will also clamp down as did the rest of the satellite market. That is the point about awareness and ultimately, people will try to make it better.” Firth then queried if set-topbox piracy was still relevant today or was diminishing in importance as compared to piracy on streaming services. Stewart pointed out that working with good encryption providers has always been vitally important. “It’s a multi-faceted fight; we are going further with fingerprinting and watermarking. Once we track down boxes that are being used for illegal distribution, they can be killed remotely. All

PROANTI-PIRACY

of us may have a predilection to one part of the problem, but together we need to ensure that we address all forms of piracy.” Firth deftly brought the discussion to the music industry, commenting that this sector seems to have cracked the code to fighting piracy and making money. “2018 is the fourth year in a row that the music sector is growing as a whole. This hasn’t happened since the 1990s. After many years focusing their efforts on litigation and other measures to fight piracy, music label executives shifted their efforts to refining themselves and their business models for the new reality of the music sector, and have since been doing very well. But downstream companies distributing music locally have suffered as a result of these new business models. Is there a lesson here for the video sector? Are the content owners and studios going to change the way they do business, and what implication will that have for local broadcasters and distributors?” he questioned. Cairae stepped in at this point to say that the length of a music piece, as opposed to video content, puts the latter at a disadvantage. “The length of the content is the basic difference between music and video. When the length of the content is 45 minutes broken up into nine tracks, it is pretty short. The amount of money you put into creating that content is a fraction of what it takes to create a whole series of Arabic, Western or Indian content. So will video move the way music did? It is highly unlikely, considering the capital required to create that amount of video. Short-form videos are relatively inexpensive to produce, but if you have 30 episodes and three seasons, the game changes.” Stewart, who was in the music business at one point of his career, says there are some lessons to be learned from the music industry. “From a price and experience POV,

“It would really help if the regulators have that conversation with them. Then it is less about us individually trying to persuade big companies to obey the law, and it would be a much quicker and more effective way of doing it”

other ways to distribute their music and exploit different distribution models. For instance, live music has been booming in the last five to seven years. We have some lessons to learn from there. For instance, massively increasing the number of people who consume video content in this region by lowering prices and increasing accessibility is the way to make a meaningful contribution to removing the desire to pirate.” Clearly, there are several variables in the piracy debate and not all of them are in black and white. For instance, back episodes of popular content are not always available on legal platforms, and people tend to source them from illegal platforms. With time running out, Firth questioned if things would get better in five years. Barnett said he was hopeful the regulators would step up and improve significantly what they are doing. “Technology, which in the past has been used to steal can be used to track, monitor, and can be used by the regulators as well. The pendulum will swing back and it will

Sam Barnett, CEO, MBC Group the music business realised that it is better to get five bucks a month from a subscription streaming service or get people to buy 99 cents for a single and massively increase the percentage of people who purchase the music. This is because in the '80s and '90s, only a minority could afford to buy full albums so they lowered the price and increased the access and affordability. So the number of people consuming music also increased. “The other thing was that with the music industry growing, they found

Barnett of MBC observed that technology, which in the past, has been used to steal content can be used now to track and monitor pirates.

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 25

PROANTI-PIRACY

be more positive in five years’ time.” Stewart said his greatest wish would be to see each country in the region hit their five- or 10year vision. To do that, “they will need a vibrant media economy to be part of their overall success, so hopefully they will execute on what is in those documents”. Cairae commented that there are proven successes with coalitions working and talking in one voice to regulators, and the combination of these with technology will definitely help beat the pirates. Sheikh reiterated that the issue of online streaming and piracy will not be resolved until it is addressed in Silicon Valley and Hollywood. “Until these two entities do something about it, there is not much we can do about the problem. What we can do is deliver a safer user experience and package the content for regional audiences. But

the online piracy debate needs to be addressed in the US and globally.” A significant question from the audience was whether advertisers should also stay away from pirate sites. “Pirates are in this for the money, so are there any efforts to cut that cash flow?” an attendee asked. While Cairae said search engines were cognisant of these issues and had started a new set of algorithms, other panellists said advertisers and digital media agencies should make a conscious effort to eliminate illegal panels from their list of platforms for advertising. Sheikh left the crowd with a very pertinent but disconcerting issue at this point, commenting that the move from linear channels primarily to digital advertising took place because platforms supposedly had a more detailed understanding of the profile of their viewers. “The whole idea with digital

Panellists concurred that advertisers and digital media agencies should make a conscious effort to eliminate illegal platforms from their list of online destinations for advertising.

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advertising was to control your message based on the profile of your audience. We were not getting that with linear. But now, there is so much secrecy around who your ads are reaching and what platforms and what publishers and what websites your ads are ending up on. I can’t say I can only advertise on these three websites. I don’t go to Google and say I want my ads only on these three publishers, because that’s not how it works. “The challenge we have is that algorithms and AI are being used to place these ads. So there is no human behind assessing whether a site is legal or not legal, and those are proprietary algorithms used by the Googles of the world. As long as those apps and websites exist, this is the reality of the business we have to deal with. This is why I said this problem has to be addressed in Silicon Valley,” he reiterated.- Vijaya Cherian

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PROANTI-PIRACY

Content piraCy: Are we winning The LegAL bATTLe?

Litigation can be costly, lengthy and at times yields little by way of deterrence. The remedy, the speakers on the legal panel insisted, is more engagement with governments and courts, not less

meDia ConsUlTanT

Eric MacInnes

Diwan ViDeos

Waleed Mahboub

In 2016, the administrator of a UAE-based website was charged with illegal streaming of copyrighted content. The punishment included a $13,600 fine, six months in jail and deportation. While this is decisive action, the size of the problem facing content owners is enormous. According to estimates by the International Data Corporation, TV piracy – through the use of illegal set-top boxes (STBs), unauthorised VPN subscriptions and torrent downloads – costs a whopping $750m in losses to content owners and rights holders across the MENA region every year. The second panel discussion at the anti-piracy conference hosted by BroadcastPro ME was titled: 'Addressing Piracy from a Legal Point of View’. Media Consultant and moderator Eric MacInnes, opened by saying: “The object of this panel is to dig deeper and explore what content creators and rights holders can do from the legal and enforcement perspectives. “What is the recourse to the law?” he asked the panel, composed of Omar Obeidat, Partner and Head of Intellectual Property at law firm Al Tamimi & Co; Aditya Verma, Senior Legal Counsel at OSN; and Waleed Mahboub, Content Director at Diwan Videos. “It will depend on a case-to-case basis,” said Verma. “whether it is a subscriber who has pirated content, or a pirate IPTV service, or a trademark infringement, and so on.

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al Tamimi & Co

Omar Obeidat

osn

Aditya Verma

As a first step, we analyse where this piracy is coming from and then we work with our internal content protection and security team to gather as much evidence as possible, and subsequently we involve authorities and external counsel. “We can pinpoint the location of pirates in certain cases. Evidence needs to be simplified to be presented to authorities, and that is a challenge, but over time we have fine-tuned the process.” “In terms of litigation, does it vary by territory or country?” MacInnes asked Omar Obeidat of Al Tamimi.

“Fortunately, internet piracy is governed by copyright laws within the purview of which it is a crime,” he responded. “This is a good thing because you get to prosecute the offender with harsh penalties. Presenting evidence and establishing copyright can be a challenge in certain countries. Sometimes you need to go through detailed documentation, so it can be tedious to put together a criminal case. As a legal practioner, our strategy is always to look at bringing the strongest case. “We don’t however rely on the copyright law alone. Our strategy has always been to try a case as an electronic crime, where jail terms are higher than for copyright crimes. Also, the remedies you would have as a content owner are much better if the infringement is deemed an electronic crime. Whether it is a torrent site or the selling of illegal set-top boxes, we still try to present the case as an electronic crime.

PROANTI-PIRACY

Panellists agreed that the law in the region was in line with international standards but despite some good judgements, there needed to be a stronger element of deterrence in the penalties imposed.

How do we do that? There must be some sort of electronic deal between the trader who sells the STB and the customer, by way of online subscriptions or online payments. That is enough for a case to be built as an electronic crime.” The onus of gathering evidence is on the prosecution, Obeidat said. “Onus is always on the content owner. You have to prove that you are the owner and what you are attempting to prosecute is an infringement. Sometimes there are administrative remedies that are better than litigation, especially if you don’t have enough investigation and intelligence-gathering resources. Based on the strength of your case, you take the call.” MacInnes then turned to Waleed Mahboub, Content Director at Diwan Videos, a Dubai- and Cairo-based multi-channel network (MCN)

“Investigation by private citizens is not permitted, even if your content is being pirated. You need the approval of authorities – you don’t want to be an accessory to a crime” Omar Obeidat, Partner and head of intellectual Property, Al Tamimi & Co and media production company. He asked him: “As a director of content, how attractive does mounting a legal case sound?” “Frankly, it is a long process,” admitted Mahboub. “The best-case scenario is six months to hunt down pirates, accompanied by monetary loss for content owners and broadcasters. However, there is another factor to this piracy

ecosystem. Torrent sites are being funded by advertising. I am sure advertisers are not aware as to where their brands are showing – it is a decision typically taken by a digital media agency based on traffic and CPM. This is another element in the fight against piracy that we can pursue. Big advertisers have legal departments, so they are easy to talk to. If we manage to stop advertisements to these sites, we cut their resources.” According to a study in 2017 by the US-based Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), anti-piracy steps taken by the digital advertising industry have reduced ad revenue for pirate sites by 48-61%, recognised as notable progress against the $2.4bn problem of content infringement. “Would you go after advertisers?” Macinnes asked Verma of OSN.

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 29

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“This is really an issue of collaboration,” Verma responded, highlighting the underlying question of working with other stakeholders. “A lot of collaboration is happening right now. We work with studios and organisations around the world, including Interpol and Europol. We work with technology providers such as Google and Facebook. Collaboration, however, is a voluntary act, and that is where the challenge lies. Simultaneously the law is evolving and catching up in this region and we have had some good judgements. “We need to be creative in our approach, from collaborating to simplifying complex piracy cases with the help of external counsel. One of the other things we also do is ensure that we create awareness not just with the consumers, but also with the authorities. So we have regular workshops in countries such as the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and KSA, and it is

“If we are able to stop advertisements to these [illegal] sites, we cut their resources” waleed Mahboub, Content Director, Diwan Videos an ongoing process because we need to keep up with the pirates.” “Is the perception fair that IPR laws in the region are not as advanced as they could be?” asked MacInnes. “I would not blame the laws,” Obeidat stressed, adding that they are in keeping with international agreements. Attendees at the conference had earlier raised the issue of lax enforcement and certain cultural issues where domestic copying in the Middle East is often justified in the light of “standing up to Western hegemony”. Obeidat continued: “Most countries in the region are

Mahboub of Diwan Videos urged the industry to think laterally and monitor traffic on pirate websites for insights that will help in the acquisition of content.

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signatories to international IP agreements that they signed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. There are cultural issues, however. How do you speak to a judge who does not find this [copyright infringement] terribly wrong, although the law says it is a crime? So the judge will rule the minimum, which could be a slap-on-the-wrist penalty ranging from $500 to $5,000.” Obeidat admitted that the penalty was often small compared to the cost of litigation but reiterated that cost was not a primary concern when fighting pirates. Seconding that sentiment, Mahboub said: “In matters of piracy, we should not look at it from the balance-sheet point of view. When I am trying to stop my content from being seen for free, it should not matter how much I pay for litigation.” Obeidat stressed the need for deterrence while being creative in the battle against piracy. “If we are looking at small-timers selling illegal STBs, we would advise an administrative approach. But if this is a major pirate that has a network, you would want to prosecute the individual or company as a criminal. We have seen this happen both in Kuwait and the UAE with removal of servers, confiscation of equipment and so on. We must prosecute the whole way and try to convey a message of deterrence that as content owners, we will not tolerate such infringement. We must craft the best route possible as well. While in Jordan, we have approached the National Library of Jordan, which is the legal deposit and copyright library for Jordan. We approach the Economic Department in Dubai at the outset rather than the CID.” Building on Obeidat’s call to be creative in approaching the fight against piracy, Verma recounted some specific instances. “A lot of times the evidence is dynamic – it keeps changing and is often cross-border when ISPs

PROANTI-PIRACY

Obeidat of Al Tamimi & Co., warned against the industry taking an “I don’t want to bother” approach to legal cases saying the law does not develop on its own and needed litigants.

are involved. With a torrent-based piracy case, we were able to present evidence in a simplified way and the case led to deportation, a fine of $55,000 (AED 200,000) and a six-month jail term. That case set the standard for us. It taught us as to how to approach the authorities, collect evidence and work as a team with them. There is a certain limitation imposed on us by law when it comes to investigating a crime, and that is why we make sure we work with external counsel. We have done this in the UAE and in Jordan.” Obeidat warned against the industry taking an 'I don’t want to bother’ approach to legal cases. “The law does not develop on its own. It needs litigants. For instance, if the industry does not bring cases of illegal online streaming, how would you expect the judiciary to develop its expertise in these areas?” Besides the judiciary playing catch-up, Verma built on his earlier point about the complex nature of piracy itself. “Defining jurisdiction is a challenge

“Our strategy has always been to try a case as an electronic crime, where jail terms are higher than for copyright crimes” Omar Obeidat, Partner and head of intellectual Property, Al Tamimi & Co at times when you are looking at dynamic, cross-border evidence. Do we have any protection? Is that particular jurisdiction suitable for us? We need to consider all these aspects. With FTA-related piracy and internet piracy, the crime typically travels across multiple hands and borders. It does not mean we can’t get them, and that’s where industry forums that comprise different stakeholders play a role.” At this juncture, Macinnes chose to remind the audience that pirates are often teens or even pre-teens. “Would you prosecute a 12-year-old?” he asked. The question inspired a number of creative options far

removed from jails, deportation and confiscation of equipment. Obeidat spoke of the possibility of using ethical hackers to identify weak links in the content distribution chain and raised the issue of increasing awareness about the menace of piracy among the young. Mahboub questioned the windowing strategies adopted by the region’s broadcasters – the infamous time gap between the US premiere of popular television shows and their eventual broadcast in the region. “My four-year-old boy does not understand the concept of waiting for content when he has ready access to content on his tablet. When a 12-year-old cannot find the latest Avengers movie in this region, he will go to a pirated source. Broadcasters should consider the timing of releases and make content readily available to an eager audience.” While agreeing with both, Verma reminded the audience that piracy is not a victimless crime. Striking a sombre note, he observed: “Regardless of who indulges in piracy, be it a business, adult or teenager, there are victims. We need to create awareness in society about the dangers of supporting illegal content. This is a crime that not only damages the economy of the country but also deters creativity.” On what constitutes deterrence, there was a range of views, with Verma and Mahboub insisting that sufficient monetary compensation should be awarded to the aggrieved content or rights owner. Obeidat was of the view that jail terms were harsh penalties that would result in deterrence. However, punishments needed to be exemplary, they all agreed. Obeidat said: “With statutory minimums, the court always rules the minimum unless you complement the crime with several

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The panellists agreed that there should be statutory damages otherwise, content rights owners are not Optam es awarded; pliatis doluptate nonsendus compensated for their losses andTio. to make matters worse, dolupisimus, ulparum, soluptio. Ignieniene pirates resume activities they are not deterred. laborrunt vel estheir doluptaepe probecause quae dent.

other crimes such as pornography and so on. I agree with Aditya that there should be statutory damages awarded that are automatically paid, otherwise the content and rights owners are losing – losing with piracy, losing when they litigate, and losing when they see pirates resume their activities because they are not afraid. The judiciary needs to understand that the ruling or verdict must result in deterrence.” Verma added: “When a judge presides over a court with nine hardened criminals awaiting trial, for instance, and one individual booked for an IP infringement, he could be mentally unprepared to provide equally harsh penalties on IP infringement as his perspective is influenced. Ideally, the government should ask the industry as to the problems we face and seek solutions from experts, and that could probably help in guiding the judges in terms of the interpretation of the law.” As the panel discussion drew to a close, Mahboub urged the

“We need to be creative in our approach, from collaborating to simplifying complex piracy cases with the help of external counsel” Aditya Verma, Senior Legal Counsel, OSn industry to think laterally and monitor pirate websites. Netflix famously adopts this not-so-new concept to track what is being illegally downloaded on BitTorrent and pirate sites, to work out what content they should be acquiring. Drawing on the regional relevance of the strategy, Mahboub said: “If the source of piracy is a country where regulation is difficult, and these sites are accessible through VPNs, we will never be able to stop piracy 100% unless we convince these countries to criminalise pirates. Monitoring illegal websites for traffic offers insights that will help in the acquisition of content. This is especially helpful for

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those who do not have sufficient funds to acquire a wide range of content. By understanding what is trending, the window for the release of a title can be adjusted. The moment we see a ripped title, we can offer it at lower price points and eventually we discourage the trend of pirating content.” Obeidat cautioned against any unilateral initiatives by the industry. “My advice is to involve the CID. Investigation by private citizens is not permitted, even if your content is being pirated. You need the approval of authorities – you don’t want to be an accessory to a crime.” Lastly, to the suggestion that the MENA region needs specialist judges who understand IP, Obeidat said the move could backfire by creating silos of expertise. He observed: “I am all for judges who are informed, but I am also for developing the entire judiciary and elevating the system to better tackle the menace of piracy.”- Supriya Srinivas

Let there be Sky. S360-C: SkyPanel on an immense scale

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Tel.: +971 4 339 0944 / 339 0945 Fax: +971 4 339 0922 info@amaranthine.ae www.amaranthine.tv

PROANTI-PIRACY

Content piraCy: tECh & oPErAtioNs strAtEgy Panellists concluded BroadcastPro ME’s inaugural Anti-Piracy Conference with a call for consistent deployment of technology and the creation of a centralised registry for MENA content ownership

eriCsson

Alex Borland

Verimatrix

Petr Peterka

The final panel of the BroadcastPro Anti-Piracy Conference dealt with various strategies, both commercial and technical, that could be applied to fight piracy. Joining us for this discussion were a panel of seasoned professionals from different parts of the industry: Dr Naser Refaat, CTO of Rotana Media Group; Petr Peterka, CTO of Verimatrix; and Mike Barley, Non-executive Chairman of UK-based anti-piracy firm FACT. Alex Borland, Head of Media Sales EMEA at Ericsson, moderated the discussion. He opened with a question to Petr Peterka about the technologies companies provide within this space and how they can be used effectively. Peterka commented that technology helps both sides and if used correctly and consistently, can contain piracy to a great extent. “There are different aspects to anti-piracy technology. One is prevention. We use cryptography, conditional access and digital rights management to prevent the leakage of content to unauthorised users. The second step is the ability to trace the source of the content and forensic watermarking is a part of the solution for this. Finally, we have the ability to collect and analyse a lot of data from the end-to-end distribution chain. By understanding what is happening in the network, understanding the devices and how people consume

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FaCt

Mike Barley

rotana media Group

Dr Naser Refaat

content and how they use it, we can monitor for threats and trace piracy in ways in which we could not in the past.” Borland then asked Barley to relate some of his experiences in the UK, where he has had a lot of success fighting piracy as part of the Sky team, where he has worked for a long time alongside his role at FACT. Barley agreed that “using technology is absolutely key to getting ahead of the pirates, and we have used it effectively over the years”. He cited the example of two people in the UK who were sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for selling Kodi boxes during the Premier League season. “That was a good sentence. We used technology and search tools to discover this information. We used search tools and went through 36 auction sites. The information was available across social media, Facebook, Twitter and the like, and we used key search terms. Then we harnessed that information and used it to make prosecution cases.” When asked if there was any need to prosecute a 14-year-old, based on a discussion in the previous panel, Barley agreed that there wasn’t. “We operate a strategy in the UK which takes a multi-faceted approach, in that you either deter through public awareness or you engage with the advertisers, the payment providers, and disrupt the activities of the pirates. Of course, the last

PROANTI-PIRACY

Dr. Refaat of Rotana Media Group highlighted efforts to establish a union in Egypt that will host all media content ownership and distribution rights transparently in an on-line database.

part is detection and prosecution and it only serves a purpose if it is executed at the right level. You want the prosecution to have the right impact so that people who read about it on social media should think, ‘I don’t want to go to prison, it is not worthwhile’. It is that multi-faceted approach to piracy that is effective.” He went on to add that for prosecutions to be effective, you must harness technology to gain as much information as possible about a case. “I’d like to see much more collaboration with using that information. In individual silos, all of us gather a lot of information but if we harnessed it together, it would be a lot more useful.” Dr Naser Refaat, CTO of Rotana, pointed out that the real problem lies elsewhere. He lamented the lack of a centralised registration centre where buyers could check the authenticity

of the people selling content to them. “Egypt is the only country that has a Cinema Chamber and issues a certificate should you want to buy and sell Egyptian films in the region. This certificate provides the buyer with some semblance of security,” he commented, adding that there is no contract authentication registration body in the MENA region for any produced drama, documentaries, music clips ownership or distribution rights. He pointed out that in many instances, so-called pirates were unwitting victims who had bought content from someone who claimed to have the right to sell it. He went further to suggest that all players put an additional sum of money towards the cause so that telcos and satellite operators would be incentivised to be more proactive. “If I pay 100K per mega now,

let’s make it 101K and ensure that everything is fingerprinted and watermarked, and not just our own content. If there is integration with the telcos and satellite operators in terms of paying to a central regulatory unit, it is likely we will meet with more success.” He commented that if governments are unwilling to take a positive step, then one should go above them to the Arab League, as he and his team are doing now. “Now there are initiatives in Egypt with certain bodies of intelligence to start this union. Presently, if you want to buy a movie that Rotana owns, you go to the Egyptian Chamber of Commerce and pay $1,000, but this does not truly contribute to distribution rights management. Rather than paying that amount, pay the union an annual fee to host all media content ownerships and

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distribution rights transparently in an online database. Those fees will be distributed between the telcos, the satellite operators, the Cinema Chamber, the union and so on, creating a win-win situation for all. We are in the process of discussing a model at present.” Borland asked Barley to elaborate on the four-year sentence for the two men selling Kodi boxes he had alluded to previously, and how they went about identifying the right people to prosecute. “We used a technology that searched for the auction sites to find the sellers of Kodi boxes, and of course, there are thousands of them,” explained Barley. “You don’t just pick on any seller. You put together an investigation and find out how many boxes each of them have sold and make your case. “We found that two people were selling an awful lot of boxes, and their criminal gain was almost £1.8m. We used technology to identify key sellers and only they needed to be prosecuted. We went to the Premier League and told them that

“Egypt is the only country that has a Cinema Chamber and issues a certificate should you want to buy and sell Egyptian films in the region” Dr Naser refaat, Cto, rotana Media group we had identified these individuals and we put together an evidence pack, supported by technical information. Then they bought some Kodi boxes from these guys. “The courts in the UK understand that piracy is a crime and so they will pass sentences of a certain length. You don’t prosecute just anybody. Sky worked to prosecute these two men because their criminal gain was to the tune of £1.8m.” Barley said prison sentences are a significant deterrent for people engaging in a criminal act. “Having a strategy that reflects the deterrence factor is really important. Companies like Sky don’t say we are going to prosecute our end users. Organisations like FACT are quite

Panellists stressed that broadcasters depend on the underlying infrastructure, judicial support and the regulator to be effective in the fight against piracy.

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happy to front up that publicity, and they have worked over the years to get publicity around these types of cases. Generating that sort of publicity raises the awareness not only among the public, but among judges as well. Judges read the papers too. There are sentencing guidelines in the UK, so the judge would look at the tariff and the matrix, and then decide on the sentence. Then it has the right impact.” He added that unless the regulators take piracy seriously, nothing will come of it, and that broadcasters depend on the underlying infrastructure, judicial support and the regulator to be effective in the fight against piracy. Peterka stepped in at this point to state that if technology is used effectively and integrated correctly across all the points within a distribution chain, it would be possible to curtail piracy significantly. “You have the technology today to detect piracy in real time; you can identify the source and, in many cases, they are your legal subscribers who are stealing your content and redistributing it. If in real time you can track them down, you can also close them down instantly. In the meantime, you can continue with the prosecution and make sure there are no repeated attempts. If you use the technology consistently across the entire distribution chain and align your technology and operational strategy in real time, you can actually disrupt the hackers’ network enough to deter them.” Peterka said disrupting a service at a crucial point is very effective in deterring piracy. “Disruption serves as a very powerful tool. If I am paying for my pirated service – because most of them are paid or ad-supported – and I can’t rely on them to watch a game all the way to the end because it will get disrupted in the middle, it’s very likely that I will pay for a legal subscription.” Barley added that this has worked

PROANTI-PIRACY

Peterka of Verimatrix observed that disrupting a service at a crucial point is very effective in deterring piracy.

at Sky. “We used to take a big sport and look at the matches. We used to employ technology to identify which subscriber was illegally distributing content to thousands of other end users. Once we identified them, we would tell the guys to switch that card off when the bell sounds at the first round. That is a massive disruption, because thousands of screens will go blank just at that crucial point in the match. People will get fed up when that happens and pay for their services. Then we will look to prosecute that subscriber. “The idea is to convert people to buy the proper package. We don’t want them to be uneasy. The disruption strategy needs to be employed by the industry.” Dr Refaat pointed out that such a strategy works only within a pay TV environment. “In a region where there are nearly 1,100 Arabic-speaking channels, of which 80% are free-to-air over satellite, this is not possible.” Barley conceded the point. Summing up that multiple strategies were required to tackle pirates, Borland asked Peterka if he sees international giants in the business as a help or a hindrance. Peterka commented that globally, consistency in protecting content

is the key to fighting piracy. “One of the problems that the industry has is the inconsistency of requiring certain technological content protection techniques. We had discussions about watermarking. It is a relatively new technology because, although it has been around for many years, it hasn’t been used as effectively until recently. You have pockets of the world where it is used and parts where it is not. People use it as an argument — if the content gets stolen from the place where it is not used, why did I invest money in watermarking that content? “So watermarking should be consistently used across the chain. International treaties should ensure

“By understanding what is happening in the network, understanding the devices and how people consume content and how they use it, we can monitor for threats and trace piracy in ways in which we could not in the past” Petr Peterka, Cto, Verimatrix

that content owners who sell content to different owners must ask for that consistency in their contracts and ensure that buyers comply.” Barley added that it takes a lot of time to shut down websites and pointed out that we should engage a lot more with global platforms, advertisers, payment providers and anyone else who facilitates cash flow to the pirates. “We got Amazon to adjust their search terms by lobbying them and saying to them that fully loaded Kodi boxes facilitate piracy. It also goes on to advertisers. Criminals will want to advertise on their website, and that gives them legitimacy. Also, advertisers don’t realise that their ads are showing up on pirate websites. “In the UK, we are now engaging more with the payment providers. Pirates are in this only for the money. If we identify a pirate seller and let the payment providers know that a person is using their facility for criminal gain, and ask them if they want to be associated with that, they will say no. The pirate will find an alternative mechanism. There is a strategy of following the protected content and tracing the content and strategy around the cash flow, and working backwards to understand where the sources are and blocking those payment gateways.” Borland asked Dr Refaat if something similar can be applied in the Middle East. “Definitely yes. With persistence and cooperation with everyone in this room, I think we can make things happen. Piracy is accepted as a normal practice in the region by a majority of the people. The solution is whether we continue losing our content and continue producing more, or put strict regulations from the top down to cover all corners and make sure that we spend more time and effort between everybody here to push for proper regulations across the line.” Borland then steered the

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 37

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discussion to hackers and asked Peterka if it was wise to use them in the fight against piracy. “It is a sensitive question, but you do need to understand how criminals think and how they are going to attack your system, and which part of your end-to-end distribution network has the weakest point,” he commented. “Understanding how they do things is very important. White hat hacking is becoming a trend in the industry. It is good to bring clever minds to the right side of the industry. They do it for money or fame; if you pay them enough and let them speak at conferences, you can achieve similar things. They can be a valuable asset, but you have to be very careful how you pick them. Your engineers don’t think like the hackers, and when they design a product, they don’t necessarily understand how they will be attacked – so hackers are significant.” With all these strategies in place, Borland asked if Barley and his team had managed to get ahead of the pirates. Barley commented that when the UK succeeds in countering piracy, the problem merely shifts to another geography where regulations are not as stringent. “I don’t think we are ahead of the pirates in the UK. I have been working on this for 18 years. We have not eradicated the problem. At best, we have displaced the problem, which means someone who was operating illegally in the UK finds out we are cracking down on him. So he moves to another territory and continues. Essentially, when it’s no longer our problem, it becomes someone else’s problem. So for instance, I don’t see an awful lot of piracy on the Sky platform, but we see it elsewhere. We have displaced it, but that only underlines the argument for a greater collaborative approach.” He pointed out that not enough is being done – that streaming content is like driving down the road at 32

Barley of FACT pointed out that Sky spends £6bn a year acquiring content, so it only makes sense for them to also invest money in protecting it.

“We operate a strategy in the UK which takes a multifaceted approach, in that you either deter through public awareness or you engage with the advertisers, the payment providers, and disrupt the activities of the pirates” Mike Barley, Non-Executive Chairman, FACt miles an hour when the limit is 30. “Nobody is going to do anything about it. If that same attitude occurs within the audio-visual content space, we have real problems coming up, because we have a whole generation of people who think it is okay to stream illegal content. That has a massive impact on this industry, the creative industry and broadcast. It is about changing the mindsets of people, and you can only do this by raising awareness and using the media to a great extent to highlight the dangers of streaming content and visiting pirate websites.” He added that a majority of pirate websites have some form of malware on them, leading to credit card

38 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2018

scams, data stealing and the like. All three panellists agreed that awareness is important and that education begins at home with our children. Barley pointed out that Sky spends £6bn a year acquiring content, so it only makes sense for them to also invest money in protecting it. Peterka added that as long as the same protection mechanisms are not followed across the world, pirates will go to a place where there is no protection. “Consistency is critical to our success,” he reiterated. In conclusion, the panellists agreed on the importance of having technology deployed consistently across the distribution chain to ensure there are no weak links. They also agreed that if greater awareness is created among payment providers, search engines, shopping sites, web platforms and unwitting advertisers, satellite operators and telcos, the cash flow to pirates can be reduced significantly. On a regional level, they advocated for a centralised body to check the authenticity of the distribution rights of the content being sold or bought, and for better regulations from the ITU. - Vijaya Cherian

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PROPRODUCTION

The studio and set were designed to be contemporary and industrial in their aesthetic.

Pioneering reality tV IN MENA

Reality TV show I am a Nat Geo Photographer returned to National Geographic Abu Dhabi with a mission to nurture young photographers from the Arab world. The producers of the show, Spotlife Films Production, walk us through the nuts, bolts and nervous moments of creating the show The team at Spotlife Films Production was revisiting a five-year-old reality show and knew right away that they had to devise a fresh treatment. I am a Nat Geo Photographer is a four-part series produced by Dubai-based Spotlife Films Production for National Geographic Abu Dhabi. Four photographers from the MENA region come to Dubai to participate in different photography challenges until one is crowned the winner.

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“When we were approached to do the series again, we knew we had to give a completely new and fresh treatment to the production,” says Samer Arzouni, founder and MD at Spotlife Films Production. “We brainstormed ideas and got cracking at developing a format that would be different from anything in the market, a format that would have longevity and appeal in the local market and the potential to be picked up on the international market too.”

PROPRODUCTION

Arzouni is reportedly the only Arab director to have led a camera crew to Everest Base Camp, when he filmed 11 Emirati climbers as part of Mission Everest: The UAE Military Team during his sevenyear stint with National Geographic channels. While following four photographers in the streets of the UAE is not akin to filming in sub-zero temperatures, reality TV has some exacting demands. When Survivor and Big Brother premiered in 2000, the competitive reality show was an unknown concept – but by 2003, the Emmys had created an Outstanding Reality-Competition Programme award. In a cluttered field, any new show devised must be engaging, educational and fun to watch. Then the laundry list gets more onerous with the need for genuinely talented contestants, ingenious challenges, impressive guest judges and so on. Elaborating on the new approach, Arzouni says: “We made sure that everything about the show is new, and that is reflected in the challenges and the shooting locations we chose for each of the challenges. We wanted to create a city-centric show and make it our playground. Dubai was our first choice, for its diversity and richness. The identity of the show made us look at an alternative image of Dubai.” The show is hosted by Saudi media personality Tariq Edrees. Professional photographer and publisher of Photo Egypt Marwa Abu Laila, features as the main judge. They are joined by actors and subject matter experts for each episode, based on the nature of the challenge, including martial arts expert Rio Altaie, fashion designer Faissal El-Malak and Los Angelestrained actor Deepak Venugopal. Every reality show must decide if it will be self-contained, with episodes that stand on their own, or if it will be an arced reality show with a storyline that

Kit list • Sony FS7 M2 cameras • Canon lenses • Focus tripods • Cartoni wireless video transmitters • Shotgun inferno monitor/recorder • GFM X10Crane, Ronin, smoke machine Lights: • Kino Flo, Sky Panels, Fresnels, Dedos, Gem ball, Source four, Par cans Sound: • Sennheiser, Lectrosonics Post-production: • Adobe Premiere Pro CC18 • Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Studio • Adobe Audition and Reaper for audio mixing • Blackmagic DaVinci Fusion, Mocha Pro, Adobe After Effects CC18

“[We aimed for] a format that would have longevity and appeal in the local market, and the potential to be picked up on the international market” Samer Arzouni, Founder and MD, Spotlife Films Production

Samer Arzouni on the sets.

connects every episode. But in this case, the Spotlife team decided to try a middle path. Sheherzad Kaleem, Producer at Spotlife, explains: “We decided that this show will have no eliminations but be built on a point system. This approach gave all participants an equal shot at winning the series, and also gave them ample opportunities to be mentored by the judges that presided over each of the episodes. “The photography challenges were built around different genres of photography and included portraits, architecture and fashion, sports and essay. The challenges grew in complexity from one round to the next, and the contestants had to have an in-depth understanding of the technicality of photography, equipment and editing software to retain any chance of winning the final title.” The logistics were taxing, Arzouni admits. “One of the biggest challenges of producing a show like this, from a technical perspective, is media management. We had four contestants followed by either two or four camera crews, depending on the nature of the challenge. In addition to this was the actual footage that the photographers were capturing on their cameras. With the sheer volume of footage we filmed, we had to find the most efficient system to ensure that media and productivity were not lost, and we did this by setting up a team and a full edit suite in the studio and on set, to make sure we could streamline and organise the media.” With a dynamic format, shooting required a specific workflow. Reality TV filming is about being in the middle of the action and wasting no time setting up, stresses Sheherzad. “Flexibility in movement was key for us, and we needed to work with cameras that were of high quality but lightweight. Our cameras gave us that flexibility without

June 2018 | www.broadcastprome.com | 41

PROPRODUCTION

compromising on quality. We filmed the entire series in standard 4K and got a fantastic range of footage to play around with. Everything had to be wireless and movable.” There are inevitable hurdles, and this shoot was no different, Sheherzad reveals. In this case it was classic force majeure. No, it was not the typical sandstorm or fog that would unsettle an otherwise uneventful Dubai day. It was an unexpected rainstorm. Sheherzad recalls: “A rainstorm came over Dubai unannounced on the day we were supposed to be shooting the fashion and architecture challenge in Dubai Design District. Our models, wearing designer clothing, were supposed to be modelling in an outdoor uncovered space. We had to flip the whole schedule and act fast to manage the situation. On a production such as this, where there are a lot of moving pieces, there was a lot that we had to look after and manage. And this is where a strong team comes to the rescue.” Summarising the production, she says: “We spent a tough 10 days on set, where we worked almost round the clock to pull in all the elements of the show. Once the production phase was over, we dived right into post-production, which took a few months to complete. Each episode had to have the right amount of energy to keep the viewers’ interest but also be paced in a way that each character could be developed properly. We commissioned an original soundtrack for the series and spent a significant amount of time in colour grading, audio mixing and graphics.” A project of this magnitude needed a large, well-trained team, she stresses. “We built a squad consisting of line producers, assistant directors, production coordinators, stylists, sound recordists, camera operators, DoP and many others to handle the

A large, well-trained team was required to execute a project of this magnitude, says Sheherzad Kaleem of Spotlife.

“This series was targeted at a young Arab audience, and the visual treatment of the show had to keep in line with that” Sheherzad Kaleem, Producer, Spotlife Films Production myriad equipment we were going to employ. We wanted to push the envelope of creativity, and we are confident we achieved that. “This series was targeted at a young Arab audience, and the visual treatment of the show had to keep

Saudi photographer wins I am a Nat Geo Photographer Saudi Arabian photographer and health management technician Hesham Humaid beat Emirati explorer Obaid Al Budoor, Lebanese artist Cynthia Ghoussoub and Egyptian photographer Amina Sabry to win the top prize. He won an all-expenses-paid National Geographic photography expedition trip to Tanzania worth more than $10,000.

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in line with that. We brought in a range of equipment that would enable us to get creative with the angles and movement in the filming, such as jibs, smoke machines – the works. The studio and set were designed to be contemporary and industrial in their aesthetic.” As for the post-production pipeline, the team decided on a linear workflow that shifted from offline editing on Adobe Premiere Pro on one machine to the online phase on another machine and then the final round without going back to Adobe Premiere. Sheherzad explains: “This linear workflow allowed us to work independently on the episodes. While the online was finishing an episode, the offline would start cutting the next. “Our shared storage also allowed for quick turnaround of rushes. The eight-bay RAID 6 was a perfect solution for sharing all the rushes with superb read/ write speed while at the same time creating redundancy.” One of the unique challenges for the team, Sheherzad explains, was posed by the nature of the competition. “During the studio presentation of the contestants’ photos on screen, the TV display wasn’t giving a fair representation of the actual photos shot, so we tracked the screen and recreated the same camera movement then replaced the photos with the actual photos taken by the contestants.” Besides the Everest shoot, Arzouni is a 12-year veteran of many iconic shoots in the region – but the Nat Geo reality show is special for him. He explains: “This was the first reality show of its kind in the region that we did as Spotlife Films Production. As a company, our niche is factual entertainment, reality tv and documentary. We believe in pushing the imagination of our clients and are always trying out new ways to do traditional things.”

CMY

PROOtt

For broadcasters, it’s becoming increasingly clear that taking personalisation up a level will help to ensure the success of their OTT service in the future, writes Downey.

Content dethroned; COnsuMEr ExpEriEnCE is nEw king Of OTT Ron Downey, CEO at Massive, talks about the stand-out OTT trends in the market and urges operators to deliver a tailored experience to the end user

The dust may have settled on NAB, but the OTT sector is whipping up a storm. From VR to next-gen personalisation, and from Android TV to previously unseen revenue streams, this year’s show in Vegas puts four trends on the radar of content rights holders and broadcasters, trends that will soon become the cornerstones of enhanced OTT offerings in 2018 and beyond. What’s particularly interesting is that each trend has its hooks set firmly in the consumer experience. The reality is that TV has become an increasingly individual

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affair, creating an extra hurdle for content providers to overcome. After all, if viewers aren’t watching TV with others, why should they be offered the same viewing experience, content and promotions as everyone else? For broadcasters too, it’s becoming increasingly clear that taking personalisation up a level will help to ensure the success of their OTT service in the future. Content has become ubiquitous and viewers now expect something more than simply a fully stocked asset library to warrant signing up for a subscription, which presents a challenge

PROOtt

but now also an opportunity. Although the traditional one-sizefits-all approach to content delivery may have worked in 2017, it’s not going to fly any longer, and the next level of personalisation is set to be a multi-faceted affair. So, for OTT players looking to bolster their bottom lines and tap into the latest market developments at a time when it can help them to stand out from the crowd, here are the four big trends from NAB that should be in focus – and the reasons why. Pushing the VR envelope VR and AR continue to dominate many conversations concerning the future of television, even though examples of mass implementation remain relatively thin on the ground. Although there have been a few examples of TV operators pushing the envelope since last year,

“Sponsored UI [allows] brands to have ownership over a section of the OTT interface in exchange for an advertisement fee” ron Downey, CEO, Massive VR is still very much experimental territory for the majority of players. But that’s not to say consumer appetite isn’t growing. New research indicates revenue generated by the virtual reality industry will top $20 billion by 2020, while the augmented reality market is pegged to hit $61 billion by 2023. The key to all this is the way viewers can engage with virtual or augmented content, which means it should come as no surprise that many players are now investing heavily in future design and development of the UX for these

next-generation technologies. Although it still may be some time before VR and AR hit the mainstream, the broadcasters and rights holders that come out on top will be the ones who begin future-proofing themselves today – particularly for sports, an area that’s become arguably the most viable use case for VR outside gaming and holds a multitude of opportunities for augmented or virtualised content presentation. Just think how much stickier a brand experience would become by getting creative with the delivery of real-time game data, multiple camera angles and communal viewing, all housed in a 360-degree experience. New revenue opportunities on the horizon Although the subscription model is a tried and tested revenue driver for thousands of OTT services

Broadcasters and rights holders that come out on top will be the ones who begin future-proofing themselves today.

Sports is the most viable use case for VR outside gaming and holds a multitude of opportunities for augmented or virtualised content presentation.

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PROOtt

around the world, it does have a few flaws – increasing customer acquisition costs, limited market headroom, low initial price points. This year, NAB offered a breath of fresh air to those operating in this space with the introduction of new trusted, complementary, nonintrusive ways to increase revenue. The biggest is what’s called a sponsored UI, allowing brands to have ownership over a section of the OTT interface in exchange for an advertisement fee. It could be just one or two rails of content, or an entire reskin for a limited time across all devices. Next-gen user experience This is a big one. The majority of streaming services out there currently offer the same experience and design across their suite of apps. This happens regardless of who the viewer is, what their individual preferences are or how they’ve interacted with the platform before, which brings us back to the issue with taking a one-size-fits-all approach. No two viewers are the same. Sure, they may share certain characteristics that allow an OTT player to introduce demographicbased segmentation, but a level of differentiation still needs to be there. Take a new streaming service, for example. Some will be first-time visitors who expect to see a curated snapshot of what’s available in the content library. Others will be die-hard thriller fans who want a personalised homepage tailored to their genre of choice. Again, drawing parallels with the future of VR, this is a concept particularly applicable to live sports. This is an area where some of the most exciting personalisation options currently lie, thanks largely to the plethora of different sports fans out there. Each type of fan has different needs and expectations when it comes to

faster time-to-market, quicker service and platform updates, and attractive out-of-the-box features like pre-integration with thirdparty apps and support for Google Assistant, among many others. Sure, the presence of rival third-party apps which cannot be excluded from the platform could be considered a threat, but for many clients that we speak to, this threat is outweighed by the benefits of being seen as an aggregator that offers its customers a slew of popular video apps combined with the traditional pay-TV offering. Broadcasters need a centralised front-end management system that can be operated by non-technical internal staff, writes Downey.

“To stand out from an incredibly crowded and volatile marketplace, TV operators … are increasingly focused on moving away from templated, static applications” ron Downey, CEO, Massive service functionality and design, offering a tremendous opportunity to deliver a highly personalised experience that will help drive ARPU and reduce churn as a result. The rise of Android TV Operator interest in Android TV is at an all-time high following high-profile triple- and quad-play providers deploying these solutions in the latter half of 2017, so it comes as no surprise that Android TV picked up even more steam at NAB, particularly now that Google has rolled out its Android TV Operator Tier OS, positioning itself much more favourably to customers who want to build their own UX on top of the open source Android framework. The benefits are obvious –

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The future of OTT delivery It seems clear that content is no longer king – the consumer experience has taken the throne. In order to stand out in an incredibly crowded and volatile marketplace, TV operators around the world are increasingly focused on moving away from templated, static applications and delivering an experience tailored to the end user’s personal interests, platform availability and payment choice. Given the complexities associated with delivering what’s needed to cater to the modern viewing experience, this often boils down to broadcasters introducing a centralised front-end management system that can be operated by non-technical internal staff, without needing the involvement of engineering. This makes it possible to take advantage of all of the opportunities presented by live sports, personalisation and emerging platforms. However it’s tackled, it’s clear that the video businesses that come out on top will be those that learn the lesson of this year’s NAB and deliver all of the above in real time, without incurring significant engineering spend or contributing to the already significant cost of ownership associated with running an OTT service.

A part of

26 - 28 June 2018 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

DRIVING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Boasting Asiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest congregation of satellite companies, SatComm is the gathering place for satellite solution providers and operators, telecom operators, broadcasters, IT professionals from government agencies and many more! Featuring leaders of the industry and a host of associated activities, SatComm is a must-visit event for all involved in satellite communications.

Participating exhibitors:

and many more.

Free seminars / technical talks: workshop

Entry to the exhibition is free! See you there. A part of:

Held alongside:

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PROBROADCASTASIA

Broadcastasia 2018: EngAgIng wITH THE fUTURE

Visitors to BroadcastAsia 2018 will be privy to the latest in UDR/HDR, IP broadcasting, live production, security, OTT and alternative content platforms. The summit and exhibition floor promise to shine a spotlight on industry players transforming the entertainment and broadcast value chain

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PROBROADCASTASIA

Lynx Technik’s new Testor APP for greenMachine Lynx Technik AG has launched its new Testor APP for the greenMachine platform. The new Testor APP adds multi-format test signal generator functionality to the set of greenMachine APPs. It is touted as a troubleshooting tool for technicians and engineers working in the field, in-studio applications and for line-up tasks in master control rooms. A single Testor APP replaces four individual 3g test generators that are typically sold as separate pieces of hardware. Plus, the greengUI software provides users with advanced

DON'T MISS!

graphic editing features and a more visually straightforward environment, the release stated. The Testor APP also includes a 16-channel audio test generator with adjustable level and frequency, which is embedded into the SDI video or output to the external audio outputs of greenMachine. Stand 4M5-01

Telestream showcases live coverage capabilities

Telestream will showcase products and technologies being deployed by international sports broadcasters at this year’s World Cup in Russia. The company will demonstrate how its media processing platform enables large production teams to televise this global event in UHD quality over many channels and OTT sources without

leaving their USbased production headquarters. Visitors to the Telestream booth will see how the company’s iQ solutions deliver actionable intelligence to both content owners and distributors, providing visibility and accountability along the media supply chain. wirecast, the live production software for streaming to facebook, YouTube and other destinations, will be on display. wirecast offers professional multi-camera production and built-in live conferencing. Stand 4B3-05

Producer Connect at BroadcastAsia: It’s E-sports and gaming at Producer Connect. Learn how broadcasters and operators are making moves to exploit this fast-growing market.

Paint by ChyronHego redefines telestration

Rohde & Schwarz unveils new IP solutions

At BroadcastAsia2018, ChyronHego will be showcasing Paint, a telestration analysis solution for sports broadcasting. It will highlight Version 7.4 of Paint, with new features. Paint 7.4 now boasts full 4K support including built-in recording in 4K, as well as new IP capabilities including support for HTTP H.264 live IP stream recording. Also joining Paint’s existing integration with EVS slow-motion replay servers is an all-new integration with the LiveTouch replay system from grass Valley, a Belden Brand. The new version of Paint also includes

At BroadcastAsia 2018, Rohde & Schwarz will showcase new products and system solutions spanning different application areas in the broadcast and electronic media processing market. Among the solutions on display will be R&S Clipster, a workstation for mastering and distributing feature films and episodic TV. Supporting up to 4K120p from an array of professional media file formats or baseband SDI, R&S Clipster can support various stages of post-production with its built-in tools.

new automatic player-tracking capabilities that remove the need for key framing, making the telestration solution fastest to air. In addition, ChyronHego will showcase Coach Paint Capture, the first-ever product to provide a complete video telestration workflow for coaching staff – from content capture to logging/tagging. Stand 4P2-05

Rohde & Schwarz will also highlight its R&S SpycerBox multi-user shared storage system. Using the IBM Spectrum Scale file system solution with Rohde & Schwarz storage solutions ensures more efficient storage capacity utilisation, the release stated. The new file system software for R&S SpycerBox Cell and R&S SpycerBox Ultra TL simplifies the storage workflow and makes it more costeffective, the company claims. Stand 4T2-04

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PROBROADCASTASIA

EditShare to showcase security capabilities

Showcased at BroadcastAsia are EditShareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new XStream EFS scale-out, shared storage, QScan automated quality assurance and new Flow software-defined media asset management solutions. The new EditShare XStream EfS storage is the first media purpose-built storage solution that supports comprehensive file auditing. The new XStream EfS file auditing platform

DON'T MISS!

reportedly allows users to collect and analyse shared storage user activity. Designed for nonEditShare storage environments such as Avid nEXIS, storageDnA and Amazon S3, flow Media Asset Management is a fully software-defined MAM platform. flow has been re-engineered to maximise the value of customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; existing storage infrastructure by adding an intelligent media management layer.

VSN unveils MAM solutions with new APAC team VSN will introduce the latest features and functions of its VSNExplorer Media Asset Management solution to the Asia-Pacific region during BroadcastAsia 2018 in Singapore. Visitors will be able to see demos of VSnExplorer MAM with its 100% web-based editing tool wedit, including new features such as audio waveforms and voiceover

capability, plus a new MOS Media Bus 100% HTML5 for nRCS, VSnExplorer plugin and AI capabilities for automatic metadata detection via cloud API integration with media analysis services (such as Azure, google and IBM). VSn is also expanding the APAC team at its Hong Kong office prior to the event. Stand 4N5-02

Stand 6J4-04

Innovation Hub at BroadcastAsia: Key themes at the Innovation Hub include next-gen workflow solutions, migration to cloud-based solutions and UHD/HDR/4K/8K.

Aviwest to unveil all-new PRO3 Series At BroadcastAsia2018, Aviwest will unveil its allnew PRO3 Series, which implements its H.265/ HEVC hardware encoder in a compact design enclosure enabling video professionals to provide news and event coverage. Supporting the HEVC video standard with up to 12 network links (eight cellular modems, WiFi, Ethernet), a custom antenna array and Aviwest SafeStreams technology, the PRO3 Series allows broadcasters to deliver better video quality while consuming less data. featuring a lightweight design, the AIR Series is

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suited for on-the-go video professionals, providing portable, versatile and affordable solutions. featuring up to six network links (four cellular modems, one internal wifi and one Ethernet), a three-hour internal battery and Aviwest SafeStreams technology, the AIR series allows broadcasters to stream live video seamlessly and store and forward recorded content, reportedly even during unpredictable and unmanaged network conditions. Stand 6D2-01

PROBROADCASTASIA

Artel showcases smart media delivery platform

Interra Systems showcases Baton QC

At BroadcastAsia2018, Artel will feature three integrated, end-to-end, IP-centric demo areas specifically designed to address customers’ growing requirements as they migrate toward all-IP or hybrid IP-SDI networks. Artel’s exhibit will showcase the company’s expanding portfolio, including solutions for SMPTE 2110, AES67 and SMPTE ST 2022-7 hitless protection, as well as ARQ Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) OTT streaming. A finalist in the Connect category of the IABM Broadcast and Media (BaM) Awards for 2018,

Interra Systems will showcase its approach to QC and monitoring, which ensures the delivery of video on every device. New features on display include QC checks, ABR stream validation, real-time QoE measurements and deep-dive compressed stream analysis. The latest version of Interra System’s Baton QC solution leverages AI and machine learning-based advanced algorithms, and includes what the company claims is the industry’s first

DON'T MISS!

Artel’s Smart Media Delivery Platform is a carrier-grade, software-defined platform with integrated non-blocking Layer 2/3 switching and routing capabilities. The Smart Platform features four video ports for transporting video, audio and ancillary data, and four gigE data ports bridged to a 10g interface. USA Pavilion Stand 4Q2-03

support for the Vast protocol, hybrid QC workflows, support for HDR content, audio language detection capabilities and more. Interra Systems will demonstrate its Vega media analysis solution for standards compliance, debug and interoperability of encoded streams. Stand 4T3-06

TVeXchange at BroadcastAsia: Gain insights from leading players on non-linear broadcasting solutions and alternative content platforms.

Open Broadcast Systems' advanced IP workflows Open Broadcast Systems will be demonstrating its latest encoding and decoding solutions for IP contribution at BroadcastAsia, with what the company claims is the highest density integrated receiver decoder (IRD) currently on the market. This has the potential to replace half a rack of equipment with a single

server, as well as enable 16 channels at once to be decoded on a 1U chassis. The products reportedly deliver cost-effective encoding and decoding of video for broadcast contribution. Its solutions are all softwarebased, running as apps on standard IT hardware. MD Kieran Kunhya will be speaking at BroadcastAsia in the Innovation Hub on Tuesday, 26 June on the topic ‘2018 – The Year of IP Video for Contribution and in the Studio’. Stand 6K3-09

PlayBox Tech marks 18,000 channel deliveries

PlayBox Technology will celebrate its 18,000th product delivery at BroadcastAsia. PlayBox Technology will be represented by CEO Pavlin Rahnev, Asia-Pacific General Manager Desmon Goh, Sales Manager Iulian Ionescu and colleagues from the company’s Asia-Pacific offices. The addition to the neo product range is neo TS Time Delay, a 1U IP-based delay

server providing transparent delay of IP transport streams such as DVB/ATSC MPEg broadcast-quality compressed video and audio. Designed for broadcasters operating in multiple time zones, features include programme information display of MPEg-compliant transport streams. Stand 4J3-01

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PROGUEST

"Despite proven benefits in remote production, live production and use of softwarebased architecture, broadcasters are choosing to merely dip their proverbial toes in IP"

Still experimenting with IP? IP has been greatly talked about for a number of years, but very few broadcasters are actually taking the leap to IP workflows in studios. Those that are, for the most part, are dipping their toes in the water with some mostly experimental workflows or productions, and they often have some sort of back-up in place. As these experiments prove more and more reliable, we will begin to see a concerted move to IP studios, enabling broadcasters to properly maximise the benefits of IP. However, this will not be without challenges. Remote production Remote production is an interesting scenario for IP. Connectivity is now good enough to backhaul all traffic over an IP network to a studio. This saves the broadcaster vast amounts through not having to have teams of people on-site and all the associated costs.

is now ubiquitous, and 100GB/s is now relatively affordable. This means broadcasters can build facilities that are usable and upgradable from day one, be it for more HD, 4K or even 8K. Given that technologies change at a fast pace, that easy scalability is absolutely key. SMPTE 2022-6 is being used today as a bridge between the SDI and IP world in complex, multi-vendor facilities. It transports an SDI stream directly over IP, including legacy data such as the vertical blanking interval (VBI) and the cyclic redundancy check (CRC). For this reason, it is relatively inefficient in an IP world. The industry is looking to SMPTE 2110 as the future. It carries video and audio separately without the legacy constraints described previously, and handles timing through precision time protocol (PTP). It is also suitable for higher resolution signals such as 4K and 8K.

Live production environment The live production environment is still very much SDI-based. SDI provides only a single video feed down a single cable. The biggest challenge is the cables, you need lots of them! At the highest size, SDI routers are limited to 1,152x1,152 feeds; facilitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; routers are now filling up, with the current explosion of content. The broadcast world is now learning from the much larger economies of scale in the networking world. 10GB Ethernet

Benefits of deploying softwarebased architecture Although IP is becoming more widely deployed, there are very few broadcasters doing this using software. This seems a little surprising, as it means they are not making the most of what IP can deliver in terms of cost efficiency, flexibility and scalability. Use of a pure software-based architecture increases flexibility. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) IT servers can have multifunction

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capabilities, running multiple processes such as high-density decoding and encoding in a single chassis. There are numerous manufacturers offering SDI-based solutions around COTS IT equipment, and a few offering SMPTE 2022-6 and SMPTE 2110 solutions in pure software. Many traditional hardware manufacturers are treating SMPTE 2110 as the nirvana of IP video, but software implementation is challenging. The SMPTE 2110 series is a complex set of documents with many different profiles. It is likely that the most common timing profile will be 2110-N, narrow gapped. This has very tight timing requirements of four packets (about 40us), which is complicated to achieve in software. Furthermore, no products to measure compliance of the timing model currently exist. The gapped nature also means the VBI will remain, a long-outdated relic from the past. Unfortunately, all this means that legacy constraints will exist for decades and continue to reduce business agility in the broadcast industry. It is likely that initial multi-vendor 2110 facilities will be challenging to implement, with some reverting to 2022-6 owing to the complexity. That said, the introduction of uncompressed IP and software into the broadcast environment will be the biggest transition in production since the transition from analogue to digital. Kieran Kunhya is MD at Open Broadcast Systems.