ISSUE 120 | JUNE 2020
Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
BREATHING LIFE INTO KSA studios raise the profile of regional animation with strong indigenous stories created to international standards
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PROINTRO
GROUP Managing Director Raz Islam raz.islam@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5471 Managing Partner Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5472 EDITORIAL Editor
Welcome
Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 55 105 3787 Assistant Editor Shifa Naseer shifa.naseer@cpitrademedia.com +971 (4) 375 5478 Contributing Editor Paul Godfrey 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 Designer Percival Manalaysay MARKETING Marketing Assistant Aysha Sultan aysha.sultan@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5498 CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION Production Manager Vipin V. Vijay vipin.vijay@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5713 Distribution Manager Phinson Mathew George phinson.george@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5476 DIGITAL SERVICES Abdul Baeis Sadiq Siddiqui FOUNDER Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015)
It’s month three since we started discussing Covid-19 and now, it’s no longer a novelty. We have evolved from deluding ourselves into imagining this to be a temporary spell to looking at how to ensure business continuity in a virus-infested world irrespective of how long this situation lasts. So, while some of us have donned masks and gloves and bravely stepped out of our homes, businesses are also courageously revisiting their capital expenditures that may perhaps have been on hold. No doubt, some businesses have frozen all investment indefinitely but there are others who may consider rerouting their CAPEX to address new priorities such as remote working and ensuring business continuity while still others may have seized this opportunity to cut some good deals. I believe solutions for remote working will now be considered as critical as any mainstream operation. Businesses therefore may potentially divert some of their investments to ensure that remote working is taken care of. Many may also now see wisdom in favouring OPEX over CAPEX and choosing cloud solutions. In the meantime, while money has been on hold, no virus can impede our creative skills. Writers and animators
have been hard at work crafting new narratives from their respective home offices. Businesses have been mulling new strategies to deal with the current situation and some innovative ideas will emerge in the coming months, I'm certain. In the meantime, we had the opportunity to catch up with a few animation companies that have emerged in recent times in Saudi Arabia. Their strong storylines, rooted in Arabic culture, and high-quality productions, created in collaboration with local talent and international studios, are enabling them to conceive and produce ambitious projects that can have both regional and global appeal. Those projects haven't diminished because of a pandemic. In fact, the argument for content has never been more compelling than in a lockdown, where demand spiked, and supply couldn't keep up. As we gradually return to work, we are likely to see a whole subterranean stream of changes that will gradually make themselves known to us. Let's brace ourselves for the new normal.
Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director
Published by ISSUE 120 | JUNE 2020
Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
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On this month's cover…
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BREATHING LIFE INTO KSA studios unleash a new era of regional animation with a raft of indigenous stories, local talent and collaborations
Let’s create a vibrant online broadcast community!
Animated works from Zeez Animation, Vision Entertainment and Manga Productions.
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June 2020 | www.broadcastprome.com | 1
Mission accomplished The task: Build a mobile production tool that covers the following topics: Full-IP | SMPTE 2110 | AMWA | NMOS
The result: Two large Full-IP, SMPTE 2110 based OB Vans built for NEP Belgium and RTBF.* *planning, manufacture, configuration and handover during COVID-19 – in time!
www.broadcast-solutions.me
PROCONTENTS
Inside this issue 05 NEWS Mondo Globo launches Arabic TV platform in Europe; METCO secures $1m deal; IBC2020 cancelled; Turkish editor certifies in DaVinci Resolve; Saudi fund buys stake in FB and Disney; Vox Drive-in cinema launches in Dubai; Art Format Lab preps for new TV show; and more
12 CASE STUDY: EVOLVING WITH CHANGING TIMES Tony Saab of Intigral talks about the launch of Jawwy TV on IP and deploying a remote solution to ensure seamless operations
June 2020 VOX LAUNCHES DRIVE-IN CINEMA
YOUNG EMIRATIS PREP FOR TV SHOW
10
08 INTIGRAL LAUNCHES JAWWY ON IP
SAUDI ARABIA EMBRACES ANIMATION
16 COVER: CREATING A NEW TOON Animation studios in Saudi Arabia throw light on how the industry is gearing up to develop local animated content
12 REVIEW: TESTING RED GIANT VFX SUITE
16 MUSTAFA ABBAS AND THE LONG GAME
24 GAME CHANGER IN POST PRODUCTION? Post-production expert Alistair Rankine gives us his take on Red Giant's VFX Suite
30 BEHIND THE SCENES Emirati director Mustafa Abbas on the filming of The Long Game and his upcoming projects
30
24 THE HOTTEST MARKET LAUNCHES
GETTING TO GRIPS WITH AV-OVER-IP
36 PRODUCT LAUNCHES A look at the newest products in the broadcast industry
40 OPINION Understanding the AV-over-IP stack can help a broadcaster make more informed decisions, says Brad Price
36
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PRONEWS
Mondo Globo announces Arabic multi-delivery TV platform in Europe Mondo Globo/ MCNC Group has launched a TV platform directed at the Arabic community in Europe, which includes more than 50 TV channels. Arabicspeaking viewers in Europe can access programmes via a multi-delivery platform including digital satellite box and Android TV OTT box in addition to digital applications for mobile, tablet, and Android Smart TVs. This is the first legal platform of its kind across Europe to distribute Arabic content.
Variance Films acquires theatrical rights to Image Nation’s Scales Variance Films has acquired all North American theatrical rights from Image Nation Abu Dhabi to Saudi Arabian filmmaker Shahad Ameen’s awardwinning debut feature Scales. The film is a feminist parable set in a dystopian landscape. Scales premiered at the Venice International Film Festival’s Critics Week, where it won the Verona Film Club Award. Scales is a Film Solutions and The Imaginarium Films production, produced in association with Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji Productions. The deal was negotiated by Dylan Marchetti for Variance Films and Cinetic Sales Group. AGC International handles international rights to the film.
platforms that do not have the legal rights to distribute and promote such content. Mondo Globo/MCNC Group plays a vital role in creating awareness and promoting the best interests of both the broadcaster and the viewer and is heavily engaged with different industry stakeholders to flush out such illegal activities and platforms to ensure consumer safety.” Mondo Globo offers customised bouquets catering to Arab audiences in cooperation with major broadcasting entities and telcos around the world.
Cedric Aoun, COO of the Globo/ MCNC Group, said: “The Arabic content distribution landscape in Europe is polluted by many illegal and piracy
Etisalat Group CEO Saleh Al Abdooli steps down Saleh Al Abdooli (pic below) has resigned from his role as CEO of Etisalat Group for “personal reasons”. Eng. Hatem Dowidar has been appointed acting CEO of the Group. Dowidar was previously CEO International of Etisalat.
Dubai Film and TV Commission issues filming permits again Disney exec joins TikTok as CEO Disney’s head of streaming Kevin Mayer has joined ByteDance as COO. In his new role, Meyer will lead music, gaming, Helo app, emerging businesses, and also serve as CEO of TikTok. Effective June 1, Meyer will report to ByteDance CEO Yiming Zhang and will be charged with driving ByteDance's global development.
The Dubai Film and TV Commission has started issuing filming permits again with strict guidelines due to the coronavirus pandemic. Some of the guidelines include temperature checks at mall entry points, two-metre social distancing, and no buffets. The list also contains specific production-related regulations. For instance, casting is to be carried out remotely. Crew members on set must be between the ages of 18 and 60 and no filming is permitted between 10 pm and 6 am. No more than 10 crew members will be allowed on set at one time and makeup experts are to use single-use kit.
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PRONEWS
Middle East customer opts for Net Insight Net Insight’s partner Middle East Telecommunications Company (METCO) has signed a US $1m agreement with a Middle East customer for a new nationwide media network based on the Nimbra solutions. Product delivery is scheduled for Q2 of 2020. The order includes Nimbra hardware, software as well as services. In line with Net Insight’s strategy to grow recurring revenue, the contract consists of more than 20% professional services and support, spread over the next three years.
The new network will provide HD and UHD/4K uncompressed contribution
capabilities covering multiple locations. To ensure high-quality
Disney to make live-action short film based on Eid Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has announced plans to make a live-action short film about a Pakistani family that has shifted to the US. Entitled American Eid, the film is part of a low-budget SVOD programme called ‘LaunchPad Shorts 2020’ distributed by the company.
The short film, which will be directed by LA-based filmmaker Aqsa Altaf, revolves around Ameena, an eightyear-old girl, who desperately wants to celebrate Eid, which isn’t recognised as an official holiday in America. She decides to start a petition to make Eid an official holiday
in her new home country. Filming will begin later this year. The team is presently scouting for Pakistani talent with fluency in Urdu and English. The deadline to apply for the roles is July 1, 2020. Casting will take place in Los Angeles, according to castittalent.com website.
IBC2020 cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic IBC CEO Michael Crimp announced last month that the 2020 edition of the show has been cancelled owing to the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In an official statement, Crimp said: "It has become evident, through our dialogue with the IBC community, that an early decision is preferential to plan for the future. Despite the best work of the IBC team and our Dutch colleagues, there
Michael Crimp.
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are still many unknowns. Important aspects of a large-scale event such as IBC will be greatly altered by social distancing, travel restrictions and masks, and the spirit of the show will be compromised. "With that in mind and based on what we know at this point, it is with a heavy heart IBC has made the difficult decision to cancel the IBC2020 show," Crimp said.
viewer experience, METCO will use Net Insight’s Nimbra products for multipurpose transport, media acceleration and professional IP media transport. Abdulamir Al Muscati, General Manager at METCO said: “We chose Net Insight as their open video-centric solution offers a combination of broadcast-grade reliability, scalability and simplicity to manage large media networks. The highly flexible Nimbra transport platform also allows for easy future network expansion.”
MBC Group condemns attack on studios in Iraq MBC Group decried an attack on its studios and offices in Baghdad last month. The attack was reported to be in response to an episode shown as part of Malek Beltawilah, a family educational show that aired during Ramadan. In a press statement, MBC Group said it “places the matter in the hands of the Iraqi authorities, trusting in its security protocols, and judicial process, in order to protect MBC Iraq’s employees and the organisation, which operates in Iraq in accordance with the laws and regulations of the country”.
PRONEWS
Turkey gets first Resolve-certified editor Istanbul-based Oguz Celik, Turkey’s first certified DaVinci Resolve Studio editor, has successfully used Resolve as his primary NLE on feature film and TV projects including Ramo, a 12-part series commissioned for Turkish broadcaster, Show TV. Ramo was directed by Yagız Alp Akaydın, Celik's long-time collaborator. “I’ve been working in post-production for almost 20 years, four of which have been with Yagız. We first joined forces to complete 84 episodes of his action series, Söz,” Celik commented. With Turkish drama enjoying global viewership thanks to OTT platforms, Celik has seen a transition in
his editing work from feature film to TV projects. The problem is that each episode of Turkish drama typically runs to two hours or more. “For Söz, I was using Final Cut Pro 7, which had been my NLE for more than fifteen years. However, I had a serious challenge: my pipeline was outdated, and unsuitable to new codecs and formats. It
was also very rushed, as it involved cutting the equivalent of a feature film’s worth of footage in a week. Also, my team and I had to rely on a proxy workflow, so we needed to take additional time to conform the MXF 4K footage before the colourist could grade in Resolve and we could export the final cut. I knew this had to change if we were With Turkish drama episodes running to two hours or more, Celik needed Resolve to work natively in 4K and export 140-minute episodes in under a week.
going to get Ramo done.” With support from Blackmagic Design’s distributor MediaCast, Celik tested a Resolve-based workflow for the edit, familiarising himself with the GUI before migrating the project in its entirety. “It was an easy learning curve. We have now closed the conform chapter of our pipeline for good. We can work natively in 4K without proxies or round-tripping and export a 140-minute episode in just under a week. Becoming certified has allowed me to consolidate all that operational knowledge to realise the potential of this project and know I can keep updated through ongoing training on future releases.”
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PRONEWS
Saudi fund buys stake in Facebook, Boeing and Disney Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has purchased minority stakes in US companies including Boeing, Facebook and Disney, according to a regulatory filing. The $320bn PIF disclosed stakes worth $713.7m in Boeing, about $522m in Citigroup, $522m in Facebook, $495.8m in Disney and $487.6m in Bank of America. PIF also disclosed an $827.7m stake in oil company BP, which has American Depository Receipts (ADRs)
listed in the United States. PIF already has stakes in Uber Technologies and electric car company Lucid Motors. The fund now has managed to secure a portfolio of nearly $10bn in US-listed stocks. The Saudi sovereign fund has been buying minority stakes in global companies, taking advantage of market weakness in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had tasked the sovereign-wealth fund in 2015 with diversifying
Shahid offers VIP subscriptions through Fawry outlets in Egypt MBC Group’s Shahid platform has partnered with Egypt’s e-payment network Fawry to facilitate different payment methods for customers in the country to acquire Shahid VIP subscriptions. With Shahid VIP subscription cards, and the service of paying the monthly plans for its audience through more than 140,000 outlets for Fawry and Fawry Plus, Shahid hopes to boost subscriptions. MBC has also partnered with TCL Electronics to offer Shahid on all TCL Android televisions. Users across the MENA region purchasing a new TCL Android TV of select models in select markets will also receive a free subscription to Shahid VIP.
the country’s economy away from oil by investing in companies and industries untethered to hydrocarbons. “PIF is a patient investor with a long-term horizon. As such, we actively seek strategic opportunities both in Saudi Arabia and globally that have strong potential to generate significant longterm returns while further benefiting the people of Saudi Arabia and driving the country’s economic growth,” the sovereign wealth fund said in a statement.
Vox announces Drive-in Cinema at Mall of the Emirates The Vox Drive-in at Mall of the Emirates.
With theatres temporarily closed owing to the Covid-19 outbreak, Vox Cinemas in Dubai has turned the rooftop of Mall of the Emirates, previously used for parking, into a Drive-in cinema. The new experience, although open to the public, will not allow children under 12 and adults over 60. The current capacity of the Vox Cinemas Drive-in is 75 cars, with a maximum
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of two people per vehicle. Once parked, viewers tune into a designated radio frequency for the movie audio to be streamed straight into their car. Cameron Mitchell, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim, Cinemas, said: “We’re delighted to collaborate with Mall of the Emirates to launch a way for people to watch movies the way they were intended – on the big screen.”
MBC among top 20 with 2.5bn social video views in April
MBC Group has entered the list of top 20 media companies for social media video views, according to Tubular Labs’ April 2020 results. The report shows MBC Group jumped 13 positions, from number 32 in March to number 19 in April for global media and entertainment entities. Tubular Labs’ top five currently comprises The Walt Disney Company, ViacomCBS, Comcast, WarnerMedia and TheSoul Publishing. In April, MBC achieved a total of 2.5bn social video views in the Middle East, compared to 1.6bn views in March – resulting in a month-on-month (MOM) growth of +58%. There was video view growth in each tracked platform. On YouTube, views increased by 37.5% and on Facebook, by 76.6%. Instagram saw a growth of 94.8% while Twitter views increased by 53.8%. The growth rates are based on MBC's performance during Ramadan. Over 50% of audience share was achieved in Saudi Arabia, with on-going audience leadership in the GCC, North Africa (Egypt) and other key markets.
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PRONEWS
Art Format Lab begins shoot for new TV show scheduled for September launch Art Format Lab has announced a reality TV show that follows young Emiratis as they prepare for their weekly magazine TV show called Atyaaf Magazine Show. The show will have 26 weekly episodes of 60 minutes each, and will start airing from September 2020. The idea of the show is to go behind the scenes to monitor the show hosts as they prepare to produce each segment. A related digital platform
will serve as a hub for talents for each segment like Studio of Happiness, Music Box Studio, Bookathon Studio, The Lounge Break: Entrepreneurship, IQ Studio and Nutrition Studio. The programme is hosted by a team of six young Emiratis including a psychologist, a musician, a journalist and author, an entrepreneur, a scientist and a nutritionist. They will be led by show director Ali Al
Nuaimi, who is also editorin-chief of the magazine. Each host will present a segment within seven minutes. The programme is filmed in a studio set designed to be Atyaaf's HQ, where the editorial team prepares and films the programme. The set is divided into six dedicated studios for each segment. The show is an Art Format Lab Original and will be rolled out in Riyadh in partnership with Gorilla Films.
Aret uses Ikegami cameras for new 4K OB vehicle
Emirati film Musk to screen at Asia Pacific Screen Awards Emirati director Humaid Alsuwaidi’s film Musk, which won the Best Film award at the Al Ain Film Festival, will screen at the 14th Asia Pacific Screen Awards next November. Musk landed its world premiere at the Festival International du Film Transsaharien de Zagora in Morocco.
Aret Video & Audio Engineering has chosen Ikegami’s UHK-430 and HDK-99 cameras for a recently completed 4K OB vehicle. The vehicle was commissioned in time to cover Qatar’s National Day festivities. Commenting on the development, Aret
Video’s Vice President Alessandro Asti said: “The Ikegami cameras were selected both for their high signal quality and Ikegami's excellent post-sale support. Eight UHK-430 models have been purchased plus two docking-style HDK-99s. All 10 cameras can be tripod
or pedestal mounted to achieve steady longzoom closeup capture of fast-moving action while retaining the freedom to operate in free-style overthe-shoulder mode. The HDK-99 can be configured to feed directly from the camera control unit into any 4K periphery.”
Abu Dhabi Media and VICE launch digital content platform to attract young talent in the Arab world Abu Dhabi Media Office and VICE have launched Lamma, a digital content platform, aimed at Arab youth. The platform will feature content focussed on young creators in music, fashion and arts. It will tackle topics ranging from the
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environment and mental health to job creation, and welcome regional musicians, comedians, educators, psychologists and so on to share their views and insights on their areas of expertise. Maryam Eid AlMheiri, DG of Abu Dhabi Media
Office, said: “Lamma will be a virtual collaborative space defined by Abu Dhabi’s inclusive spirit. This partnership offers the opportunity to engage youth in the region in a way that is relevant to them as we face challenging times, and look ahead to a brighter future.”
PRONEWS
Nutanix and Avid partner to provide multi-cloud solution to broadcasters Nutanix has announced that its Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) software has been certified to run with Avid Media Composer video editing software and the Avid MediaCentral media collaboration platform. Nutanix helps content providers transform their businesses by increasing engagement with faster content delivery, especially at a time when end users
Tarkan Maner is Chief Commercial Officer at Nutanix.
EVS acquires Axon for $11.5m EVS has completed the acquisition of broadcast and media network infrastructure specialist Axon. The value of the transaction is set at $11.5m, plus an earn-out up to a maximum of $2.74m. The acquisition will be paid by cash and debt. This acquisition will enable EVS to provide a comprehensive modern media infrastructure solution that includes advanced IP processing, SDI/IP conversion, SDN-based control and monitoring, as well as UHD4K and IP multiviewer. The combination of EVS’ Score Master SDN IP orchestrator, with Axon’s Cerebrum control and monitoring system, Neuron IP stream processing platform and the extensive Synapse modular infrastructure platform,
will provide a scalable and redundant end-toend solution to empower customers everywhere. This deal also allows EVS to expand its global footprint and leverage its international presence to accelerate the reach of Axon’s expertise and technology. Additionally, EVS will benefit from Axon’s relationships with channel partners, while also broadening the reach of its product portfolio to different distribution channels. The Axon brand will be absorbed into EVS and its product portfolio will be integrated into EVS’ global solution offering. The objective is to integrate Axon team members and to further invest in its technology and market expertise.
are looking to access digital entertainment and content. Nutanix cloud software enables customers to increase cross-channel engagement, empower content creators, drive operating efficiency, and improve decision-making that’s uniform across all functions and locations. “Customers in the media and entertainment industry are looking for an IT infrastructure that
Nigeria waives licence fees for TV stations The federal government has announced a twomonth licence fee waiver for terrestrial broadcast stations in Nigeria. The move is part of the government's efforts to counter the negative impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the broadcast industry in the country. Terrestrial stations affected include Galaxy, AIT, TVC, MITV, Silverbird TV, NTA, which are all free-toair channels for consumers. Licence fee costs as much as $7,661 a year to broadcast. It comes after the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON) pressed the government to approve tax rebates for TV stations as well as a one-year moratorium in the payment of annual operating licence fee payable to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
enables increased customer engagement and faster content delivery, and the joint solution between Avid and Nutanix offers just that,” said Tarkan Maner, Chief Commercial Officer at Nutanix. “This collaboration offers companies a multi-cloud solution to easily support business-critical apps in the industry while providing a platform that is simple, flexible, and powerful.”
Bitmovin appoints John Illingworth as sales director for MENA Bitmovin has appointed John Illingworth as Sales Director for the MENA region. Illingworth, who has been based in the Middle East for nine years, joined Bitmovin in April to develop new business and provide local sales support to new and existing customers. He is based in the UAE and has been tasked with expanding the company’s customer base in the MEA market. Bitmovin announced that it has seen an increase of over +30% in video usage in March.
June 2020 | www.broadcastprome.com | 11
PROCASESTUDY
INTIGRAL LAUNCHES LINEAR CHANNEL, UNDERTAKES REMOTE OPERATIONS
Intigral was unfazed when a complete lockdown was announced in late March in Dubai. With most of its Ramadan productions ready owing to early planning and the launch of Jawwy TV on IP scheduled for the Holy Month, the only element left to ensure seamless operations was the deployment of a remote solution. Tony Saab of Intigral takes BroadcastPro ME through the content and the technology that ensured the successful launch of Jawwy TV on IP
Intigral launched a linear channel called Jawwy TV on IP last month to complement the Jawwy TV streaming service. The IP version carries a mix of curated content that primarily includes some of Intigral’s originals and exclusives. As the launch coincided with the start of Ramadan as well as the Covid-19 outbreak, the Intigral team also implemented a robust remote operational strategy under the leadership of Tony Saab, VP of Content and Production at Intigral, to ensure a seamless entertainment experience for its viewers.
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The remote implementation included the deployment of a CreateCtrl planning and scheduling system as well as a Lighthouse module from Pebble Beach Systems. The Lighthouse installation adds to the ongoing deployment of Pebble solutions that started at Intigral way back in 2014. As the brain behind Intigral’s recent content acquisition and production strategy, Saab says the addition of Jawwy TV on the linear box is part of the company’s efforts to ensure that it reaches a wider audience with its Originals.
PROCASESTUDY
Intigral primarily went remote with a Lighthouse module from Pebble Beach Systems, says Tony Saab.
“We offer carefully selected content on Jawwy TV. If our audience likes it and wants to binge watch, they can go to Jawwy on the SVOD platform. Our objective is to offer our audiences a wide variety of content on different platforms so they can really experience our entertainment through the medium of their choice.” Intigral was fortunate that it started on its Ramadan productions as early as Q4 of 2019, says Saab, as a result of which, it was able to air its original productions as initially planned. “Some of our originals are Hawas, a thriller; Ejaza, a drama series; Yamam, targeted at kids; Al Deerah, a Gulf drama that has been doing extremely well; Bint w wlad, a comedy, also doing very well; and Ettjah Khateh, also a drama series. Some of these are 12 episodes, some 15 and others 30, and they were all created for Ramadan. We were lucky because I started early in the quarter and some, as far back as Q4 last year. The only production we did not manage to complete was a cooking show but all the major series we planned were out there,” he explains. With the coronavirus pandemic and people having to work from home, however, Intigral had to quickly arrange for a more extensive remote operation “in order to make access available from home for our teams”, says Saab. “We have around 10 people working on our existing operations. They are dedicated to working on the channels all the way from playout and scheduling to branding and the other operations related to it. Lighthouse is a remote system that can access the playout in our data centre and allows our teams to operate from their homes. We already have an ongoing relationship with Pebble Beach Systems,” explains Saab. To place the project in perspective, Intigral initially started with just Pebble Beach Marina automation and Dolphin servers for ingest purposes in 2014.
“We moved a batch of developers and installed their workstations at home and connected them to the mainframes. Once they were sorted, we did the second and third batches” Tony Saab, VP of Content and Production, Intigral With its core business being IPTV at the time, Intigral received feeds from all over the world and repurposed it for parent company, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), which is also the Kingdom’s incumbent telco operator. STC customers had the option to subscribe to Intigral to receive IPTV channels. Later, Intigral undertook a major content management and playout system upgrade, including expansion of the Dolphin solution, and more recently deployed its remote management and monitoring tool, Lighthouse. Intigral installed and configured the system by itself, sharing remote access to Pebble in order to set up the new server. “This was all carried out remotely due to the current Covid-19 crisis, but it was completed quickly and efficiently,” says Samir Isbaih, VP Sales - Middle East and Asia, Pebble Beach Systems. “Pebble Beach Systems has been working with Intigral to support
the launch of its new channel and implement its Lighthouse product, which runs alongside Marina. Lighthouse allows remote access to all active channels, and operators are able to securely access and operate the entire system from home,” he adds. The Lighthouse integration allows multiple people remote access to the channel playout capabilities. Specific functionality includes the Lighthouse Channel Controller for working on the playlist; the Smart Panel, which can enable master control switching and manual addition of graphics if required; the Media Inventory, which enables users to see all the media they have across their system; and the Browse Player, where users can view and monitor the video streaming from Dolphin at home, as well as look through the upcoming content from their browsers to check accuracy and inspect for errors. Lighthouse offers low latency, secure, reliable access to the main on-premise Marina and Dolphin systems. Intigral was the first media company in the UAE to deploy Pebble’s Marina automation controlling its Dolphin integrated channel technology in 2014, enabling ingest from tape and live sources. Incoming media is recorded via SDI onto Dolphin’s internal storage and onto an external Isilon storage. Once ingested via SDI, the files are
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PROCASESTUDY
delivered into Intigral’s exclusively IP workflow for distribution to regional telecommunication operators. The solution was developed to meet Intigral’s complex asset management requirements, providing intelligent rulebased media movement. As part of the recent expansion, playlists are delivered to Marina automation from a CreateCtrl traffic system in native Marina XML format, and the system offers advanced SCTE-104 triggering for ad insertion. As Intigral already uses Marina, the Lighthouse addition was easy to configure and quick to use. The fact that it has customisable widgets and dashboard reportedly made navigation simple. “Lighthouse essentially offers a ‘view’ into Marina. The same actions that someone would do on an on-premise system can be done remotely with Lighthouse. It is a web-based application that sits outside the standard secure network that a normal automation playout system would be a part of within the broadcast facility, but with the correct permissions, Lighthouse can
“We offer carefully selected content on Jawwy TV. If our audience likes it and wants to binge watch, they can go to Jawwy on the SVOD platform” Tony Saab, VP of Content and Production, Intigral look into the on-premise network giving remote user privileges,” explains Saab. Intigral then undertook the movement of teams to their home in batches once the outbreak began, explains Saab. “We moved a batch of developers and installed their workstations at home and connected them to the mainframes. Once we ensured that they were sorted, we did the second and third batches. I still have a small core team working from the office mainly on the content operations. “File sizes for content videos are really big and challenging to operate from home so a small team continues to work from the office,” he adds. Saab adds that Intigral created its own network and gave access to all its people as if they are working from its office. The Lighthouse installation at
Some of the Originals shown on Jawwy TV for Ramadan include Hawas, Ejaza, Yamam, Al Deerah, Bint w Wlad and Ettjah Khateh among others.
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the Dubai facility was managed entirely by the Intigral team. Both, system set up and training were conducted remotely. Perhaps one interesting aspect to this last installation was that Pebble and CreateCtrl have developed a new interface for the traffic system. Intigral added eight fully redundant channels of playout, together with an expanded ingest capability to the existing Pebble solution late last year. The installation is completely scalable and if more remote user licenses need to be added through Lighthouse, this can also be done, says Saab. With a full remote operation in place, Saab says he is pleased. With viewership having spiked significantly during Ramadan and his remote operations running without a glitch, Saab is now contemplating more content additions to the Jawwy platform. In fact, as we were going to press, Saab also confided that Intigral had acquired the first pay window rights to a few Arabic movies including Egyptian 2020 production Lees Baghdad (The Thief of Baghdad).
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BREATHING LIFE INTO With the rise in popularity of the global animation industry, Saudi Arabia is gearing up to develop local animated content, which showcases the region’s culture. Vision Entertainment CEO Robert Knežević, Abdulaziz Othman of Zeez Animation and Manga Productions CEO Essam Bukhary share with Shifa Naseer their vision and plans to compete with global players Cartoons are the epitome of most people’s childhood experience, with popular shows such as Road Runner, Sponge Bob, Dragonball Z or Scooby-Doo bringing an instant smile to our faces when we recall them. Animation isn’t just viewing material for children; it has risen to fresh popularity over the years, finding an audience among millennials with shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy. More importantly, films such as Pixar’s WALL-E or Disney’s Frozen have become all-time family favourites, signalling rising enthusiasm for such content among all age groups. The total value of the global animation industry was $254bn in 2017 and is projected to reach $270bn by 2020. This growth in demand has had a positive impact on animation production worldwide. Developed countries such as the US, Japan and the UK have a mature animation industry owing to household names like Disney, Nippon Animation and Aardman Animation. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states are latecomers to animation production. The most popular animation in the Arab world was a 1979 regional adaptation of Sesame Street titled Iftah ya Simsim (Open Sesame), shown as one- to two-minute spots designed to
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teach children Arabic letters and numbers. Due to a lack of infrastructure, the show was outsourced to production houses in Japan and France. Saudi Arabia now has a handful of animation studios producing content tailored to local tastes, and these have been ramped up with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 initiative. A few have been making headlines due to high-quality content or high-profile partnerships with big players in the region. Cases in point are Zeez Animation, a Saudi animation studio, with its award-winning series Brq & Bana; Vision Entertainment, which recently sealed a deal with Abu Dhabi’s Image Nation; and Manga Productions, a state-backed animation powerhouse that has strong connections with the Japanese animation market. While a lot of bold storytelling is in the making, there is a lack of representation of “real” Arabic culture in the market, according to Abdulaziz Othman, Managing Director and Creative Director of Zeez Animation. “We saw a gap in the market that needed to be filled. We believe that we have a lot of stories to tell and the region generally is really short of premium kids’ content and animation productions.” Interviews with Saudi animation studio owners, however, indicate a changing tide with more people
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Image Nation Abu Dhabi has partnered with Saudi's Vision Entertainment to produce an animation series called Dates.
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Zeez Animation chose Saudi Arabia as its initial market, with a focus on action-adventure, comedy and edutainment, says Othman.
favouring local flavours. “There is a huge demand for content in the region. Up until a few years ago, most good programmes were imports. While Arab audiences are used to high-quality foreign productions, they now want local Arab shows produced to the same standards as their global counterparts. That’s both a challenge and an opportunity,” says Robert Kneževic, co-founder and CEO of Vision Entertainment. Having worked with Sesame Street International from 1997 to 2015 in the Middle East, Kneževic says he was perfectly positioned for the need for animated content in the region when the market opened to global companies a few years ago. He was one of the first to respond to the situation by introducing a localised version of Sesame Street in 2015, having already worked as senior producer of the Egyptian version, Alam Simsim, in 1997. With a background in social entertainment, Kneževic partnered with Princess Sarah Bint Faisal Bin Bandar Al Saud in 2018 to launch Vision Entertainment to promote the values of Saudi Vision 2030. Princess Sarah also helms a company that produces apps and support materials for children. Vision Entertainment markets itself as a content and IP company with an aim to create high-quality content and brands for the Saudi Arabian, MENA and international markets. “That is what Saudi Arabia needs,” remarks Kneževic. He believes that market demand will lead to the animation industry creating opportunities to develop the local talent pool. “Investors and distributors will look to satisfy audience demand and capitalise on the business opportunity. It’s inevitable that the media business will grow. The trick will be to find a business model that rewards both producers/creators and investors/distributors so that local content can flourish.”
“We saw a gap in the market that needed to be filled. We believe that we have a lot of stories to tell and the region generally is really short of premium kids’ content and animation productions” Abdulaziz Othman, MD and Creative Director of Zeez Animation Othman from Zeez Animation agrees. “The way content is being consumed is evolving both regionally and globally. The power is shifting from advertisers to viewers with the rise of subscription video on demand (SVOD).” However, a shortage of artists and the undeveloped cinema and media industries are serious obstacles to the shift in the paradigm. One of the challenges for regional animation studios is finding enough qualified candidates to execute its vision. Zeez Animation boasts a team of highly skilled and experienced people who hail from the region. “Our team consists of managerial and creative talents. Each production comprises a director, a producer and a production manager, in addition to a number of talents for every step such as character design, storyboarding, voice-over, animation, composting and other phases,” says Othman. Despite the steps taken to create an indigenous industry, where everything
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is built from scratch with local talent, there is a dearth of skilled manpower, the foundation of the animation industry. “This area is one where we constantly face some challenges. The region hosts a great number of talents but not all of them are willing to jump into the animation industry. It is also a challenge to build synergised teams that can work together to produce such complicated productions,” notes Othman. Kneževic adds: “Our stock and trade is creativity. We’ve found a lot of creative talent out there, but they are what I would call raw talent because there are no industry standards to provide guidance and professional discipline. And because of this missing link, there is not much scope for production. Yet, when I look at Saudi Arabia, there is tremendous potential for production. People are building physical infrastructure without much attention to IP.” But all that is changing now as animation talent emerges with the support of several government and industry initiatives to train the local talent pool, which, in turn, will result in more production. “The market is young but there is a need for overall infrastructure, technology and investment in individuals who have the potential to grow,” says Essam Bukhary, CEO of Manga Productions, a Saudi state-backed animation house with strong affiliations to Japanese animation houses. Bukhary himself speaks Japanese fluently and his company is at the forefront of creating animated productions. Technology has also elevated the local animation industry to new heights, adds Othman. “It is now driving the productions heavily. We are expecting to see more premium productions with advanced and improved equipment. Additionally, the demand for local content is surging, so we expect to see more local stories,” he points out. There has also been a sharp rise in the number of courses offered
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at Saudi universities to cover skills related to the animation industry. Dar Al-Hekma University in Jeddah offers a course in Graphic Design, while Al Yamamah University in Riyadh has Graphics and Multimedia and Dar Al Uloom University also has a similar offering. “To encourage young people, we have collaborated with schools and universities globally for internships, training and development to enhance their skills,” says Bukhary. Providing young people with media training, courses and diplomas, however, is not enough, Kneževic points out. “You need a thriving industry to provide jobs to these graduates. Our view is that it is better to invest in media projects and properties and provide on-the-job training opportunities. That’s how we see
our contribution to the industry – launching projects that will provide jobs where motivated people will gain invaluable experience when they work alongside media professionals.” To that end, the company has partnered with Image Nation Abu Dhabi to produce an animation series called Dates. “We set out to create iconic characters that are rooted in our traditions and culture. Dates are a ubiquitous staple in our homes, so we decided to bring the world of dates to life in a fun animated series. We hope audiences of all ages across the region will relate to this authentic, homegrown story,” says Princess Sarah. “The project will employ local writers and creatives who will be paired with seasoned mentors to help build that professionalism and discipline,” adds Kneževic. This project will see characters rooted
in Arab tradition and culture, and Dates does that very creatively, Kneževic notes. “The Dates concept is best told through animation. We are currently deep in script development. The pilot production was initially set to begin in March with full series production slated for the end of the year,” he adds. Kneževic further reveals that Dates will not just be a TV series but a brand that both partners hope to elevate both regionally and globally. “You will see various brand experiences roll out soon … live shows, digital content, mobile games, products and merchandising themed around Dates. It is evident that the region is ripe for a locally inspired consumer brand, and we’re positioning Dates to be that brand. All of us love Pixar and Disney, but the Arab world should have the
From left: Zeez Animation series Brq & Bana and Jawwy TV original series Yamam.
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Clockwise from left: Manga Productions' Saudi/ Japanese animation film The Journey and the Future's Folklores series.
option to enjoy a brand that reflects its own heritage and culture.” Manga Productions entered into a similar arrangement with Japan’s TOEI animation to produce its first animation series, Future’s Folklores, which premiered earlier this year on MBC1. “The series, which received overwhelming response from the regional audience, has successfully reached over 40m impressions in the first two episodes. We are very excited to create more content to cater to our fanbase,” reveals Bukhary. Manga Productions was planning to premiere the first Saudi/Japanese animation movie, called The Journey, during the Cannes Film Festival which has now been postponed indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With so many productions coming up, Saudi Arabia is poised to be a catalyst for the region’s media industry. “Abu Dhabi’s Image Nation and twofour54 are the perfect examples. They made a massive investment that kick-started the local
“We have a dedicated team working on projects from scratch... A 2.5D animation takes a long time to produce, as most of the frames are hand-drawn and go through many stages of development” Essam Bukhary, CEO, Manga Productions media industry, which is now taking its rightful place as one of the key drivers of a diversified economy,” remarks Kneževic. “Saudi Arabia is on the same track and will have a much bigger impact on the regional content business. In the end, it is all about the IP.” It is precisely this promising growth that has motivated Zeez Animation to choose Saudi Arabia as its initial market, with a focus on actionadventure, comedy and edutainment. “So far, this strategy is working perfectly for us,” says Othman. “Saudi Arabia is one of the largest markets in the region. However, we see very few animation productions that target
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the regional market. The reason is the difficulty in producing local and regional productions that can compete with imported global productions. To counter this, we target the whole region with productions that appeal to the tastes of the people here. We produce premium 2D and 3D original and collaborated productions.” Zeez Animation made a mark in the market with its educational animation series Brq & Bana, which won Best Animation at the 2019 BroadcastPro Awards last November. “Brq & Bana is a high-quality 3D animated series that targets Arab children and is one of the few animated series that is produced in the region. The series inspires kids to be active and lead adventurous sporty lifestyles. In each episode, the characters seek an active adventure, whether it be participating in a bicycle race or going after a mystical creature in the desert. We produced this series with our partners at Goody, a major food brand. The series is innovative
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in terms of advertising, where each episode contains a carefully selected product placement for Goody peanut butter,” explains Othman. Zeez has developed another animated series titled Yamam, which has been touted as a Jawwy TV Original. “It is a premium 2D production set in the future that tells the story of an adventurous kid living in Saudi Arabia. In each episode, he faces some challenges and always saves the day, while learning a lesson from a video recorded by his late father on his robot, Mersal. The series was in production for three years and recently streamed exclusively on Jawwy TV,” reveals Othman. The number of productions emerging from the region has, no doubt, increased but more importantly, some of them are high-quality animations. Good quality productions also
require a lot of time and effort. “The production timelines vary, depending on the number of episodes, the duration of each episode and whether the production is made in 3D or 2D. Sometimes it takes a couple of months to release a single episode or movie, and at other times (such as with Yamam), it takes three years to finalise the entire production,” Othman adds. Bukhary seconds this. “We have a dedicated team working on projects from scratch. Creating a 2.5D animation takes a long time to produce, as most of the frames are hand-drawn and go through many stages of development.” While production is taking off, advertising is still in its preliminary stages and could hinder the growth of the industry, according to Kneževic. “It’s well documented that the region suffers from one of the weakest advertising markets in the world. Low ad spend perpetuates a cycle of low revenue,
which in turn leads to low spend on content, low production budgets, leading to low-quality content. This results in low audience interest, which circles back to low ad spend. In other words, because there is little incentive to invest in quality content, the result is an output of poor programming with low commercial value which perpetuates the underperforming economic impact of the media ecosystem.” This vicious cycle deters growth in any industry – in order to keep going, capital injection is critical. But that will take time, says Othman. “Animation is very costly to produce, and it competes with global productions for the same time slot and attention. Budgets vary depending on the size of the production, the number of minutes and whether it is 2D or 3D. “Our process starts with the
Dates will be designed and produced simultaneously in Arabic and English for international distribution, says Robert Knežević.
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Vision Entertainment is positioned to be part of the Saudi media industry as it matures towards global standards, says Knežević.
development phase. We put a lot of effort into developing our projects and this begins with ideas and continues with character development, locations, writing scripts as well as visual development. After that, we go into production, where we do our best to ensure cohesive premium storytelling. This is finalised in post-production, and in parallel, we work on distribution,” says Othman. “At the moment, we outsource only a few of our projects. We usually work with in-house talent and hire from a wide pool of freelancers depending on the nature of the project.” Manga Productions aims to complete all stages of production in-house soon, says Bukhary. “Most of the pre-production is developed in-house, which includes character design, background design, story creation, transcribing, video game development and producing. We aim to build full production capabilities in-house in the future.” Vision Entertainment works on a different business model which does not include building in-house technology or production capacity. “There is a lot of production capacity available in the region, but frame-by-frame rendering doesn’t exist just yet in the Middle East for such projects. So, we outsource such tasks to competent vendors, and exercise oversight and quality control to deliver quality content,” explains Kneževic. “Dates will be designed and produced simultaneously in Arabic and English for international distribution. We want the world to understand the beauty and humour of Saudi culture, and this show can do it in a fun and entertaining way, while inspiring people to see a different side of Saudi Arabia,” he adds. Othman believes distribution depends on the quality of content – something the region is still struggling with. “Maintaining high quality with international standards
“Because there is little incentive to invest in quality content, the result is an output of poor programming with low commercial value which perpetuates the underperforming economic impact of the media ecosystem” Robert Knežević, CEO, Vision Entertainment is really challenging, given the size of the regional market. That is why global distribution is important but continues to remain a challenge. The studios that produce animated content in KSA have barely started producing premium stuff for premium distribution. We need a couple of years to see how the market is headed and how much value can be created with it.” In the meantime, Saudi Arabia is catching up with global competitors “with the amount of productions that are happening”, says Othman. With more production studios coming up in the region to grab a piece of the pie, one would think there is fierce competition, but that is not the case. “On the contrary, we root and cheer for anyone that can develop and launch a good media property – and we will extend any support to help others succeed,” says Kneževic. “Our view is that any individual’s or company’s success is a success for everyone in
this business, because it builds and expands the industry and that paves the way for others to succeed. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.” Othman agrees. “A number of local players are doing great work. However, every local animation studio is working with different genres directed to dif-ferent audiences.” This leaves room for global circulation of local productions, he says. “One of the advantages of our medium is the flexibility in this area. Animation can be easily dubbed and distributed globally. Being local in terms of story and execution is appealing to other markets as well, because it is considered a new and different kind of content,” notes Othman. However, the market is not mature enough, he points out. “We do not have enough productions or data to analyse. We are still figuring out what genres and formats the kids in the region would prefer from us.” Kneževic puts his faith in quality content. “Control and ownership of high-quality content and IP is vital to a vibrant and profitable media ecosystem. We positioned Vision Entertainment to be part of the Saudi media industry as it matures toward global standards.” Developing premium content while testing new genres and stories will contribute to capitalising on the rising growth of animation, says Othman. Bukhary concurs: “To that end, we are collaborating with worldrenowned animation studios to ensure we are developing and customising our production methodology to empower our local market needs.” Indeed, much has been done. The wheel has been set in motion to put the Saudi animation industry under the global spotlight. With investment in quality content production, perhaps it won’t be long before regional content starts competing for viewership on the global market.
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RED GIANT VFX SUITE A GAME CHANGER? When the Red Giant VFX Suite for After Effects was introduced last year, the big question on everyone’s mind was whether it would really give the end user the ability to take their compositing and effects work to the next level. Post-production expert Alistair Rankine, who has been testing the Red Giant VFX Suite for the last few months, gives us his verdict on whether this is indeed a game changer or just another market launch
A few months ago, Red Giant asked me to road test their new VFX Suite plug-in collection for After Effects. For those people not in the loop, Red Giant, which was founded in 2002, is one of the largest developers of After Effects Plug-ins and have an excellent reputation in both the VFX and Motion Design communities. Like many of their products, the VFX Suite bundles many of their individual plug-ins to ensure a more effective collection of VFX tools.
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The VFX Suite incorporates powerful tools for compositing, chroma-keying, motion tracking, clean-up, distortion as well as lights and glow. It comes at the seemingly hefty price of $999 ($499 for students), which is actually a fair price considering what is included in the bundle. Included in the package are the following individual plug-ins: Supercomp, Primatte Keyer 6, King Pin Tracker, Spot Clone Tracker, Optical Glow, Chromatic
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Supercomp allows the user to choose from an arsenal of tools such as Light Wrap, Reverse Light and Wrap Edge Erode among others.
will automatically change with it. All compositions within Supercomp are 32-bit floating and offer proper gamma management throughout, allowing for more realistic and seamless compositing. I find Supercomp to be fast, efficient, accurate and relatively easy to use and understand.
Displacement, Knoll Light Factory 3.1, Shadow and Reflection. As a user of Red Giant plug-ins for some time, I have found them extremely user friendly, allowing the user to spend more time honing and refining their work rather than spending time trying to figure out how to use the actual software. There are so many features available within the VFX Suite that it almost makes it feel like an entirely new workspace available to you right there within After Effects. Supercomp Users of other Red Giant plug-ins such as Trapcode and Magic Bullet will be familiar with the Supercomp panel. It is basically a “looks Builder” that allows the user to drag/drop, reorder and adjust effect parameters to the finest detail. It eliminates the need for endless pre-composing within After Effects and is extremely fast at previewing and rendering due to some clever GPU acceleration under the hood. Supercomp allows the user to choose from an arsenal of tools such as Light Wrap, Reverse Light Wrap Edge Erode, Heat Blur, Grain Management, Edge Blend, Diffusion and many more. None of these tools are new to any professional VFX Compositor; however, this has a much more user-friendly GUI than products such as Flame and Nuke offer. There are also excellent colour correction and re-grain
tools essential to creating realistic compositions that allow for greater refinement of the foreground and mattes created in the Primatte Keyer. One of my favourite features within Supercomp is “Context Aware Effects”. This basically allows any changes that you have made within your composition to be rippled throughout. This allows the user to swap out backgrounds, re-order layers etc and all the applied effects
“There are so many features available within the VFX Suite that it almost makes it feel like an entirely new workspace available to you right there within After Effects” Alistair Rankine, VFX artist
Primatte Next up is Primatte, Red Giant’s chroma key plug-in. Primatte now comes with a new interface that is much more streamlined and user friendly than previous versions. This keyer is now the best it has ever been. As with all chroma keying, the biggest challenge is usually how well the green or blue screen has been lit during the film shoot and what file format it has been shot on. I tried the keyer in various scenarios and it performed extremely well. I would never expect to pull a perfect key the first time around but the selection tool on Primatte did a good job with plenty of added tools to help refine the Matte. The Spill Killer feature works extremely well when trying to remove any blue or green reflections from characters and objects and can be a lifesaver if you are dealing with poorly lit material. Primatte also ups its game with
Primatte Keyer’s new user interface makes it easy to select the background and foreground and to separate them out for a favourable outcome.
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Spot Clone Tracker allows users to remove small objects from the footage by cloning in pixels from neighbouring areas.
the inclusion of the new Core Matte function. This works well when trying to pull complex keys such as those where the subject matter has long flowing hair. The Core Matte allows solid areas within the Matte to stay solid while also helping to preserve finer detail where there are transparent edges. All in all, the Primatte Keyer does everything it needs to at a professional level. I am a big fan of the Foundry’s Keylight Keyer and tend to use that first if I work in Nuke and After Effects. I imagine now that Red Giant has updated Primatte and added features such as the Core Matte that allow more advanced refinement along with the ability to refine the process even further inside of Supercomp, I will be more inclined to use Primatte as my goto Keyer inside of After Effects. VFX King Pin Tracker Motion Tracking has vastly improved over the years with software apps such as Mocha leading the way in planar tracking and others like Nuke and Flame developing their own planar trackers. Red Giant has now released its own planar tracker within the VFX Suite. The new tracker is extremely
fast and robust and offers first-class planar tracking right within After Effects. Red Giant even claims that they have had to add their own “results window” due to it being so fast that the After Effects Comp window can’t keep up with the speed of the tracker. Having used the King Pin Tracker in various scenarios, I am impressed. It is, in fact, very fast and accurate. I would like to see it open in a separate interface in the same way that Mocha does rather than using the After Effects GUI and control panels. That said, it works extremely well and is easy to use. Something that has always been frustrating within After Effects is the ability to work with Corner Pins when tracking, making it difficult to corner pin nonrectangular objects. The ability to “pin any shape” helps to overcome this allowing the end user to choose
With high-quality motion blur and a render engine that keeps layers sharp, King Pin Tracker allows users to composite tracked objects.
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which part of the shape will become the basis for the corner pin. This is extremely useful and saves a huge amount of time and effort when trying to accurately incorporate objects into your match moving. Combine this with excellent refinement tools to scale rotate, reposition and offset your tracked object along with the ability to add motion blur that matches the Motion Blur within your After Effects Comp and you have a planar tracker that offers highquality sampling and the ability to choose a balance of smooth to sharp rendering depending on the needs of the Composite. I have always been a huge fan of Mocha for planar tracking. I don’t see myself moving away from it completely as I am very familiar with the interface, knowing easily what I can and can’t achieve when I use it. I, however, do now see myself moving between Mocha and The King Pin Tracker depending on the needs of the shot in question. The King Pin Tracker really holds its own and as I believe it will only get better with future releases. One wish, a less After Effects-like control panel. Spot Clone Tracker The ability to remove unwanted objects from scenes quickly and easily is essential for every compositor. Over the years, this has become a less time-intensive process with the ability to clone
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and track objects becoming more refined as technologies advance. The Spot Cloner allows you to clone areas of a shot and then track them to another area of the same image in order to remove items that you don’t want in the shot. It does this with ease and can easily overcome the challenges of different lighting and textures between the source image and the result. It offers six different methods of cloning and repairing, all of which allow manual adjustment for further refinement. It would be great to see both the Kin Pin Tracker and Spot Cloner Tracker incorporated into one Individual Tracker so that all the VFX Suites trackers are in the same place with their own custom user interface. Since I have had the VFX Suite to road test, I have used the Spot Cloner Tracker daily. Like all object cloning and removal tools, there isn’t a magic button that handles the process automatically. You will still need to understand the processes of what you are trying
“As with all chroma keying, the biggest challenge is usually how well the green or blue screen has been lit during the film shoot and what file format it has been shot on” Alistair Rankine, VFX artist to achieve on a shot-by-shot basis and understand how to refine the process using the tools provided. Knoll Light Factory 3.1 The newly updated Knoll Light factory is now 42 times faster thanks to being run on the GPU and comes with more than 200 fully customisable presets, 99 of which are based on effects seen in films from the 1960s to the present day. It uses a combination of the After Effects user interface and its own pop-up GUI called the Knoll Factory Lens Designer. As with Supercomp, this resembles the looks builder in Red Giants Magic Bullet Suite closely and is user friendly,
allowing all lens flare to be fully customisable in both 2D and 3D. New features here include automated behaviours such as pulsing, flickering and strobing. Lens textures allow the user to add more realism to their lens flares by adding additional dust and scratches. Working with the Light Factory is extremely intuitive and fast. It provides exceptional results both for VFX and Motion Design work. Not many plug-ins get it right when it comes to Lens Flares, but Red Giant has done well with the latest version of Knoll Light Factory. Chromatic Displacement The Chromatic Displacement plugin boasts full GPU acceleration with the ability to render in CPU mode should you not have access to GPU rendering. Again, this plug-in is incredibly fast. Chromatic Displacement uses one layer to displace the pixels of another, while smoothly separating out the colours. Unlike the Displacement Map effect in After
Knoll Light Factory comes with over 200 presets designed for film, broadcast and motion graphics.
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An example of how VFX Reflection can add realistic shadows to one's composition.
Effects, Chromatic Displacement uses the displacement image as a height map, which gives you beautiful, organic results” This allows the user to create effects such as heat ripples, light refraction, forcefields as well as creating new and interesting ideas for motion graphics artists. It is easy-to-use and provides stunning results. What you achieve using this plug-in will depend on your material and what you are trying to achieve. A good addition to your VFX plug-ins arsenal. The VFX Suite also comes with the VFX Optical Glow plug-in for photo-realistic glows, VFX Shadow to allow the user to add realistic perspective shadows and VFX Reflection to add realistic shadows to your composition. In short, having put the VFX Suite through its paces, I am awed by most of its features and its ability to deliver what it has promised. I believe from my experience with the product that Red Giant keeps the end user firmly in mind when
The verdict The Good The Supercomp plug-in, the King Pin Tracker and the Spot Clone tracker are all excellent time savers when working on compositing and clean-up work. The Bad The $999 price tag could be a dampener for some. I don’t have a problem with it because if your work warrants using the VFX Suite daily, I imagine the financial returns will outweigh the initial costing. If your returns don’t warrant the $999 price tag then you probably don’t need it in your toolset. My Wishlist An entire new standalone User Interface would be great. I have always loved After Effects but have preferred the parameter controls on products such as Flame and Nuke. If there is a way of combining all of the individual plug-ins into one concise GUI, I would be extremely happy.
Unlike the Displacement Map effect in After Effects, Chromatic Displacement uses the displacement image as a height map for organic results.
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they designing their toolset and puts a great deal of time and effort into creating plug-ins that the end user actually needs and not what they think we may need. The plug-ins are extremely fast, user friendly and allow for extreme precision when creating both VFX and motion graphics and will be a welcome addition for compositors, finishing artists and motion designers alike. Coming from a Flame and Nuke background, I have always found some of the toolsets in After Effects a little limiting. Most of the time I can find a way of achieving what I need to, but it usually involves creating endless pre-comps and toggling through hundreds of parameters in order to reach my final goal. Basically, this is like turning After Effects into After Effects on steroids. Alistair Rankine is a post production manager, colourist and VFX artist working in both the UAE and the UK.
DIGITAL 6000
Compromise is not an option when everyone is counting on you.
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PROPRODUCTION
PLAYING THE LONG GAME
Mustafa Abbas was recently in the spotlight for his latest short film, The Long Game, which won Best Mystery Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards 2020 and Best Action/Crime Short at the London Independent Film Awards. It also picked up accolades at the New York Film Awards and the Top Shorts Film Festival. The Emirati filmmaker talks about the making of The Long Game, his upcoming projects and what makes him tick with Shifa Naseer Director Mustafa Abbas has been making films for the last decade and has won critical acclaim in the festival circuit for several of his shorts. Known for making films that evoke different interpretations, he made headlines recently with his latest short, The Long Game, a 30-minute crime thriller in which a former criminal teams up with a mysterious woman to avenge his lover’s murder. “The plan for this film was conceptualised in 2016, but I only began working on it last year,” explains Abbas, who has a penchant for crime stories. “I’ve focussed on this genre ever since I was a kid. I’m proud of what I have achieved with The Long Game. It is a bit of a heavy film, and such films take a toll on you when you’re writing as well as directing.” While Abbas doesn’t reveal the inspiration behind The Long Game, he explains that the paradoxical nature of the characters appealed to him. “A former criminal leaves his life of violence for love.
30 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2020
And it is that love that takes him back on the same road. The film portrays the test of character, a point of no return. This is what I built my story on.” The Long Game was still doing rounds in film festivals globally until the Covid-19 outbreak. Scripted for an English-speaking audience with an almost-all British cast, it was completed over summer last year and screened at film festivals earlier this year. “A lot goes into the production of a film: there is pre-production, filming, post-production, and all of this involves a number of other steps before the final packaging. We took our time with this film,” says Abbas. “It was such a great experience for me, especially interacting with the actors. It was heartening to see that the entire team was on the same page and vision to bring the characters to life.” When directing thrillers, he prefers dark visuals and hard lighting to convey the mood. For instance, a scene from The Long Game, which Abbas claims is one of his favourites, shows a woman hidden
PROPRODUCTION
Mustafa Abbas is an Emirati filmmaker and entrepreneur based in Dubai.
June 2020 | www.broadcastprome.com | 31
PROPRODUCTION
A still from The Long Game featuring actress Zoe Richards as Jennifer.
partly in the shadows against a bright backdrop, and a man in black standing over her, delivering lines in a deep, coarse voice. The clip has been shared on his Instagram profile. In stark contrast, Sunset State (2013), another Abbas short, explores the inner thoughts and feelings of two neighbours. “Writing something like Sunset State doesn’t come as naturally as the crime genre, in which I have more practice. To me, Sunset State was a movie about human beings and emotions. The film tells the story of two men battling the same situation in completely different ways. “The response to the film has been overwhelming, because it is a film people can relate to. Even years after its release, we used to get requests from exhibitions and festivals to screen the film with Q&A sessions.” Sunset State was screened in at least seven film festivals globally, including the nowclosed Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) and festivals in Chile, Russia and Poland. It is interesting to see Abbas
as a filmmaker evolve through the various themes and characters he has penned and directed over the years. While the films are well made, he admits they are not for all audiences. His psychological thriller Saraab (2016) is a case in point. The film appears to be exploring the relationship between a husband and wife, but we learn that appearances can be deceptive. The film does not offer the usual closure expected in traditional storytelling. In fact, it leaves us disturbed. Abbas admits that the storyline has indeed confused many viewers. “Saraab is more of a puzzle. It is a
Apart from making films, Mustafa Abbas is also the Managing Director of Legend Group, his family business.
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10-minute film; it couldn’t be longer than that. The film is a puzzle you CAN solve; the clues are in there. I don’t believe in open endings; I believe in endings that look open, but the answers are always in there.” This thinking outside the box is perhaps what probably makes his plots unique and artistically appealing. “You can write about things that excite you, intrigue you. But with the fourth or fifth project, you form a style and then you no longer consciously get inspired by other works of art. So it’s hard to tell where the ideas come from, and thus you keep the mystery alive. “There are a lot of elements that go into making a film, but more than anything, you need passion. It’s the passion that you put into it that acts like the fuel.” That passion is also reflected in the other life Abbas leads as Managing Director of Legend Group, his family business. “For me, the film part came first, and then slowly I got involved in the family business and took off from there. As they say, with time you come to realise that you’re passionate about more than one thing.” To that end, Abbas founded a gentleman’s salon named Chivalry, a leather product brand called 35 Burgundy, and Aficionados PR and Communication, an agency to support home-grown businesses and brands in the UAE.
PROPRODUCTION
In writing, directing and editing almost all his films, Abbas makes sure his stories don’t fall into the trap of giving just one perspective. “I listen to whoever is watching the first cut, the second cut, and keep asking if we need to make any changes. If I’m unsure about something, I make it a point to get a second but valid opinion. Sometimes I just show the film to a handful of friends and see what feedback they give, before releasing it to a film festival or to the public.” Asked to pick a favourite, Abbas says: “With each film, you improve. A lot of times, creatively or intellectually, the latest one is better than the previous one. I am probably yet to make that one.” Having had success in the short film format, Abbas is eager to now venture into his ultimate dream of making a feature film. He had the opportunity to make one 12 years ago, but it fell through. “I’m glad it didn’t work out.
“Everybody makes movies for different reasons. It’s not about culture or society for me. It’s about the characters and the story” Mustafa Abbas, filmmaker
To be honest, one needs to keep growing and learning with time. But now that The Long Game is done, my next project is a mob mystery feature film, and I will leave the rest to your imagination.” Local actors will be recruited, and the film will be in Arabic, he confirms. And apart from the usual equipment he rents for his films, his first feature is likely to include drone footage. “Drones are helpful in achieving difficult shots. I’m yet to use drones, but we will use one for my feature film as we have some top-angle shots in mind.” For Abbas, films offer the perfect medium to tell a good story. “Everybody makes movies for different reasons. It’s not about culture or society for me. It’s about the characters and the story.” Abbas’ signature style seems to be to leave his viewers unsettled; or perhaps it’s his stories that have that quality to them.
In The Long Game, Mustafa Abbas uses dark visuals and hard lighting to convey the mood for the scenes.
June 2020 | www.broadcastprome.com | 33
PROPRODUCTION
“When you form your own style, whether good or bad, people need to compare it to something, especially if it’s a short film. They can’t go online, read reviews and see how many stars a film has received or go to the rating on Rotten Tomatoes.” Therefore, finding the right audience is important. “Without an audience, a film is incomplete. So you have to find out whom your film is made for. I have been told my films are for people who like to think, and I would like to agree with them. I focus on an audience that wants to be intellectually stimulated, perhaps because I like to be intellectually stimulated.” Stressing on the importance of evolving with time, Abbas believes it’s the desire to never stop learning that makes an artist grow and improve. “I believe in the saying that your best work is always ahead of you, never behind you. When a person thinks that they’ve become the best version of themselves, that is when they’re in trouble. There is always room for improvement. As long as we give you something that you will take home with you, it is worthwhile. That’s how I look at it.” Whether Abbas heads a large business empire or not, funding for films and making money remains a challenge. For Sunset State, he secured funding from Creative Lab, part of twofour54 Abu Dhabi. For The Long Game, he dipped into his own wallet. Making money from short films is equally challenging. “Some platforms will give some sort of an income for short films, others don’t. In most cases, short films are made to get your foot in the door, whether it’s for film festivals or connections or producers. “The industry here is still in its formative phase. It is not yet in a place, where we can see 10 or 20 feature films coming out of
After the success of his shorts, Abbas is now eager to venture into making a feature film.
“The industry here is still in its formative phase. It is not yet in a place, where we can see 10 or 20 feature films coming out of the UAE ... But it’s an exciting time for the industry – a lot of short films!” Mustafa Abbas, filmmaker the UAE. We do see some feature films from the UAE on a yearly basis, but you can’t compare it to other industries. But it’s an exciting time for the industry – a lot of short films!” Mustafa Abbas has been fortunate on several fronts. With the ability to tell good stories and win awards at
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festivals, he has done his country proud. More importantly, he has an edge over other filmmakers, with funding coming from both external and internal sources. “I am not the kind of filmmaker who wants to make 100 films in his life. That is not me. Quality has to be the utmost priority, and if I happen to make at least 10 feature films which are good, I’ll be happy,” says Abbas. Driven by his passion for filmmaking, this promising Emirati writer and director has a lot more stories to tell. After making a mark on the international platform with his work, it’s only a matter of time before Abbas sets his own stage for his films.
E S TA B L I S H I N G T H E W O R L D ´ S S TA N D A R D F O R C O R P O R AT E F I L M S S I N C E 2 0 1 0
HONORING THE WORLD´S BEST CORPORATE FILMS, ONLINE MEDIA AND DOCUMENTARIES
The festival for corporate films, online media productions and documentaries The Cannes Corporate Media & TV Awards honor every year the world‘s best corporate films online media and documentaries in one of the most important film centres in the world: Cannes, France.
The festival warmly invites film producers, agencies, client companies and students from all over the world to submit their productions to this year’s competition. www.cannescorporate.com
ENTER NOW! Deadline: August 19th, 2020
PROPRODUCTS
Canon ME makes its mark with new C300 camera
Canon Middle East has launched the EOS C300 Mark III camera. It comes with a Super 35mm 4K CMOS DGO (Dual Gain Output) sensor that enhances HDR output exceeding 16-stops of dynamic range, configurable design and the ability to record up to 120fps in 4K Cinema RAW Light or XF-AVCi. The multi-recording format ability of the EOS C300 Mark III
promises to provide workflow efficiency to fulfil multiple production requirements across broadcast and cinema. The EOS C300 Mark III can record internally in Canon XF-AVC at 4K DCI and UHD at 4:2:2 10-bit, as well as 2K and Full HD. For non-RAW recording in XF-AVC, professionals can select ALL-I or Long GOP to film with high compression for efficient workflow and longer recording times. When recording 2K or full HD in Super 35mm, footage boasts the 4K sensor’s full capabilities. This recording is downsampled internally to record the footage at the resolution selected by the user. The camera can be configured using two optional Expansion Units (EU-V1 and EU-V2) – which add extra connection terminals to the camera body and expand its compatibility with various styles of shooting. www.canon-me.com
Hitachi Kokusai introduces dockable 8K camera Hitachi Kokusai has introduced a new SK-UHD8060B dockable 8K UHDTV camera, which combines the features of previous Hitachi 8K models with an organic photoconductive CMOS image sensor to capture stellar 8K video with expanded dynamic range. Using a CMOS image sensor with an organic photoconductive film (OPF) enables a higher saturation charge compared to silicon photodiodes, thus increasing dynamic range without the diminished image quality. The SK-UHD8060B promises greater than 400% dynamic range, maximising the support for the Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG)
HDR specification. The SKUHD8060B’s Super 35mm OPF CMOS sensor delivers 8K video with 7680×4320 resolution. The camera supports PLmount lenses and can output multiple television standards including 8K, 4K/UHD, 1080p, 1080i and 720p. The new camera head can be paired with a dockable recorder that uses a visually lossless codec, avoiding the time-consuming, post-acquisition processing typically required with RAW 8K recording approaches. www.hitachikokusai.com
MediaKind ensures transition to IP-based media delivery with Aquila Broadcast MediaKind has launched its
AVC and HEVC and combines
next-generation broadcast
MediaKind's Encoding Live,
solution, Aquila Broadcast,
Stream Processor and
to enable broadcasters and
nCompass control products.
operators to make a seamless,
Stuart Boorn, VP, Product
step-by-step transition from
Management, MediaKind, said:
appliance-based platforms
“With Aquila Broadcast, we
to all-IP media delivery.
are combining market-leading
Powered by software-based
picture quality and efficiency
video compression, control
with operational simplicity and
and stream processing, Aquila
flexible deployment, enabling
Broadcast enables resolutions
our customers to make the
up to UHD with HDR support,
operators, are faced with the
increased transponder density
transition from appliance-
while also offering wide codec
challenge of growing costs – and
whilst retaining video quality.
based broadcasting to the
support and significant bandwidth
reduced availability – of satellite
Deployable as an appliance or as
cloud while also considering
savings. As demand for live
capacity. MediaKind says it
pure software, it has the ability
the speed and time that best
content increases, satellite and
developed Aquila Broadcast to
to support on-premise and
suits their business needs.”
terrestrial broadcasters, as
ensure compatibility across all-IP
cloud-based implementations.
well as some cable and IPTV
technologies and standards with
It supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4
36 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2020
www.mediakind.com
PROPRODUCTS
Crystal Vision releases video delays for IP and SDI Crystal Vision has released four video delays that can work with IP, with SDI or with both providing up to 32 seconds of delay. The video delays reportedly enable IP connectivity supporting both SMPTE ST 2022 and ST 2110 video over 10GbE IP networks. The delay is adjustable in steps of frames, with the length of the delay in seconds dependent on the video standard, with 31 different SDI formats supported. The triple channel M-VIVID100-3 provides up
to 100 frames of video delay per channel (four seconds in 1080i50). There are two dual-channel video delays, with the M-VIVID200-2 offering up to 200 frames of delay per channel (eight seconds in 1080i50) and the M-VIVID400-2 up to 400 frames per channel (16 seconds in 1080i50). The single-channel M-VIVID800 also provides up to 800 frames of video delay (32 seconds in 1080i50). www.crystalvision.tv
Dielectric debuts DCR-Q VHF TV antenna
Dielectric has debuted its DCR-Q VHF TV antenna series to reduce the space normally required on a tower to support a traditional, low-frequency panel or super turnstile channel 2 – 6 antenna. Dielectric developed the
DCR-Q concept in response to a requirement by Los Angeles broadcaster, KWHY-DT, which voluntarily moved from UHF to VHF Channel 4 k. The DCR-Q antenna array comprises eight ring-style radiating elements for circular polarised signal. Further, VHF signals generally experience lower building penetration, and adding circular polarisation with the DCR-Q improves indoor reception. While the design borrows key elements from the DCR FM Series, the DCR-Q array is somewhat larger to meet the low frequency channel requirements. The DCR-Q is available in a two-bay configuration for low-powered VHF TV stations, and four or eight-bay configurations for medium-powered stations. www.dielectric.com
AVIWEST announces new Rack video encoders
AVIWEST has unveiled its new Rack Series video contribution encoders as a cost-effective alternative to satellite or fibre. By integrating the H.265/ HEVC encoder as well as an H.264/AVC encoder into a compact platform, the Rack Series is designed for spaceconstrained live production, including contribution applications and multi-camera remote productions. The series can be used on vans or trucks and connected to a roof-mounted AVIWEST Quad CellLink 3G/4G antenna
or KA satellite transmitter, enabling video broadcast from any location. Equipped with a touch screen, the unit supports multiple modes including live, record, file forward, and data hot spot for high-speed internet connectivity. The solution also features a SIP-based intercom, which connects the control room with remote operators. The Rack hybrid encoder enables remote crews to receive on-air feeds from the studio and ensures the live streams are delivered properly. www.aviwest.com
VSN offers greater efficiency with enhancements
VSN has announced enhancements to its VSNCrea Traffic and Scheduling System, VSNExplorer Media Asset Management System and VSN NewsConnect web plugin for news production. Now, VSNCrea allows users to locate content quickly with its associated broadcasting rights; automate scheduling of catalogue according to their own licenses; and schedule advertising time slots. The
VSNExplorer MAM uses semantic searching to improve content discoverability. It syntactically catalogues the sentences used in scene descriptions for accurate metadata for content in any language. VSN NewsConnect enables users to control multiple studios remotely. This provides flexibility to perform all the tasks for news production within one single workspace. www.vsn-tv.com
June 2020 | www.broadcastprome.com | 37
PROPRODUCTS
Verizon Media maximises OTT reach with new tools Verizon Media has launched a range of capabilities to the Verizon Media Platform to enable broadcasters and content owners to grow audiences and monetise content in new ways. A key enhancement is advanced advertising tools including Prebid support, and ad data & analytics to help broadcasters and content
providers maximise the revenue potential of advertising inventory. Content control and syndication is another feature, which enables publishers to maximise audience reach. A Live Events tool enables enhanced ingest, encoding, and CDN capabilities to deliver live content in 4K HDR. www.verizonmedia.com
FOR-A ready for super slo-mo action with FT-ONE
Broadcast and production products manufacturer FOR-A Corporation of America has announced a range of FT-ONE variable frame rate cameras for sports coverage to deliver the action in super slow motion. The cameras now allow playback of 4K video at up to 1,000 frames per second for live broadcast applications. One of the key features of the FT-ONE-SS4K is brightness. When equipped with a B4 bayonet lens, the camera shoots footage up to four times brighter
than models with a PL lens. The camera shoots up to 1,000 fps in 4K, offers simultaneous record and playback with internal memory, and features independent real-time 4K or HD output. Other features include 24-axis colour correction and compatibility with Canon’s OLED viewfinder. The camera can also be used with FOR-A’s ZE-ONE 4K zoom extractor, which can frame and extract specified HD scenes from 4K sources using an intuitive touch-screen interface. www.for-a.com
Sony's new compact 4K cameras support full IP
Ninja V enables 5.9K ProRes RAW recording
Sony has introduced two new compact cameras – SRG-XP1 (POV) and SRG-XB25 (BOX) – that deliver images at 4K 60p alongside full IP connectivity. To be available from August 2020, each model is equipped with wide-angle lens which can offer choices for hardto-access sites. The cameras have been designed for applications including remote communication, monitoring and content production. Equipped with NewTek NDI|HX1 capability via optional license, both cameras offer flexibility when working with
Atomos and Panasonic have updated the Ninja V HDR monitor-recorder and LUMIX S1H to record 5.9K Apple ProRes RAW files directly from the camera’s sensor. The updated Ninja V is designed to capture 12-bit RAW files from the S1H over HDMI at up to 5.9K/29.97p in full-frame or 4K/59.94p in Super35. Each frame recorded in ProRes RAW has metadata supplied by the S1H. Apple’s Final Cut Pro X and other NLEs will automatically recognise ProRes RAW files as coming from the S1H and set them up for editing and display in either SDR or HDR projects. The Ninja V offers touchscreen access to tools like waveforms,
other NDI-compatible hardware or software. The cameras support Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) and Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) for recording and distribution of video and audio. The SRGXP1 POV camera is capable of capturing over 100-degree wide horizontal viewing angle, which is useful for recording reality shows. The SRG-XB25 BOX camera features 25x optical zoom, capturing footage from a distance for applications like events, lectures and seminars. www.pro.sony
38 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2020
1-1 magnification and focus peaking, allowing them to perfect their RAW video. The Ninja V then records the ProRes RAW data onto a removable AtomX SSDmini or other SSD drives. When shooting is complete, the drive is removed and connected to a computer via USB for offload and editing. www.atomos.com
PROPRODUCTS
Bridge Technologies partners with Appear TV to provide advanced IP-based production and distribution Bridge Technologies has
multicast and to the Appear
process to the end of the
collaborated with Appear
production and distribution
ABR transcoder for conversion
broadcast process is their ultra-
TV to create an advanced
setup, which would have also
to HLS OTT and distribution.
low latency performance in the
IP-based production and
been demonstrated at NAB
The Appear XC5000 carrier
conversion of live SDI to SDI-IP.
distribution setup, which
this year, is a successfully
grade platform with built-in
This architecture allows for
facilitates end-to-end delivery
tested proof of concept for a
automatic routing of signals is
full motion, colour-accurate,
and monitoring of data,
full-length monitoring solution
also part of the setup for IP in/
ultra-low-latency video to
uncompressed to compressed,
from production to end user,
out distribution and RF transport.
be made available from any
from production to end user.
using SDI, SPTS, MPTS and OTT
The multicast service can
standards. The setup has been
then be monitored by Bridge´s
user – anywhere in the world, be
Bridge Technologies' recently
fully tested with four cameras
multitude of IP Probes – including
that a fixed studio, remote OB
announced Integrated Services
with SDI outputs feeding
the VB330, VB220, RDW, NOMAD,
van or Headend environment,
Monitoring (ISM) model,
an IP network processor to
VB120 and RF modules.
such that a geographicaly-
which brings together the
bridge SDI and IP networks.
This is a development from
company’s portfolio of products
The advanced IP-based
The encapsulated SDI-IP
In this broadcast setup, the key to the way both technologies
into a turnkey, easy-to-install
signal is forwarded to the Appear
allow for delivery from the
media monitoring system.
X10 that encodes SDI into SPTS
beginning of the production
Ross Video announces V2 of Gator Toolbox
As part of the Ross Live | 2020 programme, Ross Video has announced the latest version of Gator Toolbox – the 4K UHD signal conversion problem solver. Launched at NAB Show 2019, Gator Toolbox offers all-inone UHD up/down/cross, HDR conversion, standards conversion and frame synchronisation for UHD workflows over 12G-SDI, all in a modular openGear form factor. Gator Toolbox addresses signal conversion needs in broadcast, production and live event workflows where low latency and quality UHD, HDR and CG are required. New
for 2020, V2 is a free software update which sees the addition of SQD (quad-link gearbox in or out) and user presets to enable operators to quickly recall common configurations – extremely useful in situations where customers have very dynamic workflows. V2 also supports new hardware, which includes discrete AES audio embedding/de-embedding and support for fibre, mirroring the increase in popularity of fibre-based systems. V2 of Gator Toolbox is scheduled to be released in June 2020. www.rossvideo.com
source to any application or
dispersed team can work together on the same project. bridgetech.tv / appeartv.com
NAGRA offers content protection with NexGuard NAGRA has launched NexGuard ClipMark forensic watermarking technology to detect the source of pre-release content leaks on very short video clips, down to thirty seconds. Now, content owners and post-production houses can supplement NexGuard watermarking technologies for pre-release workflows and extend those capabilities to high-value pre-release assets.
NAGRA partnered with transcoder vendors to make NexGuard ClipMark available on premise and in the cloud in transcoder plug-ins. These partnerships ensure their deployment into existing workflows, while leveraging the NexGuard Detection Service for automated detection of watermarks on any type of assets. www.nagraaudio.com
Shure and Q5X unveil new wireless transmitters Wireless mic developer Q5X and professional audio specialist Shure have collaborated to develop specialised Axient Digital-Enabled Q5X Wireless Transmitters to deliver wireless digital technology with RF stability, encryption, and spectral efficiency. The new transmitters are designed to directly address ongoing technical challenges plaguing major
sports organisations. Q5X has three form factor models that feature the latest Axient Digital technology, including the CoachMic, PlayerMic, and AquaMic, which is designed for wet environments such as outdoor functions or water sports. The transmitters will be available this summer 2020. www.shure.eu / www.q5x.com
June 2020 | www.broadcastprome.com | 39
PROGUEST
“When migrating to AV-over-IP, the control layer is one of the most crucial aspects to consider, as it affects nearly everybody who interacts with the system on a daily basis”
Getting to grips with the AV-over-IP stack As AV-over-IP increasingly becomes the de facto standard way of doing things in broadcast, the need to understand the entire “stack” that comprises any solution is key to making decisions that will serve your studio and your talent. We take a look at the various layers here. The transport layer sets the rules by which traffic flows between devices over a network. It consists of several layers of widely used, reliable standards that implement data flow over compatible hardware, such as network switches. On top of this are specific transport definitions for different data types. Standards like AES67, RTP, SMPTE-2110 and IEEE1588 are all part of this layer. It is here that clocking and packetising of audio and video occur, and media are sent to and from devices over a network. Access to transport is through the control layer, designed by manufacturers and separate from underlying standards. It should be noted that these underlying standards all do a very good job when properly implemented. Next comes the control layer, where implementation details and manufacturer differentiation start to appear. Standards alone don’t create the solutions we use; rather, they are roadmaps that inform designers about what is required to interact with others using the same standards. This gives manufacturers tremendous leeway in creating products that add value over and above the standards themselves. The control layer is what most people think of when they consider
40 | www.broadcastprome.com | June 2020
an AV-over-IP solution. What does it look like? What metaphors are used to describe the system on a screen? How easy is it to change routes? How does one add devices? What happens when a device is renamed or replaced? What happens when the system is taken down and re-assembled? These are the key items that affect daily use, and none are dependent upon underlying standards. When migrating to AV-over-IP, this layer is one of the most crucial aspects to consider, as it affects nearly everybody who interacts with the system on a daily basis. Next up is the security layer, which must be implemented consistently across the entire system to avoid changes that create unintended or even catastrophic consequences. As security must be system-wide, the implementation of security must reside centrally. In the IT world, that means a server that "sees” the entire system and can act upon any part of it. Network managers that provide insight into different domains provide this in the AV world. They are able to connect to all areas of an AV-over-IP network and restrict the use of the Control layer through enforcement of user authentication and role assignment. A software management tool that allows for network and domain insight allows an administrator to assign real users different levels of access to different areas of the studio or system, from full control to view-only to nothing at all. It can be tied to any existing directory system used by IT (such as Microsoft Active Directory)
so that users don’t have to be created “from scratch” and provides a simple and effective means of preventing unwanted changes in broadcast facilities. The last one we are looking at is the administrative layer. Once a software network manager in place, this layer is used to configure zones of devices, clocking domains, and to extend the AV-over-IP system beyond LAN boundaries in larger systems. It provides monitoring of the entire system from a central location. Domains are the equivalent of zones in legacy AV. They are groups of AV devices representing particular rooms or purposes, such as “Studio 3” or “Translators”. The security layer ensures users see only one domain at a time depending upon their level of access, thereby reducing visual clutter and likelihood of errors. Tie lines can be established between domains without the risk entailed from allowing full access. The administrative layer “sees” all the domains and so can provide status information about each one - has a device been removed? Has someone broken the clocking arrangement for a domain? This layer offers a clear audit of all activity from devices and users alike. Advanced network-wide functionality can be enabled at the administrative layer, such as support for clocking and AV transport across routed networks, overcoming the usual LAN limitations of unmanaged AV-over-IP. An understanding of these layers helps us appreciate how the AV-over-IP package works within a broadcast facility. Brad Price is Senior Product Marketing Manager at Audinate.
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