BroadcastPro ME October 2022

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 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 Events Executive Minara Salakhi minara.s@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 433 2856

CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION

Data & Production Manager Phinson Mathew George phinson.george@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5476

DIGITAL SERVICES

Abdul Baeis Umair Khan

FOUNDER

Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015)

Published by

Welcome

There was nothing subdued about IBC this year; the stands were heaving with people, especially during happy hour, and the air was abuzz with chatter. It was a moment to be grateful for simple pleasures such as social interactions and the privilege of breathing without masks.

On the tech front, we saw previously sceptical end users declare they had resolved without further delay to invest in cloud and software-defined technologies that enable flexible work practices and have less dependence on on-prem solutions or hardware. The last two years taught us that businesses need to be more agile and flexible if they are to survive in a rapidly morphing entertainment market.

Besides this, terms that repeatedly came up in conversations at IBC this year were metaverse, sustainability, convergence, blockchain, FAST and data analytics. No doubt, technology updates are taking place at a much faster pace than ever before. In such an environment, news on acquisitions and partnerships reflected greater maturity in the marketplace, with manufacturers endorsing that they have been able to create better products and solutions in collaboration

On this

with other industry players.

This was particularly evident in the Alaraby project, where the Doha client challenged vendors to work together with the aim of creating a full-IP facility that is SMPTE 2110-compliant. It was a bumpy ride, but vendors agreed that collaborating helped each one go back to the drawing table and come up with revised configurations, thus enabling a more successful integration.

We are proud to bring this story exclusively to you because it is not just a full-IP facility but also a reflection of what can be achieved in collaborative discussions. But this is not the only innovation we speak about in this issue. The pace of development in places like Neom and twofour54 are not just awe-inspiring; they are the stuff that dreams are made of.

As you read this issue, BroadcastPro ME is working towards creating a fantastic 12th edition of our summit and awards, and I hope your nominations make it through the door before the deadline. Happy reading.

Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director

vibrant

Inside this issue

05 NEWS

Action Filmz ships rental kit to Tunisia for MBC shoot; Arabia Pictures Group and Tanweer ink deal; Etere opens Dubai office; MBC launches Riyadh HQ; Al Sharqiya upgrades to Versio; twofour54 launches The Community Hub; and more

14 CATCH THEM YOUNG

SIFF director Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi speaks about what the film festival for youth hopes to achieve

16 NEOM'S MEDIA STRATEGY

Wayne Borg on how Neom's new initiatives and launches are designed to create a thriving production environment

20 COVER – ALARABY'S BIG MOVE TO IP AND DOHA

We take a tour of Alaraby's Doha facility and learn how vendors collaborated to create a full-IP environment

28 PRODUCTION NOTES

We spotlight the production house behind Sikkat Safar, a Saudi series that was screened on MBC 1

34 CANON'S AFRICAN DREAM

Amine Djouahra, Sales and Marketing Director at CCNA, discusses the latest trends in the African content market and Canon's initiatives in the continent

42 VIRTUAL PRODUCTION – 5

Matthew Collu on developing VFX in virtual production

44 SHOW WRAP-UP

Sound bites from IBC2022

48 IBC REFLECTIONS

Steve Russell on new business models and riding the economic wave

October 2022

16

NEOM ANNOUNCES NEW SOUND STAGES

ACTION FILMZ SHIPS KIT TO TUNISIA

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION – IN-CAMERA

VFX

WRAP-UP NOTES FROM IBC2022

SETTING THE STAGE FOR ANDREA BOCELLI

CANON SHINES IN AFRICA

ALARABY LAUNCHES FROM DOHA

PRODUCTION NOTES – SIKKAT SAFAR

Action Filmz ships rental equipment to Tunisia for MBC production

Dubai-based Action Filmz Productions and Rentals has secured a landmark project that has enabled it to send a huge consignment of equipment to Tunisia for a high-profile MBC production that will be used for 30 weeks running, from July to January 2023.

“This consignment includes everything that is required for a big production including three dollies, cranes, specialised grip equipment, six Sony Venice cameras, a Phantom high-speed camera, RED cameras, various set of lenses and the entire lighting package for both units,” commented Crispin Dominic, CEO, Action Filmz Productions and Rentals.

“This is also a historic moment for the UAE. Usually, we see equipment shipped to the emirate for large productions. The fact that broadcasters are now willing to ship entire production equipment and rigs from Dubai shows the confidence they have in our solutions. We have supplied equipment to MBC for several productions, so when they wanted to shoot something

Crispin Dominic.

in Tunisia they felt more confident to take it from a trusted local partner than go with a company from Europe, because we have often gone the extra mile to support them on their production journeys.”

Action Filmz, which started as a small operation 18 years ago, has slowly built its portfolio of products and a reputation in the market for being the first to bring new technology to the industry.

The company recently purchased the U-Crane arm (formerly called the Russian arm), ARRI Alexa 35 cameras and the Servicevision Scorpio 45 crane, the first of its kind in the Middle East, which was being shipped to Qatar for the World Cup as we went to press.

The rental house, which also operates seven warehouses within Dubai’s Al Quoz area, has now leased a large plot of 50,000sqft to build a massive playground for the professional community of photographers, videographers, filmmakers and the like to engage, communicate and work together. The area will bring together all of Action Filmz’ studios, rental spaces and other operations to ensure that the community can get everything they require from the same space.

“This has been a lifelong dream and the opportunity presented itself when the right space became available for me to execute this project,” explained Dominic. “Work is in progress and we are expecting this ecosystem to be ready by mid-2023.”

Daw winners wrap up production of four feature films in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Film Commission (SFC) has announced that the four feature film winners of its Daw Film Competition have concluded production. The competition, launched in 2019 by the Saudi Film Commission, aims to support and empower emerging Saudi film talent and develop the Kingdom’s burgeoning film industry.

The films – Within Sand, written and directed by Moe Alatawi; Raven Song, directed by Mohamed Alsalman; Norah, scripted

A scene from Within Sand, one of the winners of the Daw Film Competition.

and directed by Tawfik Alzaidi; and Derat Ajdadi, directed by Danya Alhmrani – all wrapped in August.

Abdullah Al-Eyaf, CEO of Saudi Film Commission, said: “We launched the Daw Film Competition to

discover new local talent and empower creative storytelling. Talent development is of strategic significance to our industry and is central to achieving our goals. The competition aims to share authentic Saudi stories and films with the rest of the world, helping us to create a thriving film industry in Saudi Arabia. We are proud of these four filmmakers, and we look forward to creating more quality productions in the future.”

Arabia Pictures Group inks deal with audiovisual group Tanweer

Arabia Pictures Group and Greek audiovisual group Tanweer have signed a partnership that will see them cooperate on production and distribution across all formats in MENA. The first venture will be to develop and produce a slate of three features to be shot in the region and directed by emerging talent. The three-picture pact is joined by Egyptian production company Vibrations Studios. Tanweer has been active in Greece, Cyprus, the Middle East, India and Turkey for over 30

First-time filmmaker Essam Nassar's romantic comedy Gawwezni, starring Mayan El Sayed and Amir El-Masry, is scheduled for release later this year.

years. Recent productions include award-winning Greek series Smyrna

Roua Almadani, CEO of Arabia Pictures, said: “We are thrilled to work with such a media powerhouse

TOD now available on Androidsupported TVs across MENA

TOD, beIN Media Group’s streaming platform, has launched on Android-supported TVs across 21 MENA countries. It can be installed on Android-supported TVs, enabling customers to stream entertainment options including blockbusters; top Arabic, Turkish, international and children’s content; and new TOD Originals.

Etere opens new Dubai office

Etere has opened a UAE office in Dubai Silicon Oasis to expand its business. The office will serve as the HQ for all commercial activities, while Etere Singapore remains focused on the APAC market. Etere also has a support centre in Italy.

Fabio Gattari, Director

of Etere, said: “Even during the pandemic, we have enjoyed tremendous success and continue to forge strong relationships with partners in countries with a good connection with the UAE. With strong support from our partners and customers, we decided to open our new headquarters in Dubai."

as Tanweer, and our partnership involves many projects from film production to talent development to investments in new technologies. Producing original content together will

Netflix to release Arabic reality show Dubai Bling in October

Netflix's new reality show titled Dubai Bling is due to premiere exclusively on the platform on October 27. This high-value production docu-soap follows 10 Arab millionaires living their dreams in Dubai. The cast is predominantly Arab, with behind-the-scenes access to the daily lives of the trailblazers who are at the top of their fields, from real estate to entertainment to socialites and influencers.

keep empowering storytellers from the region in sharing their distinctive stories.”

Joseph Samaan, President of Tanweer, added that the company was also looking to collaborate together on Web3.

The first title to wrap is Gawwezni, a romantic comedy about a young man, Fares, who madly falls in love with Lily, which will be released by the end of the year. Starring The Crown’s Amir El-Masry, Zodiac’s Mayan El Sayed, veteran Sabrin and Bayoumi Fouad, it is directed by first-time filmmaker Essam Nassar.

Reservoir Media and PopArabia acquire Voice of Beirut

New York-based independent music company Reservoir Media, in partnership with MENA-based music company and publisher PopArabia, has acquired Lebanese label and music publisher Voice of Beirut. This acquisition builds on Reservoir’s emerging markets strategy, further diversifying the company’s music rights in the fastgrowing MENA region, the company stated.

MBC Group announces HQ in Riyadh

MBC Group has inaugurated its new headquarters in Riyadh. During an exclusive purple-carpet event held under the patronage of Dr Majid bin Abdullah Alkassabi, Acting Minister of Media of Saudi Arabia, MBC Group’s new centre of operations was inaugurated by Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, Chairman of MBC Group.

During the launch, Al Ibrahim stated: “Three decades on after the beginning of MBC Group’s

BeIN obtains anti-piracy injunction against MyTek in Tunisia

Tunisian courts have granted BeIN's request for an emergency injunction against Tunisian electronics retailer MyTek. It will no longer sell IPTV products that carry pirated beIN channels, pending a final hearing by the court. MyTek had been selling subscriptions to IPTV services that stream pirated beIN channels over the internet. Piracy is widely prevalent in Tunisia with more than 80% of the country's consumers viewing sports and entertainment content through piracy, according to studies by Sigma Conseil.

journey, we are finally here in Riyadh … our homeland. It was always in our

Roxy Cinemas opens biggest cinema screen at Dubai Hills Mall

ambition to be based here, right from the very first day of our launch in London

in 1991. But back then, we truly thought that this dream would remain what it was, merely an ambitious yet unattainable dream. Little did we know that one day, it would become a reality.”

Sam Barnett, CEO of MBC Group, added that the new HQ will serve as a “springboard to launch new projects across the Kingdom” and revealed that more than 80 titles were scheduled to be produced in Saudi Arabia in the coming period.

Eutelsat selects Babeleye as Sat.tv video metadata provider

The new Roxy Cinemas

multiplex at Dubai Hills Mall has 15 screens – seven Platinum Screens, seven Silver Screens and the Roxy Xtreme, which measures 28m x 15.1m. Fernando Eiroa, CEO at Dubai Holding Entertainment, said: “The new Roxy Xtreme features 418 premium recliners across three tiers: Standard, Premium and Director’s Boxes.”

Guests can enjoy the screen from its VIP Director’s Boxes featuring 36 luxurious seats with wireless charging, heated seats and a personal swivel table.

Eutelsat has reconfirmed Babeleye, a global player in content metadata for video platforms, as the supplier of metadata for its free-to-air content discovery platform Sat.tv. With Babeleye’s expertise and its position in MEA, Eutelsat has lifted the user experience when finding content and improved the visibility of linear channels. Without

any subscription costs and with no Internet connection, viewers can consult an image-rich multilingual guide with content grouped per genre, from a myriad of linear channels. All data is provided over satellite through a Sat.tv set-top box, useful for TV viewers in regions where home broadband Internet is unreliable or unavailable.

Jordanian podcast company Sowt acquires Finyal Media

Sowt, an independent podcast and media company from Jordan, has acquired Dubai podcast production company Finyal Media. The move will strengthen Sowt’s push for audience growth, commercial opportunities and creative content, the company said. The acquisition was financed by Sowt and Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF), a New York-registered non-profit organisation.

Waleed bin Ibrahim Al Ibrahim, Chairman of MBC Group.

Al Sharqiya upgrades London MCR with Imagine Communications’ Versio

Iraqi broadcaster Al Sharqiya Group has implemented a comprehensive playout system built around Imagine Communications’ Versio fully integrated playout platform at its London-based facility. Replacing a traditional infrastructure, the system helps Al Sharqiya to streamline its master control workflows, providing improved operational and cost efficiencies, and offering the flexibility to expand and change the system as business needs evolve.

Al Sharqiya broadcasts two channels: one for news, with studios in Baghdad and Erbil in Iraq and in Amman, Jordan; and one carrying a mix of premium programming including drama and entertainment, alongside hourly news bulletins. It has production centres in Baghdad, Erbil, Dubai, Amman and London. Its West London master control room (MCR) handles the playout and distribution for Al Sharqiya News. The channels are very popular in Iraq and widely appreciated by nationals around the world.

Ahmed Bin-Afif, CTO of Al Sharqiya Group, said: “Setting technical considerations aside, the really important question in a master control environment is about how easy it is

to use the system. The ease of use, flexibility, the ease of manipulating the content: those are major advantages of Imagine’s Versio playout system. Versio also [makes it] easy to add channels, to complete our transition to SMPTE ST 2110 and to move to UHD when our audience demands it.

“We are also looking towards the cloud for our operations, because of the collaborations we have between our bases in Iraq, across the Middle East and London, and because of our growing archive. In fact, Al Sharqiya Group is launching a new OTT service called 1001 at the beginning of 2023 and Imagine is an important part of that plan.”

The growing ambitions of Al Sharqiya Group have increased demand for flexible playout facilities, switching between live studios and recorded output and editing and inserting news items into the rundown. Typically, five or six studios are providing content at any time for Al Sharqiya News. With its traditional playout infrastructure, this called for a large number of operational and technical staff, the company said.

The London MCR was originally built around Imagine Nexio servers, explained Zaid Wattar of Wave Media Solutions, systems integrator on the

“The Versio platform is very advanced and very flexible. In a traditional playout centre you might need multiple operators, but with Versio playout, a single operator can drive the system and that operator can be located anywhere in the world. Even though the playout facilities are in London, they can be operated from Erbil or Dubai, so the UK staff does not need to work overnight or make early starts. This simplicity and flexibility are what attracted Al Sharqiya Group to the Imagine Versio platform.”

Anas Hantash, who heads MENA and South Asia operations at Imagine Communications, commented: “Al Sharqiya Group has always been at the forefront of broadcasting technology in the region, and we have been proud to be a technology partner for close to 20 years. This project is another step in our continuing relationship.”

The new Versio system was supplied by Wave Media Solutions, with design and installation completed by engineering teams at Al Sharqiya Group in collaboration with engineers from Wave Media Solutions and Imagine Communications. The new playout system at Al Sharqiya News has been on air since May.

Al Sharqiya Group upgrade project.

The new solution will help the Iraqi broadcaster streamline its master control workflows.

New URSA Broadcast G2

Next generation camera with

digital film sensor, dual

and

The new Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 is an incredibly powerful camera designed for both traditional and online broadcasters. The 3 cameras in 1 design allows it to work as a 4K production camera, a 4K studio camera or a 6K digital film camera! It’s a perfect solution for broadcasters because it uses the lenses and batteries you already own! No other broadcast camera is so flexible!

Get Digital Film Quality for Broadcast

The large 6K sensor combined with Blackmagic generation 5 color science gives you the same imaging technology used in digital film cameras. The 6K sensor features a resolution of 6144 x 3456 so it’s flexible enough for broadcast and digital film work. When using B4 lenses, you get a 4K window of the sensor for Ultra HD broadcast use.

Exceptional Low Light Performance

The new URSA Broadcast features incredible low light performance so you can shoot using ambient light or even under moonlight! The Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 features gain from -12dB (100 ISO) up to +36dB (25,600 ISO) so it’s optimized to reduce grain and noise in images, while maintaining the full dynamic range of the sensor.

Compatible with B4 Broadcast Lenses

The URSA Broadcast G2 features a B4 broadcast lens mount that includes optics specifically designed to match the camera’s sensor. B4 lenses are fantastic because they are par-focal, so the image stays in focus as you zoom in and out, so you don’t need to constantly chase focus as you shoot. You also get full electronic lens control to adjust focus, iris and zoom using the camera’s controls, or remotely!

Use Common Media and File Formats!

You can record in ProRes 422 HQ and ProRes 422 into QuickTime files. The new Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 model can even record into H.265 for incredibly small files at 60:1 to 285:1 compression ratios, in 10-bit broadcast quality. Plus you can record to Blackmagic RAW files, a revolutionary new format designed to capture and preserve the quality of the sensor data from the camera.

Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2

Twofour54 launches The Community Hub for creatives and startups

Last month, Abu Dhabi media, entertainment and gaming freezone twofour54 unveiled The Community Hub at its brand-new headquarters at Yas Creative Hub, reported to be the first purpose-built development for the creative sector in the region. The Community Hub is a collaborative co-creating space aimed at bringing together aspiring filmmakers, storytellers, animators, freelancers, startups, SME content creators and gamers so they can network, collaborate, use the Hub’s facilities and bring their projects to fruition. It also serves as a platform to connect members with twofour54’s established partners, enabling invaluable business and networking opportunities.

To this effect, The Community Hub

features an array of spaces, from private meeting rooms and lounges to a screening room and brainstorming areas, priced to accommodate creatives and businesses with varying budgets. Spaces for creatives and freelancers are available for as little as AED 500 ($136) a month, while established businesses could potentially secure a hot desk and a licence for AED 20,000 ($5,434). There are 70 workstations to accommodate established businesses, and 12 meeting rooms designed to seat six or 12 people at one end of the facility.

“There's a community hub manager and a booking system,” explained Yara Awad, Head of Commercial Projects & Strategic Partnerships, twofour54 Abu Dhabi – Media and Entertainment Hub. “You don't have to be a registered

freelancer. You could be a university student. We have ensured prices are affordable and competitive, so creatives can get on with their projects. These small spaces can be booked from one month to more, based on how long they need the space for.”

A dedicated centre for gaming, AD Gaming Hub, which houses a Centre of Excellence established by software developer Unity Technologies, is available for startups, professionals and small businesses to learn and hone their skills. Likewise, twofour54’s Arab Film Studio and The Creative Lab, which has over the years nurtured several young creatives, has dedicated spaces to conduct workshops and training programmes, edit their works and screen them.

Equally impressive are the large spaces for product launches, green rooms and enclosed spaces designed for video interviews. A 39-seat screening room with a 4K projector and a town hall with funky seating spaces are also available for film screenings, presentations and so on.

An impressive unit at this facility is the NVIDIA studio run by the graphics technology company. It has 10 state-ofthe-art studio computers equipped with the latest GeForce RTX Studio GPUs, alongside NVIDIA RTX accelerated applications that can be used for free.

“Some members of the community don't have access to these very highend systems, but they have projects on which they're working. These computers can be booked free-ofcharge, although they are subject

to availability. Working on these computers will really help take their projects to the next level. NVIDIA will also be hosting training workshops and events to bring the community together and enhance the skills of creative professionals across the emirate,” Awad stated, adding that twofour54 has also developed a whole calendar of curated events to activate the space.

Mark Whitehead, twofour54 CEO, commented: “At twofour54, each partner brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and makes the community richer and stronger. Research shows that the greatest impact starts with empowering local communities. By introducing The Community Hub, creatives and entrepreneurs will have access to resources that will help them address tomorrow’s most pressing

issues. The hub will be an engine of ideation, igniting new projects and businesses and empowering creative talent to grow as they hone their skills side by side with like-minded peers and the industry’s best.”

The Community Hub was built in response to a growing need in the market. It provides talented young people with mentorship opportunities, enabling career progression and ultimately ownership of their full-fledged projects. Beyond its purpose as a private and flexible working space for individuals in the creative industry, The Community Hub provides a medium through which creatives and freelancers can learn from each other, interact and work together towards growing the creative industry in the UAE.

Clockwise from top left: Yara Awad, Head of Commercial Projects & Strategic Partnerships at twofour54; The Town Hall; a studio; and the screening room.

About the Summit

The 12th edition of the BroadcastPro Summit and Awards will be hosted in November, 2022.

The Summit has, over the years, established itself as one of the region’s leading vendor-neutral events aimed at encouraging knowledge sharing and collaboration between professionals in the MENA region. Each of the previous editions of the Summit brought together more than 300 professionals from the MENA region.

This event aims to tackle issues related to the latest trends in the marketplace. It encourages the adoption of similar standards within the MENA to ensure that all broadcasters benefit from collaboration.

The Summit is part of our commitment to bring together industry peers regularly through workshops and conferences to share technology intelligence, debate best practices and standards in the industry, discuss international and regional case studies, and take home a wealth

of knowledge that will enable us to make more informed decisions at our workplaces.

BroadcastPro ME is working with a board of industry advisors to ensure that we offer a comprehensive one-day learning experience for the industry at the Summit.

The Summit will be designed by professionals for professionals.

Content/Nominations

Vijaya Cherian |

vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com

Sponsorship/Table Booking

Raz Islam |

raz.islam@cpitrademedia.com

Sandip Virk | +971 50 929 1845 sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com

About the Awards

Recognise. Reward. Reinvigorate

The BroadcastPro ME Awards are the apex honours for the regional broadcast industry. They cover a spectrum of categories to celebrate excellence in diverse fields across the broadcast chain, from production and post-production to traditional broadcast and the latest new media platforms. Established for more than a decade, the Awards are widely known for their scrupulous objectivity and openness: winners are selected by a panel of judges from across the MENA region with varying technical skills, ensuring a

balanced and fair outcome for the most deserving stakeholders.

The Awards celebrate the businesses at the vanguard of the industry: not only the technical specialists, but the strategists and innovators; not simply the big corporates who are widely known, but the game-changers emerging from the margins onto centre-stage. Year on year, the Awards provide an exceptionally fertile platform for industry interaction, providing an accurate regional barometer of the ‘A-list’ names wholeheartedly driving change and best practice.

2022 Awards Categories

BEST TV PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR BEST OTT PRODUCTION OF THE YEAR BEST CONTENT STRATEGY OF THE YEAR BEST STUDIO OF THE YEAR BEST SPORTS STRATEGY OF THE YEAR BEST KIDS’ INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR BROADCASTPROME INNOVATIVE PROJECT OF THE YEAR MENA TRENDSETTER OF THE YEAR SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR OF THE YEAR BEST 2022 TECH IMPLEMENTATION IN OTT STREAMING SERVICE OF THE YEAR BEST RADIO INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR BEST FILM INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR BROADCAST EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR OTT EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

SpecialSatellite Segment

SATELLITE OPERATOR OF THE YEAR SATELLITE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER OF THE YEAR

PARTNER

SPONSOR

SPONSOR

STRATEGIC PARTNER

ASSOCIATE SPONSOR

CATCH THEM YOUNG

The ninth edition of the Sharjah International Film Festival (SIFF) for Children and Youth will take place October 10-15 at Al Jawaher Reception in Sharjah. Festival director Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi, associated with the festival since its inaugural edition, tells us more

Tell us more about SIFF and how you came to be associated with it.

This film festival translates the directives and vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, to raise a new generation of young creatives, and it benefits hugely from the unwavering support of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs. I have had a personal interest in films since I was a child, and I am especially passionate about films and digital media.

I have always worked with children since my first job as a teacher, and now I have children of my own; and in them, we see the future. In children’s films, we see an opportunity to guide them to be future stars and make the world a better place.

How has the film festival evolved over the last nine years, and how will it be different now that we have just emerged from the pandemic?

When we first started, we had around 100 film submissions and I remember my team and I jumping with joy. Now we have one to two thousand films each year submitted from more than 40 countries around the world. When the festival first started, I remember having small numbers of walk-ins to the evening shows, but now we have hundreds coming in. At the beginning, we only had film screenings and a small exhibition on the side, but now the festival has numerous activities around it. During the pandemic, we had a virtual eighth edition. Although it did serve its purpose, the vibes, the feelings and the experience were not fully there; and now I think more than ever, people are waiting for the actual festival to be back.

We also have more than 40 workshops running through the festival for different age groups. We have different topics that

are all related to film, on augmented reality and how to learn filmmaking by watching other movies, among others.

We will also have several discussion panels focused on the film industry and targeting youth and children. These include ‘Why do we visit festivals’, ‘Palestine: Forging connections through cinema’ and ‘Who’s buying my film?’. A number of educational and entertainment activities will also be held at the FUNN Port, including Explore Studio, where participants will learn filmmaking by watching other movies. At the Experience Station, children and youth can create their first film, while an interactive session titled ‘A short film inspired by me’ will be held at the Entertain Zone.

Do you have any personal stories about your association with a children’s film festival?

I remember being at Cannes Film Festival years ago, watching a Korean film about a teacher and the effect she had on her kindergarten students, and how she shaped their lives and impacted them. I cried through it, as I related so much to the film from many aspects. This film premiered at SIFF, and we invited teachers and parents to watch it. You never know how you may be inspired by a film to plan a new journey or solve a problem.

Children’s films often don’t seem to be a hot favourite for festivals, because there’s not that much money to be made. How are you monetising this event? Our festival is mostly educational and inspirational, because of who we target. Sales is a crucial part of any event or festival. A child, young adult or adult can pay for a ticket, walk in, enjoy and leave. Another can do the same but walk out already writing his script in his head. Where is the bigger value?

Sheikha Jawaher bint Abdullah Al Qasimi is Director of both FUNN and SIFF.

Who is your target audience for this festival? If your films are held during school days, how are you able to get children to attend?

We target everyone. Since the start of the festival, we have reached almost 200,000 individuals from children, youth, families, schools, filmmakers, professionals, companies, festivals, celebrities and more. We reach out to people locally and internationally to be part of this festival. A big percentage of our visits are from schools in the morning from all around the UAE, and in the evenings the festival is open to the public. We made sure there is something for everyone, whether film screenings or workshops that are targeted at specific age groups or talks or activities.

Are there any notable films or filmmakers you would like to mention?

For the first time in its history, SIFF will organise a Green Carpet event that brings together filmmakers with their audiences to discuss their creative works. Films screened at the Green Carpet event will include The Secret Garden, Croissant and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain at VOX Cinema, Al Zahia Mall, and Farha, The Neighborhood Storyteller and Paper Flower at Al

Jawaher Reception & Convention Centre.

SIFF guests and speakers include actors, Syrian singer-songwriter Rasha Rizk, English actress Dixie Igrex, Emirati director Fadel Al Mheiri, and Syrian journalist, filmmaker and SIFF juror Waad Al-Kateab. In addition, SIFF will host a 19-member jury committee which includes Omani actress Buthaina Alraesi, Emirati filmmaker Hani Al Shaibani, Kuwaiti writer Heba Hamada, Emirati director Nawaf Al Janahi and Emirati writer Masoud Amralla Al Ali.

Will filmmakers also be attending?

Like our audience is the heart of the festival, the filmmakers are its soul. The festival depends on them. We try our best to be a platform for Emirati and Arab filmmakers, and we invite them to not only attend but also be part of the festival. We also have international filmmakers and jury members consisting of filmmakers, scriptwriters, critics and more from all around the world. We also have the festival competition that filmmakers compete in, in six categories.

What are the challenges of running a children’s film festival, and what are some of the trending topics?

Keeping pace on what’s new and what’s trending in the field of cinema and film for this generation is one. Ours had a slower pace; theirs is so fast that we have to keep up and provide what they look for in the right context and manner. Mental health, expression of views and environmental

issues seem to be trending.

What happens after the festival each year for you?

We start planning the next one! And we have a full schedule at FUNN, with workshops and events running through the year, and we just launched our production unit with Ajwan, the first sci-fi Arab animation series, and My Dear Children, an educational animation series for young children. We are also working on expanding our production projects. PRO

Facts and figures

• 30 films make their Middle East premiere

• New Green Carpet event to showcase six selected films

• Films from the US, France, Saudi Arabia and South Korea dominate screenings

• Rasha Rizk, Dixie Igrex, Fadel Al Mheiri and Waad Al Kateab on the guest list

• Movies to be screened in Sharjah and Dubai

• 95 films from 43 countries competing in seven award categories

Various activities at the last in-person edition of SIFF.

'RED CARPET, NOT RED TAPE' IS OUR MANTRA–WAYNE BORG

Neom’s media head honcho Wayne Borg is forging ahead with a raft of infrastructural investments and initiatives intended to make Saudi Arabia’s newest development an integrated media hub with all facilities, talent and state-of-the-art gear under one umbrella. In an exclusive conversation with Vijaya Cherian , Borg shares how he plans to make Neom a consolidated hub that will propel the region’s production industry forward

Last month, Neom, Saudi Arabia’s newest and most attractive development, announced the operational opening of two of its main sites for production, Neom Media Village and Bajdah Desert Studios, following a celebratory launch with industry professionals in August. The two sites are 35 minutes apart by car and will be home to the Kingdom’s largest sound stages and film production support facilities. Three sound stages are ready, with another seven scheduled to open between now and the end of Q1 2023.

More specifically, Neom Media Village features one 2,400sqm sound stage complete with back-of-house facilities comprising makeup rooms, green rooms and production offices, with three further stages under construction. At Bajdah Desert Studios, there are two 3,000sqm sound stages with a further four scheduled to become operational by the end of 2022.

“These are our two main locations,” says Wayne Borg, Managing Director for Media Industries, Entertainment and Culture at Neom. “The media village will predominantly house the sound stages, while Bajdah will have a combination. There will be a lot of backlot facilities, big set constructions, prop shops and so on. We will have a volumetric stage of 850sqm up and running by the end of Q1. Those productions that are looking to

utilise some dramatic landscapes will find Bajdah truly impressive. These are all part of our interim facilities which will in time move to our end state on The Line.”

The Line refers to a 200m-wide, 170km-long strip of land 500m above sea level that will eventually accommodate Neom’s 9m residents on a 34sqkm footprint. It will have no roads, cars or emissions, and will run on 100% renewable energy with 95% of the land preserved for nature. All media facilities at Neom will eventually be on The Line, with a spine underneath holding the transport and utilities infrastructure for all production logistics. All of this will be automated and powered by renewable energy, as Neom claims to be 100% carbon-neutral.

All studios are being built to be world-class production facilities with set production offices, construction warehouses, prop shops, wardrobe, SFX facilities, backlot space and so on to support complex set builds. Film and ancillary equipment including cameras, grip and lighting, shotover, heavy-lift drones, telehandlers, boom lifts, scissor lifts and trackway are available on both sites. If plans go according to schedule, Neom will have a full-fledged ecosystem in place by the end of 2026.

“We're talking of a media hub of about 1m sqm by then and about 37 sound stages, studios, gaming studios, industry learning spaces, incubation startup facilities and so on. Our

Bajdah, one of Saudi Arabia's hidden wonders, has one of the world's most stunning land formations and is now being promoted as a great location for filming in the Kingdom.

aim is to create a true regional hub and consolidate the infrastructure but also create a true focal point for the industry, the creatives and the talent, because this industry thrives best in a collaborative environment. So far we have witnessed a lot of fragmentation, and that holds the region’s industry back from performing at its optimum.”

Prior to last month’s announcement, Neom had already put in place several of the elements required to boost producer confidence in the region. For one, it has supported 25-plus productions over the last 18 months.

“We’re starting to see that momentum with so many productions coming to the region. Cast and crew are moving from one production to the next. It is vital for us to keep that pipeline and that continuity going so that they can roll over from one production to the next. At present, we can handle between three and four productions at any given time and are starting to build our crew depth.

“We’ve got the facilities and we have announced a 40% cash rebate production incentive scheme for feature films, TV and commercials, with producers able to secure a higher percentage based on their industry development contributions. We've also got the talent and the crew depth, and we are able to support these productions

with our team on the ground.”

Neom manages and services 350 dedicated five-star accommodation units (200 at Bajdah and 150 at Neom Media Village), competitively priced to cater to the needs of cast and crew. In fact, guests at the August launch stayed at the accommodation units so they could get a feel of what to expect. An airport at Neom operates direct flights to and from Dubai, with London on the cards.

Neom is also working with MBC Group to bring an AAA gaming studio to the region. “That’s being incubated in Los Angeles now as we speak and will migrate across to Neom hopefully in the next 12 or so months,” Borg confides.

“The region performs strongly when it comes to the gaming sector. Saudi Arabia within that is a huge player. Some of that value leaves and you want to repatriate some of that value, which is part of this broader industry ecosystem

that needs to be developed and consolidated for the region.”

Neom is ensuring that the Kingdom has “employable participants” in the industry by working closely with academic entities like the National Film and Television School in the UK for entry-level programmes and the University of Southern California for master’s courses. By moving young Saudi nationals from theoretical training to production placements, Neom is also helping them carve their employment pathways.

“We’ve already put 200 young Saudi nationals through the National Film and Television School, which is very focused on getting young people who aspire to have a career in the industry to be well-versed across the key areas of production. These are a combination of online and residential courses in the UK. And then, because we have such a strong pipeline of productions across film and television, we are able to attach them to productions and help them build up their portfolios. From the very outset, we have tried to harness the productions we are servicing at Neom. In short, we are starting to provide career opportunities that may not have existed historically within the Kingdom and the broader region,” Borg elaborates.

Complementing the physical sound stages and production

A behind-the-scenes shot from Desert Warrior, which was shot in Bajdah.

“Our aim is to create a true regional hub and consolidate the infrastructure but also create a true focal point for the industry, the creatives and the talent, because this industry thrives best in a collaborative environment”

Wayne Borg, Managing Director for Media Industries, Entertainment and Culture at Neom

facilities, Neom has assembled an experienced international production team with a deep understanding of what producers and crew need on stage and on location, says Borg. This team supports incoming productions to provide a smooth and costefficient production experience.

The interim facilities already have a few productions underway, including fantasy-adventure Rise of the Witches, the region’s biggest TV show to date, and Million Dollar Island, a new reality TV survival show that wrapped in July. In addition, Neom’s first local serial drama began production last month. Neom hosted 20 major international productions in 2021, from major large-scale international features such as Desert Warrior, helmed by Rupert Wyatt (director of Rise of the Planet of Apes) and starring Anthony Mackie, Ben Kingsley and Aiysha Hart.

“There has been a lot of scepticism in our ability to deliver, and we were able to develop these facilities in a relatively short period of time. I think it shows the intent and the seriousness of our ambitions here, just given the importance of the media sector to Neom both from a GDP and job creation perspective,” explains Borg.

Having worked on other such media ecosystems in the region, Borg has clarity on the gaps in the market and what must

be done to ensure greater success.

“The end state of a fully integrated media hub both physically and technologically doesn't exist at present, and that's what we're working to achieve. That’s what is going to create huge opportunities both in how workflows happen and how we're seeing that convergence, particularly around game engine technology when it comes to production. There's also been an inability for talent and creatives to come together previously and collaborate and for the industry to sort of harness all of that. Consequently, the industry hasn't been able to really punch to the weight it should be for the size of this market.

“So we want to create an environment that not only becomes the focal point and the true content creation hub for the region, but also one of those elite global media hubs so it allows us to participate in what is now a 24-hour industry. And we are working at providing tools that creatives may have never had access to before, and that's going to provide opportunities for them to enhance their storytelling and their productions. That's what we're working for on the end state.

“We’re making some significant investments in infrastructure and equipment, and that's really at the heart of our offering. We want to offer infrastructure as a service. With the rapid technological advancements that are happening, it's difficult for the industry to keep pace and keep investing. We want to de-risk industry and provide that infrastructure so they can concentrate on their core skill, which is to create content.”

Borg concludes: “Red carpet, not red tape, is our mantra, and that has led to attracting a lot of productions to the region and is also shining a light on the pipeline that's shaping up going forward.”

Wayne Borg.

This 2,400sqm sound stage, complete with back-of-house facilities comprising makeup rooms, green rooms and production offices, was launched last month at Neom Media Village.

RISING TO THE IP CHALLENGE

Fadaat Media recently relocated its operations from London to Qatar, just in time for the World Cup in November. In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian , Ali Husseini, Director of Broadcast Operations & Visuals at Fadaat Media, talks about the successful move to Doha and what building a full-IP facility entailed

One of Doha’s commercial luxury towers, the Burj AlFardan Lusail, a sustainable development in the business centre of Marina District, is now home to one of the most modern TV stations in the country. Qatariowned Fadaat Media relaunched its two Alaraby TV channels from Doha last month, following a massive relocation of the station’s headquarters from London over eight months, in time for the World Cup.

The IP SMPTE 2110-compliant 7,500sqm facility seats more than 550 staff across Fadaat Media’s two channels –news channel Alaraby and infotainment channel Alaraby 2 – occupying the entire fifth floor. It has attracted worldwide industry attention for making bold moves in IP and pulling off remarkable collaboration between vendors, service providers and other international market players under the guidance of Ali Husseini, Director of Broadcast Operations & Visuals at Fadaat Media. Systems integration for this project was undertaken by Ideal Systems.

Once we get past the grand reception lounge, the boardrooms, the open offices, the first control room and a PCR, we enter a stunning open studio designed for the morning show. Built on an Olympic-sized pool, it has a floating set and a curved floating display and is simply breathtaking. Special professional underwater broadcast-quality lighting from ARRI laces the pool interiors, while a look up at the ceiling reveals a mix of robotic cams, ceiling cams, black cams and robotic pedestals. This studio is designed to support the TV station’s augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) requirements.

“Currently, we have three studios,” explains Husseini, taking us on a tour. “There are more than 500sqm of video wall between the three studios, and the facility has two full-fledged control rooms.”

The circular main news studio is 490sqm, attached to a 450sqm open newsroom which presently accommodates 92

staff. With one ceiling track, two floor track cameras, three robotic pedestals and a jimmy jib, this studio is designed for news. The 290sqm studio with the pool for the morning show has five cameras on pedestals and one ceiling track, while a third multifunctional 235sqm black box studio, with three cameras on pedestals and a jimmy jib, is for producing additional current affairs programmes and other news shows.

Robotic systems have been deployed for the cameras, with Mo-Sys tracking integrated into each of the pedestals, ensuring that all three studios are fully enabled for virtual reality (VR). The AR for the morning show studio and the VR across all three is controlled by Viz Arc, in conjunction with Vinten and EF robotics. Unreal Integration with Viz Arc and Engine 4.4.1 is also configured as per the AR/ VR needs of the facility. The entire set-up, based on SMPTE 2110, has Matrox Xmio5 Q25 installed, with capacity for 32 inputs and outputs from a single card.

There are nine structures at the news studios in total, with LianTronics displays in varying configurations. There is a set of six displays of 1.8m x 3.5m dimensions in one area, a 20m x 4.5m curved display in another, three sets of 1.8m x 3.8m dimensions that are part of another moving videowall, a set of 15 displays with 1.8m and 3.9m in a fourth area and several others. Unlike the other studios, the little Blackbox studio also features a 19m x 2.7m curved display from Unilumin.

All studio windows have been replaced with video walls, with the glass structures designed in such a way that they can be dynamically recalibrated to replicate any visuals the newsroom wants to show its viewers. In fact, even the backdrop in the control room boasts a set of motorised OLED LG translucent smart screens.

“The viewer cannot tell the difference between the windows and the video walls,” says Husseini, beaming with pride. “But this design offers so much flexibility in terms of visuals and what we can show on screen.”

All the on-air studios, AR/VR and video wall engines are set up using 2110 with NMOS IS-05. Inputs, outputs, audio and ANC data are triggered via NMOS, with redundancy set up using SMPTE 2022-7. SMPTE 2110 provides the flexibility to choose, switch and trigger any source on the Viz Engine with a single click, with one fibre cable connected to the Matrox SFP. The video walls can all handle 16K resolution and are controlled by Viz Multiplay. In fact, multiple video walls are controlled from the same Multiplay GUI in each studio.

This project was a catalyst for industry vendors to work together, and many found that this collaboration helped enhance their own products. With an exacting IP 2110 deployment on a brown-field site, Husseini had some industry leaders put their heads together for this project. Outside-the-box solutions were called for; given the high-profile nature of the client and the scale of the project, vendors immediately obliged and collaborated, designed and revisited their configurations to help Alaraby maximise the potential

of their solutions and services.

“We leased a floor that was initially intended for a gym and restaurant area,” says Husseini. “We demolished the existing structure and redesigned it to suit our requirement. Most of the areas where the studios are built now were previously part of an open terrace. Now a new structure holds the ceiling loads and heights and allows for MEP services.”

A look around the sets and studios makes it evident that Husseini has gone with tried-and-tested players with experience and expertise. Set and facility design was awarded to US company Clickspring, which designed most of the new, high-profile TV facilities in the GCC, including MBC Studios in Dubai Studio City and Asharq News at Dubai International Financial Centre. Lighting design was delivered by ELD, while GET SET was the set manufacturer, building them remotely at its factory and shipping them to Doha in June.

On our grand tour, we see the open newsroom, the two galleries, an MCR, transmission rooms, an archive area, a viewing room, 20 creative seats, eight news edits, four promo edit suites, four voice-over rooms, a programme

The main 490sqm circular news studio is attached to a 450sqm open newsroom, which accommodates 92 staff.

“The main challenge was to migrate two operational channels from London to Doha while maintaining the on-air output and handling all the migration logistics”

Ali Husseini, Director of Broadcast Operations & Visuals, Fadaat Media

open area, an NOC room and a main CAR room associated with three sub CAR with a total of 100 racks.

Husseini lists some other tech highlights: “This facility is full-IP end-to-end with redundancy built into the two networks, but to be accurate it is perhaps best to say that more than 90% of this TV station is built to be IP 2110-compliant. To that end, we have Vizrt end-to-end for graphics, Avid for PAM and MAM, Vinten for camera robotics, Imagine as the broadcast core infrastructure and the MCR system, Sony LSM as the broadcast controller, Sony for cameras and vision mixers, the blackcam for the ceiling track, a floor track from Electric Friends, Cisco switches, ARRI lighting, LianTronics videowall, LundHalsey furniture, DIVA Archive, Spectralogic Library, SSL for audio mixer and routing, and a whole 2110 network.”

The core networking infrastructure at the heart of the facility is Imagine Communications' Magellan Control Systems and Selenio Network Processor (SNP). It was designed to manage all connected devices across several divisions and departments, including studios, news and galleries, all the way down to the ingest and playout systems using the Versio integrated playout platform with its advanced SMPTE ST2110 features.

Having worked with an Imagine solution in London, the Fadaat team first wanted to check whether an Imagine solution would be a good fit. More importantly, they needed to know if it would also integrate well with other vendor solutions.

“They chose us eventually, as the Imagine solution focuses on an integrated and centralised architecture with zero dependency on bespoke hardware,” explains Anas Hantash, Sales Director – MENA & South Asia, Imagine Communications.

“The Orchestrator sits on the top and manages the entire network, because we know it's a completely different way of operating compared

ARRI Solutions designs and engineers fully IP-based lighting network for Alaraby

Alaraby TV is the first major network in the Middle East to be equipped with IP-based lighting technology across the entirety of its headquarters. To design and engineer an advanced, IP-based lighting network for perfect production conditions within the three new studios in Doha, it called in ARRI Solutions, a dedicated team within ARRI focused on designing and delivering innovative production infrastructures. This team handled the consultation, planning and installation of the studio lighting network. The core aim was to deliver a robust and reliable workflow fully integrated into the overall broadcast infrastructure.

“By working in close collaboration with Alaraby’s technical colleagues, we were able to identify a number of opportunities throughout the workflow for efficiency and reliability via IP connectivity,” explains Jörg Pohl, Director ARRI Solutions. “This approach enabled us to design a cost-effective solution that fully serves the broadcaster’s needs, while retaining the highestquality lighting expected by Alaraby TV for all of its programming output.”

The lighting design for the studio complex specified ARRI SkyPanels throughout the three environments,

complemented by industry-leading profiler, moving head and effect lighting fixtures. This ensures optimal light distribution and quality to support broadcasting requirements into UHD and beyond. The lighting network is based on TCP-IP protocols, from control board to luminaires.

Alaraby TV will also be equipped with ARRI LightNet, a software platform that offers centralised monitoring, management and fault detection for broadcast studio lighting networks. Data from all devices on the network, from fixtures to network switches, is displayed in real time on a single interface, maximising efficiency for broadcast engineers working in busy studio environments.

“Alaraby TV has a long-standing relationship with ARRI Solutions, having worked closely on our London studios, so we were assured from the start that the team had the experience and insight to help us reach a new level of reliability and control. With a lighting control infrastructure based solely on IP, we’re able to achieve system-wide increases in flexibility and reliability across our new facilities, essential elements for a busy news broadcasting environment such as ours,” says Husseini.

Avid delivered an end-to-end solution for news and programme production supporting up to 250 concurrent users, from ingest and editing to playout, social media publishing and archiving for Alaraby. The solution is based on Avid’s subscription licensing model for all the software, allowing flexibility for future migration to cloud-based deployment as well as upgrade and scaling.

“Under the umbrella of Avid’s MediaCentral open media platform, Alaraby will benefit from a fully integrated production asset management (PAM) with MediaCentral Production Management, a newsroom computer system (NRCS) with MediaCentral Newsroom Management, and an enterprise asset management system (MAM) with MediaCentral Asset Management,” explains Hicham Ismail, Solutions and PreSales Manager, Avid Middle East.

For live ingest such as feeds, cameras and other video sources, Avid’s FastServe ingest server will be used. Controlled using MediaCentral Capture, three servers will provide eight channels of ingest each for a total of 24 channels ingesting in XDCAMHD50 with H.264 proxy. To cope with Alaraby’s video over IP infrastructure, the servers will be equipped with IP input boards supporting SMPTE ST-2110 standard and Networked Media Open Specification (NMOS) control.

File-based ingest is managed by Telestream Vantage (agencies) and Woody IN2IT card-based ingest. Both live feeds and file-based assets will be ingested into Avid’s software-defined storage, Avid NEXIS, and checked in to MediaCentral Production Management with support for editing while ingesting, allowing immediate access to media while it is still being ingested.

“The NEXIS storage consists of six NEXIS E4 fully redundant engines

Avid

with 280TB storage capacity, a total of 1.68PB total capacity. The NEXIS file system will provide dual disk protection in addition to dual hot spares in each engine,” explains Ismail.

“For non-linear editing, a mix of 15x Avid Media Composer and 12x Adobe Premiere editors will be available and will allow editors from different editing backgrounds to work seamlessly under the management of MediaCentral Production Management. Avid DNxIP will be used as I/O box (high-resolution monitoring) for Media Composer with SMPTE ST-2110 support. For news production, 250 licences of MediaCentral CloudUX will be available for journalists. MediaCentral CloudUX will also include the connector for Viz Pilot, allowing users to preview Viz graphics templates within the web UI as well as overlaying graphics on the editing timeline.

“In the studios, three FastServe servers are available for playout, each delivering eight playout channels for a total of 24 playout channels available on SMPTE ST-2110 and MOS. Control of the playout servers will be managed by MediaCentral Command, which is integrated with MediaCentral Newsroom Management for publishing news rundowns. Whether from

Media Composer, Adobe Premiere or MediaCentral Cloud UX, users will be able to send their edited material to the playback server. The workflow will support ‘play while transfer’, allowing the playout of media while media files are being transferred to the server.”

For enterprise media management, Avid MediaCentral Asset management will provide a robust database and a workflow engine, allowing media and metadata management as well as integration with third-party systems. This includes integration with MediaCentral Production Management and MediaCentral Newsroom Management for archiving and restoring production media and news stories; integration with Microsoft Azure video indexer for media analysis and automated metadata enrichment; integration with Telestream DIVA HSM for long-term archive on LTO-based tape library; integration with Imagine Communications ADC automation for processing missing media lists based on Traffic system playlists; integration with BTS Traffic system for placeholder creation and metadata exchange; integration with Interra Baton for file-based QC; and integration with Telestream Vantage for media transcoding, the import/export and processing of subtitling files, and filebased import and export of workflows. A dedicated NEXIS E4 280TB will be dedicated as MAM online storage for high-resolution and proxy media.

MediaCentral Publisher, a hybrid on-prem/SaaS solution, publishes media content to social media platforms and CMS. It is available as an app within MediaCentral CloudUX, for users to publish their stories fast. It also allows editing in different aspect ratios depending on the destination platform (9:16 or 1:1, for example) with the possibility of overlying graphics. The whole Avid solution is deployed in a virtualised environment using vSphere.

to an SDI set-up. Everything from the gallery, the newsroom and creative departments to the graphics and the ingest and production all feed into the core network. And Imagine with the SNP and the orchestrator try to manage this harmony and the workflow. The team was already operationally and technically familiar with Imagine at their London office, so maintaining the same operation and the team while moving to Qatar was more advantageous.”

The Imagine Orchestrator forms the core network. Everything else feeds into it. It also manages the streaming, routing, ingest, audio and video processing, contribution and layout. Although it fit the TV station’s needs, it still had to

work with all the other pieces. And this is where Husseini shone, working well with multiple vendor partners and getting the best out of everyone.

Imagine experts worked closely with Alaraby’s Technical Operations and Management team, conducting several workshops to ensure the design and deployment of the latest SMPTE ST2110 IP technologies for both networking and playout were well done. Hantash explains

that they did not conduct these traditionally. Rather, depending on the workflow being trained, the vendors ran workshops either solo or in conjunction, to make sure the end users completely understood how to operate in that environment. “In many instances, the vendors got together and brainstormed and modified the scope of the work, and each went back to revisit their own solutions to ensure we could all provide the end user with the best possible outcome.”

Husseini adds: “The IP network is managed by Imagine, on top of which we have the Sony LSM as a routing control application. The Imagine SDNO application plays a vital role in the IP signal flow; all the source and destinations are registered in

Various areas of the facility including the studio, the newsroom and the gallery.

“This design offers so much flexibility in terms of visuals and what we can show on screen”

Ali Husseini, Director of Broadcast Operations & Visuals, Fadaat Media

the application and controlled.”

One major part of this installation was the Vizrt set-up. Almost all Vizrt products are set up in a secure HTTPS environment. The backend servers are installed to have real-time replication and redundancy. A new licence model has been implemented, where it acts as a central hub and the customer can pull or release licences depending on requirements. This gives Alaraby easy access to use licences based on demand.

Viz One is used for images and video workflow. This enables operators, journalists and producers to easily select and change images and videos while the system is on-air. Viz World and Viz Ticker help them select and take images in a single

click. The new Viz Pilot Edge templatebased system empowers operators and journalists to create high-level content. It is secure HTTPS browser-based and can be open in the browser or inside all major newsroom systems. The Viz Template Builder web-based application helps designers create and build templates. An

NLE workflow is also configured with Pilot Edge for burn-in graphics.

The whole IP installation was not without its challenges. In May, the tower was still under construction. With 3,000 employees working round the clock on the building, the office structure and the tower were ready by August. But the team faced numerous challenges, and some remain.

“Some of the products are still baseband and need to be converted from SDI to IP and IP to SDI, and this puts more load on the system. The other was buying switches during the pandemic. The long lead times due to the pandemic and the remote installation delayed us. The main challenge was to migrate two

Built on a swimming pool, this studio is used for the morning show; top right, robotic systems from Electronic Friends in action on the studio floor.

“We partnered with Google Cloud through their partner Numbase and built our own unique cloud asset management system with AI capabilities”

Ali Husseini, Director of Broadcast Operations & Visuals, Fadaat Media

operational channels from London to Doha while maintaining the on-air output and handling all the migration logistics,” explains Husseini.

“Another challenging part was the media assets migration. When migrating from London to Doha, one key element we had to look at was seven years’ worth of media assets. Thousands of hours needed to be migrated to be available for both Alaraby channels. For this, we partnered with Google Cloud through their partner Numbase and built our own unique cloud asset management system with AI capabilities. All the assets were cleaned up, indexed, classified and migrated to the cloud using the latest Google cloud offerings. This solution is connected back to the news production system and the deep archive solution, and all assets are available to all 36 bureaus as well.

“We used cloud to ingest and distribute content anywhere anytime, and understand and capitalise on audience preferences, improve retention, modernise content and deliver it at the lowest latency and highest quality possible. At the same time, we have been able to empower our contributors, journalists, reporters and correspondents deployed around the world to write their scripts, access the archives and send it back to location for final distribution.”

This new media asset management platform will build and manage a data lake for Alaraby’s digital archive. It delivers a cloud-native, scalable, reliable and secure platform with a web portal for archive access, management and sharing, establishing a globally accessible but highly secure platform via two-factor authentication. This is specifically accessible to Alaraby TV network users for content archiving and news and programme content sharing, providing accessibility for remote media archive, sending media to broadcast centres, sharing media with specific users within the Alaraby

domain or extracting content for remote production needs; supporting metadata enrichment, timecode-related metadata and transcript of media content; and building an AI-ready infrastructure.

On August 30, the channels went on air from Doha after some rigorous testing before switching off operations in London. “We relocated most of our staff to Doha; only a few were recruited locally depending on the requirement,” Husseini says.

Alaraby decided to carry on its ongoing partnership with Es’hailSat, with all distribution and contribution management and digital signal delivery for its OTT platforms routed through its command centre. The Alaraby HQ is connected over fibre to Es’hailSat’s service centre kilometres away, where all these services

are managed and delivered.

“Alaraby TV and Es’hailSat have jointly designed and implemented a disaster recovery transmission (DR) chain at Es’hailSat’s HQ, where the teams in both locations can activate DR within seconds when required,” explains Husseini.

While all major tasks have now been completed, there are a few implementations that do not affect on-air broadcasts. “Automation through Viz Mosart, for instance, is part of the next phase and that’s in process at the moment. Full MAM workflows are also part of the plan; we are taking each work package and developing the required implementation in an agile way,” Husseini concludes. PRO

Vinten at Alaraby

Alaraby has traditionally used Vinten automation and Autoscript prompting hardware, and continues to do so at its new facility in Doha. Vinten FP-188+ robotic pedestals and FH-155 VR heads with integrated StarTracker have been installed, to enable one-time mapping of the entire studio floor. This avoids the ongoing operational cost of regular retargeting and delivering precise automated remote control of pre-set shots and sequences.

The manual mode features a continuously adjustable, servo-controlled drag powerful enough to handle even the heaviest payloads. Operators can switch between robotic and manual modes either at the head or from the Vinten HD-VRC control system. The flexibility of the IP-integrated Vinten Robotics and the Autoscript WinPlus-IP Prompting Solutions ensure a futureproof investment.

AN 'AWS'OME STRATEGY

Sikkat Safar, a Saudi comedy series that premiered on MBC 1 this Ramadan, was well received by GCC audiences. BroadcastPro ME spotlights the show and profiles the production house that uses Bollywood influences and strategies to make its programmes stand out

MBC 1 had a very successful Ramadan calendar this year; one of its new shows, Sikkat Safar, produced by Middle East production house Aws Studios, received a lot of traction on social media and among Arab audiences. The series follows the lives of three brothers who upon their father’s death inherit a motel, a petrol station and a mini market on a deserted highway in the middle of Saudi Arabia. It was helmed by some very big names such as Abdullah Al-Sadhan, Khaled Saqr, Zalham Ali, Rogina and Rashid Assaf, and sisters Shaima, Sheila and Shatha Sabt.

Spearheaded by Al Sharqi brothers Aws (CEO) and Osama (Executive Manager), Aws Studios is known for crafting award-winning drama series such as Hindistani, Wifi and Selfie. The production house works with most of the major MENA TV networks such as MBC Group, Abu Dhabi TV, Dubai TV and OSN.

While Sikkat Safar’s plot is interesting, the story of its production is more remarkable. To ensure a gripping storyline, Aws brought

together some prominent writers in Arabic television in a “writing workshop” to script the series.

“I wanted to benefit from the vast creative experience of these writers and didn’t want to be dependent on one writer,” he says. Having a pool of talented writers allowed him to stay focused on the direction and on telling stories “in a realistic, seamless and entertaining manner”. And with nearly three hundred people tasked with bringing Sikkat Safar to life, his focus had to be unswerving.

“My priority was to transform the script into reality, enhance the performance of the actors without any exaggeration and create a realistic setting for the series through a balanced storyline, characters and especially the location. I opted for a real location rather than filming in a studio, to instil authenticity in the scenes. I believe this is what sets apart my work from other Arab comedies, which rely on exaggeration rather than realism.”

For the location, Aws Studios collaborated with Sharjah Media City (Shams) to build a bespoke studio.

Shams donated the land in return for the building erected on the site and was instrumental in getting the required permits. Under Aws’ creative eye, a set comprising a motel, a grocery store and a petrol station was built in a desert area in Sharjah in eight months. He credits his ability to build massive sets to the experience he gained in Bollywood. “I learned how to develop enormous studios, paying attention to their construction details, décor and accessories from Bollywood’s building approach,” he explains. Sikkat Safar’s massive set was built by 50 supervisors, engineers, construction workers and other professionals flown in from India.

Aws Al Sharqi’s Khaleeji programmes have been popular not just because of storylines which resonate closely with Arab audiences, but also due to elements such as song-anddance sequences and fast cuts based on Bollywood influences. The Iraqi director spent several

Aws Studios collaborated with Sharjah Media City (Shams) to build sets in Sharjah.

years in Bollywood, where he directed three television series.

“Bollywood broadened my horizon,” he says candidly. He has also helmed 80 music shows for OSN and other leading networks.

Directing 200 to 300 dancers for each show sharpened his skills in crafting musicals and taught him how to “effectively handle massive quantities of production”.

He also has a proclivity for putting together a multinational crew, drawing Sikkat Safar’s crew from all

over the world, including Italy, India, the US, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. “No one can compose a symphony alone,” he quips. “It’s this mix that has contributed to the success of the TV series.”

The same diversity can be seen in Aws Studios’ 3D animation team, made up of more than 50 people from different countries and responsible for some of the most popular idents on prominent channels, such as the Fananees idents telecast on MBC 1 for several years. Fananees is another Aws Studio production that enjoys much success when aired during Ramadan each year. The show sometimes integrates its animated characters with well-known Arab plays backed by catchy Bollywood-style music.

Aws Al Sharqi attributes the success of his productions to his “passion for developing humorous comedic ideas, both real and made-up”. Over the past few years, the production house has been targeting audiences in Saudi Arabia. Productions such as Mamnou Al Tajawul, Selfie and Wifi have had multiple seasons, with new seasons in demand. Mamnou Al Tajawul, released in 2021, has had only one season so far. Spreading its reach, in 2019 Aws Studios started managing MBC Iraq, demonstrating the

Sikkat Safar received a lot of good reviews from local audiences.

company’s prowess. The channel has produced My Family Wins, the first Iraqi and Arab version of popular US series Family Feud Being given the rights to produce all of the series and programmes for MBC Iraq allows Aws Studios to revive erstwhile Iraqi productions as well as create opportunities for new talent, something close to Aws Al Sharqi’s heart. Hailing from a prominent artistic Iraqi family – his father was editorin-chief of the Iraqi Alif Ba magazine – his entrepreneurial and creative journey began in Baghdad, where he started an advertising firm, Kodia, which introduced digital technology in advertising to Iraq. Making over a thousand advertisements, Kodia emerged as one of the most successful businesses of the time.

From there, Al Sharqi progressed to directing Iraqi television programmes, the most significant being Anbaa Al Watan. Then came award-winning show Hindistani Broadcast on OSN, its first and second parts marked a qualitative turning point for Arab television. “The series was very well received and earned awards for the best content and best Arabic production,” he says proudly. This was followed

by Wifi, which heralded the beginning of Al Sharqi’s long association with MBC.

Apart from satire, Al Sharqi claims he excels at crafting gripping dramas such as Al Sadma, a reality show that depicts people’s reactions to emotionally provocative situations. The show ran for four seasons, each going “viral like wildfire”, in his words. His 2020 hit Kidnap also reportedly enjoyed high ratings on MBC's Shahid platform.

While there are many challenges for Al Sharqi, “the biggest challenge is to find interesting ideas and stories to produce … Now that Arab audiences have wider exposure to content from across the world, creating distinct stories is even more difficult. My 250-member team and I work hard to expand

“I learned how to develop enormous studios, paying attention to their construction details, décor and accessories from Bollywood’s building approach”

Aws Al Sharqi, CEO, Aws Studios

A scene from Sikkat Safar, a Saudi comedy series that revolves around three brothers, Khalid, Naser and Walid.

our research, see the existing works and learn from them. And when we start writing the series, I make sure to engage a content supervisor to closely observe the development of ideas, ensuring better quality in writing.”

His other challenge is juggling his roles as director, producer and CEO of Aws Studios. “It can be difficult for me to decide between them, but I make every effort to avoid falling short in any area. In addition, I have a strong passion for music and spend a lot of time overseeing, producing and directing the music for my works.”

Aws Al Sharqi’s dedication to his craft and his discipline

helped Aws Studios get through the Covid-19 pandemic. “We were in the middle of filming several projects for the Ramadan season, and the closures were expanding with each passing day.

We had to finish filming as soon as possible. To complete the editing and mixing operations, my team and I committed to working from home.” The team’s efforts were complemented by state-of-theart equipment that allowed them agility as well as superior results.

The company’s footprint in Dubai is quite expansive, with an Armani-esque office and postproduction studios in Jumeirah Lakes Towers and two studios in Dubai Production City. It also has offices in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt, as well as two studios in Iraq (Baghdad and Erbil) and one opening shortly in Saudi Arabia.

PRO

“The biggest challenge is to find interesting ideas and stories to produce … Now that Arab audiences have wider exposure to content from across the world, creating distinct stories is even more difficult”

Aws Al Sharqi, CEO, Aws Studios

Scenes from Sikkat Safar.

Top left: Amine Djouahra, CCNA Sales and Marketing Director, and right, he observes as Sebastien Devaud, Canon ambassador and filmmaker, operates one of the cameras at IBC.

CANON’S AFRICAN DREAM

Africa’s evolving content landscape has inspired many global companies to set up shop in the region but few have gone the extra mile like Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA). The imaging technology

brand recently hosted several key African players at IBC, where it showcased new launches, offered training programmes and shared valuable market insights. In an exclusive interview with BroadcastPro ME, Amine Djouahra, CCNA Sales and Marketing Director, and Sebastien Devaud, Canon ambassador and filmmaker, discuss the latest trends in the African content market and the company’s new multi-camera set-up supporting remote and live production

Canon, unlike most global technology brands, has not shied away from business activity in Central and North Africa but has embraced the region’s markets, keen to harness the talent of its media industry. With its host of cinematic cameras and an expansive range of accessories that lend themselves to wholesome high-quality film and TV production, the camera manufacturer has made giant strides in the continent through various initiatives and engagement with industry professionals and aspiring filmmakers.

Following the hiatus imposed by the pandemic, Canon, which claims to be among the only main camera companies with directly operated offices in Central and North Africa, has ramped up its efforts in the region. The vendor brought more than 20 African partners to IBC to showcase its new launches, host training sessions for various systems and introduce a full multi-camera set-up.

“We are a brand that is dedicated to helping people reimagine and push the boundaries of what is possible through imaging, by having a physical presence in the region. Canon Central and North Africa (CCNA) employs more than 130 people across six offices in Kenya, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, and we work with more than 40 partners,” points out Djouahra. “We believe there is a common opportunity for our partners to benefit from their visit and a Canon experience. And we can add value to their business.”

The Covid-19 pandemic unearthed a bountiful supply of African films, broadcast productions, music documentaries and social media content. With the lockdown, there was

greater demand for content, which in turn led to more scripts, more production and more content on platforms. The continent saw several new production houses, from small set-ups to professional studios, attempt to satiate viewers’ hunger for new content. Both the private sector and freelancers saw their business grow during this period. There has also been a significant rise in African participation at international film festivals and exhibitions in recent years. But African content can’t all be classified as the same, with the diversity of African markets and the differences in their dynamics. “Image is one of the best tools to export what a country has to offer, whether it be culture, tradition or landscape. Egypt is historically famous for media and cinema, Kenya is the land of documentary films, Nigeria is famous for movies and music videos, and Morocco is a mix of both movies and documentaries. It’s a vibrant place for filmmaking. That’s why we would like to support local communities to ensure that we contribute to growing filmmaking in Africa,” says Djouahra, adding that with Africa’s media landscape ripe for the picking, Canon is setting its sights on “creating direct contact with the end users”.

Hence, media agencies, government institutions and production houses whose traditional partners are TV stations were all invited to attend Canon’s stand at IBC, where the manufacturer offered training from product experts on the proper management of its professional cameras.

The manufacturer claims to keep an active ear out for user feedback. “We have our product development team listening.

What’s next? What should we look at for future developments?”

With Africa’s growing broadcast scene in mind, Canon has introduced new models within its PTZ range and new accessories compatible with other cameras. The launches also address African education, government and security entities’ growing interests in PTZ solutions.

“Given the shift that has happened over the past two years, we are into a more automated set-up – a virtual content production and remote-based solution. Canon’s presence at IBC today is a real testimony of this shift. You can still have the right quality in the right ecosystem because the lens is Canon, and the camera is Canon. It is compatible with other third-party solutions,” Djouahra explains.

At its booth, the company demonstrated how filmmakers can adapt the C500 and C300 for broadcast productions, rather than invest in brand-new broadcast cameras. Through its collaboration with Mo-Sys, Canon’s lenses and accessories allow complete communication and transfer of information.

Canon cameras have traditionally been used as support cameras, but the rise in content creation has propelled them to the forefront

as Camera A. Djouahra asserts that this recent development proves Canon is a game-changer in the international filmmaking scene: “With the evolution of technology and the quality of product we have seen over the past few years, nominees and winners of Oscars are all using Canon.”

Proposing a multi-camera set-up of a fully automated PTZ camera, an XF605 and an adapted C300, he explains: “You can have a proper IP protocol to combine information from three completely different products.”

French filmmaker and Canon ambassador Sebastien Devaud, at IBC to demonstrate the multi-camera set-up, remarks that this professional workflow solution does not simply reflect innovative technology, but an improvement in creativity. “As a TV director, I have a full range of Canon cameras – Cinema EOS, Digital EOS, R5 C, C700, C300

Mark III, C500 Mark II, XF605, the new PTZ … and I can control it all with just one controller!”

Reflecting on the African market’s growing interest in PTZ and broadcast solutions, Djouahra says: “Somehow, these are the two segments where Canon was not present. But we have shown the intention that we want to play a major role in these segments from now on.”

Canon held training sessions at IBC to deliver a “full immersive experience” to interested visitors. The first was a detailed introduction of available products and the latest technology with which they are compatible. The second outlined best practices for Canon products, using solutions previously implemented in African countries as examples.

“When you’re used to a set-up and working with one manufacturer, just going in and changing things is not easy. People are decision-makers and need to be convinced, so we had to show them a solution that they could easily relate to,” Djouahra says.

Amine Djouahra, Sales and Marketing Director, Canon Central and North Africa

Visitors also met with product experts and Canon ambassadors to better understand the solutions. Partners were encouraged to voice their concerns in one-onone discussions with product experts and speak about their

“We are a brand that is dedicated to helping people reimagine and push the boundaries of what is possible through imaging, by having a physical presence in the region”

The Canon Central and North Africa team together with African customers at a training session at IBC.

challenges, requirements and how the manufacturer could potentially support them.

These open channels of communication proved useful. The Algerian senate requested a specific demonstration from Canon, for instance, while a Kenyan partner shared feedback on the service of an implemented solution. Canon representatives feed this back to HQ and changes come in the form of new and improved products.

Another concern in African markets is the delayed availability of new products. “African customers always have the feeling that if something is launched in the West, it will come to Africa the following year,” Djouahra confides. In the past, with limited resources and an unfavourable structure, Canon was unable to bring new technology to Africa sooner than six months or a year following its launch elsewhere.

However, Canon is quickly closing this waiting period. For instance, Egypt welcomed Canon’s EOS R7 and R10 just a week after their

Canon Academy Video

launch in Europe in June. Today, the company aims to launch its products almost simultaneously in all markets.

African markets also worry about tutorials for new products. Traditionally, customers resort to online information sets. “It’s up to the individuals to go find it,” says Djouahra. To ease user concerns, Canon added an educational element to its corporate philosophy two years ago. Through the Young People Programme and Miraisha Programme, interested filmmakers have access to the ins and outs of Canon products.

The company also educates users on the business elements of the media industry through the Canon Video Academy and Canon Tech Talk series.

Djouahra elaborates: “Canon wants to position itself not just as a brand that supplies the latest technology, but as a partner that supports the market to grow. As a hub, we would like to develop people’s skills and allow them to maximise the potential of Canon solutions.”

Next month, CCNA is set to launch a first-of-its-kind Canon Academy Video. The product of a virtual call during the pandemic, the project seeks to answer the

question: how can Canon continue to educate in filmmaking without doing any physical workshops?

The programme, a virtual and immersive environment, unites filmmakers with industry experts, giving the former the opportunity to learn about pre-production, production and post-production. Djouahra likens the initiative to a gaming platform within the metaverse – users can enter as avatars, watch expert-made videos, download content and complete various assessments.

“It’s a very exciting platform. We have currently rolled out Phase 1, which is the pre-production phase, but our goal is to cover all phases and expand into the broadcast part. We are investing heavily to ensure that all existing and potential future customers have access to our education programmes and knowledge, because Africa is a huge pool of young talent looking for guidance and support to ensure that they can release all that creativity.” – Sarah Nathan PRO

The Canon Academy Video, launched last month, aims to provide filmmakers with a dynamic, interactive and engaging educational virtual platform. Canon has myriad initiatives and activities, including its pre-existing Canon Academy Photo (photography) and Canon Academy Juniors (the advancement of children in the virtual arts). It will empower cinematographers, filmmakers and videographers by delivering an online film school with a vast amount of educational content, insights and guidance from leading industry experts, tips and tricks on using Canon products for filmmaking, and much more.

The platform has courses for all skill levels, delivered through e-learning and face-to-face learning experiences and workshops. It is currently available in English and French and virtually

mimics the actual working process of a cinematographer/videographer/filmmaker in a physical production studio, to deliver an authentic learning experience.

“We are transcending the borders of learning by introducing this novel education format that is a lot more than just a virtual hub of information. We have paid special attention to the details in ensuring that we created an experience that thoroughly immerses the user into understanding the A-to-Z of filmmaking,” says Djouahra.

“The video academy is a culmination of many creative ideas. The platform is a treasure of knowledge that can provide everything a user may need in their journey of learning. We have also replicated the exact process followed in the production process to elevate the experience of our users, along with the other myriad of

features. Our goal is to make education in filmmaking accessible to all through this platform. So if you have the passion for education in filmmaking, Canon has the solution – the Canon Academy Video.”

The academy has three main areas: pre-production, production and postproduction. On top of these, the Kit Room offers detailed insights into Canon cameras and the best tips and tricks for using them, while the Theatre Room has information about Canon’s latest equipment, upcoming events and masterclasses.

The second phase will include enhancements to the platform based on learner feedback, with physical workshops in some cases. The initiative is open to anyone in Africa, and can be accessed at https://en.canoncna.com/canonacademyvideo.

CREATING A SOUND EXPERIENCE

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, one of the biggest-selling artists in classical music, will perform in a one-off concert at Etihad Park in Abu Dhabi on November 24. Haidar Shukry, VP of Operations with event organiser Flash Entertainment, tells BroadcastPro ME what it takes to put together an event of this scale

Tell us a bit about the kind of tech prep that goes into creating a live experience at Etihad Park. Does Flash Entertainment manage all the AVL experiences at the venue?

We are well equipped to deal with all levels of organisation for individual event needs. For a show on the scale of Andrea Bocelli for example, the tech preparation is huge, with safety being our primary concern. The audience journey is where we begin the base of all our plans; the entry points must be clearly marked

and operated in a way that reduces any formation of crowds. This can be quite challenging, especially dealing with thousands of people wanting to experience the show and all arriving at the venue within a two-hour window. It is key that we work closely with a dedicated health and safety team from early on to work out and manage ingress, egress and crowd movements.

In terms of AVL systems, these are usually based around the artist riders, which vary. That said, Flash Entertainment adds to peripheral areas, further enhancing

the customer experience.

What does hosting Andrea Bocelli require in terms of mics and sound systems? And having a large audience – what does that require, especially if it is outdoors?

The Andrea Bocelli tech specs are very detailed due to the nature of the show. Amplifying an orchestra is not an easy thing to do. The sensitivity of the orchestral instruments in an outdoor set-up is one of the biggest technical challenges. The strings, brass, wind and percussion sections are susceptible to natural elements, as the heat and humidity can affect the tuning of the instruments. The PA system is meticulously designed to mimic a studio concert hall, which allows the engineers to mix and deliver a natural acoustic sound, covering every seat in the house.

SPL (sound pressure levels) are also managed in such a way that what is being heard in the front row is the same as in the back rows, without quality loss. To achieve this, we will install a left, centre and right (LCR) system with front fills and additional delay speaker hangs to cover the grandstand. We are confident this system will offer the ideal experience for a concert of this style.

There are a whole range of microphones and techniques that can be used to mic up an orchestra. Andrea Bocelli’s team uses a combination of close-up and ambient techniques with mics from Schoepps, Sure and Sennheiser, among others. Additionally, the microphone positions are very important and will enable the audio team to best capture the natural acoustic sound of the instruments.

How will this experience differ from others at Etihad Park, given that the venue plays host to many high-profile artists?

Non-classical music shows are referred to as high-level shows; however, for Andrea Bocelli, it

is much more refined. We must emulate the sound of a studio with an orchestra throughout the entire venue. Fortunately, Etihad Park has a surrounding roof structure that is beneficial to the audio systems used, as it creates a natural reverb tunnel.

The Andrea Bocelli concert will be a seated show, which creates a fixed listening field that is very different to a standing high-level show. The visuals for Andrea Bocelli will be based on the music tempo, making the visual experience very smooth. For a high-level performance, the upbeat tempo will allow vision mix engineers to chop and change more frequently with faster moving images and other visual effects.

The same can be said for the lighting, whereas the Andrea Bocelli show is more static with very slowly changing lighting effects during each song and scene, changes happening at the start of each song or piece – contrary to a high-level show, where there will be lots of movement and several colour changes along with additional lighting and laser effects during each song.

Does this performance require a different AV configuration

“Amplifying an orchestra is not an easy thing to do. The sensitivity of the orchestral instruments in an outdoor set-up is one of the biggest technical challenges”

Haidar Shukry, VP of Operations, Flash Entertainment

Andrea Bocelli’s team uses a combination of close-up and ambient techniques with mics from Schoepps, Sure and Sennheiser to create the right listening experience.

or set-up? If so, why?

Aside from the speaker configurations mentioned, we will also group certain instruments and send these to specific speaker hangs, creating what we call a point source effect. For example, instruments positioned on the left will be louder in the left speakers, and the same for the centre and right hangs.

This will create a focal point based on the position of the instruments on stage. The AV equipment used will be the same type of equipment as those that are often used for a high-level show; however, the configuration and quantities will vary. You would think that fewer speakers would be used for an orchestral show, but in fact more speakers are required. This is because of the careful attention paid to the consistent SPL levels throughout Etihad Park as well as maintaining the LF contour across the listening areas.

What are the challenges of hosting such an event?

Anticipating and strategically addressing challenges is all part and parcel of the role as event organiser. The biggest challenge

we foresee is managing the orchestra and choir when at the venue; however, other logistics also come into play. These include creating and managing the space needed for dressing rooms, catering and transport. Flash Hospitality teams use their experience as well as their suppliers to manage these tasks seamlessly.

What key kit will you be using?

The sound system will be an L-acoustics rig using K1, K2 and Kara cabinets with flown and ground-stacked subs. Audio control will be through Digico SD7 quantums with 32-bit cards in the supporting stage racks. There are several lighting fixtures that will be used, such as Clay Paky, Ayrton, Robe and others, all controlled using Grand MA consoles. There will be three large LED screens

as well as six vertical fingers that will add to the look and feel of the stage, displaying content produced by the Andrea Bocelli team.

How many people are required to put in place the surface infrastructure for a project of this scale? What numbers can you share in terms of people, cabling, infrastructure, gear, etc?

The technical team will consist of approximately 30 engineers, technicians and stage crew.

The production team, including F&B, ushers, security, medical staff, cleaners and general site staff, is the largest workforce at approximately 10 times the technical team – around 300 people.

Almost all the staff employed during our events are residents of the UAE and have developed an incredibly high standard of delivery. This contributes to why the UAE is such an attractive destination for artists – the suppliers that operate within the region stock the most up-to-date equipment, alleviating the need for costly freight and again enhancing the experience of both the customers and the international touring production teams. PRO

“The PA system is meticulously designed to mimic a studio concert hall, which allows the engineers to mix and deliver a natural acoustic sound, covering every seat in the house”

Haidar Shukry, VP of Operations, Flash Entertainment

The biggest challenge is managing the orchestra and the choir when at the venue, says Haidar Shukry, VP of Operations at Flash Entertainment.

Y

Throughout the last 100-plus years of filmmaking, storytellers both big and small have always needed to flex their creative intuition and inventive problem-solving to ensure the fantastic can be properly captured through the lens of the camera. As we slowly moved away from stage play-like scene compositions into a much more dynamic framing standard, the notion of ‘playing to camera’ became commonplace. We discovered that what truly matters is what can be seen at a chosen time.

The idea that if it looks good through the camera nothing else should matter was an incredibly simple yet art formdefining revelation, and one that opened the floodgates for visual effects practices to truly carve out a place in the industry. Incorporating the limits of the camera’s frame has

made for limitless creative solutions and discoveries, and no innovative visual effects workflow better showcases this than virtual production and in-camera visual effects.

For a while now, most visual effects have been achieved, built and implemented solely in a post-production pipeline, for both budget and time efficiency reasons. Aside from a few purists, the industry has migrated away from doing most visual effects directly through the lens; and beyond that, stories and visual demands have become much more complicated than ever before, as have turnaround times and content demands.

However, with the advent of virtual production and incamera VFX, there has been a resurgence in having everything achieved during the production phase, not simply being fixed in post. With extensive experience in both the production

the fifth part of this series, Matthew Collu explores how in-camera visual effects can be explored powerfully in a virtual production environment

VIRTUAL VS PHYSICAL: THE STRENGTHS, LIMITATIONS AND CROSSOVER OF CAMERA

and research sides of this everswirling hurricane of innovative filmmaking, I’d like to expound on what capturing it all through camera truly entails, and how the virtual and physical worlds harmonise in virtual production – how they match, how they speak, and ultimately where it all comes together.

To prevent this from becoming a textbook rather than an article, I’ll discuss the most crucial and common examples of working in and understanding virtual production, starting with how the LED wall and your camera need to match (and trust me, the choice matters).

Believe it or not, a camera and a screen function in a relatively similar way. One captures visual information at a specific speed and frequency, while the other presents visual information in the same way. When these speeds are different from one another, you get that ever-so-lovely screen flicker that turns a TV image into a broken, glitched-out mess. This issue can very easily present itself on-set in an LED volume (since this is basically a massive television itself), but with the correct measures is totally avoidable and non-intrusive.

How? Match them. Prior to production, the camera and LED wall can be jammed and genlocked to ensure that from both sides, what is being captured and subsequently presented is happening at the same time. The refresh rate of the LED wall and the frame rate of the camera can still be matched without jamming, though there is a higher propensity to gradually fall out of sync. With all the other mishaps and Murphy’s law reaffirmations during film production, this isn’t another issue you want to add.

This is why your choice of camera (and ultimately a keen understanding of virtual production) matters, since not all cameras can receive a genlock signal, Being diligent and meticulous regarding frame rates and frequencies

is part and parcel of maximising your operation within virtual production.

Both camera and screen can now stare longingly at each other without any hiccups or fatigue – but that only goes so far, right?

Part of developing a deeper connection is communication, and that rings true with cameras and LEDs. Getting them to match is a needed first step, but beyond that, what is being controlled in the real world must be properly reflected in the virtual world – and that comes down to how they both speak to each other. iPads and web controllers aside, having the camera communicate with your real-time engine is a crucial, criminally under-appreciated element that takes your shoot from seemingly real to seamlessly real.

Regardless of how far you extend the virtual world out into the horizon, the wall itself is still a flat surface affixed to a singular location in space. Without proper communication, your depth of field is flat, static and strangely uniform. With the proper communication, however, the virtual world reacts as if it truly was extending miles out from the studio.

This is achieved through lens encoding, which is exactly what it sounds like. A small device attached to your camera rig sends a signal to your real-time engine, encodes the metrics of the lens, and binds that to the engine’s virtual representation of your real-world camera. For every twist and turn of your focus, the same optical effect that would normally occur in a real-world background now occurs virtually, making a flat background into a fully dynamic, virtual extension that feels less like a moving image and more like a completely unified and integrated environment. Vendors like ARRI and LOLED have made this encoding process streamlined and accessible, for

even easier integration into the virtual production pipeline.

Finally, the place where it all comes together: the frame. Trust me, I understand that seems like a very simple and obvious statement, but rarely is anything simple in the wonderful world of content creation.

At the end of the day, what comes through the frame is what is seen by those watching. To our eyes, colours may look odd, frame rate may seem choppier than what we’re used to seeing on a screen, the scale of the set and the perspective may seem askew. However, just like using a fishing line to suspend something in the air or having a crew member frantically wave a flag in front of a light, it’s all in the admirable pursuit of achieving the desired illusion through the lens. Truly, whatever the camera is seeing is ultimately what makes or breaks the illusion of the world.

Bolstered by creative solutions, innovative techniques and keen eyes for subtlety, virtual production’s incamera workflow further incentivises creating at the speed of imagination. It just takes some finessing.

Matthew Collu is Studio Coordinator at The Other End, Canada. He is a visual effects 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.

“Regardless of how far you extend the virtual world out into the horizon, the wall itself is still a flat surface affixed to a singular location in space”

Matthew Collu, Studio Coordinator, The Other End

IBC2022 WRAPS UP WITH 37,071 VISITORS IN ATTENDANCE

IBC concluded its first live and in-person show in nearly three years, attracting 37,071 visitors from 170 countries to the RAI Amsterdam from September 9-12 to see over a thousand exhibitors and celebrate innovation, learning and collaboration. Michael Crimp, IBC’s CEO, said: “It was great to see, feel and hear the buzz of a live IBC once more. The quality of visitors has been outstanding and there was a real sense of positivity. We are stronger together.”

IBC2022 offered a world-class line-up of headline speakers, with over 250 speaking at the IBC Conference, centred on the theme ‘What’s next? Designing the future together’. The show’s brand new Changemaker programme focused on the people side of the business; the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation programme led proof-of-concept demonstrations on the Innovation Stage, which was also home to other cutting-edge sessions. There were also IBC Owner sessions,

thought leadership presentations, panels, masterclasses, demos and case studies on the Content Everywhere Stage, and in the Showcase Theatre leading technology brands demonstrated how they are paving the way forward.

One of the many highlights was the packed IBC2022 Show Keynote by immersive journalism pioneer Nonny de la Peña, hailed as the ‘Godmother of Virtual Reality’. In an open session, she addressed the topic ‘What’s Next: How immersive tech will create new narratives and transform entertainment’.

The industry-leading line-up of exhibitors at this year’s show included major media, entertainment and technology players Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), ARRI, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Canon, Comcast, Edgio, EVS, Fraunhofer, Google, Grass Valley, Hewlett Packard, Imagine Communications, Lawo, LTN, MediaKind, Microsoft, Nagra, NEP Group, Net Insight, Red Bee Media, RED Digital Cinema, Riedel, Ross

Video, Sony, Synamedia and Telstra. Companies making their IBC debut included Ad Insertion Platform, Ai-Media, Blitz micro, Ceeblue, Castify.ai, Castr Live Streaming, Green Streams, Igalia, LiveAPI, PikoTV, Planetcast International, Riverside.fm and XroadMedia.

IBC Director Steve Connolly said: “The excitement across the industry to return to IBC has been tremendous. There was a real sense of purpose and of business being done. On the second day, stand rebooking for next year’s show was already in such heavy demand that we’ve expanded the show footprint for IBC2023 to include an additional hall not used this year.”

Many exhibitors and speakers voiced their enthusiasm for the return of the live and in-person show, with many interviewed on camera for the IBC video channel.

Simon Westland, Channel

Marketing Director at Blackmagic Design EMEA, said: “It is great to be back at IBC – it makes you realise how much we have missed the opportunity to engage with customers.”

Jeff Rosica, Avid CEO, welcomed the show’s return. “IBC for me and my company has always been very important. This show brings together, like no other, attendees across broadcast media and digital online. It’s just a really important place for our industry to come together to network and show new products and technologies. It’s also a really important time to listen.”

Dave Duvall, Chief Information Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, noted: “The return to in-person and to be able to shake hands with people and say hello and have the show floor experience is just really great.”

Said Bacho, Chief Revenue Officer, Editshare, remarked: “IBC has been great. We have seen a lot of customers from the Middle East here and are

delighted to have won a couple of big deals in the region. It was also a great opportunity to meet with all our channel partners from across the world. We had a meeting with our channel partners a day before IBC and we have had a lot of positive feedback.”

Chris Smeeton, Director – Argosy, said: “We were pleasantly surprised. We didn't know what to expect. We booked the stands three years ago so we were always going to be here, but we had no real idea of how many people would travel in from the UK and the Middle East.

The Middle East especially has really looked up for us with lots of orders in the last three months.

It looks like a lot of projects were on hold and have now restarted and that’s good news for us.”

Katrina King, Worldwide Strategy Leader/Content Production, AWS, commented: “Just the sheer

Said Bacho, Chief Revenue Officer, Editshare.

Chris Smeeton, Director – Argosy.

amount of innovation that’s on the floor this year is incredible.”

Purminder Gandhu, Lead, BBC Edge Group, underlined the importance IBC plays for industry players in terms of “being able to talk to people, find out what’s in development, find out what kinds of projects are being worked on, and which technology is there or is close to being there”.

Andrew Cross, Grass Valley CEO, put the return of IBC in a wider perspective: “IBC is where all of the vendors who make TV possible come together. And so in many ways IBC is far more important than just a bunch of vendors, because it is what is enabling everybody.”

Anil Jain, Global Managing Director for Media and Entertainment, Google, had a similar take on the show’s importance. “IBC has always been a great forum bringing media executives together, bringing technologies together, a place to discuss and exchange new ideas.”

IBC2023 will begin on September 15, 2023. PRO

Philipp Glänzel, GM and CTO, and Ahmad Hadi Al Kayal, GM, Qvest

We are very focused on the digital transformation within companies not only from a technology perspective, but from an organisational point of view and from a people perspective. With the overall technology landscapes changing so quickly, people also need to be able to keep pace. You cannot put new technology in front of people and expect them to just adapt. You need to take them with you on that journey of digital transformation.

Another important topic for Qvest is sustainability, which has become a subject for all organisations, regardless where they are located and

Philipp Glänzel (l) and Ahmad Hadi Al Kayal, GM, Qvest

operating in the world.

With our Qvest experts, we can help with the actual execution of the projects and take care that products and technologies are sustainable and also fulfil the individual customer requirements. And we can guide our customers along the full process and recommend what changes

Rohde & Schwarz unveils new-generation transmitter

Rohde & Schwarz unveiled the first in a new generation of transmitters at IBC. The R&S TH1 is a liquid-cooled high-power transmitter with software-defined operation and the ability to work across all bands of UHF transmission. It is designed to support the three critical challenges and opportunities for broadcast network operators: to reduce energy costs and carbon footprint; to increase operational efficiency and resilience; and to unlock new broadcast applications, thereby creating new revenue opportunities for the operator. It is designed to

deliver new services that are best handled by broadcast rather than mobile streaming.

The improved power amplifier

design delivers a dramatic increase in energy efficiency, with a 15% reduction in power consumption over even the

they can make within their organisation to help with their sustainability goals. In the Middle East region, we are executing a lot of projects and we are happy to continue to do so. In this region, we want to be as close as possible to the customers, understand them better, understand their needs better so that we can design solutions or offer services that help them in their actual needs.

We don't just want to be the company that responds to a tender, but we want to be the company that helps to define the requirements and align more with the needs of our customers, and then come up with solutions that help their business.

most efficient of current designs and a consequent reduction in carbon emissions.

The liquid cooling concept, allowing more than 90% of all heat generated to be dispersed to the outside atmosphere, further reduces the energy requirements and total cost of ownership of an installation.

Internally, the design eliminates all single points of failure, making the transmitter highly resilient, and enables self-repairing and remote monitoring, reducing the cost of routine maintenance, another significant saving in cost as well as boosting reliability.

Arabsat signs deal with Profen to launch TV bouquet on Badr-4 satellite

Satellite operator Arabsat signed a strategic partnership agreement at IBC with Turkish firm Profen Communications Technologies, a system integrator operating globally across all communication areas. The agreement will see the launch of a TV bouquet that includes various Arabic and Turkish channels on the Badr-4 satellite.

Al-Hamidi Al-Enezi, Arabsat’s newly appointed CEO, said: “We are pleased to cooperate with Profen to provide high-quality TV broadcasting services within the coverage area of our satellite

fleet, in accordance with the latest international standards.”

Önder Havuzlu, CEO of Profen, added: “Profen Teleport’s best-in-class

infrastructure and facilities, including both ISO9001 and ISO27001 certifications, is well-equipped to actively provide data centre hosting

and telecommunication services to prime operators while addressing the significant growth in global data consumption, and expand network convergence over 5G wireless, terrestrial fibre and GEO, MEO, LEO satellites. We are pleased to be taking a significant lead in the telecommunications market with cooperation with Arabsat. Our operation of the satellite Earth station will ensure the provision of highly secure, quality video distribution to the Middle East and multiple regions of Asia, Europe and Africa.”

Red Bee Media is a managed services company. We're in that space between customer groups, the broadcasters, platform operators and the vendor community, and what we are really good at is understanding what our media customers are trying to achieve and bringing together a range of skills and services to meet their specific needs. So Red Bee has a very sophisticated managed playout solution.

We also have a very good OTT proposition, but more than that, we have a managed service layer, which means Red Bee can offer end-to-end solutions or offer various service layers depending on what the customer wants. We are very much about delivering

outputs for our customers.

We have operations in London, Amsterdam and Paris and are very strong in these markets as well as the Nordics. We've always had a very strong heritage in our relationship with broadcasters like the BBC and Channel Four, but equally we've got a view to the future, which is around streaming services, OTT services and increasing use of automation.

Red Bee has invested heavily over the last few years in its platform technologies, so there is no need to have big physical infrastructure in local markets. In fact, it makes us more agile to be able to deliver services remotely using the cloud and using our software-

defined products.

The Middle East is an area we would like to develop further and we've got some very good people on the ground there to help nurture long-term relationships with clients. Houssam Khaled, Head of Operations and Sales at Red Bee Media, is leading our new business activities there.

We were previously providing playout services in that market, but that’s now come to an end. Red Bee is moving to its new premises at Yas Island in Abu Dhabi and all our operations have moved mostly to the cloud. That's how we intend to provide support for our Middle East businesses. This is quite consistent with our strategy in most of our markets.

We provide access services to the market, and have developed software products and tools to do that. So the business is becoming lighter in many ways, and Red Bee can approach the market in a far more modular way. We will take this same approach in the Middle East as well.

James Arnold, Chief Commercial Officer, Red Bee Media

From left: Önder Havuzlu, CEO of Profen, and AlHamidi Al-Enezi, CEO of Arabsat, ink the deal at IBC.

Now that the dust has settled at IBC2022, we’re reflecting on what a fantastic event it was. The highlights were reconnecting with colleagues, speaking with our customers faceto-face and meeting new friends.

Multi-platform dominance

The changing nature of the M&E market was discussed extensively at IBC2022. But acknowledging the constant is also important, especially as multi-platform delivery is the game we’re all in. At Red Bee several years ago, we placed a huge bet that we should replace our traditional bespoke customer platforms with an IP-based software-powered stack that would enable multi-platform delivery for our customers for years to come. That bet has undoubtedly been a difficult transition to pull off. But today, as major broadcasters migrate successfully to next-generation product sets, it feels like a solid place to be.

People power

As our customers make these technology stack transitions, having an appropriately skilled team is fundamental to ensure services continue to run. But being apart the last few years due to the pandemic has only amplified the market’s preexisting skill and resource gaps. As an industry, we haven’t done enough to address the lack of diversity that’s so evident on the show floor, including helping to upskill young and hungry engineering and operational talent.

“Empowering customers to make more financially efficient decisions is fundamental, as the economic headwinds are all too evident”

IBC2022 reflections: From new business models to riding the economic wave

Simultaneously, the breadth of technical and operational skills has widened beyond all recognition. Shared resources are one powerful answer to this significant problem. The service provider model is built on a one-for-many concept by its very nature, meaning our customers can focus their time, energy and resources on business-impactful tasks such as hiring, recruitment and R&D projects, innovating at the edge, not recreating the generic core.

FAST times

Freeing up teams from commoditycentric tasks also opens the door for our customers to focus on experimenting and exploring new business models. The FAST conference on Thursday during IBC highlighted the critical factors fostering growth:

• Smart TV predominance

• The volume of free premium content

• The shift of advertising toward digital and addressable

The motives for innovating in this space vary. Still, FAST is establishing itself as the fourth major business pillar for our industry, alongside classic broadcast, D2C and rights syndication. Broadcasters and content owners talk about the need to ‘ride the clutch’ in terms of how hard it is to accelerate for the new while retaining traditional revenue lines.

It’s not about pursuing one business model in isolation, but the ability to work the different routes to audience and revenue in a smart and agile way.

Riding the economic waves

Empowering customers to make more financially efficient decisions is fundamental, as the economic headwinds are all too evident. During the Devoncroft summit, a graphic showed order books at a seemingly glorious growth curve of 9% up, but mirrored by a crushing reality that operating costs are growing at 12-15%. This position is exacerbated by the financial realities of investment in D2C, labour shortages and supply-chain challenges. Part of the answer must be to focus on agility and a hard drive for business results and avoid the limitations of long-winded procurement cycles where possible. Partnering with a service provider for some heavyweight broadcast business needs in playout, distribution, access and media movement can significantly reduce headcount and CAPEX while offering lower operational costs over time.

Outcome-first

Today’s media company leaders are focused on business goals and results – technology is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The actual things that light our audiences up become more apparent – narratives, drama, excitement, talent, art, music, goals, heroes, laughter, energy, beauty, danger, information, debate, surprise, love and all the rest. By taking care of some of the risk factors in bringing video to screen flawlessly, our customers can thrive in being the very best in what they do in attracting and keeping those audiences.

Steve Russell is Chief Product Officer at Red Bee Media.

your sound.

Sometimes, good just isn’t good enough. Enter the MKE 400, an on-camera shotgun microphone that combines portability and performance and sheds a whole new light on the way we capture audio for our video. Features that were traditionally accessories—like a windscreen and shock-mount—are now fully integrated and perform better than ever, freeing up space in your camera bag and on top of your camera itself.