ISSUE 141 | MAY 2022
Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
DRIVING GOOD From hearing stories to commissioning and identifying new scripts, Lina Matta traces her professional journey
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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 Director of Finance & Business Operations Shiyas Kareem
Welcome
shiyas.kareem@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5474 EDITORIAL Editor Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 55 105 3787 Sub Editor Aelred Doyle ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Sandip Virk sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 50 929 1845 +44 (0) 7516 993 862 DESIGN Art Director Simon Cobon Designer Percival Manalaysay MARKETING & EVENTS Events Producer Paul Godfrey paul.godfrey@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5470 Social Media & Marketing Executive Gladys DSouza gladys.dsouza@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5478 Events Executive Minara Salakhi minara.s@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 433 2856 CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION Production & Distribution Manager Phinson Mathew George phinson.george@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5476 DIGITAL SERVICES Abdul Baeis
Last month’s news that Netflix’s shares plunged by more than 35% when it pulled out of Russia and lost 200,000 subs was met with mixed reactions from the industry. News that the streaming giant expects to lose another 2m subs in Q2 has not helped the cause. Surprisingly, there were very few hands raised in favour of a platform that did actually turn media entertainment on its head. While some speculated on whether Netflix is now ripe for an acquisition, others noted the streaming giant is not much of a lure for potential investors because it is not a fully integrated media company and has only one low-ARPU product. Netflix, however, must be lauded for investing billions in content and compelling others also to loosen their purse strings. Perhaps its business model was not the best but it did set some good benchmarks. And its investment in regional content gave local players opportunities that broadcasters would never have offered. Netflix has and will continue to get its fair share of fame, but there are individuals who have dedicated
an entire lifetime to bringing good stories and content to the public, and who often go unnoticed. Our cover story this month is about one such person who has spent most of her career identifying great scripts and giving good storytellers a chance. Besides working a full-time job at MBC Group, she handpicks 12 Arab films every year and screens them in New York to ensure good Arab storytellers have the visibility they otherwise may not get. Content and good storytelling are important to the media entertainment business, and this is being increasingly recognised in the Arab world as well. The colocation of DISCOP this time with CABSAT is a reflection of that. Discussions will revolve around both tech as well as content at the Middle East's largest broadcast event, along with some new showcases. Get ready for a great show. See you there.
Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director
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Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
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DRIVING GOOD From hearing stories to commissioning and identifying new scripts, Lina Matta traces her professional journey
Lina Matta, Director of MBC 2, MBC 4, MAX, & Shahid AVOD.
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May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 1
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PROCONTENTS
Inside this issue 05 NEWS DISCOP’s co-production salon at CABSAT woos Arabic content market; MAP chooses Lawo; Etisalat UAE taps 3SS and Synamedia for Switch TV; BeIN selects Cognacq-Jay Image and Quortex for streaming; and more
May 2022 H CONSULT PROMOTES ARABIC CONTENT
MAKING THE CASE FOR GOOD STORIES
14 DRIVING GOOD
STORYTELLING From hearing stories to commissioning and identifying new scripts, Lina Matta traces her professional journey FUTURE OF SPORTS BROADCASTING SUMMIT 20 Senior execs on strategies to monetise sport in MENA 26 Tech experts discuss new tactics to address latency
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INDUSTRY EXPERTS ON COMMERCIAL AND TECH STRATEGIES FOR SPORTS IN MENA
32 WIELDING MORE
CLOUT WITH THE CLOUD Vendors on leveraging cloudbased solutions to support operations in the new normal
20 CLOUD EMPOWERS MEDIA HOUSES
36 MUSIC TO OUR EARS
MNK STRIKES A CHORD WITH MUSICIANS
A brand-new music recording studio in Dubai has become a hotspot for musicians and podcast hosts. We take a tour
42 SUBTITLING & CAPTIONING Manik Gupta talks up AI and ML as key drivers for closed captioning and subtitling
46 VIRTUAL PRODUCTION-1
32 VIRTUAL PRODUCTION SERIES – 1
BroadcastPro in partnership with The Other End brings you part 1 of a 12-part series on virtual production
36 CABSAT 2022 – NEWS FROM EXHIBITORS
50 CABSAT 2022 SPECIAL What to expect at the show
60 GUEST COLUMN How to optimise video players for live sport
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PRONEWS
DISCOP’s co-production salon at CABSAT a major draw for Arabic content market DISCOP will be co-located with CABSAT this year, as part of a new arrangement between the two entities at the Dubai World Trade Centre from May 17-19. A special co-production area dedicated to Arabic content and Arabic coproductions, curated by Heba Korayem, Content Market and Distribution Specialist at HConsult, is gaining increasing traction in the industry, with close to 100 investors and buyers for Arabic content now confirmed. Korayem is confident that she will see 20 additional investors and buyers join each week until the event begins. “So far, we have 25 requests from Arabic production houses to participate within the coproduction salon, and each of them have around two to five pitch decks. These are ready-to-produce stories with casting, talent, location et al sorted and ready to be picked up, adapted and produced,” Korayem told BroadcastPro ME. “The co-production salon gives them an opportunity to showcase their pitches to production partners, and based on how attractive their pitch is, they would look at four primary partnership models -- commissioning, co-production, co-funding or independent investing for the purpose of ROI through distribution. We have Arab production houses from Egypt, Lebanon, the UAE,
Heba Korayem is running the co-production salon for DISCOP at CABSAT.
Morocco, Libya, KSA, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Algeria pitching at the salon, and the pitches will include drama series, animations, feature films and international format adaptations.” Roya TV from Jordan, Dubai’s S Productions, Cedars Art, Eagle Films, Pixitoon and Bright Lens Media from the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia are some of the participating companies. Some have co-productions to pitch as well as plans to invest in third-party productions. UAE-based S Productions, which specialises in format
adaptations, will be on the look-out for international partnerships to localise and adapt formats for the region.
US $300m Estimated production value of Arabic mosalsalat released during Ramadan 2022 on linear and OTT platforms Source: HConsult MENA content market tracker
Interestingly, Majid Al Futtaim, a large Dubai-based conglomerate with a diverse portfolio of businesses and the owner of Vox Cinemas, will also participate, with the intention of partnering with producers on the creative side and developing its own in-house productions for distribution, as well as investing in productions. Several buyers have also signed up to attend the event, including Saudi broadcaster SBC and international entities such as Disney, who are looking to penetrate the region and scouting for local production partners to commission for their originals, Korayem said. “Essentially, you will see regional streamers looking to commission the development of more Arabic originals, participants who have taken a paid slot to showcase their projects and buyers who are shopping for new productions. HConsult is playing matchmaker and will bring these entities together. Our survey revealed that 70% of buyers attending the DISCOP Content Market are looking for Arabic-language content. The other top languages in demand are Western/European, Turkish, Hindi and Spanish. With the content market growing in this region, this coproduction salon is dedicated to Arabic productions.” The DISCOP segment at CABSAT will include a screening room, where some of the pitches will take place.
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PRONEWS
MAP transitions to IP with Lawo kit Moroccan state-owned news agency Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) has completed its transition to IP with the installation of Lawo broadcast equipment at its radio production studios. Three radio studios and two TV studios have been upgraded to IP solutions. MAP selected Lawo because its IP audio mixers allow operators to access all audio sources available on the network, especially since MAP has international programmes in Arabic, English, French, Spanish and Tamazight. The project was handled by Lawo’s Moroccan partner LTS Network, based in Casablanca. Hassan Eddahbi, CEO of MAO, said: “The radio architecture comprises two control rooms, two small studios and another large studio that accommodates multiple guests. Lawo’s
Jobin Joejoe helms Sony MEA as Deputy MD Jobin Joejoe will lead Sony MEA's operations as Deputy MD. In his new role, Joejoe will be responsible for accelerating business performance to achieve sustainable growth, profitability and value for all stakeholders. He takes over from Takakiyo Fujita, who has relocated to Singapore as Managing Director, Sony AMEA. On April 1, Sony’s MEA and Southeast Asia operations were merged to form Sony Asia AMEA.
MAP’s radio studios are fitted with Lawo Power Core DSP mixing engines.
sophisticated radio AoIP solution enables fast operation and an easy working environment for talent.” “The ruby consoles in both control rooms have proven their effectiveness and audio quality, and their workflow is more intuitive and less involved than competitors’ offerings. The consoles allow you to quickly switch between the different control rooms and choose the desired environments in record time,
Thomson Broadcast to acquire GatesAir Thomson Broadcast has signed a definitive agreement to acquire GatesAir from an affiliate of The Gores Group, which acquired the Harris transmission business in 2012 and rebranded it as GatesAir. The transaction is subject to certain regulatory filings and is expected to close in the second half of 2022. Details were not disclosed. The combination of GatesAir with Thomson Broadcast is expected to create a scaled, comprehensive platform with greater capabilities in innovation, design and product efficiency.
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whether broadcasting live or recording for later use. They also make it possible to host all three studios at the same time during a single broadcast.” In addition to the Ruby mixing consoles, MAP’s radio studios are fitted with Lawo Power Core DSP mixing engines and I/O nodes. These integrate the studios with adjacent voice booths, called studettes; the set-up interlinks the studios and studettes with MAP’s large Grand Studio with just the push of a button. Eddahbi continued: “The project’s requirements were quite challenging. New technical solutions and customerdefined workflows needed to be matched and fully integrated into the overall network. MAP, LTS and Lawo collaborated closely and we successfully established a future-proof IP infrastructure for our customer.”
Gravity Media partners with 7 Production for 2022 World Cup Gravity Media and 7 Production will provide outside broadcast facilities for rights and non-rights holders at the World Cup, which is taking place November 21 to December 18, 2022 in Qatar. Both companies will offer 4K and HD
truck-based facilities, including Gravity Media’s six-camera HD OB vehicle with DSNG capability, as well as international and local crew. The Gravity Media team can also work closely on all projects from its Doha office.
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PRONEWS
Twofour54 announces wide range of virtual solutions for productions Twofour54 is expanding its production facilities through virtual solutions. Launched in partnership with Ross Video, the new offering includes virtual studios, virtual production services and extended reality (XR) features. Using state-of-the-art cameras, virtual monitors, floating AR elements and customisable virtual sets, twofour54’s virtual solutions will offer a comprehensive service for film, TV and advertisement producers, broadcasters, event organisers and gaming companies. The virtual studios are powered by three of Ross Video’s Voyager graphics platforms, based on the Unreal Engine to provide high-quality
photorealistic visuals. Virtual Studio offers enhanced flexibility, allowing production companies to quickly change a set, deploy a new scene and look, or share a studio space with other businesses without any downtime due to set construction. This reduces the time and cost of production, limits negative environmental impact and allows producers to focus on creating engaging and innovative content. Complementing the physical virtual studio’s facility, virtual production allows companies to create flexible production teams that can execute a variety of tasks remotely while the talent, news anchor or event host is
on set. This service is provided by Ross Video’s cloudenabled remote contribution solution, Interstellar. Rounding out the virtual solutions, twofour54 will provide a full range of XR services, a new production trend for on-premise production that uses a combination of real and virtual environments and interactions to reduce the cost of production. Available for live or pre-recorded content, twofour54’s XR services feature large-format LED screens that directly replace traditional green screens. To support production companies looking to capitalise on the new virtual studios, twofour54 partner
Rocket Surgery, the creative arm of Ross Video, will be on hand to provide design and creative services. These services will include design consultations with the client, creative project management and a range of graphics packages. Katrina Anderson, Director of Commercial Services, twofour54, said: “By providing flexible, technology-driven solutions that can create production cost savings as high as 80%, this is what Virtual Studios is set to accomplish, so we are proud to be the first to bring this offering to the region through the end-toend partnership with Ross Video and Rocket Surgery.”
Netflix and AFAC offer $250,000 grant to five Arab female filmmakers Netflix and Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) have partnered to offer a one-time grant to five Arab female filmmakers and producers, as part of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, to enable them to bring their fiction and nonfiction projects to fruition. AFAC already has two grants aiming to support filmmakers in cinema and documentary making. Launched in early 2021, the initiative aims to create opportunities for underrepresented communities
in the entertainment industry and increase the equality of women both on and off screen. The Netflix Fund for Creative Equity in the Arab world, valued at $250,000, will
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provide financial support. AFAC Executive Director Rima Mismar added: “More and more Arab women filmmakers are creating moving images that have the power to shed light on
the realities of the region. This second collaboration with Netflix complements perfectly AFAC’s mission to promote diversity of voices and narratives.” The five filmmakers are Asmae El Moudir (Morocco) with the documentary The Mother of All Lies, Diala Kachmar (Lebanon) with From the Other Shore, Jana Wehbe (Lebanon) with The Day Vladimir Died, Tania Khoury (Lebanon) with Manity and Sarra Abidi (Tunisia) with My Name Is Clara.
PRONEWS
Etisalat UAE taps Synamedia and 3SS for Switch TV
Etisalat UAE, part of e&, has chosen technologies and services from Synamedia and 3 Screen Solutions (3SS) to add a lean-back TV experience for its DTC streaming service, Switch TV.
The service features smart TV apps developed for LG, Samsung and Apple TV. The smart TV apps entailed integrating 3SS’s front-end solution with technologies from Synamedia. Etisalat
uses Synamedia’s Infinite cloud TV platform, security solutions and end-to-end video network portfolio, including private CDN. Jonathan Haysom, VP of Commercial Products at Etisalat, said: “We saw an opportunity to launch apps on smart TVs and Apple TV when choosing Synamedia and 3SS as our deployment partners, because their expertise in this field is second to none.” Synamedia and 3SS worked together to develop and integrate the Switch TV ecosystem. It went live earlier this year.
New CEO at OSN OSN's new CEO Joe Kawkabani has been a board member and a close partner to the leadership team, working on its vision across all divisions. He succeeds Sangeeta Desai, whose term as interim CEO came to an end recently. Kawkabani was previously Group Chief Investment Officer at KIPCO, which owns 87.6% of OSN. Prior to that, he had a 20year run managing investments across diverse industries in the MEA region.
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May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 9
PRONEWS
BeIN chooses Cognacq-Jay Image and Quortex to stream sports content Cognacq-Jay Image, a service provider in the media industry for playout, headend and digital platforms, in partnership with cloud-native live-streaming platform Quortex, announced that BeIN Media Group has chosen Quortex’s technology to provide streaming services for its MENA sports content. BeIN will use Quortex’s Just-In-Time solution to stream high-quality sports content to its subscriber base in 24 countries. Through beIN’s OTT platform provided by CognacqJay Image, the solution will run on Microsoft Azure and fully leverage Quortex’s Just-InTime technology, where every kWh is spent for a purpose.
Faisal Al Raisi, Manager of Digital Projects at beIN Media Group, MENA, said: “Our partnership with Quortex and Cognacq-Jay Image contributes to beIN’s longterm objective of ensuring our offering stands the test of time by evolving our headend. This collaboration is also
instrumental in delivering the best streaming quality to our subscribers across MENA, especially ahead of the upcoming World Cup in Qatar. We are confident that Quortex will deliver this by combining technology and sustainability through its network and bandwidth optimisation.”
Based on the company’s patented Just-In-TimeEverything technology, the Quortex I/O platform builds the workflow based on user demand, not content origination. In this way, it maximises the benefits of live streaming while minimising the risks associated with online event launches to near zero. François Nguyen, CognacqJay Image Project Director for beIN MENA’s OTT platform, stated: “As a global integrator, we provide our customers with the best-inclass technologies. In a project like this, adding Quortex to the existing ecosystem is a natural fit for us.”
Talpa reality show Million Dollar Island set to debut in Middle East Dutch production and media company Talpa’s reality survival show Million Dollar Island will now be made for MENA, following its launch in the Netherlands and its acquisition by NBC for the US market. A regional version has been commissioned by MBC Group, and it will be produced in Neom by Talpa’s new partner, Blue Engine Studios. It’s set to air on a yet-to-be-announced MBC Group TV channel, as well as on Shahid VIP. Million Dollar Island is a format created by John de Mol’s Talpa Concepts and Monday Media and distributed by Talpa
Distribution. It is a social experiment where 100 people try to stay on a remote desert island for two months for a chance at winning $1m. Each contestant starts the adventure with a bracelet worth $10,000. It launched
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on March 6 on SBS6 in the Netherlands, and Amazon Prime has a day-and-date SVOD second window. Wayne Borg, MD for Media, Entertainment and Culture at Neom, said: “We are excited to be working with Talpa and MBC. Our
array of stunning locations is the backdrop for the dedicated facility: largescale sets, workshops and accommodation to support the 200 casts and crew. This is groundbreaking for the region, a production on this scale. It harnesses our offering of studios/stages, equipment inventory and support services at Neom, backed by our international team of industry specialists. Bringing Million Dollar Island to Neom is further proof of the confidence the industry has in our ability to deliver multiple productions seamlessly.”
PRONEWS
SRMG opens new HQ in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District Saudi Research & Media Group (SRMG) has opened its new headquarters in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) of Riyadh. The new headquarters will house the group’s various media platforms and businesses under one roof: Asharq Al-Awsat, and Asharq network, which includes Asharq News and Asharq Business with Bloomberg, Arab News, Independent Arabia, Argaam, Manga Arabia, Sayidaty and Hia magazines. It will also house the group’s businesses – SRMG Media,
SRMG's new HQ.
SRMG X and SRMG Think – establishing a creative media hub at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD). The new headquarters in Riyadh marks the beginning of the group’s global expansion, including that of Asharq network and its
MBC Studios begins production of Rose & Layla by British screenwriter Cris Cole (Mad Dogs) and directed by British film and TV director Adrian Shergold Egyptian icons Yousra (Cordelia). and Nelly Karim. Produced by Maged Mohsen MBC Studios, the and Safa Aburizik, in-house content Rose & Layla is the production arm of MBC first series of its kind Group, has announced by MBC Studios, with the production of Rose international distribution & Layla. The Arabicto be managed by language series will Till Entertainment. see Egyptian superstars It comprises ten Yousra and Nelly Karim 50-60-minute episodes starring together for the and will premiere on first time. It is penned Shahid VIP in Q4 2022.
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platforms Asharq News and Asharq Business with Bloomberg, with plans to establish global offices in Washington, DC and Singapore, in addition to its current offices in London and Dubai. The group will also employ top-of-the-line studio
Anghami partners with TOD to provide sports and entertainment The partnership will see a curated selection of TOD’s sports and entertainment programming available on Anghami. This move aims to further diversify Anghami’s vast selection of content and will allow fans to access exclusive beIN Sports audio content on Anghami. This will include major football league match round-ups as well as daily live updates and interviews with premier footballers. Anghami subscribers will also receive a one-month package to TOD Entertainment, with access to the entire platform’s content.
technologies with databased capabilities, including social media, podcast and virtual reality studios, and introduce new content offerings such as cultural and scientific documentaries. SRMG’s new headquarters is in the fourth district at KAFD and will consist of 10 floors to accommodate around 1,200 employees. The interior spaces of the new headquarters, to which the group will gradually move, are designed to encourage cross-collaboration and provide an interactive working environment.
Disney+ to launch in Saudi Arabia and MENA on June 8 Disney+ has confirmed launch dates for the 42 countries and 11 new territories set to launch this summer. The streaming service will launch in Saudi Arabia and 15 other MENA markets on June 8, 2022. Pricing in Saudi Arabia has been announced at $7.99 a month or $79.68 a year. In the UAE, it will cost $8.16 a month or $81.40 a year. In Egypt, it will cost EGP 2.73 a month or EGP 27.21 a year.
PRONEWS
Two Israeli radio channels deploy DHD audio production solutions Israeli radio channels Echo 99 FM and 103 FM have chosen DHD SX2 audio production mixers and TX touch-screen controllers. The project coincided with the relocation of production facilities from Herzliya and Givatayim to a combined HQ in Ramat Hasharon, and was supervised by Jerusalem-based broadcast audio systems integration specialist Broadcast Design. Christoph Gottert, DHD International Sales Manager, said: “Four studios in total have been equipped with SX2 consoles. Each studio is linked with the MCR via Dante audio-over-IP. Three TX touchscreen controllers have also been provided. The
Cinema sales in Saudi Arabia reach 30.8m tickets in four years Saudi Arabia’s cinema box office sales have exceeded 30.8m tickets over the past four years, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Since its launch in April 2018, the Saudi Film Commission has licensed 56 theatres with 518 screens in 20 cities, in which 1,144 films in 22 languages from 38 countries have been shown, including 22 Saudi films. The cinema sector has also contributed to the employment of 4,439 young Saudis of both genders.
challenge was to ensure both channels remained fully on-air throughout the move, which Micha Blum and his colleagues achieved very successfully.” Micha Blum, Broadcast Design founder and CEO, said: “The new HQ has been fully renovated with 103 FM situated on the first floor
Cairo film fest sets date for 44th edition Cairo International Film Festival has announced the dates for its 44th edition, which will be held from November 13 to November 22, 2022, at the Cairo Opera House. The award-winning films will be screened the day after the closing ceremony, November 23. Submissions are set to open via the festival’s website on May 15 and close on August 15.
and Echo 99 FM on the floor above. Master control room and supporting technical resources are shared. Two of the new 16-fader SX2 consoles and two TX controllers have been integrated into 103 FM. A new 16-fader SX2 is also being used by Echo 99 FM, along with a 12-fader SX
console plus a TX controller. “DHD TX controllers allow producers to access talkback to the main studio, host or cohost individual guests, select telco lines and control telco hybrids. They simplify the process of monitoring callers, selecting audio sources and timers, and receiving alerts. All routing is done via DHD software. A DHD Assist web app enables a technician to control the SX2 mixers and TX touch panels from a tablet or PC, supporting presenters without being on-site. “We also integrated BroadcastThings Connect. The relocation is now complete and fully functioning.”
Haivision completes Aviwest buyout Haivision Systems has announced the completion of its acquisition of Aviwest, a provider of video contribution systems. This provides Haivision customers with a comprehensive video contribution solutions portfolio that now includes 5G transmission, mobile video contribution and network bonding
technology, addressing the growing demand for live, high-quality video content in broadcast, sport and live event production. With common values of reliability, quality and low latency, the two companies are hoping to bring together the industry’s solutions for video contribution over fixed and mobile networks.
Saudi Media Company appoints Nader Bitar as Executive Director Saudi Media Company has appointed Nader Bitar as Executive Director. Bitar previously worked for seven years at MMP World Wide in various roles, from Regional Deputy GM to Deputy GM to Managing Director.
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PROCOVER
DRIVING GOOD Lina Matta has plenty of notches to her belt, from starting as a reporter in her home country, to producing documentaries in the US, to her current role as Director of MBC 2, MBC 4, MAX and Shahid AVOD. Sarah Nathan sat down with Matta to find out more about her professional journey A significant chunk of Lina Matta’s job is watching series and reading scripts to identify the best stories. From already having a catalogue in her brain, being exposed to TV and movies throughout her life and hearing stories from people around her, Matta has fine tuned her ability to find talent among storytellers. “There’s no science to it, it’s very instinctive and simply based on having been exposed to a lot of content.” Matta’s affinity for good stories was fostered from a young age, and she credits her family for it. “My mom, my dad, my aunt and my sister are great storytellers, and I’m a great listener. I developed a ear for what makes a good story through being surrounded by people who were amazing storytellers when I wasn’t. When Mom first started earning a salary, she would spend all her money on movie tickets. She’d be at the movies all weekend, watching two or three films in a row. We grew up exposed to storytelling in all its forms – theatre, film and television.” A second factor that propelled Matta towards storytelling was the ongoing war in her home country, Lebanon. Immersing herself in acting during her youth was a coping mechanism. “When you’re in a play, you’re part of that world and you’re able to escape your own. A lot of how I got into media was fed by my need to escape my reality.” With these interests, studying Radio/TV/Film at the Lebanese American University was a no-brainer. Her introduction to professional broadcasting was as a newscaster on the English-language evening news, and eventually she worked as a translator for foreign correspondents at the Daily Star. After pursuing a master’s in film in the US, she explored the world of documentaries but
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stuck to her journalistic roots, “transitioning into the news aspect more than the entertainment aspect” of production. For the next few years, Matta focused on her love of reporting in Washington, DC, where she covered Middle East news. Her time as a studio-based director at the Arab Network of America was a pivotal point for industry networking, as she met many people who eventually became contacts she has maintained throughout her career. “I was doing studio work and covered news shows, town hall meetings and talk shows, all of which was very exciting. There’s an adrenaline one gets from directing live shows.” However, she still felt a lingering hunger to cover stories out in the field and produced two documentaries with a partner for a production company, Brown Hats Production (BHP), that they co-founded. The first followed two women running for office in Bogotá and brought Matta to Colombia, giving her an experience and access to a world that she had never known. The second focused on women giving birth in New York prisons. “I thought it was a fascinating topic that I’d seen nothing on at the time. That project allowed me to learn about the prison system in New York and question what happens to pregnant women and what happens to kids raised in prison. Is allowing them to stay with their incarcerated mothers a good thing or a bad thing? “I got to explore how they were treating women and the whole debate about drug laws in the US and whether they were too strict. I knew nothing about that world until I got into it, and for the years I was working on that project I learned so much and accessed a world so parallel yet so different from my own.”
PROCOVER
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PROCOVER
Every year, Lina Matta selects 12 new Arab films for screening in New York as part of ANA Contemporary Arab Cinema.
Soon after came her Dubai opportunity. Ali Jaber, Group TV Director of MBC, was assembling a team to relaunch Dubai Media Inc (DMI) channels and Matta scored an invitation. “The Dubai government wanted their TV channels to reflect what the city was becoming. I was hired to relaunch Channel 33 into One TV, which eventually became Dubai One, the city’s English-language general entertainment channel.” Matta then found herself in the US yet again, where she collaborated with her BHP partner to produce a talk show centred around books. “My colleague comes from Europe, where literature and
“A lot of how I got into media was fed by my need to escape my reality” Lina Matta, Director, MBC 2, MBC 4, MAX and Shahid AVOD culture are popular topics on national television talk shows. We felt that American programming did not cover cultural topics in any real depth, so we partnered up with a previous editor from Random House and produced the first online talk show about books. It was at the infancy of online content. We were kind of pioneers. Unfortunately, we were looking for funding around the time of the 2008 financial crash. The lack of money
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put the project on indefinite hold.” As luck would have it, MBC Group came forward with another opportunity, this time with MBC4. “Working at MBC is a feather in the cap of anyone in the Middle East media industry. It was flattering to be considered.” Since then, Matta has taken on responsibility for MBC2, MBC Max, MBC Variety and, more recently, Shahid AVOD, MBC’s advertising-supported videoon-demand streaming service. Matta is enthusiastic about the shift from linear TV to streaming. “It’s been very exciting to be part of the Shahid world. I was an early adopter of digital viewing from when I was still living in the
PROCOVER
US about 20 years ago. The plus is obvious – you don’t have to be imprisoned at home at a certain time to watch a programme you’re interested in; you can tune in whenever, wherever. And then there’s the binge element. You can scroll through Shahid and there are series from Latin America, Korea, the US, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria … What a luxury! “I still believe in curating as a programmer on live TV. But it comes at a price of freedom. OTT platforms open up the world to you, they are basically our global library. We can walk in, stroll through the shelves, pick up a book, read it, put it down and pick up another.” OTT also removes all the limitations of working with a linear grid. Streaming content on Shahid allows creators’
“OTT platforms open up the world to you, they are basically our global library. We can walk in, stroll through the shelves, pick up a book, read it, put it down and pick up another” Lina Matta, Director, MBC 2, MBC 4, MAX and Shahid AVOD pitches to be greenlit more regularly. With viewers having such extensive choice, keeping up with their needs and wants can also be challenging. “Shahid is a hungry beast – it needs to eat all the time. These libraries can be very full, and you can deep dive into tons and tons of material if you have the energy, but sometimes too much choice can be overwhelming. A lot of people just want to watch what’s new and trending,
or what friends are talking about. Unless you’re keeping a list of what you want to watch, you just watch what pops up and what’s new.” The extensive Shahid library offers the perfect opportunity to stream a wide range of international content. For instance, viewers expressed the desire to watch Korean dramas in Korean, subtitled rather than dubbed. They appreciate the authenticity of international content in its true form. “Streaming broke preconceptions that many programmers had that people don’t like reading subtitles, especially in the States. Narcos was the first example of a series in which the characters spoke in more than one language. It was a blockbuster. And when Netflix went global, and foreign shows started trending all around the world, we
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PROCOVER
realised people don’t care about language, what they care about are stories they can relate to. “Keeping up with such changes in audiences’ preferences is the key to maintaining viewership and success. You need to act on it quickly; otherwise, you’re left behind. That’s also what makes it very exciting, because we’re constantly learning.” The increasing interest in international content has Matta on the lookout for more global content. Asked what the next ‘hot country’ might be, she says, “It’s a bountiful basket! It used to be very US-centric or British-centric. Now we look everywhere. Turkish formats were easy ones to start with, because we know that they do very well based on how they’ve served our audiences in the past. But now we are looking to adapt Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and, of course, Korean content.” The converse benefit of streaming more international content is that Arab content gains an opportunity to be appreciated. The concept of world libraries on streaming sites means Arab storytelling reaches international audiences.
“At MBC, we’re trying to produce Arabic dramas for international audiences. We feel we have tons of amazing stories that we would like to tell; we just don’t always have the right tools. A lot of what MBC has been investing in over the last eight years is education, whether it be through workshops or partnerships with Hollywood producers or writers, British writers or regional writers. We’re learning techniques of storytelling from those who’ve excelled at it.” MBC recently created the CCU,
“Keeping up with such changes in audiences’ preferences is the key to maintaining viewership and success. You need to act on it quickly; otherwise, you’re left behind. That’s also what makes it very exciting, because we’re constantly learning” Lina Matta, Director, MBC 2, MBC 4, MAX and Shahid AVOD
Streaming broke misconceptions that people don't like to read subtitles, says Matta.
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a committee of stakeholders who screen, review and agree on pitches, then decide on the channel or platform that best suits a series. MBC commissioners then take responsibility for bringing these decisions to fruition. Both collaborate on scripts, actors and episode feedback. “All programming on the channels ends up on Shahid, either before or concurrently with channels. It’s a windowing exercise that we agree on early in the game.” Matta notes that an ongoing issue is the increasing demand in a limited talent pool. “One of the challenges we face is global streamers coming into our region and going after the same talent. The talent pool needs to be enriched. Everyone going after the same people is bringing prices up, so MBC Academy is training people in every aspect to develop a larger talent pool. We need to have a wider net for casting and a bigger pool of new writers, directors, cameramen, editors, light designers, sound designers and music composers. Now is the perfect time for anybody who has ever dreamed of getting into film or TV – platforms are blossoming and there’s fierce competition across the board.” Among Matta’s proudest accomplishments during her tenure is that MBC now produces far more dramas and commissions. “Arous Beirut was a successful example of a scripted format, and that was MBC 4’s entrée into producing our own content. We also produced an original series called Boxing Girls about young Saudi girls that hit around the time Saudi was in the beginnings of its change wave; that was a good zeitgeist. It was very much a young female empowerment series.” The series centred around a young Saudi girl, a talented boxer who moves to the US to pursue boxing professionally but is forced to return in shame after
PROCOVER
The primary way to grow is to expand and dare to say yes to the things that scare you, says Matta.
an incident during a fight that goes viral and must deal with the repercussions on her family and friends. She eventually starts a gym in her basement to bring young women together through sports, giving them a space to discuss the issues they face and empower themselves. “It was a great message and the timing of it was perfect.” Matta is also enthused by the role of MBC 2 in the region. “The young generation of Saudi filmmakers grew up on films shown on MBC2 and MBC Max. That’s where they gained their love and appreciation of cinema and started recognising directors and joining the journey. I’m thrilled that I played a mini role in that. There’s exciting talent coming out of Saudi. It’s heartening to see the region’s talent blossom.” Asked about her experiences working as a woman in the industry, Matta comments that she has never faced gender discrimination. “I’ve found myself in rooms where I was part of the minority, but it’s never been an issue as much as an imbalance. MBC is very progressive
“One of the challenges we face is global streamers coming into our region and going after the same talent. The talent pool needs to be enriched” Lina Matta, Director, MBC 2, MBC 4, MAX and Shahid AVOD in putting us women at the forefront and trusting us with their content. Many in our acquisitions team are women, and we have at least five women in leading positions at the organisation.” While most of her mentors have been men, Matta has partnered with excellent female storytellers who know how to pitch an idea. Her role is to bring these ideas to fruition by commissioning them. “They talked the talk, and I walked the walk.” Although Matta works full-time for MBC now, she has long been involved in ANA Contemporary Arab Cinema, an annual curated film series that highlights Arab directors covering topics and stories in the Middle East. Its success continues, with two theatres in NY carrying the series
– the Jacob Burns Film Center in Westchester and BAM in Brooklyn. “It’s completely non-profit. Every year, I handpick 12 films from the last 18 months – 12 stories that I believe are the best. And every year around mid-September, I go to New York for about three weeks, and I screen them there. We do a Q&A, we bring in the directors and have discussions about the films and their topics. It’s a community that I’ve built to introduce people to Arab films in, for now, New York.” Matta is also a guest lecturer and guest jury member at AUD, judging students’ end-of-year projects, and a voting member of BAFTA. Asked what advice she has for the next generation of filmmakers and media freshmen; her top tip is networking. “Find a mentor. Meet people and grow with your industry.” She also pushes for the next generation to stay curious by stepping out of their comfort zone: “The only way to grow is to expand, and the only way to expand is to say yes to things that scare you.”
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PROSUMMIT
THE FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT IS SPORT
With OTT having moved into mainstream entertainment and fewer people watching linear channels, broadcasters’ models and strategies must adapt to fit ever-changing interests. The IP Studios Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit, hosted by BroadcastPro ME, saw discussions on how to keep pace Karim Saade, Director of Marketing at Jawwy TV and Dawri Plus, Intigral, moderated the keynote session exploring the sports broadcasting climate, focusing on understanding emerging business models within the region. Danny Bates, StarzPlay co-founder and CCO; Malek Doughan, Marketing and Commercial Affairs Director at UAE Pro League; Mohamad Yehya, IP Studios Founding Director; and Peter Einstein, Extreme Sports Channel CCO, discussed the latest trends in OTT streaming, broadcasters’ business models, the progression of piracy and strategies to attract younger generations. Transitioning to offer OTT alongside linear A prominent change in the last decade has been the shift in focus from linear channels to OTT and streaming. Saade cited a Grabyo study wherein 79% of respondents were willing to watch sports exclusively on streaming platforms. He also pointed out that such an increase in uptake of digital services has the Covid-19 pandemic to thank. With that in mind, he asked: Is traditional pay-TV sports dead? This rise in OTT streaming has benefited operators and consumers because the cost structure has changed, said Bates. “You no longer need a satellite box, a satellite installation or dish cabling. The capital investment for players has changed.” Similarly, consumers benefit because they can choose different payment methods based on how much they wish to watch, whether it be a single game, a season pass or a tournament; they can also choose the frequency of payment. “This makes it much more flexible for the end consumer to access sports content without making long-
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term, expensive commitments; it’s a big benefit for them in terms of experience and pricing,” Bates added. OTT streaming has also influenced the production of sports broadcasting, mainly its technology and content elements. 5G is gradually penetrating the market, with companies looking to invest in and build on it not only for the benefit of transmission and streaming, but also to reduce operational structure of coverage. Secondly, beyond traditional viewing of sports, fans are looking for more ways to connect with athletes and get behind-the-scenes access. “The key word right now is interactivity. Fans need some interactive solutions, which streamers are offering,” said Yehya. “People are moving to OTT primarily because of the convenience and the interactivity. There is a big shift, and this shift will continue in the next couple of years.” One such offering is the continued growth of gambling. “The latest report released by the American Gambling Association shows that revenues from sports betting have increased 127% over the last year, with 60% of bettors using online and social media services.” The UAE Pro League has also capitalised on the shift to OTT after noting a global interest in its content. Upon receiving hundreds of millions of views globally, the league now creates smaller packages of content for distribution outside the UAE. The packaging of content into smaller/narrower sub-licensing rights has enabled UAE Pro League to gain traction with international licensees and extend its global reach accordingly. “These views show that there is a need for content to be distributed on streaming platforms. There’s more engagement and more utilisation. We’re looking at diversifying our
PROSUMMIT
May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com |
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PROSPORT
“The monetisation model is changing – people are getting more realistic about returns on investment. Unless rights holders can help protect their content, it impacts what we’re able to turn around and what value we can give back to them in the rights cycle” Danny Bates, co-founder and CCO, StarzPlay product offering and are constantly exploring alternative distribution methods,” said Doughan. Amidst this rise in OTT streaming, the speakers maintained that linear channels are not coming to the end of their shelf life. “I don’t think pay TV is dead,” said Bates. In fact, Extreme Sports Channel is an example of a media entity that uses linear channels and alternative distribution methods in tandem to promote viewership. The channel targets those between 16 and 34 years of age,
50% of whom do not watch traditional television at all, according to Einstein. So the company shifted its objective to deliver content to viewers everywhere on any device at any time, whether via social media or global streamers. Einstein highlighted that adapting content to the format in which it will be viewed is key: “You need to present content depending on what distribution method you are using – a global streaming platform can have a mix of long- and short-form content; social media content is largely delivered in bits and bytes by taking exciting moments from content you already have. You need to curate content in different ways. We generate viewers through linear television and engagement through digital – social media and web – in order to build our business.” The impact of piracy Alongside the rise of OTT, broadcasters and streamers have battled piracy. Asked whether there has been progress on this front, Bates said he saw none. StarzPlay was most recently victim to piracy during the Cricket World Cup in October, he pointed out. With its telco carrier partners, StarzPlay developed its app to make the tournament very accessible and priced it at AED 5 after noting the South Asian demographic’s recharge rate and price point for a daily product. However, for the IndiaPakistan match on October 24, six of the top ten ranked apps on the iOS and Android app stores were pirate-related. Bates believes rights holders are also at a disadvantage and must strive to protect content: “Rights holders have a huge responsibility here to support the distributor. Ultimately, it’s in their interest. The monetisation model is changing – people are getting more realistic about returns on investment. Unless rights holders can help protect their content, it impacts what we’re able to turn around and what value we can give back to them in the rights cycle.” As a rights owner, Doughan explained how piracy directly impacts business and is detrimental to all parties involved:
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“Ultimately, the engagement we have with broadcasters is based on commercial agreements and broadcasters themselves want to get advertising and sponsorships. The fact that they don’t have control over the feed itself puts them in a position where they cannot attract such deals, which, in turn impacts their appetite to invest more in our product.” Emerging business models Mining consumer data and attracting viewers through a clear marketing funnel is an important part of the business model, said Doughan. At UAE Pro League, the system is to “recruit, retain and reward” viewers. Recruitment entails raising brand awareness and telling customers
“People are moving to OTT primarily because of the convenience and the interactivity. There is a big shift, and this shift will continue in the next couple of years” Mohamad Yehya, Founding Director, IP Studios
PROSPORT
“To be able to have that experience of not being there, but still being there in a stadium in your seat and able to interact with the game because you’re in a virtual world, is the most exciting thing I see coming out of sport in the future” Peter Einstein, CCO, Extreme Sports Channel about the product; retention comes when viewers are given an experience, whether on social media or on TV; reward is the return for their loyalty upon retention. “The more time they spend interacting with your product, the more there should be some value for that.” Understanding the size of each sport’s fan base is also key to the business model, said Yehya. “Reading the proper data will help us monetise and create a proper strategy for each game. Such data attracts advertisers and sponsors. In addition, the data can influence
decisions about streaming elements, such as which type of technology and direct messaging to use.” At IP Studios ME, the new focus is on blockchain technology and how owners can use it effectively to increase customer loyalty. “We’re trying to invest more to understand how blockchain technology can help intellectual property owners monetise their product and content, which in turn will also help them create a loyal fanbase. We’ll help provide them with not just making a return on investment, but also helping them attract more fans to the stadium or virtually,” said Yehya. Maximising return on investment is at the forefront of all StarzPlay’s models, chipped in Bates. “What we appreciate so much about sports is its organic reach and impact. When we look at our KPIs and the impact it has on things like our cost-per-acquisition, it can be one-third of the cost to acquire a customer to our platform on sport versus entertainment.” He claimed StarzPlay had great success by raising brand awareness. During its broadcast of the football World Cup, the Egyptian market blossomed beyond any brand activity it could have implemented. Through inviting such customers to watch its sports broadcasts, StarzPlay achieves its underlying goal to increase its subscriber base. “The question is how can we take sports customers and expose them to our entertainment content and get them to buy our other products, and increase the lifetime value of that subscriber?” Extreme Sports Channel attracts viewers by providing an “evergreen” flow of content for viewers to watch at any time, including snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding and mountain biking, and layering coverage of tentpole events such as X-Games over this. “We cannot run half-hour shows on web and social, so we look to take the best moments from these shows. We create short, exciting five- to ten-minute segments to gain engagement and bring people back to our website, our OTT streaming service, Extreme Plus, or any one of our linear channels within the region,” said Einstein.
The company also engages with fans by introducing user-generated content. In collaboration with a company called You Rip, Extreme Sports Channel receives large volumes of such content, including women’s skateboarding, which has grown its demographic from mostly male to increasingly female. Attracting Gen Z and future generations With the rise of OTT and streaming comes the challenge of attracting viewers to stadiums. People used
“There is a need for content to be distributed on streaming platforms. There’s more engagement and more utilisation. We’re looking at diversifying our product offering and are constantly exploring alternative distribution methods” Malek Doughan, Marketing and Commercial Affairs Director, UAE Pro League May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 23
PROSPORT
to be more willing to watch games in person, but the pandemic hit stadium attendances hard across the globe. Doughan said the UAE Pro League is making more efforts to attract people, and he anticipates technical modifications to content creation. “Perhaps not within our lifetime, but there will be a lot of changes – the number of cameras, giving viewers the choice to watch a game from a single camera or giving them the ability to pick which perspective they want to watch the match from.” With the increased popularity of blockchain, as previously noted by Yehya, the UAE Pro League is targeting the creation of fan tokens and NFTs to engage with a newer audience and give viewers the opportunity to become investors. “This is a way for us to give them an immediate return on the time they spend engaging with us. The creation of once-in-a-lifetime NFTs that can only be acquired through consumption of content, whether it’s through the OTT platform or various distribution methods, can lead you to a whole new plethora of fans,” said Doughan. The Pro League has also already begun attracting younger generations through gamification, having recently held fantasy football games alongside matches.
Other large sports brands and federations have also noted growth in their fanbases thanks to video games, said Bates. For instance, viewers who played NBA or FIFA when they were younger have been driven to watch the actual leagues, even though they might not have been a fan of the sport itself, but of the video game. Ultimately, this grows the fan base. “It’s just how people engage with it at different stages of their lifecycle; it’s an evolution,” said Bates. Integration of entertainment The future of sports broadcasting will see consumers seeking a return on investment. “We will see a continued
Karim Saade, Director of Marketing at Jawwy TV and Dawri Plus, Intigral, moderated the discussion.
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fragmentation of rights – sharing of rights – so people can get a return on the investment,” said Bates. “The evolution in the world of OTT entertainment is coming into the world of OTT sports.” To achieve and maintain fan engagement, interactivity is integral to attracting and retaining future generations. Yehya pointed out that this would be particularly beneficial to integrate into highlights, as sports fans repeatedly show interest in replays. “We are seeing huge engagement from fans watching replays of highlights. If we can add some interactivity to the highlights, it would attract more and more fans. To attract Gen Z fans, adding entertainment to any sports event is the key.” At Extreme Sports Channel, Einstein is eager to watch the world of VR in sports take off. He anticipates further growth over the next five to ten years. “You can get data about the players and pick up little tidbits of interviews as though you were sitting there. To be able to have that experience of not being there, but still being there in a stadium in your seat and able to interact with the game because you’re in a virtual world, is the most exciting thing I see coming out of sport in the future,” he concluded.- Sarah Nathan
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PROSUMMIT
26 | www.broadcastprome.com | May 2022
PROSUMMIT
BEST TECH PRACTICES TO DELIVER A SUPERIOR STREAMING EXPERIENCE While several players have entered the streaming market, few are able to distinguish themselves by providing a seamless viewer experience with a well-planned technology strategy on the backend. Discussing this within the context of sport at the recent IP Studios Future of Sports Broadcasting Summit were Faraz Arshad, CTO of StarzPlay; Floris Molijn, CEO & Managing Director, Oranda Private Limited; Micky Edwards, Director of Sales – EMEA at TAG Video Systems; and Peter Van Dam, CEO of AV Consulting LLC. Charles Kraus, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Limelight, moderated. The impact of Covid on tech operations In two years, a lot has changed within the world of entertainment, with the onset of Covid leading to companies adopting different strategies for survival and growth. Arshad from StarzPlay called the period productive but also challenging, “given the huge surge in demand in the region” and StarzPlay’s ambitious entry into sports. “We started off with UFC (MMA fights) and then moved to football. In October last year, we streamed the T20 Cricket World Cup. So it helped us not only in scaling the platform, but to come up with different mechanisms to support the burst of traffic that accompanies sports … We scaled on the CDN side as well as the application infrastructure side. It was a great learning experience accommodating both sides of OTT demand (SVOD and sports).” Molijn, who is based in Singapore, called it a “roller-coaster ride” for Oranda, which is involved in content distribution, contribution, satellite delivery and broadcast production globally. “Our company has been managing the transmission side of things for several sports federations. In the last two years, every event was scrapped. Then when things eased, everyone took off at lightning speed at the same time. There has been an increased demand for sports content, but after the pandemic situation we now see a political situation with Russia and Ukraine, and the climate is continuously
changing. So delivering for various events at short notice has become a common phenomenon but challenging.” Micky Edwards says that as a solutions provider, TAG was able to help its clients with some changes in the way outputs from the system were addressed, so that people could pick up the mosaic feeds and analytics at home. “We created HLS outputs so that people either working on a tablet or a laptop, or even a mobile phone, were able to pick up the services and still continue their work, because they may have been given very short notice that they couldn't come into office anymore. We very quickly adapted our systems to make these changes and help our clients as best we could.” As a CDN provider that also felt the shockwaves of Covid, Charles Kraus pointed out that Limelight’s biggest challenge during the pandemic was scaling infrastructure. “When Covid hit, there were considerable supply chain issues around the world. So even when we had the ability to upgrade and add capacity, one of the biggest bottlenecks was actually getting hardware to do it. And then being able to schedule getting into the various POPs physically and installing the equipment was tough. It was quite a challenge to keep up in some parts of the world with the demand, but we have pretty much caught up and we're finding that most end users prefer a multi-CDN approach, which helps a lot with capacity.” Accelerated adoption of cloud technologies and addressing latency Following the challenges around Covid, cloud adoption gained a lot of traction. Peter Van Dam has been a strong advocate for cloud solutions, and especially lauded the low latency he was able to ensure working within AWS with delivery via SRT for his clients in Saudi Arabia. With latency a game changer within sport, Kraus queried how forgiving viewers were within the real-time streaming environment and how much latency was considered permissible. He added that although Limelight had a workaround that offered sub-second latency, its efficacy in a sports
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“No matter how much you scale, if your application is not optimised, you will not be able to acquire customers or retain them” Faraz Arshad, CTO, StarzPlay streaming environment where traffic could scale very quickly was not yet fully confirmed. He listed some of the challenges around prioritising low latency, such as sacrificing quality and the difficulty of inserting watermarks, as any enhancements add to the delay. While auction and gambling probably had a use case for such low latency, sports didn’t really need it, Kraus added. Nevertheless, he pointed out that Limelight had closely explored CMAP and chunk transfer and coding – essentially micro segments which match broadcast. “What we're finding for most people is that the demand really is for just matching the broadcast latency and not necessarily beating it,” he commented. Van Dam agreed that the latency afforded through satellite for broadcast served as
the benchmark “and today, we can go the same or faster than satellite”. Micky Edwards interjected that TAG monitors latency at the production level, “which helps further downstream so you can see what's happening when you're getting to the last mile … We’ve put a lot of effort into keeping latency low on the production side. So then it can follow through when it's going through to the later stages of the workflow, and we have a lot of happy clients using that. We've also been looking at 5G networks and using JPEG-XS over CDI. So that's proving useful to get large amounts of live sports data across the country, and that can be applied to any of the 5G networks.” Molijn added that no one in the market has asked for latency under a second, not even betting agencies. “The only people that have asked us about latency down to sub-seconds is actually ourselves, which refers to what Edwards mentioned, where he can bring in the feeds and if there's something wrong, we would like to see it before our client does. But there's no client on the planet that will say it needs to be less than a second. Currently, three seconds is the benchmark in the market. And as Peter mentioned with SRT, you are able to do quick delivery so SRT is quickly becoming the benchmark.” Combating latency in sports streaming Latency has particularly become a concern with sport, the panellists agreed. Arshad remarked that StarzPlay adopted a number of measures to offer low latency streaming down to four seconds, ingesting feeds from studios and broadcasters into live workflow using SRT & Zixi, with some tweaks on the fragment sizes to deliver dash, smooth streaming and HLS formats. “Along with the tweaks on the live workflow, we also took an advantage of our hybrid CDN approach, where we were serving traffic using a private CDN with ISPs directly connected over local internet exchanges (IX) and the public CDNs. Delivering sports using a private CDN is something new we tried. When we pushed our feeds over an IX, we were connected with three different exchanges and that
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helped bring the latency down to four seconds and offered a smoother screening and more consistent experience on all the devices." He also emphasised application scaling. “No matter how much you scale, if your application is not optimised, you will not be able to acquire customers or retain them. When you get significant bursts, the load often goes towards the payment gateways and billing engines, and you don’t want new customers to be impacted. To handle these bursts, you need to plan properly, and that goes all the way from your
“Offering full monitoring as well as light and extra light features reduces the processing overhead so that you can monitor more channels within the same footprint. So it really makes it a cost-effective solution to deploy” Micky Edwards, Director of Sales – EMEA, TAG Video Systems
PROTECH
subscription pages on the apps to the billing engines in order to ensure that the internal infrastructure can be scaled up instantly. “On the other side, you also have to deal with multiple payment gateway providers. Rather than going with one payment card and payment gateway, we used two or three to ensure the load was shared and you could scale the transactions between these two. Besides this, we also handled subscriptions using in-app methods of payment (like Google and Apple) and a telco direct carrier billing, which helped customers pay through different payment channels. “So we gave a heads-up to one of our major telco partners in the region that they were going to see significant traffic. We were also continuously making recommendations before, during and after the matches to our sports
Peter Van Dam, CEO of AV Consulting LLC.
fans, to attract them to the other products on our platform. This is how we managed to deliver the load across the platform.” Asked if StarzPlay would consider
streaming sports in 4K, Arshad said there would be considerable challenges in the last mile that would compromise the user experience. “I don't mind offering sports in 4K provided that the last-mile bandwidth is capable of handling 4K bitrates, but in reality not all customers will be able to consume it. On average, we are serving up to 2.5MB and the maximum you can go up to is 4.5MB with full HD.” Molijn questioned the definition of a good product for the end user, apart from the contribution. “What can an end user digest without complaining and still have that satisfactory feeling?” Arshad commented that this is where the IX plays an important role. “A service provider should be able to manage a mix of private and public CDNs by focusing on direct versus indirect peering,
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PROTECH
based on latency, throughput and availability. When we deliver a live stream over IX, the handover costs towards telcos are very minimal and they have capacities available. So we have some network peering mutual agreements with major telcos in the region. Our origins are connected to those IXs feeding our edge caches within these telcos.” Edwards seconded this, saying that an elastic service enables us to “scale and resize according to the load on the system” and adding that TAG was flexible with both cloud and on-prem deployments, ensuring its solutions were agile and adaptive monitoring could be done on three different layers. “Offering full monitoring as well as light and extra light features reduces the processing overhead so that you can monitor more channels within the same footprint. So it really makes it a cost-effective solution to deploy.”
“Delivering for various events at short notice has become a common phenomenon but challenging” Floris Molijn, CEO & Managing Director, Oranda Private Limited
Kraus then examined how information was being monitored – the tools in the network to monitor and get visibility into what's going on and how multiple CDNs anchor the whole ecosystem, especially during a game. “What are some of your best practices for monitoring?” he asked. Arshad explained that detailed monitoring was implemented on the application as well as on the network side and could provide microscopic insights into the customer experience – jitters, buffering, the latency they've been connecting with, their join time, the instinct tuners and so on. “Essentially, the metrics give you an idea of which ASNs are struggling to provide a good experience, so you are immediately able to switch from IX to IP or vice versa.” It was agreed that the agreements streamers have with CDN providers, telcos and IX players play a big role in ensuring a seamless experience. Edwards pointed out that multiple monitoring points bring in multiple streams of data. “TAG has now put all this into a Redis Data pipe and made it available for third parties so that they can create a dashboard and analyse trends and what's actually happening through the network, and it's really been effective. You actually have visibility into exactly what’s happening across the network, and it gives clients a lot of confidence.” StarzPlay has gone one step further by integrating different sources of data with its Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM), said Arshad. “Data given by CLM also helps our customer support to pro-actively target those customers that are having a bad service experience so they can send them special offers, such as an additional month at no extra cost and so on, by way of compensation.” Molijn says telcos are slowly catching on that for broadcasters, the internet line is just as important as the satellite dish on the broadcast compound or the fibre link. “Telcos are becoming vital to the entire contribution part,” he commented. Panellists were then asked what they would like to see from new technologies. Molijn remarked that the ability to achieve the same goals at every single
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“What we're finding for most people is that the demand really is for just matching the broadcast latency and not necessarily beating it” Charles Kraus, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Limelight location would be great; while Edwards said consider new formats in the future but added that technology partners must work together to ensure systems are easy to deploy, manage and use. Peter Van Dam commented that his main objective has been to make sure broadcast qualities were maintained while the quality of experience did not dip. Arshad pointed out that the game has become complex with the attempt to distribute content across different devices, with everyone having their own codecs. He commented that it was important for a regulatory entity to step up and regularise the protocols so as to simplify things for streamers. Protocols should be adopted across all formats, irrespective of whether it is Android or Microsoft.- Vijaya Cherian
PROCLOUD
REDEFINING
CLOUD FOR BROADCAST
With remote and hybrid working the new normal, how can broadcasters and media organisations leverage cloud-based solutions to support that transition? Vendors and solution providers have some answers Two years into the pandemic, many changes previously considered temporary have become permanent. The realities of the new business environment, coupled with changing consumer habits such as a huge increase in OTT viewing, are driving a sea change in working practices, from cloud-based editing workflows to remote access media asset management. Of course, ‘cloudification’ was an ongoing trend before the pandemic, but adoption has rapidly accelerated in response to unprecedented disruption – and not everybody was fully
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prepared. “Any change requires careful consideration,” says Neil Anderson, CRO at Codemill. “Moving content from static infrastructure to the cloud can be a long-term commitment, especially for large media organisations with vast archives.” Couple that with the constant demand for fresh content, and the full transition will necessarily be a lengthy one. Organisations still in the early stages of adoption should therefore be mindful of the complexity of the task before them. As Kieran Kunhya, CEO of Open Broadcast Systems, points out: “The cloud requires a different set of expertise.”
PROCLOUD
Rapid evolution Even businesses at the cutting edge of their industry can struggle when adapting to new technologies and ways of working. It’s human nature – if you establish processes that you find comfortable and efficient, sudden changes inevitably result in a few growing pains. Up until recently established workflows have taken precedence over cloud adoption, but as Chris Clarke, CEO of Cerberus Tech, explains: “The spike in demand for remote workflows has propelled the industry to take the cloud more seriously. As more vendors start to offer cloud-based solutions, it can be quite overwhelming for media companies and broadcasters. But there are ways of implementing a staggered transition until broadcast engineers become more familiar with the technology, such as using IP as a back-up feed for a satellite broadcast.”
“The best cloud solutions should be scalable and adaptable, and should
enhance collaboration between teams regardless of location”
Parham Azimi, CEO, iconik
Such agility is a boon against the chaotic backdrop of the pandemic, but as Clarke goes on to say, the media landscape has always been fast-moving: “Uncertainty and changing schedules are an ongoing reality in the world of live events. I think we will see more demand for the flexibility to spin up and spin down broadcast environments, and interfaces that simplify this process. Due to the adaptable characteristics and agnostic capabilities of IP, we will see wider adoption across the media industry. Broadcasters are gaining confidence in IP workflows, especially when they are supported by reliable transport protocols such as RIST [a protocol allowing high-quality video to be sent over unmanaged networks like the internet], which promotes secure and interoperable standards.” However, even companies that have already incorporated cloud-based methods face challenges. “Moving media assets to the cloud requires research into the best solutions,” says Parham Azimi, CEO of iconik, “which hasn’t always been the case. Some rapid adopters are now facing issues as they realise their chosen cloud solution is not the right fit for their workflows.” Not unexpectedly, the organisations with the biggest repositories of archive content are finding the transition especially complex. “Having a large number of assets makes migration a longer process and requires a staged transition,” says Nicholas Pearce, co-founder and CRO of Object Matrix. “But by not making the shift to the cloud, organisations cannot effectively monetise content, so there are missed opportunities hidden in those LTO libraries.” Proceed with caution The key thing for media organisations to bear in mind when introducing new tech is to know their requirements. Does the proposed solution meet their specific needs, and can it be integrated into existing workflows with minimal disruption?
“As technology progresses, having cloud-ready infrastructure in place will be standard for
all media workflows and the industry will have completely moved on from legacy storage such as LTOs” Nicholas Pearce, co-founder and CRO, Object Matrix “Broadcasters are under an increasing amount of pressure to deliver more content, and they have to consider how they can meet the demand,” says Kieran Kunhya. “Is a cloud solution going to make their workflow more efficient or help them achieve more? There isn’t a definitive answer, because every organisation works differently and what works for one might not work for the other.” Parham Azimi echoes this point, asserting that organisations must “consider why they are looking to migrate their content and how a cloud-based approach is going to help their organisation in the long run. The best cloud solutions should be scalable and adaptable, and should enhance collaboration
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PROCLOUD
some work to do around high-end finishing/mastering in the cloud, but new components are constantly being trialled, so I expect to see more stages being handled within the cloud over the next few years.”
“Broadcasters and media organisations must capture new audiences and boost engagement
by exploring IP opportunities that will help them to reach new territories and reduce the downstream cost for takers in those regions” Chris Clarke, CEO, Cerberus Tech between teams regardless of location.” Such solutions should therefore be viewed holistically; they are not merely stopgaps or quick fixes, they can also be major improvements in flexibility, functionality and security. “Media workflows are complex,” says Neil Anderson, “and there are many different processes and people involved with various stages. In the last few years, there have been some great developments within the final post-production stages, making QC and compliance tasks much easier to automate within the cloud. There is still
Workflow implementation It is important to remember, however, that the cloud is not a solution in and of itself. Indeed, it should not be seen as a catch-all descriptor, as there are myriad options available under that broad umbrella. Some are fully cloud-based, while some take a hybrid approach – and organisations often do not fully understand these distinctions. ‘Cloud-ready’ vs ‘cloud-native’ is a case in point, as Anderson points out. “I regularly see the terms used interchangeably, which feeds the confusion. Cloud-ready solutions aren’t built for the cloud, they are essentially bolt-ons that can be accessed remotely. Being cloud-native means that solutions are designed from scratch to work specifically in the cloud. It is the cloud-native solutions which are revolutionising media workflows – they integrate seamlessly and deliver endless scalability.” “Cloud-ready solutions,” counters Nicholas Pearce, “have the benefit of maximising a mix of on-prem infrastructure and cloud workflows, enabling users to access content from anywhere while saving on egress costs and offering organisations more control over their assets.” Businesses need to familiarise themselves with these distinctions before they commit to an option, or else risk expending time, effort and capital on an inappropriate solution. Confusion between the nature of public, private, hybrid and multicloud is another frequent headache for organisations looking to transition. If these basic principles are not understood, says Pearce, neither are the potential benefits. “Although there are features that set each apart, they can also work together to provide better accessibility and higher levels
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of content security. In fact, they should be used alongside one another to avoid egress fees and improve workflow efficiency. Most media organisations would benefit from a mix that has been tailored to their specific needs.” A bright future While questions remain over exactly how the future is going to shape up, experts seem to agree that adoption of fully or partially cloud-based workflows is a matter of when, not if. Pearce says: “As technology progresses, having cloud-ready infrastructure in place will be standard for all media workflows and the industry will have completely moved on from legacy storage such as LTOs.”
“Developments in technology and connectivity will
remove the need for expensive hardware such as satellite vehicles and enable live video to be transported with minimal latency” Kieran Kunhya, CEO, Open Broadcast Systems
PROCLOUD
The media world is highly competitive, with more channels and platforms popping up almost every day. Chris Clarke notes that to remain relevant, “Broadcasters and media organisations must capture new audiences and boost engagement by exploring IP opportunities that will help them to reach new territories and reduce the downstream cost for takers in those regions.” Kieran Kunhya, meanwhile, cites the continuing roll-out of 5G as a catalyst. “Developments in technology and connectivity will remove the need for expensive hardware such as satellite vehicles and enable live video to be transported with minimal latency. Additionally, with support for protocols such as RIST, customers can further benefit from interoperable and robust delivery solutions, which will result in global, industry-wide IP adoption.” Organisations should not
“Moving content from static infrastructure to the
cloud can be a long-term commitment, especially for large media organisations with vast archives”
Neil Anderson, CRO at Codemill
be daunted by this feeling of inevitability, however. By proceeding cautiously, in possession all the necessary information, the transition need not be painful. “Look for a cloud solution which will integrate seamlessly with existing workflows,” advises Neil Anderson. “Disruption can be minimised by running systems in parallel until the final switchover. Every workflow is different and there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to cloud-based solutions. Look for a provider that can offer a tailored solution rather than an off-the-shelf product – that way, you can ensure you have all the right tools and costs remain efficient.” Regardless of the route you end up taking, it’s clear that the remit of the cloud will only continue to expand throughout the media supply chain. Parham Azimi concludes: “The industry is full of innovation, so it won’t be long before cloud workflows become common practice.” PRO
May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 35
PROSTUDIO
STRIKING THE RIGHT NOTE
A brand-new music recording studio in Dubai has become the go-to destination for many musicians and podcast hosts. With an ambience designed to inspire creativity, state-of-the-art infrastructure and a range of services, MNK Studios hopes to provide a different audio space for artists. Vijaya Cherian and N Nomani go on a tour The drab and dusty facades of the warehouses at Al Quoz in Dubai belie the sophisticated studio spaces within. MNK Studios, a brandnew sound recording studio that recently launched in Al Quoz, fits that description. Since it opened, the studio has welcomed a steady stream of clients with varying recording needs. “This is the only recording and rehearsal space of its kind in the UAE,” claims Miltiadis ‘Milton’ Kyvernitis, owner and managing director of MNK Studios. “This is one of the only places in the region where artists or musicians can regularly hone their talents in a professionally treated environment as well as receive a whole raft of services.” His confidence stems not only from the tech equipment available at the studio, but also his own first-hand experiences of the recording industry’s pain points. Starting his career as a freelance audio engineer in 2003 and joining Dubai Media Incorporated in 2007, he stepped away from the station last year to open MNK, though he has been working on its blueprint for the last five years. The Cypriot entrepreneur also did a short stint at AV distributor NMK Electronics, founded by his father Nicolas Kyvernitis. “The idea for this facility came when I realised there weren’t any rehearsal rooms in the country up to standard in terms of service and value,” says Kyvernitis. Everything about MNK is part of a meticulous thought process, starting from its location at Al Quoz. The 3,500sqft studio shares the same compound as musical instrument store Melody House and backline company MEI, which
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belong to his mother and sister respectively. With the opening of MNK, the compound has become a music hub and a one-stop shop for musicians. Many of MNK’s clients spill over from the more established MEI or Melody House. The Space With three spacious rehearsal rooms and two fully equipped recording studios, MNK is designed to cater to any conceivable audio needs, with some video resources too. Two rehearsal rooms are 320sqft each, and the largest is almost 700sqft. All three are acoustically isolated by 50cm walls and based on a box-in-box system to achieve 55dB in average sound attenuation. They are acoustically treated, designed and built by 21dB Acoustic Design and Consultancy. The large room is also a live room, connected to the facility’s two control rooms via a Dante network. The smaller Studio 2 is designed mainly for audio post work such as adverts and radio spots, with the larger Studio 1 designed for sound design, mixing, mastering and composition. Both have their own vocal booths. Apart from the acoustic treatment, MNK’s rooms come with guitar and bass amps and drums. The two smaller rooms come with a PA system as well as wedge monitors for drums, and the large room runs on multiple wedge monitors. Although these are primarily audio facilities, mood lighting has been fitted to help create the right ambience for artists. “They can change the colours to whatever theme they like based on their mood and
PROSTUDIO
Miltiadis Kyvernitis is owner and Managing Director of MNK Studios.
May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 37
PROSTUDIO
perform. This is really important to creatives,” says Kyvernitis. Another hook is MNK’s crew of engineers, always at hand to assist. This attention to detail perhaps stems from Kyvernitis’ own extensive work experience at Dubai Media Incorporated. “We ensure our best in providing quality service alongside a quality product that is the facility,” he says, adding that the recording rooms have also been fitted with some of the newest kit. Compared to traditional recording set-ups with engineers in the control room and artists in live rooms connected via DAWs like Pro Tools, MNK’s rehearsal studios enable live recordings to be easily executed. The acoustic design and panelling minimise the sound bleed into different microphones from different instruments, making the facility ideal for bands or professional musicians who want to record a live performance. “You can have a row of vocalists strategically positioned ahead of the guitar cabs with the drummer performing on those drums there, yet because the room is so well designed, you have very minimal bleed into the microphones and can easily record and mix a live performance in both stereo and multitrack format,” explains Kyvernitis. There is a variety of aesthetically pleasing acoustic panels in the studios, including Primacoustic for the broadband absorbers and bass traps, Vicoustic for the diffusers and hybrid absorbers, and Spigoacustic for the wooden wall panelling and closed-cell polyethylene absorbers for ceiling surfaces. “This combination of panels was carefully selected to achieve a great sound propagation balance inside the spaces during a performance,” Kyvernitis explains. Allen & Heath Qu-16 mixers are deployed in the two smaller rehearsal rooms, Studios S and M, preconfigured to record rehearsal sessions in stereo (multitrack recording is
Besides being designed to cater to the varying sound recording needs of clients, MNK Studios has also integrated mood lights and elements in the ambience to inspire creativity.
also an option) and paired with a Mackie Thump12A and Thump18S PA sound reinforcement system. All instruments are pre-miked to eliminate messy and unsafe cabling and fed into a stage box that connects with the Qu-16 via Ethernet. Shure SM58 and SM57 mics are available for instruments, and the drum kit is catered to via Shure DMK57-52 drum kit mics or an optional Sennheiser E-600 series set-up. Both rooms have Blackstar and Orange amplifiers for guitars, Ampeg amplifiers for bass and Pearl Decade Fusion kits. Simply put, all musicians need to do is bring their hard drive and they’re ready to record. Studio B, the largest of the three rehearsal rooms, has a higher-end set-up, with a 64-channel Allen & Heath Avantis
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audio console and Mackie wedge monitors for in-room playback. “This room was built with international acts in mind, so all the gear in there is high-end,” explains Kyvernitis. The microphone spread in Studio B is also more extensive, with a menu of Shure SM58, SM57, Beta 52, Beta 98AD, KSM137s and Sennheiser E600-Series models to choose from. A 16-channel Allen & Heath ME-500 personal mixing system is also at hand, while Mackie HM8 headphone amplifiers and MDB1P, MDB1A, MDB2P and MDB-USB DI boxes complete the set-up. For backline, Blackstar, Orange and Ampeg head & cab amps cover guitars and bass, while the drum kit is a Pearl
PROSTUDIO
Masters Maple Complete kit. Flexibility is the overriding factor, afforded by an extensive Dante network. “Both Studios 1 and 2 can be paired with Studio B, and the recordings and projects can move around freely. We have very minimal analogue cable running underground. The large rehearsal room also functions as a live room and can be connected directly to either Studio 1 or Studio 2. If one of the control rooms is busy, we can still record in the other. Audio is distributed via Dante protocol, which makes the facility extremely flexible as well,” says Kyvernitis. Studio 1 is the master control room, set up with an AVID S1 mixing
“Each room has been designed to be used by anybody and everybody in the arts ... To my knowledge,
there is no professional studio here that actually enables this much flexibility”
Miltiadis Kyvernitis, owner and Managing Director, MNK Studios console. Pro Tools is the DAW of choice here. Monitoring requirements are covered by a pair of high-end Mackie HR824 MK2 monitors. Inside the vocal booth, one Mackie HM-4 headphone preamp provides the headphone feed while the
industry-standard DAD-MOM monitor operating module, used as a monitor control, is directly connected to work seamlessly with the MTRX. Studio 2 is a slightly scaleddown space equipped to cater to all requirements for audio postproduction, such as voiceovers, sound design, editing and mixing, music composition and sonic branding. This room also uses an AVID S1 desk, with monitoring control provided via a DAD-MOM unit through a pair of Mackie HR6 MK2 monitors. With -50DB of attenuation in the smaller studios and -64DB in the larger one, multiple bands can rehearse and record simultaneously. “While we had a 10-piece band performing in Studio B, we had another client upstairs in the Lightroom shooting a music video. He brought in large PA, had lighting everywhere as well as actors, and made it look like a nightclub. Playback through the PA was loud. And fortunately for both clients, they couldn’t hear each other.” MNK Studios also has a dedicated space for photography and videography sessions. “The Lightroom was a last-minute decision based on the fact I had usable space left over that I previously considered only as storage space. We ended up converting this into a usable space that has natural light coming from the skylight panel and is great for photography and videography, as well as other uses. So far, we’ve shot two music videos, held a few podcasts and had a catering service set up for a client there.” Value-added services MNK says its USP is value for money – rental starts at $68 an hour. Kyvernitis says: “All of MNK’s rehearsal rooms are recordenabled, offering on-the-go stereo recording free of charge with booked sessions enabled by the fact that every instrument is set up with microphones. With a premix
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PROSTUDIO
As an audio engineer, Kyvernitis is cognisant of the challenges musicians face and ensured that the studios were treated to ensure artists do not suffer from ear fatigue even if the sound levels are high.
already set up for the foundation of the average rehearsal, this means recording is quick, and we provide this as a value-added service to musicians and clients, so they are further encouraged to hone their talents. “Providing this allows them to assess their performance as live musicians, which is different when recording a song track by track for an album. It also allows them to share their material with friends or peers. Moreover, because the rooms are well designed, any tight professional band that chooses to rehearse and do a stereo recording could also release an EP with a good performance. To add to that, all our rooms can also record in multitrack format.” The Centre for Musical Arts recently rented the facility for a project for an Expo project. “They had their musicians, their children, their ensemble, and they recorded in one of the small studios in multitrack format. In the large rehearsal room, bands can either record in stereo into the console drive, multitrack format into a laptop they’ve set up via Ethernet, or if they want an engineer or do an actual instrument-by-instrument recording, we can record into Pro Tools directly via the patch bay. “Each room has been designed to be used by anybody and everybody in the arts. That said, even engineers can book sessions to record bands
“Podcasters like the aesthetics, but most of
all they like the sound. It’s impeccable and so clear” Miltiadis Kyvernitis, owner and Managing Director, MNK Studios themselves. To my knowledge, there is no professional studio here that actually enables this amount of flexibility.” Kyvernitis also points out that musicians who record at MNK don’t suffer from ear fatigue. “Some of these bands get really loud, but it doesn’t tire the ears because of the rooms’ acoustics. The way this room is treated, even at high levels of sound, it doesn’t hurt the ear. It sounds good.” Another thoughtful feature at MNK is the chillout area complete with PlayStations, Netflix, chess boards and food and drink. Expanding client portfolio “We have quite a variety of clients that come through our door,” says Kyvernitis, “ranging from local musicians to international superstars, local and regional podcasters, music video producers, corporate clients, production companies, jazz musicians, soul funk, metal rock – you name it. Everyone from working professionals that require a temporary dedicated space, to smallscale podcasters – a rapidly expanding sector – who simply require clean and clear audio capture, with aesthetics to back it up if they’re shooting video podcasts,
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has a place at MNK Studios.” Podcasters form a surprisingly sizable chunk of the client base. And aside from audio, the rooms are popular for videography as well, he says. “Podcasters like the aesthetics, but most of all they like the sound. It’s impeccable and so clear. All of them come back saying that their listeners and viewers are so much happier with the new output. Podcasts are produced in either of the rehearsal studios or the Lightroom, and we provide clients with a custom-built podcast table. We have televisions in both Studio B and Studio S. Furnished with laidback couches, it is designed for casual podcasts. The studio’s acoustic panelling eliminates the need for the SM7B microphone, a popular podcast mic which clients always demand to use regardless. The room sounds so good that they can use any mic to do their podcasting as well.” MNK also does automated dialogue replacement (ADR) for films. “If a client comes down with a Disney film and wants it translated to Hindi, we can do the dubbing work here.” Although the facility is quite comprehensive, Kyvernitis isn’t ready to stop yet. With the growing demand for alternative DAWs and given that these rooms may be used by engineers who need a space to work, MNK plans to add Dolby Atmos mixing capabilities. PRO
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CM
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CMY
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The Future is Here Be Ready for
12G and IP with FOR-A
PROTECH
THE FUTURE OF SUBTITLING AND CAPTIONING AI, ML and cloud are key technology drivers for closed captioning, subtitling and audio dubbing captioning, says Manik Gupta Over the last few years, consumption of video streaming services has risen exponentially – especially for subscription video-on-demand (SVOD), which has skyrocketed. Research shows that global SVOD subscriptions are expected to increase by 491m between 2021 and 2026, reaching 1.64bn. This is a huge leap forward in terms of subscriber numbers. Increasingly, SVOD services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are relying on international subscribers to drive subscriber growth. Netflix is now available in more than 190 countries. As video service providers look to globalise their content, closed captioning, subtitling and audio dubbing are becoming even more crucial for SVOD services. Through captions and subtitles, service providers have been able
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to broaden their reach and make streaming content accessible to millions of viewers across the globe with ease. Audio dubbing is equally critical in creating content for different geographies and reaching new, untapped audiences, because it allows video service providers to add language-specific content to the original audio. However, preparing content in various languages can be a bit of a challenge. Roughly 6,500 different languages are spoken around the world, each with its own distinct differences, which poses a problem for closed captioning, subtitling and audio dubbing. As video service providers work toward streamlining delivery, it is becoming increasingly imperative to examine the latest technology trends to offer exceptional streaming quality and further expand their footprint.
PROTECH
“The global video streaming software market is expected to more than double over the next few years, growing at a CAGR of 18.5% to reach $17.5bn in 2026, from $7.5bn in 2021” Manik Gupta, Associate Director of Engineering, Interra Systems
AI/ML- and cloud-based solutions simplify delivery Historically, captioning and subtitling have been manualintensive processes. However, the tide is turning toward a more automated solution to meet captioning and subtitling needs. Now that OTT service providers are managing a massive amount of streamed content for a global audience, they require more efficient workflows. The cost and time involved with having to caption and subtitle
everything manually has become too big of a burden. On average, captioning costs $5-10 per minute. The streaming industry is seeing a major shift toward the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, to minimise captioning and subtitling costs and maximise efficiency. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) and other ML technologies enable streaming providers to realise tremendous efficiencies in the media captions and subtitling workflow, including faster reviewing, reduced turnaround time, decreased manual efforts and lower costs. ASR in particular allows video service providers to instantly recognise and translate spoken language into text, helping to streamline the creation of captions. It is now a powerful system that includes multiple components. With AI/ML, a one-stop solution can generate QC captions, subtitles and audio dubbing. With AI- and ML-based QC solutions, video service providers can ensure that OTT content delivered to different geographies maintains outstanding quality. This is important, as today’s global audiences demand high-quality content, including captions. Moreover, with content going global, it is crucial to comply with strict regional and industry regulations. For instance, AI QC tools can ensure content
meets the guidelines laid out by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US. Advanced QC tools can also develop algorithms to check synchronisation between audio and subtitles in different languages. Another key trend in video streaming is the increasing adoption of cloud technologies. The global video streaming software market is expected to more than double over the next few years, growing at a CAGR of 18.5% to reach $17.5bn in 2026, from $7.5bn in 2021. This shift to the cloud by OTT video service providers is apparent across the entire media workflow, from encoding to quality control (QC). Using a cloudbased ASR system, video service providers can reap all the benefits of the cloud to create captions and subtitles with increased flexibility, scalability and cost efficiencies. Automated, AI-based improvements for dubbing workflows Manual dubbing of audio is a complicated process that involves transcription, translation and speech generation. ML-based automated dubbing workflows exist, but their use is restricted for now. A common issue is a lead or delay between audio and video. Since the time it takes to communicate the same message in different languages varies dramatically, synchronisation problems may occur, with a negative effect on the viewing experience. Given how many streaming options are available today, service providers must deliver the best possible quality of experience, free of synchronisation issues. Automation is key to bringing greater efficiency to audio dubbing. Video service providers can for example verify complex dubbing packages, including multiple MXF and .wav files, ensuring that
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PROTECH
package variations are accurate and audio tracks are dubbed properly. Furthermore, automation can help video service providers confirm the precision of metadata package structures and check that the number of audio tracks, channel configuration of dubbed tracks and duration of the original audio track, compared with dubbed audio tracks, are correct. Another key way in which the industry is tackling audio dubbing challenges is through innovations in automation and AI. Using an AI-based automated QC solution, service providers can check synchronisation between dubbed track and master track with greater efficiency, to identify mismatches in the timing. This is crucial to ensuring that there are no syncing issues. Recent advances in AI have improved audio dubbing proficiency and quality, especially for language identification. AI/ ML algorithms have improved so much that automated QC systems
Manik Gupta, Associate Director of Engineering, Interra Systems
Conclusion We know that video service providers are increasingly seeking to reach global audiences with the content they deliver, which means high-quality captions, subtitles and audio dubbing are now needed more than ever. The quality of streaming must be flawless in all respects. Advancements in AI and ML technology are helping service providers extend the reach of their content to global audiences and capture additional viewers. Video service providers can now create and QC captions, subtitles and audio dubs with greater speed, accuracy and scale, without heavy investment in manual labour. AI and ML technologies ensure a high QE for global viewers on every device, cutting out the chance of human error. In the future, streaming providers will need to embrace AI/ML- and cloud-based QC solutions as much as possible. Freeing humans from complex tasks such as transcription means they can focus on creative jobs such as translating difficult audio segments and adding audio descriptions. With an AI/ML solution, video service providers know that captions, subtitles and audio dubbing are of the quality and standard demanded by consumers today, keeping viewers satisfied no matter where they live and what device they’re watching on.
can now detect language in any audio track with an accuracy of more than 90%. A key aspect is that training these models only takes a few hours; AI technology can then predict the dialect spoken in the audio track. Using metadata, content creators can then verify that this is correct. It is thus anticipated that the streaming industry will increasingly rely on automated and AI/ML-based technologies to enhance audio dubbing efficiencies and improve the quality of content to a far greater level.
Manik Gupta is Associate Director of Engineering at Interra Systems.
“Using an AI-based automated QC solution, service providers can check synchronisation between dubbed track and master track with greater efficiency, to identify mismatches in the timing”
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PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION
VIRTUAL PRODUCTION:
A FIELD GUIDE TO THE FUTURE OF FILMMAKING
Virtual production is rapidly gaining traction, with three new studio launches announced within the span of a month in the UAE. For the next few months, BroadcastPro ME is partnering with The Other End, a Canadian virtual production company, on a series of articles on the basics of using this technology accurately – doing away with myths, getting the facts straight, and tips and tricks on creating ace productions 46 | www.broadcastprome.com | May 2022
PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION
What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you say ‘virtual’? Is it a 1960s announcer discussing “the future of computational technology”? Maybe the first-ever recorded demonstration of Ivan Sutherland’s VR prototype, which looked like a cross between Joel Schumacher’s Riddler and two Dyson vacuum cleaners? (Yes, it’s real.) Or perhaps the nausea-inducing Virtual Boy pioneered by Nintendo in the early ‘80s? The first Oculus Rift? Or maybe, just maybe, none of the above? Not to worry. The excitement surrounding virtual this and virtual that appeared for mere brief seconds in media culture, and then just as quickly faded into the ether. It’s seen quite a number of spotlights in fifty-plus years, each iteration setting its sights on the commendable yet somehow insane objective of allowing a user to leave one reality and enter an entirely new but indistinguishably real one. Virtual meetings to simulate a boardroom filled with your colleagues, or virtual real estate bought with virtual money on a virtual platform … virtually. Suddenly that insane idea doesn't seem so insane, huh? Do you know what else shares that goal? Filmmaking. The desire to transport audiences to incredible new realities where they feel entranced and involved in the imagery woven right before their eyes is intrinsic to filmmaking, if not all visual storytelling mediums. So, taking all this into account, it would make sense that these two industries and concepts would one day form something greater than the sum of their parts, right? Welcome to virtual production. Defining virtual production is not easy. In its current state, it's more of an umbrella terminology than a single means of production; and to properly relay critical components of its successful use, and the power that comes with such leverage, takes some hands-on experience and proper knowledge. Having worked extensively with this new production solution for over two years now, on both the research and the production side, I’d like to offer a
unique take on the exciting new world of virtual production – a demystification of the ever-popular branch involving intergalactic bounty hunters, an adorable green puppet and LED monoliths that will change how we think about studio production and visual effects pipelines. This facet of virtual production is a means of content production with heavy integration of real-time rendering, in-camera visual effects and digital 3D environment projection, all through the use of exponentially scalable LED walls not too dissimilar to those found on the sides of city buildings. It allows digital assets and environments to be captured directly through the lens instead of being applied during post-production. This all results in something we’ve come to call final pixels, a fancy way of saying ‘in camera’. This is just a brief insight into its definition and application; in practice, it is an enigmatic and complex subject, a multifaceted engine that with proper understanding can be infinitely valuable in today’s media landscape, both for communicating with a team and for intimately understanding how to leverage its true power. Understanding the many aspects that make up virtual production is not only the best way of lifting the veil, but the best way to define it properly. As I said, it’s an umbrella term covering a few different workflows. What they all share is a dependence on real-time software that can process incredibly powerful visual effects and digital environments without the downtime of most 3D software. No one likes waiting for stuff to render! This kind of software has existed for decades, but has only recently become powerful enough to process photo-real digital assets with little to no wait time, principally designed for video game development. There are many game engines, but only a few have truly shifted their focus to this new industry use case. The most prominent are Unreal Engine and Unity, both incredibly versatile, powerful and popular. These engines were primarily designed for the construction of games that run beautifully detailed and designed real-time graphical assets,
May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 47
PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION
The greatest strength of virtual production lies in the ability to change the most crucial elements of the projected world – lighting, asset placement, location – and to craft the perfect frame at any moment, without concern for external factors.
but have now found a secondary use in the world of visual effects and film production, allowing the creation of photo-real 3D set extensions that look just as tangible as their physical counterparts. Alongside them are other companies like NVIDIA and AMD, who have invested heavily in developing and streamlining this technology for use in virtual production. Their graphics cards are designed to bear the intense loads of raytracing while simultaneously processing photoreal assets up to 8K resolution. Threadripper processors, for example, accelerate real-time production without workflow or communication hiccups. Both companies share an intense focus on advancing this new way of telling a story and capturing a moment. At this stage, you may be thinking: This is nice and all, but it just sounds like a fancier version of rear projection. We’ve had that for the past century. You’d be right to think that, because it’s true to some degree. However, the greatest strength of virtual production lies far beyond means of projection or nearinstant environmental rendering. Its power comes from the most straightforward principle of gaming: interactivity. The ability to freely
“Defining virtual production is not easy. In its current state, it’s more of an umbrella terminology than a single means of production; and to properly relay critical components of its successful use, and the power that comes with such leverage, takes some hands-on experience and proper knowledge”
precisely nail a slow and tedious dolly shot, virtual production also enhances the production environment. Its power resides in the freedoms and solutions it offers teams and storytellers who have already mastered the core principles of production. Through the years of forging forward into the unknown landscape of simulation and virtual reality, the goal has always been to match the reality we live and breathe. And, perhaps, to actually improve our lived reality.
Matthew Collu, Studio Coordinator, The Other End and openly change the most crucial elements of the projected world – lighting, asset placement, location – and to craft the perfect frame at any moment, without concern for external factors, was a previously inaccessible and borderline unimaginable luxury. Yet here we are, staring off into the horizon of incredible possibilities, a phalanx of panels and diodes. At its core, virtual production is still production. The traditional means of expertly crafting a final image or properly pacing a scene or a beat are still fundamentally unchanged. Just as a light meter helps you properly set up a scene, and a wireless follow focus lets you comfortably and
48 | www.broadcastprome.com | May 2022
Matthew Collu is Studio Coordinator at The Other End, Canada. He is a VFX artist and cinematographer with experience working in virtual production pipelines and helping production teams leverage the power of Unreal Engine and real-time software applications.
PROCABSAT
CABSAT RETURNS IN FULL FORCE FOR 2022 EDITION Dates: May 17-19, 2022 Venue: Halls 5-8, Dubai World Trade Centre CABSAT is back, six months after the 2021 edition, with more than 240 exhibitors spread across four halls; the co-location of DISCOP for the first time; and first-time exhibitors including Dubai startup MaaS World, Indian satellite solutions provider Original Products, and some heavyweights from Israel, such as AMOS Spacecom and Gilat Satellite Networks. CABSAT has also announced a few new additions to its conference programme this year, including a
special Saudi programme in Hall 6 on May 19 and an inaugural Startup Stage in Hall 7, to which it is looking to attract regional entrepreneurs, founders and CEOs of startups and scaleups, investors, and heads of innovation from the content, broadcast
and satellite sectors to meet and collaborate. It will also run its popular Africa programme, which hopes to tap into the economic potential of the film and audiovisual sectors across Africa, which account for $5bn in revenue and employ 5m people. As part of the partnership with DISCOP, CABSAT's NEXTGen Content Screening event will showcase MEA content, and DISCOP will include a special co-production salon highlighted earlier in this issue. With a strong conference and new additional features, CABSAT hopes to woo MENA and international audiences back to the region’s largest broadcast and satellite show.
Draka to showcase SMPTE 2110 cable for media via IP Draka Comteq Germany, part of the Prysmian Group, will present the Draka IP MediaLine Fiber based on the SMPTE ST 2110 standard at this year's CABSAT. The product line includes non-metallic, gel-filled fibre optic central duct cables with two to 24 fibres for indoor broadcast applications. With its FireRes sheathing, the cable is designed for indoor installation. It complies with CPR fire protection class Cca and features dielectric glass yarn armouring for rodent resistance and high water insulation. The cable series IP MediaLine Fiber also includes the fibre optic cable MFC OS2 for mobile
outdoor applications. The tightly buffered 9/125 fibre cables are equipped with patented BendBright technology, which makes them very resistant to bending and robust. BendBright combines three features: high sensitivity to macro bending, the new Draka Colorlock-XS coating
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and a tight glass geometry. The BendBright-XS fibres are the first choice for all patch cord, interconnect and jumper applications, and offer companies measurable technical, economic and environmental benefits. With their high bandwidth and robust material, Draka
fibre optic cables meet the demanding requirements of film and television production. They comply with the SMPTE 2110 standard, which describes the transmission of digital video signals (video stream) over an IP network in real time. In contrast to earlier IP video standards, the transmission is in uncompressed format. Each data set (video, audio and additional data) is synchronised without affecting each other. This allows separate routing and editing of the data, even for metadata (time code, subtitles and teletext) assigned to the data records. Stand B5-21
PROCABSAT
Glensound to demo better mobility with Nomad
Glensound will demonstrate its range of production sound devices at CABSAT. A key introduction will be the new Glensound Nomad, a portable pack for live audio built on mobile phone connectivity, including 4G. It has an XLR input (mic or line) and a headphone jack, and by using the data carrier for 7kHz audio, it reportedly provides
excellent audio quality with full talkback for interviews, remote commentary or in-ear monitoring. Power is from internal batteries or USB. To manage the firewall challenges of esports audio, Glensound has developed the GTM, part of its Dante/AES67 audio-over-IP range. Multiple units may be remotely configured over the network to ensure the right feeds go to each unit, and users have individual level controls for their own mics, team talk and live audience and commentary. Senior staff from Glensound will be available to discuss individual requirements at the show. Stand 507
Brainstorm to enhance virtual content creation
Brainstorm will showcase Suite 5, the latest version of its flagship products InfinitySet, Aston and eStudio. Suite 5 includes a plethora of new features designed to improve XR content creation and workflows, while adding even tighter integration with Unreal Engine. These enhancements will streamline clients' ability to
improve their virtual content creation, whether they use LED videowalls or chroma sets to produce virtual content. It will also demonstrate InfinitySet’s advanced features for virtual production, including chroma sets and in-context augmented reality. Stand PD-53
Argosy announces raft of solutions to support IP and 4K production Argosy Middle East LLC will showcase a range of fixed installation and deployable solutions in support of IP and 4K production, including power management solutions, patch panels, KVM devices, racks, cables, SMPTE reels and tactical fibre. It will introduce a new range of connectors and tooling from Simply45 at CABSAT for CAT 6, CAT 6A and CAT 7 cabling installations. An Argosy Image rack on the stand will host standard and intelligent mains distribution units, along with patch panels from Argosy and Canare. Argosy will also highlight new broadcast workspace solutions from kvm-tec, with KVM devices that save costs on redundant hardware, reduce cabling and infrastructure, consolidate
desk space, and increase performance by having multiple computers working as one. The IP-based production workflow now connects the broadcast infrastructure to the wider global IT infrastructure, cost-effectively improving networking and signal transportation; such networks
need to be supported by IP-based 4K-ready switching and extension products. For versatile fibre transport, Argosy will also display Barnfind’s range of fibre adaptors which allow designers to quickly create complex infrastructures, enabling data streams such as lighting control
to be routed alongside audio and video. BarnMini range fibre converters provide very highquality conversion, particularly between fibre and copper cables. “Simplifying the management of production, content management and delivery infrastructure builds and operations is at the core of our business. Our comprehensive catalogue of active and passive hardware solutions has expanded further over the last two years and we’re really looking forward to showing our MENA customers how our new and existing product ranges complement each other,” commented Raziullah Baig, Regional Sales Manager, Argosy Middle East LLC. Stand E6-10
May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 51
PROCABSAT
DejaVu instant replay with DV-Lab
DV-Lab will showcase new versions of its video switcher and instant replay system. The DejaVu Instant Replay System is a cost-effective way to add up to four-channel replay functionality to production. It offers uninterrupted recording, more than seven hours of recorded 1080p50 video (512G SSD), slow/fast-motion playback and logo ‘REPLAY’ overlay. A PC connection is not required to operate or configure
the system, but for those who prefer to operate from a PC, the solution provider offers free DejaVu Replay Controller software for more flexibility. The solution is designed primarily for live shows, instant replays of sports broadcasts, and assisting with training at sports clubs, dance schools and ballet studios, as well as large displays for outdoor events. Stand PD-41
Plura to unveil SFP-209-25G-H at CABSAT Plura Broadcast will unveil the new SFP-209-25G-H portable monitor supporting IP 2110 at CABSAT. It is reportedly “the industry’s first true-IP 25GbE broadcast and media portable monitor solution” that supports uncompressed UHD based on SMPTE ST 2110 & ST 2022-7 and supports up to 4096 x 2160 resolution. The flexibility and robustness of the platform is designed to serve a wide range of broadcast and professional media SDI to IP transition projects. The SFP25G platform is a powerful hybrid solution supporting SFP+ / SFP28 10G / 25G (ST 2110, ST 2022-7), 12G, 3G, 1.5G and HDMI 2.0 connectivity.
The monitor provides comprehensive interoperability, i.e., NMOS, JT-NM and Ember+ capabilities with a wide range of prominent third-party IP-UHDFHD ready media solutions, giving customers the adaptability to use Plura IP solutions with a variety of technology suppliers for a seamless endto-end production workflow. Stand PD-40
The big test with Promax Promax Test and Measurement will showcase its RangerNeo range of meters at CABSAT. The RangerNeo 4 is a professional field strength meter and spectrum analyser, part of a new breed of multi-function TV, satellite, CATV and WiFi analysers. They are intended for expert installers and broadcast engineers, to not only make their classic installation and troubleshooting work easier but also to deal with the many challenges brought about by the wireless world and the new video delivery platforms.
HEVC H.265 decoding and exceptional spectrum analyser capabilities are at the heart of the RangerNeo 4 field strength meter, surrounded
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by functions such as WiFi analysis (including real spectrum display), wideband LNB compatibility, constellation diagram and
dynamic echoes analysis, all in a very compact and light product ideal for field work. It helps diagnose issues emerging from transmissions of IPTV, transport stream and WiFi, including the most popular broadcast standards: DVB-T/T2 and ISDB-T (terrestrial), DVB-S/ S2 (satellite), DVB-C/C2 (CATV), digital radio (DAB/ DAB+) and analogue FM radio. This is a feature-packed spectrum analyser which can cover up to 6GHz and includes signal demodulation and TV picture decoding. Stand PD-17
PROCABSAT
Qvest to demonstrate SI skills at CABSAT German systems integrator Qvest will be at CABSAT to demonstrate how it combines methods and new technologies with skills and thinking to develop strategies for its MENA and global clients. As an experienced general contractor specialising in technology, Qvest delivers turnkey solutions with the best possible technical and cost-effective
solution in a three-step approach including solutions-orientated, technically mature and future-proof architecture planning, tailormade and efficient software solutions and technologically refined systems integration based on best-ofbreed principles.
A statement from the company read: “The Qvest approach of the team in Dubai and all other worldwide locations results in cross-media networked benchmark architectures in areas such as media, entertainment, online, social and broadcast in order to deliver a unique media experience to customers.” Stand A5-10
MaaS World comes to CABSAT with partners Dubai-based OTT and video delivery service provider MaaS World will be exhibiting at CABSAT for the first time. The company, which has worked closely with Expo 2020, Abu Dhabi Media, Fadaat Media and DWTC for GITEX, among others, will co-exhibit with anchor partners Brightcove, Nice People at Work (NPAW) and Cleeng at the show. “Our technology partners create an end-to-end tightly integrated OTT ecosystem that is reliable and proven to seamlessly work, which includes video streaming, delivery and distribution, multi-platform OTT apps, intelligent analytics delivering reliable insights in real time, and subscribers retention management for OTT services, We have engineered the best of breeds together and simplified building scalable and reliable OTT solutions under one umbrella, MaaS World,” commented Adeeb Abed, MaaS World Executive Director. A key focus at the stand will be ENLIGHT, DIAGNAL’s application solution for premium OTT service providers looking to publish and monetise content quickly. “We are excited to bring MaaS World along with its industry leader partners to CABSAT. We are on a mission to promote and sell video cloud services, to help our clients
focus on using video to change their business in a meaningful way. We provide our clients with complete and customised end-to-end OTT solutions that lower the technical complexity and barriers associated with launching smart, attractive and multiplatform OTT service,” added Abed. Brightcove will highlight its endto-end OTT media platform at the show, while Cleeng will showcase its subscriber retention management (SRM TM), which enables broadcasters to create their D2C video commerce platform within minutes and retain their subscribers for years. NPAW will present its latest data-driven, quality of experiencefocused solutions to some of the key challenges affecting streaming providers. NPAW will introduce CDN Balancer, a smart system to balance loads between CDNs based on quality of experience. It is powered by NPAW’s realtime, vendor-agnostic quality of experience insights. By processing up to 15bn video plays globally every month, NPAW is reportedly the only multi-CDN balancing provider that can detect video performance issues and consumption patterns to optimise video delivery for each user, region and device. Stand C5-31
May 2022 | www.broadcastprome.com | 53
PROCABSAT
AEQ improves communications with XPEAK
AEQ’s XPEAK Intercom System has an advanced virtual network system and is designed for productions with personnel temporarily relocated or working remotely. Connections and startups are simplified. Equipment and terminals are automatically located even without being on the same network, allowing simple and agile interconnections. XPEAK supports three modes
of operation. The virtual matrix mode enables the elements of the system to form a network of peer-to-peer devices with ethernet virtualisation. The four-channel PArty Line mode determines which channels are to be used for communications by each user panel. In addition, the XPEAK panels can work with other AEQ intercom systems, with Conexia and Crossnet matrixes or EasyNet PArty Line. XPEAK is a true plugand-play intercom solution. The hardware or software panels are interconnected to virtual networks, acting as if they all resided in the same physical production centre. Stand 502
NAGRA activates protection against piracy NAGRA’s key plan this year is to cater to the demands of today’s telcos and OTT providers by demonstrating its Active Streaming Protection framework of multiple technologies, developed to help video operators address content and service piracy threats in streaming. It will also demonstrate NAGRA Scout, a solution designed to help protect consumers from increased cyber threats. NAGRA Active Streaming Protection provides video service operators with a complete solution set to effectively manage security risks related to content
and service and to drive advanced business models. NAGRA Scout gives broadband service providers and consumers control over threats to their connected devices. This solution delivers intelligent, active broadband network security which will increase customer loyalty and build trust through professional-grade network security and services tailored for today’s digital world. NAGRA has recently signed major security projects in MENA mainly within the OTT area, especially for security assessment and watermarking deployment, although customer details were under wraps. Stand 708
Lawo to showcase IP-based broadcast solutions Lawo’s setup in Dubai this year includes the mc²56 3rdgeneration production console with A__UHD (Phase 2) audio engine, and Lawo’s ruby radio console with a customisable, context-sensitive visual interface and the Power Core Audio Mixing Engine. The Lawo mc²56 MKIII audio production console incorporates features from Lawo’s flagship mc²96 console in a compact footprint with a versatile feature set. Designed for today’s IPbased production scenarios, it
provides native support for SMPTE 2110, AES67/ RAVENNA, DANTE, MADI and Ember+. Local I/Os include 16 Lawo-grade mic/line inputs, 16 line outputs, eight AES3 inputs and outputs, eight GPI/ Os, and a local MADI port (SFP). Its raw performance power is provided by the 1U softwaredefined A__UHD core next-gen audio engine with intuitive
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HOME functionality. Up to 1,024mc²-grade DSP channels can be handled or shared among multiple consoles, based on a flexible licensing system. Lawo’s HOME management platform for IP-based media infrastructures is natively built on a cloud-ready microservices architecture and enables users to connect, manage and secure networked production set-ups from the ground up. HOME is
based on open standards – ST2110, NMOS, IEEE802.1x and RADIUS. In 2021, Lawo decided to open up HOME and welcome third-party vendors through a single control API. Also highlighted will be the Ruby mixing console, which uses SMPTE 20227 Seamless Protection Switching combined with standards-based AES67 AoIP to deliver flawless networking for missioncritical applications. Stand B5-30
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Digital transformation
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Covid-19 did lead to a huge uptake in streaming services, but it also delivered a big blow to film and TV production companies as well as cinema chains, spurring them to transform their operations through digital solutions. What does digital transformation entail from a technology, corporate culture and employee POV, and what opportunities does it create with the emergence of 5G, the deployment of cloud services and virtualisation?
With many companies in a state of technology debt, where they are struggling with legacy products and processes brought on by building on layers of proprietary equipment over the years, the transition to IP brings them to one central question – where do we begin and how do we make it happen without breaking the bank? Experts will attempt to demystify areas that continue to confound engineering teams and perhaps offer new perspectives to ease the journey to IP.
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PROCABSAT
Orion to shine at Interra Systems stand
CastLabs keeps the focus on hybrid video players
At CABSAT 2022, Interra Systems will showcase the company's QC and monitoring solutions. They cover the entire gamut of content preparation and delivery, from audio/video quality checks to 24/7 monitoring, captions, lip sync and deep-dive analysis. A key showcase will be ORION-OTT, a comprehensive
CastLabs GmbH will demonstrate its hybrid video player solution, which allows seamless switching between DVB/IPTV and OTT streams in one video player. CastLabs told BroadcastPro ME that it has already had significant success in the Middle East last year with a major deployment with OSN, which is using its OTT players on the OSN+ streaming platform. Following a visit to CABSAT last year, the company decided for the first time to also exhibit at the show. “One of our employees visited the show last year for the first time. As this was the first show post-pandemic, expectations were not high; however, we were overwhelmingly impressed by the show with its
monitoring solution for live and VOD streaming, deployable in the cloud or on-premises. Recent enhancements include ad-insertion monitoring, support for Dolby Vision and HDR, visual trending for QoS and QoE metrics and CPIX-based DRM integrations. Stand 601
collection of expert speakers and relevant participants," a company spokesperson told BroadcastPro ME. "With major pay-TV operators and innovative streaming services, the MENA region is a key target for CastLabs, making CABSAT the obvious trade show for us to attend and talk more about our solutions to simplify secure video delivery. "We have also been impressed by the show's great organisation and the participation of relevant industry experts, which encouraged us to exhibit at CABSAT this year instead of merely visiting,” he added. Stand PD 48
TAG Video Systems offers to take control of media with MCS TAG Video Systems will highlight the Media Control System (MCS), the newest layer of the company’s Realtime Media Performance (RMP) platform. RMP is a multi-level, open-source solution that monitors, aggregates, manages and utilises data-driven viewer analytics to provide users with the insight required to build performant linear media systems. It reduces complexity for media companies, with tools for them to manage the entire monitoring stack endto-end within one system. Sitting at the heart of the RMP is TAG’s Multi-Channel Monitoring (MCM) system, its real-time visualisation solution that monitors every type of signal from live production through OTT delivery and supports
hundreds of sources, including all the latest formats and transport methods. The MCS is the next layer and serves as a management, control and aggregation engine. TAG’s MCS represents a new process for customers to use data-driven insights to improve media operations and quality of service and deliver an exceptional viewer experience that can be
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validated and measured, all in an open IT environment. Using an open-source paradigm, it allows media companies to take the raw data from the MCM and expose it to third-party analytic and visualisation applications such as Elasticsearch, Kibana, Grafana and Prometheus for analysis and data visualisation. For the first time, media companies
will also be able to measure internet networks and CDN performance across all signals, end-to-end, and know where to shift workloads for optimum performance. It will identify cyclical errors within the log file noise and drive faster root cause analysis and recovery from intermittent issues. Hall 7 PD-32
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PROCABSAT
Ross Video gets Unreal with Voyager
Signiant in top form with Media Engine launch
Ross Video will demonstrate the power of its Voyager Unreal Engine at CABSAT, and also showcase its virtual solutions that have recently been deployed at twofour54’s new virtual production facilities. “We are looking forward to showcasing new solutions that were adopted during the global pandemic, that required
Signiant will showcase its Media Engine, a modern media management service built into the Signiant platform that allows SaaS customers to easily search, preview and take action on media assets across all their Signiantconnected storage, from anywhere in the world. They can perform federated searches across multiple content repositories, both on-premises and in the cloud. Results are immediately actionable via the services available on the platform, anchored by Signiant’s fast file transfer. As a cloud-native SaaS offering, Media Engine is scalable and simple to deploy and manage. It will be included with every Signiant
broadcasters to adapt their existing services and continue their business during this unique period. As always here at Ross, we are innovating based on feedback from the market,” commented Deepraj Sandhar, Regional Sales Manager for the Middle East. Stand D6-10
SaaS subscription, to extend the value of its products – Media Shuttle, Jet and Flight Deck – beyond file transfer. This expansion of the core platform provides more tools to help media companies create workflow efficiencies and streamline operations. Signiant has announced that general availability of the platform is currently scheduled for July 2022. Stand PD-45
Appear to bring all things NEO to CABSAT
Real-time monitoring top of the agenda for Elecard
Appear AS will showcase the NEO series, which provides all the benefits of software compression without any of the hassle. The software comes pre-installed on Appear hardware, making installation a breeze. With management, transcoding and streaming functions, NEO 10 completely removes the complexity found in traditional server-based solutions. Live distribution requires extremely stable highperformance platforms, and recent gains in CPU performance means live distribution delivered over server-based technology is now a reality, and for many customers a preference. NEO
Elecard, which develops and provides video compression solutions, media stream and compressed video bitstream analysers, and QoS & QoE probes for real-time video monitoring, will be at CABSAT for the second year to feature its proprietary tools – CodecWorks media processing platform and Elecard Boro. “The reason for us to participate in the CABSAT this year for the second time is that the MENA region is a promising media technology market with growing audiences and dynamic infrastructure. The company goal is to foster strategic partnerships in the region, to engage into large-scale complex media system deployments accommodating unique challenges in serving media anytime, anywhere,” commented Alexey Malikov, Business
10 answers this need, providing flexible server-based software compression on high-spec hardware, removing the traditional complexities for operators and broadcasters to manage software deployments on COTS hardware. “At Appear, we are redefining video delivery with our X Platform," said Sami Djebril, Sales Director MENA at Appear. "Our range of compact, robust and energyefficient solutions supports the most demanding applications and ensures uncompromised content delivery anywhere." Stand C6-11
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Development Director EMEA. “CABSAT has proven to be for us not only the venue for discovering new opportunities, but also the place to reinforce our existing ties with clients and partners from all over the world. We are looking for new projects to break the boundaries in media systems capabilities.” Stand PD-21
PROCABSAT
Disguise to demo xR workflow at CABSAT
Disguise will demonstrate its extended reality (xR) workflow, the next generation of virtual production technology. Combining leading LED technology, advanced camera tracking and real-time graphics rendering into one seamless workflow, disguise xR creates a virtual environment with AR elements that are visible both live
on-set and directly in-camera. “We are expanding our presence in the MENA region as the opportunity here is vast. The region loves to innovate and push boundaries and that's what we want to support,” commented Niki Whittle, Disguise’s Head of Broadcast Solutions for EMEA.
Rohde & Schwarz brings 5G broadcast to CABSAT Rohde & Schwarz will demonstrate multiple end-toend workflows for broadcasters, highlighting clear migration paths from SDI to IP to the cloud at CABSAT 2022. With the launch of platformagnostic studio production, playout and transcoding capabilities, Rohde & Schwarz provides end users with the robustness of traditional broadcast workflows, with the added flexibility and scalability that the cloud offers.
In partnership with Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz is also showcasing 5G broadcast with a full end-to-end streaming demonstration. The demo will deliver content to smartphone devices and highlight broadcast/ multicast capabilities over 5G. Content will be re-transmitted using a 5G broadcast signal over the air, giving visitors to the stand a first-hand look at an advanced live mobile experience. Stand E6-20
Stand E 6-11
Irdeto to introduce Server Side Ad Insertion to MENA at cybersecurity workshops Irdeto will run a series of cybersecurity workshops alongside CABSAT, though it will not be exhibiting at the show. Irdeto will introduce the Irdeto Server Side Ad Insertion (SSAI) to the MENA region during this period. This new solution maximises addressable live ad inventory of OTT video at scale while delivering a seamless ‘TVlike’ viewing experience. It integrates with any ad server or an existing CSAI solution to deliver targeted and personalised ads during live events and on linear channels. The solution has been successfully brought to the market with the first customer fully operational, delivering targeted ads at scale to its online video subscribers across all connected platforms.
Irdeto SSAI creates an individualised media stream for segments of viewers to get personalised and targeted advertisements. This is done by modifying the original streaming manifest (the set of instructions for how the video player locates and plays video files), for each
viewer. Each ad decision is based on the viewer’s information and profile, such as past viewing history, demographics and geographical location, which is then matched to an ad in the ad server which is targeted to a viewer audience with a similar profile. When an ad profile is
detected by Irdeto SSAI, the selected ad is then added into the content stream before it reaches the viewer’s playback device. Because the ads are added into the live stream in the network, latency and buffering are eliminated and continuous high video quality is ensured between the ad and content, providing a smooth TV-like viewing experience. In addition, the impact of ad blocking is minimised and SSAI eliminates timeouts and black screens during ad playback caused by device fragmentation. Irdeto’s broad partner ecosystem and vendor-agnostic outlook allows customers the freedom to work with their vendors of choice. Diamond room, Novotel DWTC
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PROGUEST
“A good video player has to be capable of minimising the delay between what viewers see on a broadcast channel and a live OTT channel, as well as addressing network congestion on mobile devices”
Optimising video players for live sports Embedded in TV applications, the video player is the software in charge of rendering video, audio and subtitles, managing playback controls such as pausing or seeking during a live programme, and accelerating playback speed. A vital part of the entire TV solution, it is essentially what allows end users to enjoy hours of video content a day. However, when it comes to live sports, additional challenges need to be tackled in order to fulfil fans’ expectations. The first is low latency. When watching a live sports event, fans want to view major highlights like goals or fouls at the time they occur, not after hearing a neighbour’s reaction or reading a tweet. A good video player has to be capable of minimising the delay between what viewers see on a broadcast channel and a live OTT channel, as well as addressing network congestion on mobile devices. Security is vital as well. Acquiring rights to distribute sports events is extremely expensive for popular sports such as football or basketball. Strong security mechanisms are therefore necessary to secure the revenues of such a large investment, in order to prevent video piracy and other hacker practices. A good video player is not only capable of playing licensed, encrypted streams in compliance with the content owner’s security measures, but also able to protect against on-device
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attacks and enable advanced security services such as code obfuscation, dynamic watermarking and vulnerability detection techniques. As well as defending revenues, an effective video player also needs to provide opportunities to maximise them. It plays a central role in boosting monetisation opportunities in the sports arena by extending the available inventory space for advertisers, for example through banners, overlay and pre-/mid-roll ad replacement, while ensuring seamless user experiences regardless of which technology or network is used at the backend. User experience The user experience is central to success, and there are three main areas where this needs to be optimised. The first is the use of statistics. Visualising the most important metrics for a live sports event in real time provides further insights for fans. Moreover, direct on-screen access to on-demand content such as the major events of a match increases customer satisfaction, ensuring loyalty to premium TV subscription offerings. Social experiences are also part of this picture; the ability to watch the same sports event with your friends or family remotely creates unforgettable joint experiences with no one left to watch in solitude. A good video player ensures perfect synchronisation across all connected devices to watch the same scenes
at the exact same time, with seamless management between the media audio volume and the friend’s sound volume. New features take the feeling of immersion further too. When watching a sporting event on any device, sports fans long to feel as if they are physically in the stadium. Achieving this involves allowing the end user to control her viewing experience beyond what is decided by the broadcast director, such as choosing a camera angle, following her favourite player, panning/zooming 360 degrees from a strategic spot at will, enjoying spatial audio on a headset accessory, and replaying any scene at slow speed. Improve retention, minimise churn The video player has a direct impact on customer retention and churn, by providing capabilities specifically relevant for sports and allowing a consistent user experience across all devices. Moreover, it enables better monetisation of live sports events using advanced ad-insertion technologies, especially on the big screen, which increases inventory and boosts revenues. Robust content protection and adequate anti-piracy measures for all use-cases are required, however. These allow better catalogue negotiations and optimised pricing schemes, all with a direct benefit to both viewers and the TV industry. Benoit Brieussel is Head of Front-End Products & Global Services at Viaccess-Orca.
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