ISSUE 134 | OCTOBER 2021
Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
AMBASSADORS
ARABIC CONTENT
Ninetnine co-founders Samir Zehani and Adel Hamla make ambitious moves to take Arabic content to new markets
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PROINTRO
GROUP Managing Director Raz Islam raz.islam@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5471 Managing Partner Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5472 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 Assistant Editor Urooj Fatima Sub Editor Aelred Doyle ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Sandip Virk sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 50 929 1845 +44 (0) 7516 993 862 DESIGN Art Director Simon Cobon Designer Percival Manalaysay MARKETING & EVENTS Events Producer Paul Godfrey paul.godfrey@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5470 Social Media & Marketing Executive Gladys DSouza gladys.dsouza@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5478 Events Executive Minara Salakhi minara.s@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 433 2856 CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION Production Manager Vipin V. Vijay vipin.vijay@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5713 Data & Distribution Manager Phinson Mathew George phinson.george@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5476 DIGITAL SERVICES Abdul Baeis Sadiq Siddiqui
Welcome There was a picture that went viral a couple of weeks ago of Sheikh Mohammed, the Ruler of Dubai, standing and looking at the Expo 2020 site, a vast piece of empty desert land six years ago, with a second picture sharing the mesmerising transformation of that space into a mini city today. It’s pretty much true for everything Dubai has built over the years. From the seventies to the eighties, if you rolled down the windows as you drove down Sheikh Zayed Road, there were just a few buildings scattered between vast empty spaces of desert land. In the nineties, the skyscrapers were slowly emerging. In the noughties, this desert landscape was transformed in a manner similar to the Expo 2020 site – from a vast empty quarter to what it is today, an ultra-urban city with several architectural wonders. The one catalyst in that entire process was Sheikh Mohammed’s vision, and it has remained despite the many challenges that have hit the city, with the crushing economic downturn in 2009 and the pandemic in 2020. We have taken several hits but we are still standing strong. As we go to press, the city of
Dubai gets ready for a special moment in its history – the opening of Expo 2020. Dubai is testimony to the fact that everything begins with a dream, and BroadcastPro ME is so proud to be a part of this land and to participate in this moment in history. With Expo 2020, we are certain that CABSAT, the region's largest broadcast exhibition, will also receive much-needed impetus and attract industry professionals to join us to partake of this special moment. If you were thinking of dropping out, think again. More than 85% of the UAE's residents are vaccinated, everyone wears masks, and we have one of the fastest response times to medical emergencies. CABSAT will genuinely be the first broadcast exhibition to take place globally since the pandemic began. So book those tickets and join the party. We look forward to seeing all of you in Dubai for CABSAT and Expo 2020.
Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director
FOUNDER Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Published by
The publisher of this magazine has made every effort to ensure the content is accurate on the date of publication. The opinions and views expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect the publisher and editor. The published material, adverts, editorials and all other content are published in good faith. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publisher in writing. Publication licensed by Dubai Development Authority to CPI Trade Publishing FZ LLC. Printed by Printwell Printing Press LLC.
ISSUE 134 | OCTOBER 2021
Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
On this month's cover…
Let’s create a vibrant online broadcast community! @BroadcastProME www.facebook.com/BroadcastProME BroadcastProME
AMBASSADORS
ARABIC CONTENT
Ninetnine co-founders Samir Zehani and Adel Hamla make ambitious moves to take Arabic content to new markets
From left: Adel Hamla and Samir Zehani.
Subscribe online at:
CPI Trade Media. PO Box 13700, Dubai, UAE. +971 4 375 5470 cpitrademedia.com © Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.
October 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 1
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Inside this issue 05 NEWS DMI selects Eurovision for live satellite transmission from Expo 2020; Yas Creative Hub almost complete; Accedo powers Arabic SVOD service; MBC Group partners with Animaccord; and more
October 2021 DMI SIGNS UP EUROVISION FOR EXPO 2020
YAS CREATIVE HUB 95% COMPLETE
14 COVER – AMBASSADORS
OF ARABIC CONTENT Ninetnine, helmed by Samir Zehani and Adel Hamla, has successfully designed TV packages for Arabic and North African audiences in Europe and the US. Now, they are looking to replicate that success in other markets. They share their story exclusively with BroadcastPro ME
06
05 CHAMPIONING ARABIC CONTENT ABROAD
THE CDN ROUNDTABLE WITH LIMELIGHT
20 DRIVING INNOVATION IN
STREAMING WITH LIMELIGHT Industry experts discuss new trends in the streaming market and the role of CDNs in offering a better user experience.
26 ON DISPLAY
14
20
SHINING A NEW LIGHT ON LED DISPLAYS
ROHIT D'SILVA OFFERS A DIFFERENT VIU
LG's Sunny Bangera on the company's new display portfolio
30 THE COMPLETE VIU In conversation with Rohit D'silva on Viu's H1 success and the platform's content strategy
34 THE BIG PITCH Emirati filmmaker Nayla Al Khaja chats about her role in pitching a story that eventually landed on Terry George's desk
30
26 HOW A SMALL PITCH TURNED BIG
CABSAT 2021 SHOWCASE
38 CABSAT SHOWCASE What to expect at the show this year
44 GUEST COLUMN Luke Williams on how to leverage the MENA superaggregation opportunity
34
38 October 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 3
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DMI selects Eurovision to provide live satellite transmission from Expo 2020 Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), the host broadcaster of Expo 2020 Dubai, has chosen Eurovision Services to provide daily live satellite transmissions from the event on the Eurovision Global Network.Eurovision Services kicked off six months of free live satellite transmissions for broadcasters worldwide with the Expo 2020 Dubai opening ceremony on September 30. The live transmissions will continue every day throughout the event, from October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. With the service, broadcasters in the 192 nations represented at Expo 2020 Dubai will receive live signals, whether they are in the Middle East, Africa, the Americas,
Expo 2020 Dubai will run from October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.
Asia-Pacific or Europe. The live transmissions will be distributed using the Eurovision Services WorldFeed service, which offers access to the live satellite transmissions free-of-charge for editorial use. The files will also be available for download for 30
New interim CEO at OSN
Sangeeta Desai.
Patrick Tillieux, CEO of OSN since December 2018, stepped down from his role last month for personal reasons. Faisal Al Ayyar, Chairman of OSN (Panther Media Group Ltd), has announced that Sangeeta Desai will serve as Interim CEO, effective immediately. Desai has been a non-executive director on the Board for over a year. She was Group COO and CEO of Emerging Markets at Fremantle; prior to that, she was COO of Hit Entertainment.
days after each transmission on the Eurovision Services WorldLink VOD platform. This gives broadcasters flexibility in planning their coverage of the first World Expo in the MEA and South Asia region, with a programme of events covering 182 days from an
Expo site twice the size of Monaco and where, for the first time ever, each participating nation has its own pavilion. Rashed Amiri, Deputy CEO of Channels Affairs, DMI, said: “We are delighted to work with Eurovision Services for delivering the Expo 2020 to global audiences.” Jorge Simao, Eurovision Services ME Bureau Chief, added: “I’m delighted that DMI and the Expo 2020 organisers have placed their trust in us for this use of our WorldFeed/ WordLink service. Never before have we had six months of daily WorldFeed transmissions available free-of-charge on our network, alongside the many sports and news events that we also cover.”
Ayady’s Ergo Media Ventures invests in Film Clinic Egyptian firm Ergo Media Ventures and Egyptian production company Film Clinic (Company) have entered into a definitive agreement that will see Ergo own a 49% stake in the company. This transaction is Ergo’s first investment since its establishment. Ergo’s investment will be used to transform the company into a professional, institutionalised, endto-end visual media production and distribution entity. The investment will
be a combination of equity used to restructure and build the company, and debt to finance its projects. Ergo’s investment in Film Clinic aims to institutionalise film production and support local visionaries to become regional champions and help develop their footprint in the region. It also seeks to create an entity that can cooperate with global players to produce and export quality Egyptian content to the rest of the world.
October 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 5
PRONEWS
Yas Creative Hub reaches 95% completion mark
An aerial view of Yas Creative Hub.
Yas Creative Hub, the home for Abu Dhabi’s media, gaming & entertainment sector, is nearly complete. Twofour54 Abu Dhabi announced that the first units will be ready to hand over to tenants by the end of this year. The 270,000sqm sustainable development will be home to a diverse group of global companies, local and
independent businesses, and freelance professionals. With the number of jobs in Abu Dhabi’s creative industry expected to triple to 16,000 by 2031, Yas Creative Hub has been purpose-built to meet the future needs of this sector and is one of the assets being developed under Abu Dhabi’s AED 30bn ($8.17bn) investment strategy for the Culture and
Creative Industries (CCI). With construction on the project reaching 95%, twofour54 released the first official images of the campus. It also revealed continued high demand for units, with 93% of GLA already leased. The company said the 600+ firms set to make Yas Creative Hub their home include more than 270 SMEs and startups. There will be more than 5,500sqm of production and post-production facilities, as well as an AD Gaming Hub. Yas Creative Hub will include six purpose-built studio facilities equipped with cutting-edge technology that enables world-quality broadcast, including the region’s first glass-walled studio, which will offer an incredible outlook across Yas Bay Waterfront.
Irdeto enhances security for Jawwy TV’s Android STBs Intigral has implemented a range of security and antipiracy tools and services from Irdeto for its Jawwy TV platform. Intigral will combat content piracy and protect customers from malicious applications by implementing Irdeto Keys Credentials (K&C) and App Watch on their Android TV set-top boxes. Using K&C for STBs, Intigral has built a trusted identity into each of Jawwy TV’s STBs to ensure that only those Android TV
STBs authenticated and approved by Jawwy TV can connect to its network and access its services. Irdeto-managed root of trust provides Jawwy TV’s STBs with built-in flexibility, enabling operators to future-proof their video platforms by rolling out new updates, services and security features to meet content owners’ requirements. Irdeto will handle the end-to-end lifecycle management of Jawwy TV’s STBs, including
6 | www.broadcastprome.com | October 2021
the secure generation, provisioning, renewal and even revocation of operatorowned and third-party supplied security keys and certificates, to ensure only authorised STBs run on the Intigral network. Irdeto App Watch will be used to monitor any illegal consumption of content or malicious apps that can impact STB performance. Irdeto will also provide Intigral with global and regional reporting on piracy data for apps and plug-ins.
Netflix still from Galb'Echaouf by Abdessamad El Montassir.
AFAC and Netflix support 240 Arab TV and film freelancers Netflix and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) will support 240 freelancers in the film and TV sector across 12 countries in the Arab world, under the AFACNetflix Hardship Fund. Launched in June 2021, this emergency relief fund, valued at $480,000, offers individual grants of $2,000 each to people operating in the Arab region’s film and TV community who have been affected by the pandemic. By the closing of the call for applications on July 15, 492 applications had been received from individuals from 17 countries. Of the 240 beneficiaries of the fund, 97% are freelancers in the film and TV sector. They hail from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the UAE and Yemen.
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PRONEWS
Accedo powers Arabic SVOD service MENA streaming platform TenTime has used Accedo to expand the availability of content on its SVOD service to connected TV platforms, delivering international (dubbed in Arabic) and Arabic series and movies, in addition to its original productions scheduled for an October 2021 launch. The TenTime connected TV apps were developed and launched using Accedo Elevate, a costefficient templated video solution designed for portability and rapid time to market. Elevate is a fully functioning app solution with a library of core UI and service components comprising an advanced application framework. It includes key prebuilt features suited
for connected TV platforms, such as an EPG grid and the ability to stream live content. As TenTime is a dedicated place for Arabic communities, Accedo Elevate natively includes both Right to Left and Left to Right language support. The Accedo project team worked closely with TenTime’s staff to customise the video service, integrate
Limelight Networks announces the completion of Layer0 acquisition Limelight Networks has completed the acquisition of Moov Corporation, which does business as Layer0. This acquisition is a significant step in advancing Limelight’s strategy as an edge-enabled SaaS solutions provider, as Layer0’s tools deliver sub-second web apps and APIs through an all-in-one Jamstack platform.
Ross acquires D3 LED Based in California, and with remote offices in New York City, D3 has over fifteen years of experience in creating LED displays for some of the world’s most recognised brands. Following the recent acquisition of Primestream, D3 is Ross Video’s 18th acquisition since 2009. The operation will be renamed Ross D3 LED.
8 | www.broadcastprome.com | October 2021
the desired feature sets and deploy the video service, leveraging Elevate’s framework capabilities. Walid Finan, CEO of TenTime, said: “With TenTime, we wanted to build a core platform for Arabic and localised content, something which is currently missing in this market. We knew that it would be essential for us to have our service available
across multiple smart TVs; however, with each device having a different operating system and device requirements, this was a challenge. Accedo worked closely with our team and enabled us to navigate those complexities to launch in a very short time frame and on budget.” Michael Lantz, CEO of Accedo, added: “While there are many OTT services delivering international titles, there is a growing demand for a more localised approach, especially in terms of language. We’re thrilled to be working with TenTime, which is revolutionising the highly dynamic Arab entertainment landscape and delivering a fully localised service for the Arab-speaking world.”
CineGouna Platform selects 20 projects for El Gouna Film Festival El Gouna Film Festival (GFF) has selected 20 projects – 13 in development, six in post and one guest project in post-production – for the fifth edition of the CineGouna Platform. A cash prize of $15,000 and a CineGouna Platform certificate will be awarded to the best film in
post-production and the best project in development. The participating projects are also eligible to win grants funded by GFF’s sponsors and partners. The fifth edition will take place in El Gouna, October 14-22. CineGouna Platform activities will run October 16-21.
PRONEWS
OSN offers personalised user experiences with Think360 OSN has gone live with Think360 from ThinkAnalytics on its streaming service, providing subscribers with a personalised user experience in Arabic. It is using Think360 with a fully managed service from
ThinkAnalytics running on AWS for the revamped streaming service. OSN chose Think360 for its breadth of personalisation capabilities and support for multiple languages including Arabic for search, recommendations and
content intelligence, plus speed to market. It is using the latest cloud-native version of the Think360 content discovery platform, as well as Think360’s ThinkComposer UX engine and editorial campaign management with ThinkEditorial.
StarzPlay to stream AFC matches in UAE Abu Dhabi Media has signed an agreement with StarzPlay to stream AFC national team and club tournaments, with exclusive broadcast rights for the UAE from 2021 to 2024. For an additional $4.08, subscribers can watch the Asian competitions and subscribe to Abu Dhabi Sports channels (Asia 1 and Asia 2) on the StarzPlay platform.
Snap appoints Julie Bogaert as Head of EMEA Talent Partnerships Julie Bogaert will support public figures in the region. She will lead strategy, outreach and onboarding efforts with Snap’s talent partners to develop high-impact campaigns. Most recently, Bogaert held the role of Strategic Partnerships Manager at Facebook and Instagram. She has also looked after partnerships for top celebrities like the UK royal family, the Beckhams and Jamie Oliver.
Experts in cloud playout, supporting broadcasters as they transition to IP. Find out why our solutions control more than 400 channels across 17 countries at around 70 sites in the Middle East, and the numbers keep growing.
Visit us at CABSAT Hall 2 Stand G2-23
October 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 9
PRONEWS
MBC Group and Animaccord sign multi-platform deal Masha and the Bear.
MBC Group has become the exclusive licensing agent for Animaccord children’s series Masha and the Bear in the region. Its Licensing & Merchandising unit will provide Animaccord with a full 360-support solution, which includes but is not limited to inking consumer products deals and increasing and strengthening the presence of the Masha and the Bear brand via digital offerings, events and on TV. Additionally, the cartoon will be televised on MBC3 as well as on Shahid Kids.
Valsoft enters broadcast market with VSN acquisition Montreal-based Valsoft Corporation Inc (Valsoft), which focuses on acquiring and growing vertical software businesses that provide mission-critical solutions, has acquired media management solution provider VSN Video Stream Networks. This puts Aspire Software (an operating group of Valsoft) in a new vertical and strengthens its presence in Spain.
With this acquisition, VSN becomes the second Spanish company to join the Aspire Software family, after construction solutions leader Telematel. VSN founder and CEO Jordi Utiel will remain with the company to ensure a smooth transition, and the global leadership team will continue to lead the business and drive the product and company forward.
Zee Entertainment to merge with Sony Pictures Networks India Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) have entered into an exclusive, nonbinding Term Sheet to combine their linear networks, digital assets, production operations and programme libraries.
Under the terms of the deal, Sony Pictures Entertainment will inject $1.575bn capital into SPNI to grow the new entity. The proposed merged entity will be led by current Zee CEO Punit Goenka. Sony Pictures Entertainment will hold a majority stake.
10 | www.broadcastprome.com | October 2021
Never.no promotes Ed Abis to MD Never.no has announced that GM Ed Abis will lead the company as the new Managing Director, with CEO Scott Davies stepping into a non-executive role. Abis brings an extensive skill set to his new role, having previously worked for rights holders and brands such as Nike, Manchester United, ITV and Perform/ DAZN. His sales, strategy, operational and commercial expertise, supported by the growing team, will accelerate the company’s development and delivery of a more expansive product range for both broadcast and digital sectors.
Ed Abis.
The Way to Your Heart is one of the productions SynProNize has acquired.
SynProNize acquires four Filipino series for distribution in Africa Dubai-based content distribution and production company SynProNize, led by Nitin Michael and Hasnaa Descuns, has acquired four drama series from GMA Network, a broadcaster and distributor of Filipino dramas for distribution in Africa. They are: A Place in your Heart, Heart and Soul, Legally Blind and The Way to Your Heart. Nitin Michael said: “The demand for Filipino dramas is swiftly on the rise, and at SynProNize we wanted to ensure that our clients have the best content from GMA to choose from for their channels/platforms.” Roxanne J Barcelona, VP, Worldwide of GMA Network, added: “All four programmes have performed extremely well in other parts of the world, and we are confident they will resonate well with African viewers.”
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The range’s own transmitters are designed for any application on stages or in the field of broadcasting. There is a choice of the bodypack SK 6000, the mini-bodypack SK 6212 and the handheld transmitter SKM 6000. Over and above this, the series is compatible with the Digital 9000 series and the camera receiver EK 6042.
PRONEWS
Kenyan broadcaster enhances news coverage with TVU Networks solutions Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) has added 10 TVU One 4K HDR mobile transmitters to its existing TVU complement, for more extensive live news coverage, and a TVU VS3500 4K UHD server to support streaming content on the website and social media. Nairobi-based Philmart, a TVU Networks partner, provided systems integration services to KBC, and training
Canal+ to acquire 70% stake in SPI International Canal+ will acquire a 70% majority stake in SPI International, a global media company operating 42 TV channels across six continents. Under the terms of the deal, SPI International will keep its current management team and operational structure in place. SPI founder and CEO Loni Farhi and Berk Uziyel will continue to manage and develop the business.
Red Sea Film Festival selects 14 Arab films for Red Sea fund
A still from one of the selected projects.
Red Sea International Film Festival has selected 14 Arabic feature films to receive production and post-production funding from its Red Sea Fund. The fund aims to
support projects that require immediate and crucial financing and shine a light on important narratives from emerging filmmakers from the Arab world. This round of funding is an accelerator to the official Red Sea Fund initiative, which launched in June and received an encouraging 650 projects.
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to the KBC editorial, technical and ICT teams on how to leverage the TVU Cloud solutions of TVU Anywhere, TVU Partyline and TVU Producer. Job Karimi, KBC Manager Tech Operations, said: “TVU is the backbone of our ENG operation. We’re able to report various incidents as they happen and keep the public updated on the latest news within the shortest time possible. We use TVU every day in our daily
ENG news production. In cases where we deploy our OB van, we also use our TVU One units to capture critical cut-away shots and to cover areas the OB truck cannot.” Paul Shen, CEO of TVU Networks, added: “It’s rewarding to see how KBC has utilised our solutions to push their news coverage forward. We expect their media services to continue to break boundaries both locally and globally.”
Dash Media chooses Blackmagic solutions for studio infrastructure Cameroon broadcaster Dash Media has expanded its content platforms to create two TV channels, delivered from an SDI studio environment built around Blackmagic Design solutions such as the ATEM Constellation 8K and the ATEM 1 M/E advanced panel. Blackmagic Studio Cameras 4K, equipped with Olympus power zoom lenses, are rigged throughout the studio space, with signals feeding through to two dedicated control rooms. The camera
cabling was also prepped in advance, braiding in power, audio, SDI and comms, which allows the camera crew to be up and running in seconds. Live content is mixed on an ATEM Constellation 8K and ATEM 1 M/E Advanced Panel, paired with an Axel playout system. An edit suite forms the final element for content production, with a Mac Pro and UltraStudio 4K to add graphics and deliver prerecorded content packages that can be spliced into broadcasts.
At Dash Media's facility in Cameroon.
PRONEWS
Mukund Cairae to head new Toonz Media Networks division Toonz Media Group has created a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) called Toonz Media Networks, and roped in former Zee Entertainment COO Mukund Cairae to helm the new business unit and aid in expanding to more territories in the next two years. Toonz Media Networks will supervise the launch of the Group’s new linear television channels in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and MENA. Cairae, President of Toonz Media Networks, said: “The idea is to monetise Toonz content in various geographies across the globe, especially in the emerging markets, via our in-house content delivery platforms. Toonz will partner with telcos as well as digital platforms to launch channels
Mukund Cairae.
Abu Dhabi establishes Creative Media Authority to boost creative sector Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the UAE, has issued a law establishing the Creative Media Authority as part of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, with a mission to accelerate the growth of the UAE capital's multidisciplinary creative sector. The CMA is part of an $8.17bn, 10-year investment strategy across Abu Dhabi to develop the emirate’s culture and creative infrastructure, with $2.31bn invested over the past five years
and a further $5.99bn being rolled out in the next five years. The move brings the CCI industry under one umbrella, as DCT Abu Dhabi now consolidates Abu Dhabi’s multidisciplinary domains such as film and TV production, popular music, gaming and esports with cultural fields such as heritage, visual arts and the Arabic Language Centre among others. The new entity will also oversee a range of talent development programmes to nurture the next generation of skilled professionals.
in these geographies. This includes both linear and on-demand channels. For on-demand platform, we will start off with the Middle East market.” He added that each of the new geographies has been identified based on the scope for revenue capturing and effective content repurposing, in order to make it relevant and adaptable to local markets. As part of this, home-grown Toonz content will be dubbed into a slew of global languages including Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Arabic, Urdu, Thai, French and Swahili. Toonz will also be actively pursuing content partnerships in these regions to co-create premium content, including esports.
Al Arabiya and Al Hadath to move operations to KSA from Dubai News channels Al Arabiya and Al Hadath, both part of MBC Group, are reported to have begun transferring their operations from Dubai to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since last month, based on instructions from Saudi Crown Prince His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), according to newspaper reports. The Saudi government has a 60% stake in MBC Group as of 2018. A report in Al Nashra stated that the transfer is expected to take place in three phases, with phase one having begun last
month and phase two in January, when production within Riyadh must reach at least 12 hours a day. Although a date has not been confirmed for the third phase, this period will include concluding existing contracts with staff and creating new ones, according to news reports. The report added that Saudi's Crown Prince expects all Saudi media companies to operate from home ground. MBS also announced last month that no government contracts will be awarded to companies that do not have a regional HQ based in Saudi Arabia.
October 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 13
PROCOVER
AMBASSADORS of ARABIC
CONTENT
Ninetnine, a content distribution company helmed by Samir Zehani and Adel Hamla, has successfully catered to North African and Arabic audiences in France and Europe, with strategically designed TV packages that have raked in more than 100,000 subscribers. The duo, looking to replicate that success in other markets, signed a massive content distribution deal in the US in July and, more recently, with MBC Group in Dubai – spotlighting them as disrupters in the Arabic content space. In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Ninetnine’s co-founders share their story, strategy, new deals and 2022 plans We hear that you’ve just signed a big deal with MBC Group for Europe? Samir Zehani: Indeed, we are very proud to announce that Ninetnine is the exclusive distribution partner of MBC channels in Europe via various platforms including IPTV, OTT and the cable networks. Building on our success in creating value for Arabic content abroad, MBC trusted our vision and will join the biggest Arabic TV bouquet in the world, le Bouquet Maghreb, that we manage with our partner Thema/Canal+. When did you launch Ninetnine, and how does le Bouquet Maghreb fit into your journey? Adel Hamla: Ninetnine was launched three years ago with the objective of better distributing ethnic content, mainly Arabic content. After long experiences in the corporate media world working for the likes of Orange Group and MBC, we wanted to bridge gaps
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that we have seen over the years in the distribution landscape. Our vision is to simply entertain people everywhere. We are passionate about what we do. So we started with Arabic content by disrupting the existing set-up. We noticed, for instance, that there were no good TV bouquets that catered to the Maghreb community in Europe, which is home to approximately 15m North Africans (4m households), of which 8m live in France alone. With a good understanding of Arab audiences both on home ground and in Europe, and backed by strong data analytics, we set out to address the entertainment needs of that segment. We first did this with Orange, and then joined forces with Thema/Canal+ Group in 2019 to create the biggest Arabic TV bouquet in the world, le Bouquet Maghreb. In both cases, we succeeded in attracting 100k-plus subscribers to their packages and brought in a whole new segment of viewers to their platforms.
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From left: Ninetnine co-founders Adel Hamla and Samir Zehani.
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PROCOVER
Ninetnine secured the licence to distribute the Tunisian series Inshallah Mabrouk exclusively in Europe for Ramadan.
Why does le Bouquet Maghreb suit Arabic content owners looking to monetise their content? Adel Hamla: If we look closer at the European pay-TV platforms filtered by country, we understand that monetising content is not an easy task. IPTV is the norm in France, while DTH and cable may be for Germany, the UK or Italy. All of those have been challenged by cord-cutting and exploding OTT consumption. We started with the market we know best: France. Our partner Thema/ Canal+ contracted us to reposition their previous Arabic bouquet that was poorly performing, and they were thinking of shutting it down. It was expensive and did not really correspond to what the customers wanted to watch. We revisited that package for a new audience, sourced new channels, rebranded it as le Bouquet Maghreb, dropped a tier, brought down the price and designed the go-to-market and communication strategy. Today, for €4.99, we have 15 TV channels and a second tier at €7.99 called le Bouquet Maghreb+ offering 21 channels and VOD content. This Ramadan, that bouquet garnered more than 120,000 monthly paying subscribers in France only. This success did not go unnoticed by
content owners in the Arab world, who are now contacting us to help export their products to these markets. How disruptive is your approach? Can’t the Arab TV channels distribute their content themselves? Samir Zehani: You are right. Everybody can distribute their content themselves, and many do. Are they making money? Do they have enough audience? Are they covering their technical cost? Their marketing expenditures? The real answer is no, but only a few will admit to this in our industry. The Ninetnine approach is to cut
The Travelling Lovers with French-Arab social media stars Salim and Linda is a Ninetnine co-production.
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with past practices and look at the future of content distribution. Data is everywhere for those who know how to get it and, most importantly, know how to analyse it to create business opportunities. We have mapped the European continent by TV technology, type of Arab diasporas, TV consumption behaviours, price sensitivity and what is the most efficient call to action with each diaspora. We have also established local partnerships in each country. To us, the concept of onesize-fits-all content does not work in the Arab world. Actually, Pan-Arab content is no longer the standard. The Arab world is amazingly rich with different cultures, languages, accents, and we have areas like the GCC, the Maghreb, the Levant, for example, that consume TV differently. The audience has fragmented and gone to local content. Big groups like MBC Group understood this and launched MBC 5 for North Africa, or MBC Egypt and MBC Iraq for those specific countries. In the era of Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, etc, we need a wise approach to bring the premium
PROCOVER
Samir Zehani (l) and Adel Hamla are the first to create a successful Arabic package which has attracted more than 100,000 subscribers for the European market.
content closer to its relevant audiences and shout about it. As you talk about GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple), do you work with them or do you favour traditional TV distribution? Samir Zehani: We adopt a holistic and practical approach. Let’s take France as an example. 85% of TV consumption is through IPTV; the country has pioneered the triple-play concept (TV, internet, phone). The four telecom operators (Free Telecom, Orange, SFR and Bouygues) are mainly the go-to platforms. Big groups like Netflix, Disney+ and Canal+ have sealed deals with them. We did as well. If my audience is there, then I should be there too. Do we do it the traditional way, though? The answer is no. Adel and I are big believers in original productions. In 2019, our first coproduction was a 13-episode TV show called The Travelling Lovers, with two social media superstars, that aired on Samira TV. The TV channel monetised it in its local
“Our vision is to simply entertain people everywhere. We are passionate about what we do” Adel Hamla, co-founder, Ninetnine market via advertising, while we monetised it abroad over VOD and pay TV. We noticed an immediate outcome: over 5,000 subscribers on the day of the release of our first episode. Amazon Prime was interested to carry the show. Personalisation of content is the way forward. Are you going to produce your own Arabic content? Adel Hamla: We have established a network of trusted partners in that space. We always explore ways of creating value for our bouquet, creating engagement and boosting loyalty. Productions and co-productions are a great way to bring people to your platform. The example of The Travelling Lovers was a great learning curve for us. For the first time, we proved that there is
an audience bridge between the Arab world and the Arab diaspora, especially the young generation who speak less and less Arabic. We wrote a script that appeals to North Africans regardless of their geographic location. Instead of going with tier-one digital influencers, we chose tier-two digital influencers who do not have millions but engaged with hundreds of thousands of niche followers who were within our targeted community. For this, we did a surgical search to find the right people. People subscribed just to watch that one show that featured their favourite influencers. We have done two additional co-productions, and if it weren’t for Covid, we would have some more ready by now. But before next Ramadan, we should have six more productions in the bag. We will announce a new concept of a TV show by the end of this year. Are you considering distribution methods other than pay TV for Arabic content?
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PROCOVER
Zehani and Hamla reiterate that audience data and analytics are key to creating a successful package.
Samir Zehani: Monetisation can have different forms, and this is why data is crucial while looking for opportunities. We work with the content owners to understand how relevant their content is for different markets. Once we do this, the second part is aggregating and distributing that content. It is good to have the right content, but creating the right value proposition for the customer and your distribution strategy – which platform, at what price and what marketing, to increase your subscription – are equally significant. We have signed a deal recently with Dish Network in the US to distribute 10 premium channels on Sling TV. Adel Hamla: The US currently has around 800,000 to a million North Africans with different generations, and we couldn’t see us going beyond perhaps 10k to 15k subscribers if we took the pay-TV approach. That wouldn’t really turn a profit. Premium Arabic content was always distributed in the pay-TV space abroad, while consumption within MENA is pretty much free-to-air. When this content is exported, it is not available in the US or Europe on FTA and becomes a way for these channels to monetise their content abroad. We disrupted in this space by trying the free ad-supported TV (FAST) service to enhance direct-to-consumer (D2C) reach and boost engagement. Digital advertising revenues are booming in North America, so the context made it easy for us to convince our partner channels to go with this model. We spoke to some popular channels like Nessma TV and Samira TV who were not distributed in the US. Sling was on board with the idea, and we took the best of the channels to them. We launched early July; it’s been only three months now, but it has been successful and a
mum will love it”, and that’s how specific our data was. We know our viewers to the point where we know who is paying at home and who is watching the programmes. We have been very precise and thorough with how we have managed our packages. At different points in time, we would promote the same content but in different ways to each member of the family.
“The Ninetnine approach is to cut with past practices and look at the future of content distribution” Samir Zehani, co-founder, Ninetnine win-win for everyone. This model has worked so well that more channels now want to come on board. When you reach a deal with a TV platform like Dish or Canal+, how do you help them communicate that with their subscribers? Samir Zehani: The data we have in the European market is very unique and purely based on years of expertise, but it is something we can replicate in other markets like the US or Canada – it is a combination of data intelligence we have acquired over the years but also something we know as North Africans who grew up in Europe. Customer journey and user experience are very important to understand what marketing and call to action to communicate. One of the key findings is that the people who watch their programmes are not necessarily the ones paying for them. In some cases, we would have marketing campaigns that said “Your
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What new markets are you targeting? Is there room for growth? Adel Hamla: We are not resting on our laurels. There is so much to do. As said, there are 8m North Africans in just France and our penetration is only at 10%, and we are the leader there. So, are we satisfied? No, although we enjoy two-digit growth every year. We want to identify new content (linear, VOD, digital) that is relevant to the different diaspora in different parts of Europe and tailor-make packages for each country. Bespoke packages are important, because data shows that the Arab diaspora is spread across the European continent in different concentrations. Samir Zehani: Despite the challenges we see in the pay-TV market and cord-cutting times, our TV bouquets continue to perform and we see so much room to grow. Our challenge now is to make our content known to more people; our enemy is the lack of awareness. If you are the leader with only 10% penetration, there is room for a further 20-30% market penetration. For this, we are accelerating our B2C launch. We are making more targeted campaigns to ensure it appeals to our subscribers. Marketing, digital and production is where we need to accelerate, and we won’t stop until we have reached every market on the map.
PROROUNDTABLE
DRIVING INNOVATION IN
STREAMING
BroadcastPro Middle East, in association with Limelight, recently hosted a roundtable exploring new trends in the streaming market and the role of CDNs in offering a better user experience. We bring you the highlights Research firms offer varying estimates of the growth of the global content delivery network (CDN) market, but all predictions point to a spike in revenues at a CAGR of 14-17% between 2020 and 2025 – for example, Markets and Markets estimates growth from $14.4bn in 2020 to $27.9bn in 2025, a CAGR of 14.1%. The rising need for efficient solutions to enable live and uninterrupted content delivery, the demand for enhanced QoE (quality of experience) and QoS (quality of service), a proliferation of video and rich media over websites, the clamour for enhanced video content and latency-free online gaming experiences, and increasing internet penetration and adoption of mobile
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devices – these have all created huge opportunities for growth and disruption in the CDN space. In this context, BroadcastPro Middle East teamed up with CDN specialist Limelight Networks to host a roundtable with industry experts to unearth some of the trends, challenges and recommended approaches for CDN adoption in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey markets. Charlie Kraus is Senior Manager of Product Marketing at Limelight Networks, overseeing the marketing of online video delivery solutions. He moderated the discussion, with Umut Keten, Senior Architect at Turk Telekom; Faraz Arshad, CTO of StarzPlay; Zareen Mirza, Director of Strategy at Renmore Partners; Emre Usyal, EVP of
PROROUNDTABLE
Technology with Digiturk; and Selver Irican, Media Operations Specialist at TRT participating. With representatives from Turkey, Africa and the UAE, Kraus opened the discussion by asking what kind of growth the participants were seeing and what they expected going forward. Umut Keten commented that as a telco, Turk Telekom was bracing for “exponential growth”. “We are one of the bigger CDN
players. We have around 500GB of capacity that will triple to 1.5TB this year. That’s exponential growth, but also for our internal CDNs, we expect to go from 60GB to 400GB, and in some locations, from 80GB to 300GB. This is just to show how quickly we are growing, with requests from customers coming at a really fast pace.” CDN demand was already quite high, he explained, but it accelerated with the pandemic and education moving online. “Everybody started to work from home for online education. We started seeing explosive growth. For our video services, we try to re-route them and keep them clean at different paths, making sure they have the proper outcome.” Zareen Mirza, who works extensively in the African market, commented that Africa has been a bit behind the curve, especially with the impact of the pandemic on funding. “Africa doesn’t have proper 4G coverage yet and the global pandemic has contributed to the economic crisis, so the region is on a slightly different trajectory compared to the rest of the world.” As a way of introduction, Emre Usyal explained that Digiturk, owned by beIN Media Group, has more than 115 linear channels, seven in-house produced sports channels and a huge library of VOD assets with more than 25,000 hours of content. “Since the pandemic, we have monitored 50% more traffic on our CDNs. We are carrying valuable content, so concurrency is an issue, especially when it is high. So buffering, latency, etc have been significant challenges,” he pointed out. With traffic increasing on more platforms and the pandemic still keeping many people at home, Kraus asked if the multi-CDN approach was becoming the norm, especially for sports. “One Premier League match was only available on a streaming service. The provider used five CDNs to ensure it went well. It wasn’t just
capacity, but not all CDNs are equally strong in all regions. All their POPs may not have massive capacity. Is that a common trend in this part of the world as well?” Keten pointed out that as a telco hosting CDNs, Turk Telekom works with multiple partners. “Turkey especially is a stretched country, so you need to have multiple CDNs. We have around 16 different CDNs we work with currently. When we provide CDNs for news agencies in Turkey, we have CDNs spread out at four different locations in Turkey so the broadcaster can upload and download their videos easily. As a telco, we have to plan our CDN fully and ensure it is fail-safe. We invest in those links, so we don’t clog up the network.”
“Sometimes people see a special moment on social media and want to watch the last five minutes of the match. So that micro transaction suddenly becomes important” Charlie Kraus, Senior Manager of Product Marketing, Limelight Networks October 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 21
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“We have around 500GB of capacity that will triple to 1.5TB this year ... For our internal CDNs, we expect to go from 60GB to 400GB, and in some locations, from 80GB to 300G” Umut Keten, Senior Architect, Turk Telekom Everyone agreed that a multiCDN strategy is the way forward, leading to the question of how this affects the overall cost of a platform. Faraz Arshad, CTO of StarzPlay, stepped in to comment that when one is building a business case, “the multi-CDN approach is important”. “Are you going to be customerfocused and engagementfocused? Then you need to take the multi-CDN approach. If you are new in the market, the experience and engagement that people need is what you must be able to provide, to avoid churn. StarzPlay started with the multiCDN approach, but mostly public CDN. However, we experienced massive throttling so we decided to also develop a private CDN and we complemented our public
CDN partners with this solution,” he pointed out, adding that the streaming service placed POPs and edge servers closer to its prime audience. Arshad said he expects everyone in the pipeline to step up their efforts to make service seamless. “It is everyone’s responsibility and not just that of the service provider. I expect upgrades from the public CDNs as well as the manufacturers. The whole system needs to be standardised if everyone is to benefit.” Keten, however, added that not all clients require a multi-CDN approach. The Netherlands — it was in the news even — they had for example, only one CDN. “There was a big problem with that one CDN player being down. So the banking system, news websites … everything was down for a pretty long time, and they did not have multiple CDNs to rely on. So at that level, a multi-CDN strategy is useful. But if you have a small streaming service on VOD, even if you need to buffer, people can live with it. It depends on how much you are willing to pay for a service, and you must be able to find that balance if you are to survive.” Usyal added that the multiCDN approach is the only way to ensure a good quality of experience for the viewer. Selver Irican also favoured the multi-CDN approach, explaining that each CDN is strong in specific territories. “Not all CDNs perform well in all territories. A CDN may be great in Europe but not have a good service here. Some may offer a great experience to subscribers in some regions. So a multi-CDN is appropriate.” With sports events in particular demanding exceptionally low latency, Kraus looked at a few technologies, such as “CMAF encoding to deliver low-latency HLS and DASH where you can have latencies in the 5- to 7-second range, which is typical of broadcast”. He asked what everybody was seeing in terms of the traction
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for five-second latency. Usyal commented that while bottlenecks are inevitable, Digiturk is continuously optimising its infrastructure to reduce latency. Arshad said StarzPlay has turned to various elements to optimise the service on several levels. “We are working with Zixi and the SRT contribution protocol, for instance, to optimise our content. Then we have been optimising the chunk size of the streaming platform internally. On the player side, we do some optimisations to ensure less delay. On CMAF, we have our roadmap and are looking for clients to support us on some more protocols, because not all the
“Since the pandemic, we have monitored 50% more traffic on our CDNs. We are carrying valuable content, so concurrency is an issue, especially when it is high. So buffering, latency, etc have been significant challenges” Emre Usyal, EVP of Technology, Digiturk
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browsers on the player side work. They have to adapt more quickly.” Keten pointed out that with most sports broadcasting and production done by satellite transmission, an automatic sixto-seven-second latency is part of the package. “We already use up a lot of buffer on that. If we really want to drop latency, every kind of live sports and contribution should be done over fibre.” The discussion then moved to piracy. Kraus asked if the problem is as straightforward as illegal viewing, or if consumers choose pirated content because of the lack of flexibility in packages, unfriendly pricing and other challenges. “Piracy is not always driven by free. Sometimes it is driven by the exorbitant cost that limits choice. The rights owner does not provide a stream that you can watch on a smart TV, so people watch it on a pirate channel. Some people say there is a lack of flexibility in the packages and the pricing. Could this also be responsible for piracy?” “It is not necessarily because people don’t want to pay,” said Mirza. “Stats show that people
“I have been involved with Nollywood. So for every movie that is paid for, it is then consumed nine times illegally. That is a shocking stat” Zareen Mirza, Director of Strategy, Renmore Partners who pursue piracy go to the cinema twice as much. People who pirate content spend four times as much on pay-per-view content. So is it because they can’t consume the content they
want to in the way they want to and when they want it? “The other trend that is coming into play and which feeds into piracy is subscription fatigue. While there has been an unprecedented spike in OTT during the pandemic, most people have three or four subscriptions, which probably cost more than their triple-play bundle now. No one wants to be forced into subscribing to a service for a month if they want to watch only one match. “In the UK, there was a core discussion around wanting to watch premium content the way they want to watch it. But often you can’t watch it like this, because most rights didn’t allow you to split matches. However, now in the UK, on BT or Now TV, those options are available and a lot of people prefer to pay for a one-off rather than a subscription package. And this offers a watch when you want, how you want, etc, because people want to consume content on their own terms.” Mirza explained that Renmore Partners works extensively in Africa. “I have been involved with
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Nollywood. So for every movie that is paid for, it is then consumed nine times illegally. That is a shocking stat. Given that it is the third largest movie house after Hollywood and Bollywood, you wonder how to preserve its revenues. I am involved in this project and there is CAS and DRM to protect it, but it is mostly pirated after it is decrypted.” She added that a lot of studios now prefer a direct distribution model, hoping they can protect their content better than by going down the long distribution chain. Distribution houses that implement forensic watermarking stand a better chance of acquiring content from studios directly
“Not all CDNs perform well in all territories. A CDN may be great in Europe but not have a good service here. Some may offer a great experience to subscribers in some regions. So a multiCDN is appropriate” Selver Irican, Media Operations Specialist, TRT
“because they can identify where that leakage is happening and feed it back to the studios”. Mirza explained that the other approach is to build user engagement and create a better experience that a user can’t possibly get from pirated content. “I guess we have to use a combination of factors and work with the ISPs, the authorities, the telcos, etc … to deter pirates.” Usyal said Digiturk also adopts multiple precautions, apart from watermarking. “We collect all the CDN logs from all the CDN vendors we work with. We analyse this and if we find piracy there, we cut the source of the video by connecting with the CDN providers.” Arshad said piracy mitigation requires a combination of tech expertise, forensic watermarking, and dynamic collaboration with the regulatory authorities and local bodies to block out the apps and websites contributing to it. Kraus commented that Netflix has tried to make it easier for subscribers by offering different bitrates for lower quality streams or higher quality streams, though it hasn’t pursued people who share credentials. Keten said new business models need to emerge that make ad hoc buying in the heat of the moment possible, with flexible payment methods. Kraus seconded this, adding that one network is currently experimenting with micro transactions: “Sometimes people see a special moment on social media and want to watch the last five minutes of the match. So that micro transaction suddenly becomes important.” Another aspect that was discussed extensively was esports and how latency is critical to a successful experience. With esports creating a new ecosystem of opportunities, everyone agreed that jitter and buffer above 20 milliseconds cannot be accepted. “These games are so fast that the servers are often right there on
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“I expect upgrades from the public CDNs as well as the manufacturers. The whole system needs to be standardised if everyone is to benefit” Faraz Arshad, CTO, StarzPlay the stage,” Kraus pointed out. Keten said Turk Telekom is trying to create a special product just for gamers. “We are trying to have locations at peering points, so if there is a tournament, gamers can make use of those peering points.” The discussion finally turned to geopolitics. Some regions are more open to adopting in a cost-effective manner, but there is a lot more to be done with the telcos. Making broadband more economical will not cannibalise their revenue, but rather create more opportunities; however, this requires a more progressive mindset. Kraus summed up the discussion by showing a slide with the 18 POPs that Limelight currently has in the Middle East and Turkey, and how it is investing in four additional POPs in Egypt, Oman, the UAE and Saudi Arabia by the end of this year.- Vijaya Cherian
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PRODISPLAYS
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PERFECT With extensive research and work in digital signage since 2012, LG is attempting a more ambitious move into the broadcast space with its new display portfolio. Sunny Bhaskar Bangera, Regional Manager – B2B, LG Information Display Team, offers some insights After developing consumer goods for so long, what brings LG to the world of broadcast? It’s true that LG Electronics has really led the consumer electronics and home appliances industry for a number of years, but we have also been at the forefront of the digital signage industry since 2012. Under our Information Display division, we have strengthened our position in providing the most innovative products in the marketplace. Our digital signage solutions are designed with a focus on a deep understanding of industries and customer convenience. Integrated solutions ranging from content management and service to maintenance are delivered under our Information Display portfolio. In this manner, our technology offers an end-to-end service. LG has
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built a strong global network through manufacturing plants and sales branches located in 128 nations, alongside R&D facilities in around 200 countries and service networks. As part of our Information Display offering, we also cater towards the broadcast industry, owing to our expertise in digital signage. This is a market which we see as a key target, both in terms of providing the right visual solutions for broadcasters and also recognising the business potential. The global television broadcasting market is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9% when comparing 2021 with the previous year. Over the next few years, this trend will continue with a 6% CAGR by 2025, illustrating vast potential within the broadcast segment.
PRODISPLAYS
The LG MAGNIT Micro LED 163-inch 4K screen.
Which products would you like to highlight for the broadcast industry? Our latest unveiling is the LG UltraFine Display OLED Pro, a state-of-the-art 65-inch professional monitor designed to meet a number of broadcast use cases and workflows related to content production, postproduction and distribution. The new edition (model 65EP5G) builds upon the capabilities of LG’s OLED displays, recognised by a Technology and Engineering Emmy award. Advanced calibration functionality enables the display to achieve better picture quality for enhanced viewer immersion and productivity, enabled by LG’s proprietary software (SuperSign for White Balance). The control panel provides shortcuts to frequently used functions and profiles, featuring different monitor settings and picture quality options – making editing, colour grading and programming seamless. Within the LG Information Display range, we also have a number of Micro LED and Mini LED studio backdrops, delivering industryleading colour, contrast and clarity. With a lot of these features, our studio backdrops can help to create more impactful viewing
“Our ultimate goal is to help the broadcast industry make use of more advanced, practical and immersive display technologies” Sunny Bhaskar Bangera, Regional Manager – B2B, LG Information Display Team within broadcast environments, where retaining viewer attention through infographics and video content is key. What are some of the unique features of your video wall? Why do you think it rivals existing video walls in the market? The new LG MAGNIT is the first Micro
LED display launched by LG. Given our experience, we have ensured that it delivers superior picture quality and clarity, made possible by our Micro LED chips. In terms of competitive advantage, by removing a package surrounding RGB LED chips and applying LG’s own Full Black Coating technology, the LG MAGNIT is able to deliver much deeper black than the conventional package LED signage. This not only enhances colour vividness but also makes the details which were previously hidden in the shadows much clearer, providing audiences with a greater sense of depth and realism. Our Alpha 7 Intelligent Processor, which is adopted from LG’s TV technology, uses deep learning and artificial intelligence to recognise and analyse the original content, optimising the clarity and sharpness accordingly. Owing to the structure of the LG MAGNIT, it is also able to minimise colour distortion and offers a wider viewing angle. In practical terms, this means that the original colour can be appreciated even from side viewing angles – for broadcasters, this empowers the use of multiple cameras and viewpoints without the worry of any disruption. Crucial to the broadcast industry in particular is the Block Assembly Design, which enables the building of a screen to the required size. The LG MAGNIT also comes with wireless broadband transmission
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PRODISPLAYS
LG's Innovation Centre at Dubai Media City includes several different kinds of professional display screens.
technology and a cable-less design for simple installation, so that the display blends in with and complements its surroundings. If you’re looking to build a display over 1,280 × 720 resolution in size, owners can also make use of an intuitive remote control experience, accessing settings more easily without the need for connecting to a PC. In news channel and talk show environments, for example, this offers a seamless experience to the presenter as they flick through content and data sets. How are your broadcast operations in the Middle East structured? We recently restructured our business to help us focus more on offering a bespoke, client-centric approach. We have a young and dynamic team leader who oversees product development. Jin Yongjang is General Manager for Information Display at LG Electronics Gulf, Karim Zaki is Sales Director and an expert in the field of visual display technologies, while I take care of our Studio (corporate) industry vertical for the region. What is LG’s vision for its broadcast division? Our ultimate goal is to help the
information displays which keep colour accuracy and convenience at their core. As the broadcast industry continues to evolve, we are here and ready to support individual business challenges, needs and ambitions.
“Our studio backdrops can help to create more impactful viewing within broadcast environments, where retaining viewer attention is key” Sunny Bhaskar Bangera, Regional Manager – B2B, LG Information Display Team broadcast industry make use of more advanced, practical and immersive display technologies. Now more than ever, broadcasters are looking for new ways to streamline, be more efficient and also represent their content in more captivating ways – these are areas in which we believe we can deliver. Our advantage comes down to having clear industry knowledge and expertise, alongside providing a portfolio of
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What do you hope to achieve in the MENA region? Our goals in the MENA region, and in fact globally as well, centre on two main criteria: customer focus and having an innovative product line-up. In terms of customer focus, we are looking at how we can potentially add value to a business. We have to ask ourselves whether we truly understand the challenges a business is facing, or the direction it wishes to head in. Only in doing so can we approach customers or have an open dialogue, in full confidence that we are aligned – so this is our foremost priority. Every decisionmaker wants to know what makes your solutions unique, so it is our job to continue conducting research and be knowledgeable of industry trends and communicate value. For our product portfolio, the focus is on being a true business partner with advanced technologies and end-to-end services. We are committed to designing new form factors and experiences, leveraging our capabilities in OLED, LED and IPS display technology to deliver on the promise of more captivating visual experiences. Globally, we have worked with a number of highprofile clients across areas such as hospitality, retail, transportation and broadcast. Our mission locally is to continue partnering with local organisations to help improve their business operations and value to end customers or users of a particular service. In the broadcast industry, this means ensuring that our solutions are not only unique, but also industry-leading and seek to enhance the overall experience for both broadcasters themselves and also end viewers of content.
PROSTREAMING
GIVING US
THE FULL VIU Viu recently announced impressive growth numbers for H1 2021, especially in Southeast Asia. BroadcastPro ME caught up with Rohit D’silva, Chief Business Officer for Middle East and South Africa, to get a deeper insight into the online video streaming service’s strategy Can you share details about your half-yearly results? Our H1 (January-June) 2021 results were really encouraging. We crossed 7m paid subscribers across Viu’s markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Africa, and 49.4m monthly active users (MAUs), with 6m MAUs coming from the Middle East. Allow me to provide some more context. The Viu online video streaming service launched in 2015 in several Southeast Asia markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong
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Kong and the Philippines, and is a leader on multiple fronts in these markets. Viu launched in the Middle East in mid-2018 and in South Africa in 2019. Our focus of the company has been to build out the Viu proposition, which is AVOD + SVOD (free + pay), market by market. On that journey, we have been very focused on producing as much local content as possible. Over the past three years since 2018 and a gap in 2020 because of Covid-19, we have produced more than 25 Viu
PROSTREAMING
Arabic original series. By the end of this year, we will have crossed 30 Arabic Viu original series. One of the earlier originals we produced, a show called Zodiac, remains popular. This year for Ramadan, we had nine Viu originals. This is the second year in Ramadan that we had a slate of original series. That is one of the things we continue to build on – producing more original content in the region. We have produced shows in Egypt, which is an important market for us both from a production standpoint as well as bringing in large numbers of users, and of course Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Our model is a combination of AVOD and SVOD. From the Middle East viewer's perspective, they have been accustomed to seeing very high-quality content on free-to-air satellite. While viewers may have the ability to pay for content, many of them haven’t felt the desire to, nor have they been used to doing so as a habit. When you translate that into the online video streaming world, I think the Viu model suits the Middle East market really well because we are able to bring in users into the free layer. This gels well with the Middle East content consumption story so far. We then work on converting these users to paid subscribers. We are deploying multiple strategies in the Middle East to make that happen. This is something Viu has been mastering over the years across all our markets. In this framework, we think that giving the consumer the choice of a daily price and a monthly price makes a lot of sense. OTT users want products that are easy to use, easy to enter or buy into, and easy to exit. If you think of the profile of a typical user, they are mobile-centric, want to be able to control everything that they do instantaneously, and want to be able to make that choice all the time. What’s your pricing like? Our pricing varies according to
“We were ahead of Netflix in Southeast Asia at the end of H1 2021 on paid subscribers and monthly users” Rohit D'silva, Chief Business Officer for Middle East and South Africa, Viu different markets in MENA. In Egypt, for instance, our monthly price is $2 and our daily price is 13 cents. That is keeping in mind the user’s ability to pay. We give people the choice to come in on a daily price. For the GCC, the daily price is 55 cents while the monthly price is $5. So we’re talking about micro-transactions? Yes, if one counts daily subscription as a micro-transaction. We envisage the entire payment ecosystem to continue to rapidly evolve in the Middle East, driven by fintech, e-commerce and telcos. Viu has very strong credentials when it comes to working with telcos. In fact, our parent company, PCCW Group, owns and operates a telco in Hong Kong. We have partnerships with more than 14 telcos in the region and see this as a strong foundation upon which we can build further.
You are ahead of Netflix in certain parameters, though not revenue, is that right? We were ahead of Netflix in Southeast Asia at the end of H1 2021 on paid subscribers and monthly users. For the same markets and same period, Netflix is bigger, and I think the market leader in terms of revenue. Netflix has a higher ARPU, which helps a lot to drive overall revenue. We are different. Netflix is different. Both are great consumer propositions. In Southeast Asia, Viu has scored very well because of our early investment in Korean content, which is the second most popular content in these markets after local content, and in some cases has been the most popular content in the market. The viewership base for Korean content is very large; I would say it’s mass consumption in these markets, plus people are willing to pay some amount of money for it. On a related note, we believe it’s very important to pick your lane and be very good at what you do. Online streaming video is an extremely competitive space which requires a huge number of sustained investments. So, the model we have, which is anchored around getting free users to come in as well as
Ansaf Maganeen features two of Egypt’s brightest stars, Ahmed Khaled Saleh and Asmaa Galal.
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PROSTREAMING
Wadi el Gin is a fictional series that follows four college students who explore the caves of Wadi Al Jinn and find themselves in the underworld dominated by evil forces.
providing flexible ways for users to subscribe to paid subscription payment options and two packages in SVOD – daily and monthly. We are not a big fan of offering additional bundles “at $2 more”. Why do you not believe in offering additional bundles? In the online video streaming space, we believe that it’s important to offer users a simple easy-to-buy and easy-to-exit product, and an easyto-understand value proposition. Additional bundles sound a lot like traditional pay TV. We don’t think we are best suited to scale an additional bundles proposition. From how we see the Middle East online streaming video market evolving, we feel we are better off focusing on scaling the Viu proposition through our AVOD plus SVOD model, and within SVOD, offering daily as well as monthly pricing. Where are your tech teams based? Most members of our technology team are based in Hong Kong and India. We also have some technology and product team members across each of our markets. Could you elaborate on your production work in Egypt and your model of working? From a production standpoint, we do have a small production team. But like most other global players, we work with production companies who serve as our line producers or co-producers. We prefer to kind of dovetail into the ecosystem and play a meaningful role in it, rather than trying to change it. What is your specific challenge? I think it is finding that sweet spot in terms of what type of content will work best for us over time. There are lots of amazing stories from which one can create different types of content, both scripted and unscripted. We need to find the right mix that will align with our business model. We
crack down on illegal set-top boxes. The outcomes were meaningful in Singapore, because the stakeholders spent a lot of management time and money on execution aspects as well as creating awareness among the public. Everyone carried the same ad about piracy on their platforms. Combating piracy with even an iota of impact can’t be achieved in an ad-hoc manner or if the key players do their own thing. Everyone needs to come together and work together, since we all lose audience and dollars to piracy every second.
“Additional bundles sound a lot like traditional pay TV. We don’t think we are best suited to scale an additional bundles proposition” Rohit D'silva, Chief Business Officer for Middle East and South Africa, Viu would also like to successfully expand our productions to originate in more markets across the region. If you think about demand and supply, the demand for content has gone up. On the supply side – the actors, DOPs and talent – scaling up in these areas is still a work in progress for the ecosystem as a whole. Is piracy an issue for Viu? How have you tried to address it? It is a huge problem. We’ve been dealing with piracy for a long time across all our markets. We continue to fine tune what works internally with our anti-piracy teams, who work on taking down sites and looking at ways in which we can improve the content encryption that we use on our platform. Collaboration among stakeholders is critical. In Singapore, for instance, stakeholders worked with the government on framing a site-blocking law to combat piracy and worked with the government to
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How will the AVOD/SVOD model give you a better shot at gaining subscribers and revenue? From an advertising point of view, a lot of the revenue is moving towards digital platforms. Covid-19 has accelerated the consumption of digital services across the board. We benefited from increased content consumption and people getting used to digital payment methods, so the whole move to a more digital economy naturally helped the online video streaming business. The shift in advertising more towards digital advertising has impacted premium online video, but not at scale just yet. However, we foresee significant growth in Q4 of this year and in 2022. Having said that, Egypt has already shown impressive growth this year. As more and more advertising budgets move onto digital, our AVOD + SVOD solution fits in nicely as an alternative for advertisers. When people look at digital solutions, there is obviously YouTube and Facebook which take the lion’s share. But when it comes to premium online video, which is curated, brand-safe and gives you some of the elements of TV, such as higher engagement, we see an opportunity with our AVOD offering. As the whole digital economy gains more traction from a payments point of view, we will also be able to capture some of the market in terms of subscriptions for our SVOD model.
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BIG PITCH The Alexandria Killings will be produced under the Yalla Yalla banner, with globally renowned writers Terry George and Mariam Naoum co-writing the film. But before it took this fascinating turn, it had another journey with Emirati director Nayla Al Khaja. Nishtha Singh learns more from Al Khaja about the story and the current phase in her journey as a filmmaker Earlier this year, Front Row Film Entertainment–Rocket Science joint venture Yalla Yalla signed Oscar-winning writer/ director Terry George and Egyptian writer Mariam Naoum to co-write the Arabic series The Alexandria Killings. The story, based on true events, is about the first women in the Arab world to receive capital punishment for murder. The show will be the first instalment of a MENA-based true-crime anthology series set in various periods and locations in the Arab world. It will be shot predominantly in Arabic, with English to reflect British rule, exploring the complexities of life on the fringes of a male-dominated society. Interestingly, the idea to bring this particular story to the big screen originated with Emirati filmmaker Nayla Al Khaja, who initially pitched the idea to Front Row. “I had been obsessing over this story for years,” she says, “and had initially called it The Stinger Sisters. I had always
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thought that one day, I will bring this story to life.” The story is set in 1920 Alexandria when Egypt was under British rule, and revolves around two Egyptian sisters, Raya and Sakina Hammam, who came from a poor Alexandria neighbourhood and rose to build a thriving empire on the back of their brothel. It attracted a powerful and influential clientele including Egyptian and British officers, informants and statesmen. At its zenith, the Hammams’ operation became a hive of secrets, intelligence sharing and criminal conspiracies among the top echelons of the Alexandria underworld. The fall of their empire found the sisters relying more and more on petty theft, leading to the murder of 17 women in crimes of opportunity. They were eventually put on trial and became the first women in the Arab world to be sentenced to death, causing a massive social outcry. Public perception of the women varied from cold-blooded criminal masterminds to victims.
PROFILMMAKER
Nayla Al Khaja on location. She is the first female film writer and director in the United Arab Emirates.
The story fascinated Al Khaja, who wanted to give it a different perspective, and she decided to pitch it to industry people. “I was at the Berlin Film Festival. I met a few Arab producers there who expressed interest in working with me, and the Chaaya brothers was one of them. They were the producers of a series called Jinn on Netflix.” The Chaaya brothers were also behind critically acclaimed Lebanese film Very Big Shot (2015). “That was an absolutely stunning film. I brought it to the Scene Club, a film screening initiative I used to run in Dubai. So that is how I connected with them.” The brothers approached Al Khaja around the time that Jinn was released on Netflix. “I was so excited about the possibility of working with people that already had a project that was going to be on a streaming service like Netflix. So I pitched it to them, and they quite liked it. We met in Jordan and discussed it several times, but somehow nothing transpired from those conversations,” says Al Khaja. She then approached independent film distributor and producer Gianluca Chakra, who helms Front Row Film Entertainment. “Gianluca had just a whiff of the story and instantly said there was something special there.” Chakra commissioned Al Khaja to prepare a treatment for his company Rocket Science. “I wrote the treatment and my vision, and how I saw it through the eyes of the child, who actually saw some of the killings.” The treatment, one of the key steps in pre-production and story development, was an exercise of diligence for her. “I did a lot of research, heard audio tapes with narrations of the story from A to Z, and got some books about the Egyptian community. I did a lot of background research and then compiled a treatment which tackles a lot of the aspects of the sisters’ lives, not just from the murder standpoint.” Al Khaja hoped to weave a rich,
multidimensional narrative into the script. “We know that they are killers, that they are the first Arab women who received capital punishment. But their life wasn’t always like that.” The Hammam sisters have received wide coverage in the media over the past seven decades. Their story has been retold through movies, plays, television dramas and books. What Al Khaja hoped to do differently with the story was acknowledge their misfortune. “They had poor beginnings. They ran a brothel, which was legal back in the British period in Egypt. Once the British left, the little empire that the sisters built through their brothel crumbled.” Al Khaja locates this as the crux of their story. “They had dirt on everyone. I believe that is when things really turned dark, and they started resorting to
“Sometimes you do need to suffer, go through hell and back. That is when you become a more rounded filmmaker” Nayla Al Khaja, director
murder to steal jewellery from these women who used to work for them.” “Once I captured the treatment, I had a few layers in this film. There is a strong political layer, which is the Brits, the different classes in Egypt and the mafia. There was the economic factor of the times and how that impacted the sisters. Then there was the social aspect of them, where they grew up and how they moved, and how the dynamic of the move changed their perspective on life as well.” The well-trodden path of the sisters as serial killers comes last, unlike in most other portrayals. “The last was, of course, the impact of their murders and what that meant for Egypt.” Al Khaja’s work paid off when Rocket Science received the treatment. “They loved it. They said it was brilliant and that they wanted to work with me. We even signed a contract.” This journey, like most around the world, came to a grinding halt when Covid-19 hit; but a few months later, she got a call from Rocket Science. “They had some amazing news for me. Terry George likes your storyline. He is officially on board, they said. That was like music to my ears.” Irish screenwriter and director Terry George is known for In the Name of the Father (1993) and Hotel Rwanda (2004), among other films. He was nominated for an Oscar for both of those projects, and won one in 2012 for short film The Shore. Things have moved quickly since then. The Stinger Sisters was retitled The Alexandria Killings. The story was acquired by Yalla Yalla, with George as director-creator, Egyptian screenwriter Mariam Naoum as co-writer and Al Khaja as executive producer. The show will be produced by George, Gianluca Chakra and Thorsten Schumacher. Knowing that Al Khaja is wont to throw herself completely into her film projects, we ask if she is happy taking a back seat on the project .
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PROFILMMAKER
Egyptian writer Mariam Naoum will co-write the story with Terry George.
“It is always important to do what is in the best interest of your story. With Terry George, the story is in safe hands. Gianluca and Rocket Science will create something of high calibre,” she says confidently. Asked if she has any advice for filmmakers with a story who are looking to get a break in the industry, she advises always “protecting your story”. “My advice would be to never send unsolicited material to anyone unless they ask for it, and if they do, ensure they sign an NDA. Likewise, I don’t read scripts I receive. Many times we see that TV commercials have identical storylines and there’s always someone who thinks someone else has ripped their idea, when in effect it could just be that two people had a similar idea.” She encourages written correspondence, so that if “you hit the proverbial Chinese wall, there’s always a place to go to verify what was said”. Protecting your claims and liabilities should also be a priority. Without an agent or a manager, filmmakers could potentially lose the rights to their stories. “Get someone who understands the business – like a lawyer, an agent
or a manager – to represent you. Someone who can pre-empt what will happen and protect your interests.” She also recommends creating a pilot when pitching a project. “A pilot always gives you a leg to stand on, and you stand a chance to be part of the creative effort.” For pitching a project in hand, she recommends “a strong producer who understands film finance and distribution … If you can afford it, do the pitchdeck and package the whole thing.” “As a freelance film director, I don’t
Terry George is an award-winning screenwriter and director.
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have the structure to help me package any series. So I would potentially do a hybrid deal with a private investor and an OTT, and get them to finance it. It’s almost like a feature film, right? Get some funding in place, then get either a cast member who is very wellknown, a heavyweight producer or director, and basically package it in a way that is hard for someone to say no – then take it directly to a buyer.” So what’s next on the agenda for Al Khaja? “I’m currently working on a feature film,” she says proudly. “It is called Three. I think it is a good case study for how things are structured locally. We don’t have the kind of funds international filmmakers have access to, or tax credits, so it becomes very difficult for filmmakers to package a film financially. [Private funding] is any filmmaker’s dream, but it comes with precedents. For certain projects, going independent is always better. Going with such investments is the easier road.” True to form, Al Khaja has taken the road less travelled. “If I had chosen to do that for this project, I wouldn’t have bought all these books on film finance and distribution, or spent hours reading them, or talked with other producers abroad and soaked it all in. Learning the hard way is sometimes the best way.” She hopes someday to produce films full-time for other directors. “Going through this rigorous exercise of meeting investors, receiving rejections, all of this is invaluable. I learned to keep my chin up after every interaction.” Her concluding advice to aspiring filmmakers is not to look for short cuts. “You will not be able to learn many invaluable lessons if you take the easy path. Sometimes you do need to suffer, go through hell and back. That is when you become a more rounded filmmaker.”
PROCABSAT
IPTVPortal debuts cloud platform at CABSAT
Grass Valley returns in full force to CABSAT Grass Valley will be at CABSAT this year to demonstrate how its solutions enable seamless, IP-first workflows for live and remote production, including its highest performing live broadcast camera, the LDX 150. The LDX 150 is the latest addition to its portfolio and is a highspeed, native IP camera that captures UHD HDR images at 3x high speed. Its new Xenios imagers and global shutter provide a wide dynamic range in HDR mode, an improved signal-to-noise ratio and greater depth of field. Besides the LDX 150, Grass Valley will also showcase its LDX86 camera. A key focus of the stand will be the GV Media Universe, the company’s vision for the softwarebased media future. This comprehensive ecosystem of cloud-based tools and services, interconnected with existing solutions, partner offerings and a community of marketplaces, will revolutionise
the way people think about making media, according to a statement from the company. Tim Banks, Grass Valley VP of Sales, EMEA, who will be at the show, has emphasised that “the Middle East is an increasingly important market for Grass Valley, which has built up strong long-term relationships in the region over 20 years”. “We will emphasise our unique position to support our customers with complete solutions that help them meet the challenges, and leverage the opportunities, of today's fast-changing media landscape. We see tremendous opportunity for growth as the industry embarks on the next phase of technology transitions – whether migrating to new formats, adopting agile, futureproof infrastructures or embracing remote/ distributed production,” he stated. Stand D2-10
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Bebob all charged up for CABSAT 2021 with new B-Mount product range German battery manufacturer Bebob Factory GmbH will showcase its newly available B-Mount product range for the first time at CABSAT. This includes its B-Mount batteries, hot-swap adapters and chargers, along with customised V-Mount and Gold Mount adapter plates. The B-Mount is a new battery mount system aimed at fulfilling the power demands of today’s equipment while providing maximum flexibility at the same time. It has been developed in close consultation with ARRI – the camera manufacturer will be using the B-Mount for all its future cameras. Crosscompatible with on-set camera and lighting equipment from manufacturers worldwide, the
B-Mount makes it possible to supply all devices on set using one single battery system. This newly developed interface has several decisive advantages compared to its predecessors, including being future-proof; providing a dedicated mobile power supply for high-performance 24V devices; having a sturdy connection; featuring the seamless interlocking of individual components; including a universal 24 Volt industry standard for cameras and lights; and providing users with accurate information on run time and charge time, even with stackable batteries, thereby increasing efficiency on set. Stand G2-13
2021’s first and leading event for satellite and distribution The burgeoning satellite industry have never before been so integral to a broad scope of industries serving government, military, maritime, aviation, broadcast and commercial business enterprises. At CABSAT’s Satexpo, make sure you join the satellite industry to make future-proof investments and strategic alliances with leading global and regional satellite vendors in the MEASA region.
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PROCABSAT
A new level of performance with Volucam 245D60 from IO Industries IO Industries will showcase its new Volucam 245D60 model, which promises a new level of performance, significantly increasing content realism in VFX and animation. A fast, high-resolution image sensor with low noise and superb dynamic range was chosen for it: Sony’s Pregius S IMX530 24.5MP global shutter, featuring backside illumination and a close-to-square image
format (5312H x 4608V). The result is greater shape and texture details for framing faces and full-body poses for
4D face/body scanning. The 245D60’s recording engine was upgraded with a lossless compression algorithm, boosting recording rates to 60fps, 12-bit fullres from the IMX530 sensor, and significantly increasing record time to approximately 24 minutes using the camera’s internal SSD. This allows multi-viewpoint, directionally illuminated image sequences
to be generated quickly, with minimal hold time required of the subject being scanned. The 245D60’s 10GB Ethernet port provides high-bandwidth copper or fibre optic connectivity to fast network switches, for highspeed file transfer to the postprocessing system. Cameras are precisely synchronised to within a few microseconds using PTP (Precision Time Protocol). Stand 104
Pebble Control to make IP connectivity "as simple as SDI" Pebble, which has a large customer base and significant market share in MENA, will be at the show once again to reconnect with customers and showcase its new product range. The company’s solutions control more than 400 channels across 17 countries at around 70 sites in the Middle East. Pebble’s main showcase at CABSAT will be Pebble Control, which it claims makes IP connectivity as simple as SDI. It is a new self-contained, scalable, IP-native, connection management solution that is easy to configure, deploy and operate using web-based UIs. Delivering immediate benefits to even the smallest IP facility, it leverages open standards and interfaces with NMOS-enabled devices, and is easily reconfigurable: one can change, add or remove devices. It also dictates the type of
workflows that sit on top of that control system, and Nevion’s VideoIPath integration enables customers to easily control software-defined networks. The company will also demonstrate its Pebble Automation enterprise-level automation for powerful multi-channel delivery. This platform delivers robust functionality at a scale that suits one’s operations, and can flex and adapt as needs change. A powerful centralised ingest, content management and multi-channel solution,
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it controls mission-critical operations at scores of broadcasters and service providers around the world, and is scalable from one to hundreds of channels. “The events of the last 18 months have obviously meant that we could only engage with our customers digitally. While that has worked well for us, nothing beats meeting new and existing customers face to face, and attending CABSAT this October provides a brilliant opportunity to reconnect with customers and industry peers
alike. We will also show how we have implemented one of the first pure IP-native SMPTE ST 2110 NMOScompliant solutions in the region. As more broadcasters navigate the routes to an all-IP infrastructure, we can demonstrate the efficiency of our system deployment and outline our proven expertise to support successful IP migrations. "We have a highly valued customer base and significant market share in MENA, which is important for us as a business. We are committed to delivering excellent solutions to this market as this region forms part of our global expansion plans over the next year. We will share more on this at CABSAT,” commented Samir Isbaih, VP Sales – Middle East & South Asia. Stand G2-23
PROCABSAT
TSL Products to debut new products at CABSAT 2021 MENA visitors will witness a number of regional debuts at the TSL Products stand this year, within the areas of audio monitoring and control solutions. Making its Middle East debut is TSL’s TallyMan Redundancy Package, which adds protection from unforeseen events with auto-failover during operation and manual failover for system maintenance. The system update aligns with standard redundancy best practices, providing primary and backup TallyMan controllers, and offers synchronisation across configurations with live updates through the primary and back-up system controllers.
The latest software also introduces users to virtual reentries, which allow broadcasters to change source definitions on the fly, share resources, delegate management and re-assign joystick control. This feature is particularly beneficial for sports and OB productions, as it streamlines the operation of switching signal routes during fast-paced,
high-stress productions. On the audio monitoring side, TSL has added to the SAM-Q platform in response to the demand for cost-effective, networked audio monitoring. Also available to the MENA market for the first time is TSL’s new SAM-Q-EDIT, an offline editing tool that allows systems designers and engineers to build configurations, apply
modes, map sources and loudness probes, enter source names and control front panel interface settings on the move. In addition to the latest SAM-Q models, the most recent updates to TSL’s MPA1 audio monitoring solutions will also be on display for the first time in MENA at CABSAT 2021. Stand G2-21
Diversified focuses on ‘as a service’ offerings With the push for digitisation across all sectors and the rise of OTT within the media and entertainment segment, US company Diversified says it is perfectly placed to be part of CABSAT this year, with the aim of networking with existing clients and opening up conversations with new customers on how to support their current and future challenges. The company will be at CABSAT along with its UAE team, which operates under One Diversified FZ LLC. In a statement to BroadcastPro ME, Diversified pointed out that CABSAT serves as the perfect platform for “customer engineers to engage with manufacturers and to get hands-on with their technologies and have discussions with systems
integrators, with the aim of resolving complex challenges that they may be facing”. At the show, Diversified will debut a global ecosystem of technology-managed services tailored to meet the evolving needs of organisations worldwide. With a diverse
team of subject matter experts, Diversified’s professional services methodology is backed by follow-the-sun operations support for remote service and dispatch via the company’s 24/7 Global Service Center and five regional network operation centres around the world. “Investing in and expanding our managed, connected services and ‘as a service’ offerings has been a key initiative for Diversified,” commented Chief Operating Officer Johan Claassen. “Our Global Services team is the cornerstone of this focus, staying one step ahead with an innovative approach and next-gen solutions for servicing tomorrow’s technology.” The company will demonstrate a new suite of solutions that offer four
strategic offerings: Adopt, a dedicated technology specialist; the assurance of equipment warranty, service and support; pulse, which includes remote management and diagnostics; and refresh, which reflects the use of technology as a service. “This new ecosystem provides organisations with strategic tools customised to meet their unique business drivers, enabling our clients to focus on fulfilling their core business objectives – not the technology behind it,” added Claassen. Suhail Ahmed, who leads Dubai operations as CEO of OneDiversified FZ LLC, added: “We look forward to welcoming all our customers and guests to CABSAT 2021 and hope to discuss solutions to the various challenges that business will have to gear up for in the digital realm.” Stand 110
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PROCABSAT
Sparkup to introduce platform for virtual events at CABSAT When the Covid-19 pandemic forced business leaders and event organisers around the world to rethink their events, Sparkup, a French startup with offices in Tokyo, Mexico and Madrid, looked at how to maintain an authentic sense of cohesion, interactivity and spontaneity with remote participants, and make virtual events memorable. The company specialises in audience interaction for events and meetings and will introduce Sparkup Now, a platform that enables the display of a real-time video mosaic of all the participants, with the ability to enable audiences to engage with each other through interaction tools. With no attendance capacity
restriction, the mosaic can be displayed on any screen size. In a single desktop browser, attendees can watch the event, engage with audience interaction tools and share their emotions. Sparkup Now includes ultra-low latency
streaming so the attendee experience is reportedly smooth and dynamic. Ultra-low latency guarantees a delay of only two to four seconds between the video stream and live interactions (votes, quizzes, etc). Speakers can also decide at any time to
enlarge the face of a participant for a two-way exchange. “At Sparkup, our main objective has always been to connect speakers with their audiences and to create meaningful interactions, whether online or in-person,” commented Vincent Bruneau, founder and CEO of Sparkup. To make the event more interactive, Sparkup Now includes quiz and game creation tools. Buzzer, live quizzes, interactive challenges and speed races are available. Sparkup has a team of 25 people and has already offered these experiences to the likes of Nissan, L’Oréal, Coca-Cola and Heineken, among others. Stand F2-35
GB Labs comes with dealer PROLANE to CABSAT
GB Labs will debut Unify Hub, its new storage management platform at CABSAT 2021 and will also showcase its SPACE, FastNAS and Cloak DR solutions. GB Labs is attending this year’s show with its new partner PROLANE, who specialises in offering technology services, AV, and broadcast systems, alongside comprehensive technical support, to customers in the MENA market. GB Labs Unify Hub is a storage management platform designed for today’s dynamically shifting media market. It manages storage – on site or in the cloud from GB Labs or from other vendors. Providing a flexible and
simple way to implement remote and cloud-based workspaces, Unify Hub eliminates the need to provide direct access to cloud resources. Instead, it connects to the cloud, making the data visible to staff on-premise who need access on the local network, like a traditional network share. Unify Hub presents users with an easy-touse way to access data without dealing with the complication of data retrieval – the system takes care of the complicated processes behind-the-scenes. Unify Hub applies intelligence to combine on-premise and cloud storage, empowering remote production while maintaining
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data integrity and security to manage storage effectively and efficiently – on site or in the cloud. The system integrates seamlessly with GB Labs’s own storage solutions as well as those from third-party vendors, providing the tools for maximum productivity from production and post-production artists and creating an environment for high-efficiency collaborative and remote working. GB Labs also has a comprehensive range of storage and archiving products for ingest, archive and everything in between. The range is designed to be easily scalable in both capacity and performance,
with minimal downtime. “CABSAT is arguably the best way to meet up in person with contacts in the MENA region. We’re looking forward to meeting up with prospective and existing customers in the region, along with our channel partners – educating them about what we’ve been doing and discovering what they’ve been up to since we last saw them. We’re keen to show people the new innovations we have been working on to help overcome the challenges inherent to the current trend of mixed home, office and remote working,” commented Harland. Stand G2-27
PROCABSAT
Argosy launches Hyperflex for Middle East market Argosy Middle East LLC will showcase its new Hyperflex at CABSAT for the first time. A new design of SMPTE camera cables and associated products for HD and ultra HD, it is built to withstand heavy treatment such as being pulled over long distances on outside broadcasts or the constant flexing, bending and crushing on studio floors. As well as the cables – available in any length to suit the application – Argosy has also launched a number of Hyperflex accessories, including compact splice trays for production trucks and wall boxes. It will also showcase its kvm-tec IP-connected KVM solutions and Canare patch panels, along with fibre transport solutions and network switches. Also in the spotlight will be Canare patch panels, including
12G solutions, which support Argosy customers in their transition to IP production over SMPTE 2110 and to higher resolutions of 4K and beyond. Video and audio patchbays feature Canare’s rotary switches, providing superior isolation. “The Middle East market appears to be returning to strength, with a number of
tenders in progress and a couple of significant projects underway, for which we have already received sizeable orders. The ability to consistently stock high volumes of our expanding product portfolio locally is a point of pride for Argosy, as it means customers can rely on us to deliver for that big last-minute job with very reduced lead times,
saving them a lot of stress in the process,” commented Regional Sales Manager Raziullah Baig. “This is good news for the local market here in the UAE that is growing rapidly, with countries like Bahrain, Oman and Lebanon registering growth in the sports sector. The construction of more stadia and arenas increases the need to produce local video content. Argosy is perfectly positioned to deliver orders quickly to the region and to provide immediate assistance for such projects, through our regional office in Dubai. For the wider MENA region, the Egyptian market is buoyant, with large projects pushing ahead throughout the remainder of the year and across 2022.” Stand G2-20
Tata Elxsi to exhibit for the first time at CABSAT New exhibitor Tata Elxsi Limited will showcase TEPlay, a pre-integrated, scalable, secure end-toend OTT video delivery platform, at CABSAT. Built on next-gen, microservices-based architecture, it offers consistent performance and dynamic scaling with a unified backend system and processes for OpEx optimisation and easy maintenance. TEPlay is an all-in-one platform which consists of pre-integrated OTT backend components (CMS, SMS, OTT middleware, engagement & usage analytics, content discovery, ad tech solutions) combined with UI/UX design
& application development. TEPlay services, ranging from technical ops to support and maintenance, can be offered as a complete managed services model to potential customers. The platform enables operators to target personalised content to subscribers, making content discovery an intuitive
experience. The AI/ML engine powers the UI/UX personalising content for users. Through the in-built analytics engine, the operator can prioritise and take informed business decisions such as investing in the right content, bundling services, spot discounts and offers. “The MENA market has been
witnessing rapid growth in OTT subscriptions, with both regional as well as global players seeing a sharp rise in their user base. We see a lot of content aggregation happening and shift in monetisation opportunities. Sports is also gaining popularity, and there is overall growth in content consumption on OTT devices. MENA will be a key market for us. By coming to CABSAT, we hope to acquire new clients, network with existing ones, and explore partnerships and go-to-market opportunities,” commented Nitin Pai, CMO, Tata Elxsi. Stand 140
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PROGUEST
“Ultimately, content is still king in the media industry. The difference today is the source of the power doesn’t lie exclusively in owning the audience”
Leveraging the MENA super-aggregation opportunity Competition in the MENA OTT market is at an all-time high, with consumers embracing the myriad streamingbased solutions available. Digital TV Research suggests the 20 MENA countries will hold 32.65m SVOD subscriptions by 2026, compared to the 14.16m at the end of 2020. Some of the telco operators who have historically monopolised the regional market are now struggling to draw key audiences to their platforms, despite having direct relationships with their customers. Ultimately, content is still king in the media industry. The difference today is the source of the power doesn’t lie exclusively in owning the audience; it also exists in the way content is delivered to the subscriber base. So, although the telcos continue to control the fixed and mobile networks, those without content offerings are not capitalising on their inherent market advantages and risk becoming pure data pipes in the longer term. In this mobile-first region, the real opportunity for TV operators lies in capitalising on the growing appetite for streaming to build broader entertainment packages. According to research from PwC, MENA OTT video revenues are expected to grow by 12.3% CAGR between 2019 and 2024. The traditional pay-TV market, by comparison, is forecast to grow by just 0.6% in the same period. Thanks to substantial investment in broadband infrastructure and their ability to expand the reach and capacity of their network traffic, TV operators already have the core
foundations for delivering a great media service. Their sophisticated and unified billing processes make it easy for consumers to access a service and pay for it without friction. These enable TV operators to become orchestrators of entertainment services and deliver open two-way, transparent dialogues between brands and consumers. They can provide the coverage and reach while also leveraging and managing the dual process of owning pay-TV services and streaming content. The next step for TV operators is to enable subscribers to access more relevant and personalised content and enhance their viewing experience. This means providing a high-performing discovery function, holistic recommendation and aggregation, all within a single platform that reduces the potential for churn. To fully embrace the shift to streaming, MENA TV operators need to adopt the same processes as the region’s streaming giants – namely, align more closely with web and cloud-native technologies. This will provide the backbone to launch new services at speed, whether it’s a pop-up service for a live event or running a themed channel during the promotion of a film. The development of cloudnative software has opened the door to greater efficiencies in workflow, speed and elasticity. The ability to increase capacity in the cloud means premium channels can be deployed more easily than ever before. By building their own TV platforms, TV operators can concentrate on
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providing a point of aggregation for their own negotiated content alongside SVOD and other OTT offerings, leveraging their pre-existing trusted relationships with consumers. For telcos, this starts by building streaming technology within existing infrastructure. They can adopt new technologies such as CVQ (constant video quality) and CMAF (common media application format) to provide reliable broadcast-grade OTT video quality and latency, with the ability to scale to meet consumer demand. The super-aggregator story is far from complete. It requires a level of consistency and ubiquity we have yet to see in the market. One of the key issues in MENA revolves around the licensing of content. It’s particularly prominent in the sports space, where major federations are negotiating hard with telcos for the right to broadcast on their streaming service. It’s not a question of just purchasing or creating the content. Once acquired, it also needs to be licensed onto the telco’s platform, on both the traditional set-top box and the array of connected devices. Only then can telcos start gathering insights into consumer preferences and make informed decisions about their content licensing strategy. Nevertheless, advancements in cloud-based rendering, higher-powered computing capabilities, 5G and mobile video streaming present TV operators with a real opportunity. Telcos in MENA own the networks, and they can connect all the various devices together via one holistic streaming platform. Luke Williams is Sales Director MEA at MediaKind.
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