BroadcastPro ME January 2024

ISSUE 159 | JANUARY 2024

Licensed by Dubai Development Authority

TECHING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL Alghad TV migrates to state-of-the-art facility, overhauls tech infrastructure and goes for bold new look

28 FEB 2024 / RIYADH / KSA

Unlocking Future Horizons: Advancing Excellence in Saudi Arabia’s Broadcasting and Media Landscape broadcastpromesummit.com/KSA

ENDORSED BY

PRESENTED BY

PRESENTED BY

Content

Sponsorship

Vijaya Cherian | +971 55 105 3787 vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com

Raz Islam | +971 50 451 8213 raz.islam@cpitrademedia.com

Marketing Sandip Virk | +44 7516 993862 sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com

Minara Salakhi | +971 4 433 2856 minara.s@cpitrademedia.com

Complimentary

Register Now © 2024 CPI Trade Media.

All rights reserved.

Register for free and stay connected

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

Welcome

Shiyas Kareem shiyas.kareem@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 375 5474 EDITORIAL Editor Vijaya Cherian vijaya.cherian@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 55 105 3787 Sub Editor Aelred Doyle ADVERTISING Group Sales Director Sandip Virk sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 50 929 1845 +44 (0) 7516 993 862 DESIGN Art Director Simon Cobon Designer Percival Manalaysay MARKETING & EVENTS Events Executive Minara Salakhi minara.s@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0) 4 433 2856 CIRCULATION & PRODUCTION Data & Production Manager Phinson Mathew George phinson.george@cpitrademedia.com +971 (0)4 375 5476 DIGITAL SERVICES Abdul Baeis Umair Khan FOUNDER Dominic De Sousa (1959-2015) Published by

The publisher of this magazine has made

I wish all of you a Happy New Year.

The new year always presents a great opportunity to speak about new initiatives and make predictions.

I’ll check that first box by saying that BroadcastPro ME will be hosting our first Summit in Saudi Arabia this year on February 28. Our aim is not so much to replicate what we have done in Dubai as to tailor our agenda to suit the Saudi media ecosystem.

Secondly, if I had to make a prediction on one sector in Media and Entertainment that is really going to take off this year, it is the Arabic content market, and I believe Saudi Arabia has played a huge role in giving this sector a massive push.

Besides the El Gouna Film Festival, the Red Sea International Film Festival, which just concluded last month, had the largest showcase of high-quality Arabic-language films that are emerging from the region.

Alongside this, Neom and AlUla have created conducive environments in terms of infrastructure, resources, rebate programmes and the relevant talent pool and crew for regional and international productions to shoot in. The fact that these places also have breathtaking landscape makes them the perfect lures for producers looking for new locales.

ISSUE 159 | JANUARY 2024

Licensed by Dubai Development Authority

every effort to ensure the content is accurate on

On this month's cover…

the date of publication. The opinions and views

An additional advantage is the raft of grants, funding, training programmes, investments from various quarters and collaborations with international partners that are encouraging content creators to ambitiously push forward with their stories, especially as there’s a market now for them.

Saudi Arabia has not just set the stage for high-quality regional productions; it has also fanned deep interest in hyperlocal productions. Saudi feature film Sattar has earned over $11m at the box office so far, with 917,000 admissions since it was launched early last year. Last month, Saudi thriller Mandoob broke all records, earning a whopping $1.58m within ten days of its release across KSA on December 14.

With good Arabic content on the rise, Arabs are starting to favour it over international productions – something definitely worth discussing at our upcoming Saudi summit, in addition to trending topics in broadcast and streaming. Stay tuned.

Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director

Let’s create a vibrant online broadcast community!

expressed in the articles do not necessarily reflect

@BroadcastProME www.facebook.com/BroadcastProME BroadcastProME

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

TECHING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL Alghad TV migrates to state-of-the-art facility, overhauls tech infrastructure and goes for bold new look

Alghad TV's new facility in Egypt.

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.

Subscribe online at:

CPI Trade Media. PO Box 13700, Dubai, UAE. +971 4 375 5470 cpitrademedia.com © Copyright 2024. All rights reserved.

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 3

PROCONTENTS

Inside this issue 06 NEWS TOD partners with Cleeng to elevate subscriber experience; OSN and Warner Bros. Discovery expand partnership; Advanced Media gears up for CINETomorrow; Broadcast Solutions launches VAR Factory in Dubai; MBC Group gets $14.5bn orders for IPO; and more

12 ALGHAD TV BUILDS

CUTTING-EDGE FACILITY Alghad TV recently migrated its operations to a brandnew facility, which included a complete tech overhaul that transformed the media house into a state-of-the-art news entity. BroadcastPro ME brings you the full story

January 2024 A NEW VAR FACTORY IN DUBAI

06

12 BATTLING PIRACY

18

18 RAISING THE FLAG

AGAINST PIRACY While media rights holders miss out on $28bn, the consequences of illegal streams are far darker than lost revenue, putting the region’s economy, employment, data protection and personal safety at risk, says Cameron Andrews

ALGHAD 'TECHS' IT TO NEXT LEVEL

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION SETS THE STAGE FOR FUTURE ENTERTAINMENT

20 TECH HEADS DISCUSS OTT TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW TRENDS IN STREAMING

20 IMMERSIVE INNOVATION Industry experts on how virtual production is transforming the broadcast landscape

24 SMART STREAMING OTT gurus unpack the latest tech trends in streaming

24 INDUSTRY EXPERTS ADDRESS FRESH CHALLENGES IN BROADCAST

30 BROADCAST TECH TRENDS CTOs discuss the hottest trends in broadcast technology

36 2024 PREDICTIONS Steve Reynolds looks at the top five M&E trends to watch out for this year

30 January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 5

PRONEWS

TOD and Cleeng partner to enhance subscriber experience TOD has entered into a strategic partnership with Cleeng to enhance the subscriber journey for TOD users, spanning various devices and touchpoints.

Through Cleeng’s subscriber retention management suite, TOD will optimise subscriber experiences from onboarding to post-sales support.

Subscribers can expect dynamic checkout options, expanded payment choices, flexible subscription plans, recurring billing, improved activations and exclusive promotional offers. The partnership also introduces 24/7 customer support

backed by AI-enabled digital tools, ensuring swift and comprehensive assistance.

James Walmsley, Director of Product, Technology and Analytics at TOD, said: “The improved experience will be felt from the first touch through to a top-tier customer

support interface that has been a priority since our launch. This partnership will enable us to deliver a premium user experience worthy of our compelling sports and entertainment content. We’re also excited to leverage Cleeng’s industry expertise to

expand our outreach, serve more regional subscribers and extend 24/7 client support in both Arabic and English.”

TOD subscribers will gain access to Cleeng’s proprietary Hi5 chatbot, a comprehensive customer support ecosystem tailored for OTT subscribers.

Gilles Domartini, Cleeng’s founder, said: “I am thrilled to share that Cleeng has been chosen by TOD to best serve and support their MENA subscribers. Our out-of-thebox, flexible, multi-tenant SaaS is designed to simplify the complexities of managing subscriber relations, from payment to support at scale.”

Rotana Group’s nine HD channels now on Es’hail-2 satellite

OSN and Warner Bros.

Discovery expand partnership

Es’hailSat has announced a major development in its partnership with Rotana Group, with nine of its HD channels now accessible on the Es’hail-2 satellite positioned at the 26° East hotspot, covering the MENA region. This addition is part of a comprehensive multi-channel, multiyear deal between Rotana and Es’hailSat, contributing to the expansion of the premium television channel video neighbourhood.

Ali Ahmed Al-Kuwari, President and CEO of Es’hailSat, said: “Es’hailSat is delighted to

OSN and Warner Bros.

Discovery have joined forces to enhance entertainment offerings on OSNtv starting January 1, 2024. Cartoon Network, Fatafeat and Animal Planet will be added, catering to a diverse audience and providing a variety of content.

welcome Rotana Group’s channels and bring on board the region’s premier broadcaster to our satellite hotspot. We believe that the diverse range of programming and depth of the channel bouquet offered by us at Es’hailSat aligns perfectly with Rotana Group’s channels to provide quality content across the region.”

The Rotana Group channels are now integrated into the Es’hail-2 channels bouquet, enhancing the premium content lineup available through the Es’hail-2 satellite.

6 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

Fatafeat’s newest show The Kitchen with Chef Marwan Sardouk is now available on OSN+.

Francesco Perta, VP of Business Development and Distribution for MENAT at WBD, said: “The addition of Cartoon Network, Fatafeat and Animal Planet to OSN’s offerings marks a new chapter in our commitment to delivering high-quality, diverse content to as many people as possible.”

PRONEWS

Advanced Media woos digital cinema community with CINETomorrow Advanced Media will host its biannual digital cinema community event January 11-13, with nine workshops and three educative sets in the showroom. The new edition, titled CINETomorrow, will showcase the latest advancements in digital cinema and discuss virtual production, sustainability and green practices in the media and entertainment sector.

Pooyan Farnam, Head of Marketing, said: “The choice to name this edition CINETomorrow is twofold.

During our CINESchool event in October, we launched a new campaign online with the hashtag #iAMTomorrow.

Advanced Media is popularly known as AMT, so that hashtag is a play on the word. But it is also an expression of how involved and influential Advanced Media has been in the industry for so long, and the role it plays in the future of digital cinema, the tomorrow of the industry.”

This year, the team has increased the scope and functionality of the sets to showcase the range and capabilities of Advanced Media’s digital cinema equipment in outdoor, indoor and virtual production settings.

This will also complement the workshops, Farnam said: “Even though the workshops will take place in our meeting rooms, the hands-on and practical portions will be connected to one of the sets in the showroom.”

Award-winning cinematographer Mark

File photo from the Cine2022 event.

‘Hobz’ Hobson and Sony Alpha ambassador Tim Fare-Matthews, both based in the UAE, will conduct some of CINETomorrow’s workshops, as will veteran Egyptian video editor Mostafa Salah and London-based gaffer Simon Battensby. There will also be representation from well-known brands such as Sony, DJI, RED, Zeiss and Atomos, and the launch of the Sony Burano 8K Cinema Camera, younger brother of the Venice 2.

This year’s edition will have a special focus on sustainability, said AMT CEO and co-founder Kaveh Farnam. “We hope to address sustainability in digital cinema in the region. Not only the workshops but even the sets and showroom layout will be referencing this issue. We are committed to doing our part and raising awareness within the region on this front.”

The three-day event has three main themes: ‘Light, Sound, Action!’, ‘Behind the Scenes’ and ‘Future of Cinema’,

each corresponding to a day of workshops. On the first day, Simon Battensby will conduct a ‘Lighting for Drama’ workshop, followed by ‘Microphone Selection for Different Film Genres’ from Sennheiser’s Ryan Burr and sound specialist Simon Charles. This will culminate in the launch of the Sony Burano and ‘Changing the Way You Shoot Cinema’ with Tim Fare-Matthews.

Day two will cover the crucial steps behind a production, curated by Mark ‘Hobz’ Hobson and Mostafa Salah in three workshops. Attendees will also get to experience RED cameras in action and learn about choosing the right optics for a shoot.

Day three will focus on how environmental concerns have shifted productions from physical to digital with cloud technology and virtual production. Filipe Pereira will discuss this in detail and evaluate the environmental footprint of lighting, sound

and post-production. M&E technology expert Iain Churchill-Coleman will run an Editshare workshop on ‘Master Remote Production for Video Editors’, while Simon Battensby will show how to professionally light a virtual production set.

Registration for all nine workshops is free and can be done on the Advanced Media website. Each workshop can accommodate 50 attendees.

The showroom will remain open to the general public from 2-8pm every day.

Alaa Al Rantisi, AMT cofounder, said: “CINETomorrow serves as a meeting point for our clients, suppliers, dealers, counterparts and the digital cinema community at large.

Not only will they be able to familiarise themselves with the latest trends and technological advancements, interact with the equipment and attend workshops, but they will also have the chance to network and collaborate with one another.”

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 7

PRONEWS

Broadcast Solutions launches VAR Factory in Dubai

The VAR Factory in Dubai Studio City

Broadcast Solutions has launched a VAR Factory, an integrated manufacturing and training facility to support football federations and associated service providers to implement video assistant referee systems, in Dubai Studio City. The announcement was made at the World Football Summit Asia, which took place in Jeddah last month.

“Football faces a challenge. VAR has been included in the laws of the game since 2018, but five years later only 65 federations have implemented video assistant refereeing within their competitions,” commented Nicolas Hans, Partner at Broadcast Solutions Middle East. “That means that two-thirds of federations

worldwide have yet to do so!”

The VAR Factory produces both VAR and VAR Lite turnkey systems and addresses the needs of any federation. The systems are available in various form factors including portable flight cases, mobile VAR vans and fixed installations.

All meet the technology requirements of the FIFA Implementation Assistance and Approval Programme (IAAP) and use systems that have the FIFA Quality label.

“We are keen to share the expertise that we have gained as the largest producer of OB vans and remote production systems,” stated Stefan Breder, CEO and founder of the Broadcast Solutions Group. “We build ruggedised platforms that facilitate deployments in the field to support both on-site and remote video refereeing.”

Egyptian actor Mohamed Karim to co-produce Judgment of the Dead with Stuart Ford's AGC Studios AGC Studios, led by Stuart Ford, has joined forces with Egyptian actor Mohamed Karim’s MK Global Entertainment to coproduce Judgment of the Dead, an English-language thriller deeply rooted in ancient Egypt. Karim is known across the Middle East for his roles in popular Ramadan soaps and as a former host of the Arab-

language version of singing talent format The Voice. His notable roles in Hollywood include appearances alongside Nicolas Cage in the 2019 action movie A Score to Settle and with Bruce Willis in A Day to Die. The project is currently in its early stages, with no director or additional cast members announced.

Ford, with his extensive

8 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

involvement in the Middle East, plans to present Judgment of the Dead at the third edition of the Red Sea Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, along with the market. Negotiation of the deal was overseen

by Anant Tamirisa, Senior VP of Legal and Business Affairs at AGC, which will hold the worldwide rights for the film.

Paul Chesney launches Red Palm Pictures Former Universal Pictures executive Paul Chesney has launched Red Palm Pictures, a Riyadh-based production company, and will assume the role of CEO. The company will specialise in the development and production of original feature films, TV shows and documentaries. It aims to cater to theatrical and streaming audiences in the MENA region and around the globe.

This announcement follows the recent launch of TwentyOne Entertainment, a sister distribution company also helmed by Chesney. Both entities will operate under the same roof, establishing a comprehensive entertainment hub that covers production and distribution.

Red Palm Pictures has already secured a multi-picture development deal with Saudi writer and director Tawfik Alzaidi. Alzaidi’s debut feature, Norah, premiered in competition at the Red Sea Film Festival last month, with international sales managed by TwentyOne Entertainment. The initial four-picture deal commences with Alzaidi’s second feature project, action and adventure drama Thuraya.

Route any combination of SD, HD and Ultra HD at the same time!

Blackmagic Videohub 12G-SDI video routers let you connect all your equipment without creating a complex cable mess!

Blackmagic Videohub routers support 12G-SDI so they allow you to connect and route any combination of SD, HD and Ultra HD on the same router at the same time. Plus they have zero latency so are perfect for live production and broadcast!

Advanced 12G-SDI for SD, HD and Ultra HD Routing

Elegantly Designed Front Panel

Features Full SDI Re-Clocking

The built in front control panel lets you route video, so you get the perfect solution

Videohub includes built in SDI re-clocking on every 12G-SDI input. SDI re-clocking

for live production racks that don’t have the space for extra hardware panels. The

regenerates the video signal for maximum video quality. This is extremely important

front panel features a spin knob for browsing, direct entry buttons for speed and an

because longer video cables degrade the signal. With SDI re-clocking all of the

LCD for displaying labels. As the panel is built into the router, you can also see live

SDI devices in your studio receive a regenerated signal with improved jitter

video on the LCD! The LCD also has menus so you can change router settings.

performance. That means longer cable lengths, and no drop outs in your video.

Change Router Crosspoints Visually!

With a built in LCD, Blackmagic Videohub 12G can show you live video of all your router inputs! This means you can see all router inputs as live video before you change a route. There are also labels displayed below the live video to make it easy to identify the input you are viewing. What this means is you can scroll up and down the router sources in alphabetical order and see each input as live video.

Blackmagic Videohub 12G features advanced 12G-SDI connections which are multi rate so they support any SD, HD and Ultra HD video format up to 2160p60.

Plus Blackmagic Videohub 12G supports routing any video standard on the same router at the same time. 12G-SDI gives you high frame rate Ultra HD via a single BNC connection that also plugs into all of your regular HD equipment!

Blackmagic Videohub 12G From US$1,509

Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com/ae www.blackmagicdesign.com/ae SRP excludes duties, shipping and sales tax.

Learn More!

PRONEWS

ATL Media to exclusively represent Zee Entertainment channels in MENA ATL Media, a Zee Network Enterprise, will exclusively represent Zee Entertainment channels in the MENA region effective January 1, 2024.

ATL Media also continues as the sole representative for Cartoon Network’s channels and extended digital assets in the MENA region. This move underscores ATL Media’s strategy of providing varied advertising solutions to a wide-ranging audience.

Ashok Namboodri, Chief Business Officer for International Business at Zee Entertainment, said: “We are excited and enthused about this new chapter in our growth plans in the region and are

Medhat Houalla, Executive VP of Ad Sales and Syndication at ATL Media.

confident that ATL Media’s expertise will significantly enhance the reach and impact of our diverse channels.”

Medhat Houalla, Executive VP of Ad Sales and Syndication at ATL Media, added: “We are thrilled to reclaim the exclusive representation of Zee Entertainment channels in the MENA region. This move seamlessly aligns with our mission to deliver diverse, high-quality creative solutions that resonate with our clients. Our team is enthusiastic about the opportunities this brings, and we are dedicated to ensuring an unparalleled advertising experience for our partners.”

MBC Group gets $14.5bn orders for IPO MBC Group has completed the Participating Parties’ book-building process, culminating in the determination of the Final Offer Price for its initial public offering (IPO). The Final Offer Price has been established at SAR 25 per share, resulting in a market capitalisation of SAR 8.3bn ($2.2bn) at the time of listing. The Offer Price range, initially set at SAR 23-25, garnered significant investor interest during the book-building process, ultimately leading to the Final Offer Price being fixed at SAR 25. The successful offering raised gross proceeds of approximately

SAR 831m ($222m).

The book-building process had remarkable support from investors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the broader regional landscape and international investors. This resulted in an impressive order book totalling SAR 54.5bn ($14.5bn), subscription coverage of approximately 66 times the total offered shares.

The broadcaster is selling 33.25m new ordinary shares, equivalent to 10% of its total issued share capital. The shares will start trading on the Saudi Exchange’s main market following the “completion

10 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

of the IPO and listing formalities” with the Capital Market Authority, MBC said.

Sam Barnett, CEO of MBC Group, said: “The demand from investors reflects the high trust they have placed in MBC Group’s ability to shape the future of media and entertainment in Saudi Arabia, the MENA region and beyond. The response highlights investors’ recognition of our strong brand, expansive reach, diverse and highquality content portfolio, as well as the significant potential for growth which is underpinned by Shahid.

We are encouraged by this vote of confidence and

look forward to delivering more engaging experiences to our audience of 150m viewers per week as we embark on this new phase.”

Following the completion of the IPO, the current shareholders will retain 90% of the company’s share capital. Post-listing, the company is anticipated to have a free float of 10% of its share capital. The Offer Shares are scheduled to be listed and traded on the Saudi Exchange’s Main Market, subject to the completion of the IPO and listing formalities with the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Saudi Exchange.

PRONEWS

Saudi Arabia reorganises GAMR Salman Al-Dosari, the Minister of Media and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority of Media Regulation (GAMR) of Saudi Arabia, officially launched the strategic vision and identity of the authority, following the Council of Ministers’ approval for the reorganisation of GAMR. The new strategy aims to position GAMR as a leader in the media sector within the Kingdom, elevating its influence at both regional and international levels.

Its goals include enhancing the investment appeal of the media sector and optimising the efficiency of Saudi personnel.

The strategy is part of a mission to amplify the media sector’s contributions to the gross domestic product (GDP), aspiring to achieve a target of $12.53bn by 2030. Recognising the sector’s inherent potential, the strategy emphasises seizing opportunities to diversify the national economy and bolster the non-oil GDP in Saudi Arabia.

Osama Alkhurayji’s debut feature to be shot in AlUla Siwar, the debut feature-length film by Saudi director and producer Osama Alkhurayji, will be filmed in AlUla. Siwar weaves a narrative around two families entangled in a fateful revelation about their newborns. The film, spanning three chapters, explores the lives of Yaner, a Turkish father, and Hamad, a Saudi father, navigating societal challenges and personal upheavals.

In addition to directing Siwar, Alkhurayji is the CEO of Hakawati Entertainment and is known for his work locally and internationally.

His achievements include co-directing the 2018 film Joud and producing content for prominent international networks. He has collaborated with major TV networks, theatres, distributors and streaming platforms like Netflix, Shahid and SBA. Siwar is part of Film AlUla's efforts to expand

Saudi director and producer Osama Alkhurayji has collaborated with several major regional and international players on various projects.

opportunities for homegrown creators. The film follows in the footsteps of other highprofile Saudi productions shot in AlUla, such as Netflix’s The Matchmaker and Tawfik Alzaidi’s debut feature Norah.

Alkhurayji said: “Siwar is poised to make a profound impact at both national and international levels, reflecting the unique stories and cultural richness of the region. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting project.”

With phase one of a full-

service world-class production facility nearing completion, Film AlUla is enhancing its onground infrastructure to further support the film industry in the region. The facility includes a soundstage, backlot, production support buildings, workshops, warehouses, a recording studio, training and rehearsal space, a cafeteria, an event space and an iconic administration building, contributing to the Kingdom’s commitment to cultural and economic development.

Front Row Productions invests in Untamed Talent Former Mister Smith Entertainment executive Antone Saliba has launched Untamed Talent, a new management and production company backed

by Dubai-based Front Row Productions. This venture is a collaborative effort involving Front Row Filmed Entertainment and Empire Entertainment.

Front Row Productions is set to provide both

strategic support and capital to support Untamed Talent's ambitions of pioneering innovative business models within the SWANA (south-west Asia and North Africa) region.

Recognised as the fastestgrowing entertainment market globally, the focus extends beyond representing filmmakers from established Middle East industry hubs like

Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Untamed Talent aims to identify, develop and promote talent from underrepresented countries in the region, including Jordan, Morocco, Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey and Iran. It will collaborate with production and distribution entities in the region and the US and international studios and streamers, to maximise opportunities for its clients.

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 11

PROCOVER

FROM BREAKING NEWS TO BREAKING GROUND 12 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

PROCOVER

Alghad TV recently migrated its operations to a brand-new facility, an opportunity to implement a tech overhaul that has transformed it from a conventional news channel into a cutting-edge broadcasting entity. In an exclusive feature, Vijaya Cherian provides an in-depth tour and insight into this project

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 13

PROCOVER

Alghad TV, a major news and variety entertainment channel headquartered in Egypt, recently shifted its operations to a cuttingedge facility in the heart of Egyptian Media Production City.

Besides the physical relocation, this move was also a strategic attempt to completely overhaul the channel's technological infrastructure and keep up with international standards in news broadcasting and media production. Ideal Systems Middle East was contracted as the main systems integrator for this project and was responsible for the technical and studio fit-outs at the facility, including studio set design, broadcast and IT systems design, as well as the execution of the entire project.

With offices in Palestine and Beirut as well as a network of reporters across the globe, Alghad TV has positioned itself as a pan-Arab channel with a particular focus on people’s causes and human rights issues, says CEO Abbas Nasser.

“We are a comprehensive news channel that provides a mix of news and entertainment, but in light of the ongoing war on Gaza, we are

currently prioritising comprehensive and in-depth news coverage. Our slogan, ‘Media without claims’, reflects our commitment to factual and objective reporting. We aim to provide high-quality news coverage that aligns with our values of social justice and human rights.”

He adds that the recent upgrade is an important step in realising the company’s vision of being a major broadcaster in the Arab world, from a content and tech perspective.

“We recently underwent a significant upgrade to our facilities, incorporating the latest technological advancements to enhance our newsgathering capabilities and expand our reach across the Arab world. The new facility is part of our efforts to deliver high-quality news and

“The new facility is part of our efforts to deliver high-quality news and

programming that respects our viewers and aligns with our vision as one of the leading news channels”

Abbas Nasser, Chief Executive Officer, Alghad TV

The main studio at Alghad TV.

14 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

programming that respects our viewers and aligns with our vision as one of the leading news channels. We have embraced a new brand identity, introduced a compelling slogan, revamped our programming, and are poised to launch a comprehensive line-up of shows covering a diverse spectrum of topics including politics, culture, health and environment.

And our team is fully equipped to execute this ambitious plan.”

The Technology The channel’s migration involved a complete upgrade of its broadcast infrastructure and the deployment of a raft of new technologies. This was spearheaded by Ideal Systems Middle East, helmed by Managing Director Ayman Alkhatib. A core video router, Avid PAM system migration to Cloud UX and an upgrade of Vizrt graphics engines to version 5.0 were key components of this migration.

In addition, Ideal Systems was responsible for the integration of Alghad TV’s corporate and broadcast networks, its virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) capabilities, and a fully IP-based lighting system.

Ayman Elhelw, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Alghad TV, speaks

PROCOVER

Snapshot Client: Alghad TV Location: Egypt Objective: To design and build a brand-new facility for Alghad TV, as well as seamlessly migrate its operations from an older site to the new site Systems integrator: Ideal Systems Middle East Key suppliers: Sony, Vinten, SSL, Sennheiser, Liantronics, Avid, Imagine Communications, Telestream, Vizrt, LYNX-Technik, Cisco

of the transformation of the channel’s broadcast IT infrastructure as “from bare metal servers to a completely virtualised environment … With it, we have ensured enhanced efficiency and flexibility in our operations.”

Alghad TV previously worked with an Avid Interplay PAM system.

With the move, the channel now uses the Avid MediaCentral Production Management system with MediaCentral Cloud UX, enabling seamless access from anywhere via a web-based interface.

“The legacy Interplay PAM system was old and had reached the end of its lifecycle. The move to the new MediaCentral Cloud UX platform was essential for our continued evolution,” Elhelw explains.

The transition involved migrating media files from Avid ISIS storage to Avid Nexis, moving the Avid Interplay and iNews database to a new VM-based infrastructure, along with HSM flashnet migrating

Clockwise from top left: Transmission control room, the virtual studio floor, the newsroom and the main programme control room.

to Telestream DIVA and the LTO6 tape library moving to LTO 8 technology from Spectra, anchoring the channel’s current newsroom system.

The existing Vizrt graphics system was also upgraded to leverage the latest in AR/VR technology. Furthermore, the media house switched from a legacy DMX-based studio lighting system to a more modern IP-based solution using the ArtNet lighting control protocol.

The Studios A major showcase at the new facility is the grand 400sqm studio on the ground floor, which is not just a hub for news production but also blends innovation with aesthetics. Nasser explains that everything at the new facility is a step closer to achieving the management’s larger vision to expand further in the MENA, as well as across the globe.

“Our new facility matches our expansion goals. Besides having a network of reporters across the world, we have now equipped ourselves with

everything we need to ensure that our news can be delivered to our audiences in the highest possible standards. To that effect, we have our main 24/7 news studio, which is attached to the newsroom; our production studio; and our virtual studio, which is used extensively by our social media team.”

The main studio has the news platform at its centre, with curved features around it creating a globeshaped visual impact when viewed from the outside. From the inside, the curves serve as multi-layer backdrops for all the sets and are intended to convey that Alghad TV’s news platform is connected from the centre to the whole world.

Similar curved graphic patterns on the studio floor represent its global news network coverage.

The studio’s set functions are laid out along the outer ring of the elliptic studio, with seating planned for news reporting, multiple guest interviews,

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 15

PROCOVER

Ayman Elhelw, CTO, Alghad TV.

Abbas Nasser, CEO, Alghad TV.

breaking news areas, large LED screen standing news reporting, and live streaming interviews. The rings on the top which form the centre of the studio are made of fibreglass and weigh a whopping 1,500kg.

The studio features five sets of LED screens in different sizes, with three on motorised tracks and one on a rotating frame.

This design provides maximum flexibility for information and video display, catering to different types of programmes and scenarios.

Presenters facing the screen can engage in single and multiple guest live streaming interviews, as well as live interaction with reporters on the news scene. The camera zone is in the centre of the studio, making it fast and easy to move in order to switch shots between sets. The directors can use multiple sets in a single programme, with each item presented on the best possible set.

One large and one small presenter desk with movable platforms provide the flexibility to use any part of the studio as a backdrop, while also enabling interaction with the nearby sets. Floor space has been reserved for immersive graphics, while the curved features add another dimension for news presentations. The studio floor, with its shifting video walls, is a dynamic space that can be effortlessly transformed into at least 12 unique

set-ups for the channel’s diverse shows.

This is the biggest of three studios and includes five pedestal cameras and a crane with the ability to facilitate seamless transitions between shows.

The channel has invested in 17 HD 1080i Sony cameras – ten for the main studio, four for the production studio and three for the VR studio – accompanied by the Sony 4 ME vision mixer. The other two studios are on the higher floors.

The studio layout has been meticulously planned to allow a variety of camera shots, from intimate medium close-ups to expansive wide shots, thereby contributing to the overall visual appeal of the channel’s news broadcasts. The ability to swiftly reposition cameras also helps minimise downtime and maximise on-screen action, creating a dynamic viewing experience for the audience.

A two-tier video wall screen design, which adds depth and style to the

“We worked very well with Ideal Systems, who

emerged as the preferred partner, offering turnkey solutions encompassing broadcast integration, lighting and set design”

Ayman Elhelw, Chief Technology Officer, Alghad TV

16 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

Ayman Alkhatib, MD, Ideal Systems Middle East.

visual narrative, is intended to elevate Alghad TV’s broadcasts.

Different design elements have been added to the studio space.

Smooth transitions between camera positions help maintain a visual dialogue, linking presenters across diverse locations within a single frame. The result is a seamless and engaging viewing experience.

“The set isn’t just designed to be shot from inside – it’s a visual spectacle from the outside, especially when viewed from the second floor. Every angle has been aesthetically engineered,” explains Alkhatib. “The newsroom is also an extension of the set and exudes a professional allure onscreen while offering a comfortable ambience for journalists.”

The new facility also features two fully redundant control rooms, ensuring uninterrupted operations and broadcasting, as well as the transmission room (TXR), the master control room (MCR) and a SAT room that takes care of connectivity and broadcasting. The central apparatus room (CAR) is the central nerve centre, coordinating and managing the technical aspects. To support content creation and editing, there are seven edit suites and 130+ journalist positions, facilitating a dynamic and efficient news production environment. In addition, there are eight creative desks.

PROCOVER

Ideal Systems Middle East also designed and installed the lighting system at the facility, and is very proud of what it achieved. The studio’s floor and ceiling feature sophisticated LED lighting, enabling mood transformations that align with the essence of each show and the time of day.

“This lighting design adds a layer of visual storytelling, enhancing the overall viewer experience.

The main colours in use are white, silver and light grey, with RGBW LED lightboxes and LED strips to light onto the colour finishing surface. This lighting has been thoughtfully put together to ensure the space is ready for any purpose, be it broadcasting or as a workspace,” explains Alkhatib.

The Challenges One of the big challenges with this installation was migrating from legacy systems without any downtime, and Alghad TV’s commitment extends beyond traditional broadcasting.

“Decommissioning major legacy systems was no small feat, as the team had to ensure uninterrupted on-air operations during the

The Alghad data centre is located at its headquarters in Egypt.

“The newsroom is also an extension of the set and

exudes a professional allure on-screen while offering a comfortable ambience for journalists”

Ayman Alkhatib, Managing Director, Ideal Systems Middle East transition. Our migration efforts extended to media files, databases and storage solutions, with meticulous planning and execution,” says Alkhatib.

Elhelw goes on: “We experienced several different challenges during this integration, which is to be expected when you are migrating from an old system to a more sophisticated and futuristic one. It gets more complicated when you have a complex design and are integrating highend solutions like Avid and Imagine with the system. However, we worked very well with Ideal Systems, who emerged as the preferred partner, offering turnkey solutions encompassing broadcast integration, lighting and set design.”

Elhelw says four systems integrators were on the final list for the project, with Ideal Systems chosen for its ability to deliver a complete turnkey solution.

What’s Next?

With the infrastructure and workflow fully in place, Alghad intends to focus on boosting its social media efforts. Nasser notes that the channel has already experienced substantial growth in the social media space but hopes to boost its presence there further.

“Our vision is to become a leading media brand that seamlessly integrates social media engagement with traditional television broadcasting. In the years to come, we will prioritise social media as a primary platform for delivering news and engaging with our audience.

Our growing social media following and fan engagement demonstrate our commitment to this strategy. We are already among the top media brands in the Arab world in terms of social media engagement. Our social media presence is expanding rapidly, and we are continuously investing in our social media teams.

We have established creative studios and digital studios dedicated to producing innovative and engaging content specifically for our social media platforms. This expansion will further solidify our position as a leading social media brand.”

The channel has established a creative studio designed to producing programmes exclusively for social media. In addition, a dedicated podcast studio and a virtual studio for the digital team underscore its commitment to content creation for social media.

The channel is also revamping its website with new apps to give viewers more 360-degree audio and visual offerings.

Alghad TV’s relocation and technological upgrade mark a significant chapter in its evolving legacy. The meticulous attention to technological advancements, coupled with a strategic vision for the future, positions Alghad TV as a formidable player in the dynamic landscape of news. PRO

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 17

PROANTI-PIRACY

NO ROOM FOR SURRENDER: THE COLLECTIVE FIGHT AGAINST PIRACY

While media rights holders miss out on $28bn, the consequences of illegal streams are far darker than lost revenue, putting the region’s economy, employment, data protection and personal safety at risk, says Cameron Andrews

Whenever the subject of television piracy comes up in mainstream media, analogies tend to – somewhat understandably – liken it to a battle on the high seas, captains versus crooks. Unfortunately, such a metaphor is misplaced and threatens to underplay the importance and dangers of the ongoing billion-dollar fight our industry is facing.

Whenever I find myself discussing the issue of piracy with people outside the broadcast industry, I liken TV pirates to parasites. A parasite will eventually overwhelm and kill its host, and these well-organised businesses that are making huge amounts of money from stealing from the legitimate industry are no different. They will ultimately undermine and ruin the very services upon which they and their users depend. When that happens, everyone suffers.

Last year, in a bid to tackle piracy operations that

18 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

threaten the sports broadcasting and streaming industry, beIN joined a live streaming piracy task force put together by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s premier antipiracy association. Our partnership has already borne fruit, bringing down a Morocco-based operation just days before the 2022 World Cup, as well as several other pirate website rings affecting MENA. Coming together to conceptualise and agree on strategy, beIN and the ACE task force focus on the companies that provide the internet hosting services used by pirates for their illegal services. The task force also investigates and brings legal enforcement action against the pirates themselves. The fight is both complex and continual, and one the industry cannot afford to lose.

A study published last year by Synamedia and market research firm Ampere Analysis found sports service providers

PROANTI-PIRACY

“Make no mistake, users may think their stream is free of charge, but as the adage goes: If you are not paying for a product, then you are the product” Cameron Andrews, Legal Director, Anti-Piracy, beIN Media Group

and rights holders are missing out on up to $28bn in new revenue.

While consumers may not care that a major corporation is missing out on additional billions, the less obvious knock-on effects are where the real focus should be. This is not only a question of huge losses.

Piracy does not support the local economy or jobs. More specifically, wherever there are high levels of piracy, it sends a strong message that the country is one in which intellectual property rights are not respected, a place where investment in building up

local industries and jobs is risk-laden.

Not only that, but users have no idea who is behind the illegal services they are using, where their money is going, or what is happening with their data and personal information.

We have seen many examples of settop boxes sold for piracy in MENA with hidden functionality that allows them to be hijacked and used by the pirates to launch cyber-attacks. Pirate users also expose themselves to cyber risks in the form of malware, data capture or taking remote control of connected devices whenever they use pirated services.

The Synamedia report found that 48% of sports fans surveyed do not pay for their illegal streaming service.

Yet do not be fooled. Users may not see it at point of sale or when dealing with their point of contact, but without doubt the sophisticated criminals behind the service are generating huge revenues, regardless of which of the three types of pirated streams they are providing: set-top boxes, websites or social media feeds.

While set-top-box services are typically monetised through subscription fees, websites and social media streams benefit primarily from online advertising and malware. And make no mistake, users may think their stream is free of charge, but as the adage goes: If you are not paying for a product, then you are the product.

Another consequence of piracy is that when companies such as beIN face such huge revenue losses, it hampers the ability to invest in high-quality production. Legitimate broadcasters provide local jobs in

distribution, production, translation, communications and so much more; they generate much-needed tax revenues to bolster local and national economies; and they continually invest and innovate in cybersecurity.

Piracy also raises doubts about the value of television rights when it comes to securing major sporting events. This, for the consumer, is the end game, the moment the parasite self-cannibalises. When a broadcaster reaches a point at which buying the rights to an event is no longer financially worthwhile, it will refuse to pay. Without television rights money, films and series will fail to be made, sports leagues and clubs will suffer, the media industry will sorely lack investment, and the overall quality of broadcast content will diminish until eventually the output fades to black.

So while it is easy to plead for the public to say no to piracy, stakeholders must also continue to increase their defences. Our industry, and rights-holders in particular, are no longer sleepwalking towards a financial cliff as in previous years, but there remains much room for improvement.

Stronger efforts are necessary from sports and entertainment organisers, greater determination from the authorities is essential, and sharing best practices at a global level, as we do today in Doha, must continue.

Cameron Andrews is Legal Director, Anti-Piracy at beIN Media Group.

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 19

PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION

VIRTUAL PRODUCTION PUMPS UP CREATIVITY A MarketsandMarkets report predicts the global virtual production market will reach $5.1bn by 2027, with a 14.5% CAGR from $3.1bn in 2023. Recognising the growing regional and regional interest, BroadcastPro ME brought together experts to discuss trends and features that make virtual production relevant to the industry

Computer-generated imagery (CGI), real-time rendering engines, augmented reality, motion capture, performance capture, and visualisation and lighting techniques, to name a few, have revolutionised content creation in films and TV. Collectively known as virtual production techniques, these groundbreaking technologies have opened up unlimited and exciting possibilities for creators.

Virtual production’s potential is also evident from a MarketsandMarkets research report, which estimates the value of the global virtual production market will reach $5.1bn by 2027, from $3.1bn in 2023, a CAGR of 14.5%.

Virtual production’s global and regional boom made it a pertinent topic at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit in November. Olaf Sperwer from Business Development Virtual Production | XR Stage at ROE Visual Europe and Fadi Radi, Chief Creative Officer at Blinx, spoke about the advantages and potential of virtual production in a discussion moderated by Daniel Kafer, Associate and Supertrends Expert, Supertrends Institute.

The panel started with Kafer commenting on how virtual production had sensationalised the broadcast industry, but there was still some ambiguity around the technology.

20 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

Prompted by him, Sperwer explained how it works.

“Virtual production is based on the game engine idea that you have a virtual camera connected with a virtual background. To transfer this to the real world, you need a canvas connected to a tracking system and the cameras to create a ‘full illusion’. This means everything is moving, everything is immersed.

“Unlike in the early movies, you have a stationary object in the front and a moving projection or green screen behind.

We have made the physical green screen superfluous. We can also create chromagreen with the LED volume if necessary.

All you need for virtual production is an LED wall, processing, a studio, a tracking system and the right cameras.”

ROE Visual is a major manufacturer of LED products, especially for virtual production. The company shot to fame after its LED wall was used to film Disney´s The Mandalorian, which went on to become a blockbuster. The series’ success accelerated ROE Visual’s expansion into the film and TV sector, and today the company boasts a robust presence in more than 125 studios worldwide.

One of the first advantages of virtual production came into focus during the Covid-19 pandemic. With restrictions

PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION

on shooting, production companies started using LED backdrops for scenes they couldn't shoot outdoors. “This was a huge boost for the whole XR industry,” stated Sperwer.

For new media entrant Blinx, virtual production was thought to be the ideal way to attract its target audience, the region’s Gen Z and millennial demographic.

The company’s digital storytelling hub is designed to cater to their entertainment needs.

“We saw a great opportunity to use technology like virtual production and XR to attract our target audience. XR gives us a lot of flexibility and creativity at a high speed and for a very low cost,” commented Blinx’s Radi.

“There is substantial investment in the beginning, but in the long run the production costs come down.

Imagine changing five studios in a day. And if you have five shows that have to be produced every week, you can only do this with the support of super technology.

With virtual production, you can have a set for every occasion, and you can change the set every week and play around with all the elements. You can combine AR elements with XR to give you a more interactive experience.”

Virtual production eliminates green screens Radi also pointed to the weaknesses of the green screen, which virtual production eliminates. “A green screen can give you the same concept but lacks many features. Producers face a lot of issues when it comes to chroma keying with green spills. Using a green screen for a dark scene used to be a nightmare! It didn't work because the surroundings must be dark while you needed to cast light on the talent. This made postproduction very tedious, and there was no guarantee it would work,” he explained.

“With a green screen, the talent is also rendered blind. They don’t know what elements are present or if they are moving or stationary. They don’t know how these elements are interacting with each other.

By comparison, LED screens and XR solutions help achieve interactivity.”

“Unreal Engine 5.2 now supports generative AI, where you can dream the scene you want and tell AI to produce it.

If I need to be on Mars, I can just buy a template of Mars, get it into our studio, get the talent there and start shooting” Fadi Radi, Chief Creative Officer, Blinx

Cost efficiency and flexibility “Virtual production also reduces costs and workflow enormously.

Our new LED XR [extended reality] technology helps every kind of production, whether it’s news, film or TV. It helps reduce the workflow on the content creation side and gives a full immersive experience,” said Radi.

Another benefit of virtual production is the elimination of introduction training, said Sperwer: “If a news show has new hosts and they don’t have the time to learn the script, the autocues and markers can be hidden in the LED screens and walls without the audience seeing them. So anchors and talents can just walk seamlessly from one set to another, and there is no need for rehearsal and training. This will help TV producers to reduce time and costs in the studio.”

Another decisive advantage virtual production offers is its ability to centralise the production process and even produce shows remotely.

“At Blinx, the set-up we have now is completely cloud-based. Content creators can access all the tech we have in the office and use it to film a video in their homes or anywhere else. It’s a seamless remote production offering,” said Radi.

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 21

PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION

Enhancing content through interactivity According to Radi, the ability to interact with content matters greatly for new-generation creators, and virtual production gives them this ability. “They like doing things in a way we don’t understand. It’s not just seeing the Titanic in the background. They want the ship in the living room, where they can interact with it on an AR level.

Virtual production creates this interactivity for them,” he explained.

“While the industry is focused on investing in content, no one is offering interactive content. And this is what sets Blinx apart from other studios. We can create so much interactivity between the storyteller and the audience. Blinx is investing in creating constant interactive content and user experiences that people haven’t seen before. Blinx goes beyond what TV and OTT are doing at the moment. It enables a more interactive experience not just for the storyteller but also for the audience, allowing them to engage more with the story and share it in many forms across digital platforms.”

Kafer agreed that with content creators seeking greater flexibility and interactivity, the old model of building studios had expired. He also likened grabbing and retaining audience attention to a science, one where creators constantly must seek new methods to keep audiences tuned in. He asked the panellists if there were any set-ups that guaranteed audience retention.

“There are many strategies that can be used to engage the audience, but the first impression is always the most important,” said Radi. “Given that creators only have three seconds to capture the audience’s attention and retain them, the story’s first visual frame and the experience it offers within those three seconds are critical to its success. In those three seconds we try to give them the most visually appealing and

“Currently, our whole effort is concentrated on making our LED panels smarter, more intelligent and affordable to a broader audience” Olaf Sperwer, Business Development Virtual Production | XR Stage, ROE Visual Europe interactive content so that they stay with us, engage more and share more – for instance, allowing them to play with the elements installed within the XR set.”

This has led to the introduction of elements such as LED ceilings, floors and furniture in virtual production, said Radi. “These elements enhance the visual effects of any story. It’s what gives viewers their famous football player running in front of them or puts them in a spaceship in space.”

Gaming engines are game-changers Beyond XR and LED fixtures, gaming engines such as Epic’s Unreal Engine have elevated the capabilities of virtual production and become the kernel of all media engines so far.

One of the main features of a gaming engine is the real-time rendering capacity: changes that were previously made in post-production can now be made immediately on set. This has helped speed up the creative and production workflow.

22 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

Additionally, gaming engines combined with the right processing and LED volumes allow filmmakers and TV producers to quickly craft fantastical worlds, implementing immersive backdrops, graphics and 3D animations with unrestricted creativity and choice.

“If we count the sold licences of Unreal Engine 5.2, we have 7m developers working to create fabulous immersive content, and these 7m produce games daily, which means the number of assets in the marketplace is vast. Unreal Engine 5.2 now supports generative AI, where you can dream the scene you want and tell AI to produce it.

If I need to be on Mars, I can just buy a template of Mars, get it into our studio, get the talent there and start shooting,” remarked Radi.

Sperwer cited the example of the Netflix production 1899, which used a ship model bought for $15 on Unreal Engine. The production designer then used this model and virtual sets to frame the production design and create each set as a piece of this overall 3D model.

“This approach reduced ten production days on the series, saving approximately up to eight shooting days in an expensive film studio,” he said. “Netflix learned what they can do with virtual production creatively and cost-wise, and is worldwide a bar raiser for virtual production.

One of the most successful Netflix producers, the Spanish production company Vancouver Media (Money Heist), has been using our LED screens since 2022. The first scenes with the virtual technology can be seen this year at the end of December in the series Berlin.”

Awareness and customisation are key Despite virtual production’s benefits, Kafer highlighted the dilemma some producers may face in its adoption: “They could have invested heavily in a physical studio

PROVIRTUALPRODUCTION

or may just not have the budget to move to virtual production.”

According to Sperwer, the only way to deal with this is by raising awareness and offering customisation.

“One client may be focused on reducing costs and another may want to extend the team creativity, so our approaches to both will be very different. We have to be customer-centric and offer what they need. We understand that we need to guide the customer’s journey and help in the decision process with a knowledge base.

“Let’s say somebody in Dubai wants to buy an LED-based studio.

We, in the role of the manufacturer, would introduce the customer to a systems integrator to implement all the elements needed to run a virtual set, such as the LED volume, processing, cameras, tracking systems and content engines. This is what we think Is the cost of market leadership.”

Talking about industry acceptance of virtual production, Sperwer highlighted that adoption has often been slow. “It has been rapid in films but not so in broadcast. For instance, in Europe the organisation is very ‘engineer-minded’ with a greater focus on safety. We understand that they don't want to experiment too much.”

However, he added that broadcasters such as Sky News London and Fox NFL have broken barriers by adopting LED real-time technologies into their sport and news formats. “We have some heroes and some proof-of-concept stories.

We are receiving significant orders from news and sports broadcasters.”

“With virtual production, you can have a set for every occasion, and you can change the set every week and play around with all the elements” Fadi Radi, Chief Creative Officer, Blinx there is no way to predict the future of virtual production, given the breakneck speed at which it is advancing and innovations are breaking through.

“I don’t know what’s coming up in the future,” said Sperwer. “I assume AI will drive our market. When this light source becomes more and more intelligent and fluent through the merging of game engine technology, camera tracking and immersive tech, it will reach a point where we can support our client with even better storytelling and production tools.

Right now, most of us already have LED screens in our homes, and in time, if this

can become a wall that ‘speaks’ to us and creates a greater sense of immersion, it may become a hit with viewers who want extremely vivid visuals. Currently, our whole effort is concentrated on making our LED panels smarter, more intelligent and affordable to a broader audience.

Innovation is our focus. By next year, we will showcase pixel-less panels at ISE in Barcelona.”

Radi said that elements such as avatars, motion capture and VR wearables presented exciting possibilities for future virtual productions. “Imagine combining these with the storytellers and XR sets. They will create so much potential for an interactive mixed reality and augmented reality that will surround us on several levels, right from the information we get, to the videos that we not only watch but also interact with and become a part of.”

Virtual production’s greatest challenge will be education and training, concluded Sperwer. “We have to train people to understand this tool – to know what kind of storytelling they can achieve with it and how to do it. This is the only bottleneck around it.” PRO

The future of virtual technology Given the dynamic nature of technology, Kafer asked about the forms it has the potential to transition into, and if it would move beyond studios into homes.

Both panellists admitted that

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 23

PROOTT

OTT TECHNOLOGIES: BUILDING, SECURING & DELIVERING CONTENT Exploring and analysing efficient content delivery methods, safeguarding content through anti-piracy measures, leveraging data-driven insights in OTT and addressing the technical challenges associated with live streaming were debated at the ASBU BroadcastPRO Summit in November 2023

In the complex world of OTT infrastructures, reliable streaming and flexible yet precise content delivery are decisive in defining the ultimate broadcast-like user experience. Technologies collide in an evolving landscape and platforms make data-driven decisions to potentially monetise their base. And as content creates wider audiences, businesses continue to shield themselves from unauthorised usage and piracy.

Moderating the session was Dan Steele, VP, Sales EMEA, Brightcove, alongside a dynamic panel that consisted of Dominic Farrell, CTO-Shahid at MBC Group; Faraz Arshad, CTO, StarzPlay; Jean-Louis Lods, VP Media and Monetisation, Ateme; and Rama AlDairi, VP Digital, beIN Media Group.

To create a channel to start the conversation, Steele asked for individual perspectives on what was taking place in their respective areas of activity and what they had been working on in the past year.

At beIN Sports, the target was sport, remarked Rama AlDairi, after which “we expanded our coverage beyond sport

24 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

into award-winning entertainment content”. Serving more than 50m subscribers across 33 countries and broadcasting in six different languages, “beIN is always looking at the next market to penetrate, how we can provide enhanced seamless and livestream experience to our customers.”

Viewing the ecosystem from a vendor point of view, Jean-Louis Lods spoke about the “glass-to-glass” experience and delivering a service all the way from contribution to distribution. “For over a year, we’ve had SaaS products and services focusing on business transformation. As cloud providers, we are looking to find new ways to simplify deployment,” he explained.

Going into multiple verticals to maximise offerings for customers, the past year “has been a rollercoaster ride” for Starzplay, noted Faraz Arshad. “We were in the traditional SVOD space, with a focus on acquisition, retention and engagement. This year, we took multiple approaches to fill in the missing gaps, going into different verticals, investing in generative AI to try to transform our business towards

PROOTT

digital media transformation – methodologies to essentially improve our customer experience.”

Having also focused on sport in the past year, Shahid’s Dominic Farrell echoed that sentiment. With its exclusive rights to the Saudi Premier League and the spotlight on its big stars, Shahid’s objective was “improving quality, be that through content or service. This year, our focus has been utilising data to our advantage and we are looking to drive incremental benefits into the business.”

Perfect storm of content With growth in subscription and audience numbers vital, successful forays into newer markets to increase subscription numbers become imperative. Rebranding the platform, driving subscriptions and investing heavily in original content worked for Shahid. “In 2018, the Shahid proposition was AVOD and the focus of that business was primarily driving advertising revenue,” said Farrell.

“We decided then to flip the strategy.”

“The first time we did sports, we reformed our strategy.

Managing our customers while having the service uptime required the right architecture and best practices in place” Faraz Arshad, CTO, StarzPlay A gap analysis comparison with what was best-in-class (Netflix, Amazon) revealed that Shahid lacked the “hygiene factors” for a subscription business – “We had no personalisation, no recommendations, no offline mode and no binge consumption.

So we took a strategic decision to rewrite all our front-end applications completely.”

The enhancements met with huge success that moved into Ramadan and on until Covid, when Shahid found itself in a “perfect storm of acquisition … people were stuck at home and wanted to be entertained, we had amazing new content, and this started to drive the growth that we saw”.

Picking up from Farrell, Steele asked what beIN’s technology focus

was as it moved into interesting global markets, and how that underpinned the user experience.

“Localising,” said AlDairi, “and when I say localisation, we are talking about selecting content that resonates with what people want to watch, when, and in their own languages and local time zones. To deliver globally requires a serious content delivery network strategy that can supply this fluctuating need. We implemented a scalable and flexible CDN strategy because, unlike entertainment, sport is bigtime viewing, so partnering with the right vendors was important with a view to having geographical coverage and capacity.”

Adopting a multi-CDN approach is crucial to optimise the last mile, added Lods. “We do the glass-toglass, including CDN. If you are a service provider with on-prem CDN, the ability to ultimately lower your cost-to-serve when you have your own network is very important.

“Specific network infrastructure can be used to scale up efficiently.

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 25

PROOTT

We make it possible to optimise encoding depending on how many viewers are consuming a certain type of live content.

“If it’s football, then you put more resources into adapting the transcoding for that event and lower bitrates on the thematic channels.

So it’s about adapting the network infrastructure to deliver at the highest quality while looking at the overall infrastructure, but ultimately also enabling you to do more with what you already have in place.”

Supporting sport streaming demands Reforming CDN technology is vital, to support the huge audiences that sport demands.

“We are talking millions of transactions per second,” said Arshad. “Our biggest growth strategies started with sports. Being typically SVOD tech, we reworked our technical architecture to back the numbers that came with us exclusively serving the Italian league Serie A, cricket and so on. Having the right kind of architectures supporting multiple gateways, auto fallback, etc, and all of these must be streamlined to be able to deliver sports.”

In the run-up to big sporting events, streaming services work around data insights. Relying on historical data ensures a project is

event-ready, aiding in predicting audiences and burst capacity. “The first time we did sports, we reformed our strategy. Managing our customers while having the service uptime required the right architecture and best practices in place,” continued Arshad.

Amidst the noisy clamour of enormous data availability, it is important that companies navigate intelligently to make

“People genuinely believe paying $20 a year for an Android set-top box that gives you all of OSN, beIN, Netflix and Shahid is not piracy, because they're making a transaction” Dominic Farrell, CTO - Shahid, MBC Group

26 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

informed business decisions. One of the benefits of having an OTT service is the wealth of data.

It is “an abundance of riches, really”, Farrell pointed out. “But the bigger challenge lies not in the lack of data but in focusing that data.

We use a common data platform to aggregate the data, which is incredibly powerful, giving us a 360-degree view of the customer as well as the market. As a datadriven organisation, it underpins our major strategic decisions, drives our recommendation engines, aids in churn prevention, and identifies potential fraud and piracy cases.”

AlDairi agreed that even for beIN, which has an international footprint, what matters most is the 360-degree view of the customer journey.

“Keeping customer engagement and relevance is necessary, as we are competing for the attention span of the user – so the right type of content at the right time of day, catered to a specific device.

If you’re on the move it’s your mobile phone, and at home it’s the big screen. It’s crucial that we synergise and synchronise data and understand what we are collecting, to be able to make wellinformed decisions after that.”

A combination of data and AI to generate instant short-form content in sport is also driving engagement and keeping platforms relevant.

Applying real-time action to deliver short clips has meaning to the consumer, even when he/she is not actively watching an event.

“This is a key area we're focusing on,” said AlDairi, “creating short videos and having match highlights, and relying a lot on AI. Utilising data points ensures we cater the right short clips that create high attraction and higher engagement.”

Data analytics With the amount of data existing, technology platforms must be careful about operationalising

PROOTT

it and being consistent about creating actions around it.

“You've got to do what is right depending on the key drivers for you as an organisation,” said Farrell.

“Are you a greenfield, a startup, an established organisation? Earlier, when I mentioned the strategic decision we made in 2018, all our front-end development was outsourced, we were using a whitelabel solution from one of the many providers. And we took the decision then to build our teams in-house, because at the end of the day frontends are the closest touchpoint you have to your customers and the thing that you will most likely want to iterate regularly and update regularly.

“Being a volatile and competitive industry, the ability to change direction and execute at pace is not something you necessarily have when outsourcing. That said, we also don’t believe in reinventing the wheel. Shahid today is a hybrid of in-house systems together with best-in-class solutions provided by trusted third parties.”

“I agree totally,” stated Lods, “you've got to know where you add value directly to your customers and

“Keeping customer engagement and relevance is necessary, as we are competing for the attention span of the user – so the right type of content at the right time of day, catered to a specific device” Rama AlDairi, VP Digital, beIN Media Group when the product or service that you're looking to use is more commoditised – in which case, you can benefit by buying a product developed for many customers. It's a pick and mix, but certainly where you add value, you should be trying to own that.”

It’s about striking the right balance between what is out there in the market, how much IP ownership a company wishes to have, and the cost element attached.

“You want to customise and take control of the speed on how quickly you want a

feature available for your customer.

If something adds value to our core competency, then we would rather own it,” said AlDairi. “Like Dominic mentioned, we don't need to reinvent the wheel – we utilise what is obtainable cost-efficiently.”

Arshad added that a roadmap, time to market and, more importantly, flexibility when it came to control was necessary – “a management that we can shift or fall back on in case a feature or product isn’t suitable”.

Just as new content is created to sustain viewership and increase user base, it is equally paramount to keep that content protected and secure. An increase in piracy and consumers falling prey to pirated content requires companies to improve capabilities on that front.

“It's a cat-and-mouse game,” noted Arshad. “You try different mechanisms – watermarking, blocking on social media – but it comes right back. We tied up with government and regulators, and that has turned things up for us. We can clearly see a shift and the conversion has started to improve. I think this is the way forward, to have the support from regulators as a consortium, not as an individual service provider.”

Farrell opined that all front-end solutions – DRM, watermarking, etc – were utterly useless for an OTT service.

“In a DTH world, businesses have your personal details, such as your address, your ID, etc. You watermark someone’s content and have a fairly good idea of who and where they are. For OTT providers, we make the sign-up journey as simple and frictionless as possible, but in doing so a customer can be completely anonymous to us. We can of course watermark your content and turn your account off, but we have very little information on who you are. The pirates, however, will have another 30 accounts waiting to switch immediately whenever we cancel their account.

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 27

PROOTT

“I agree with what Faraz said around engaging with governments, but honestly the wider issue in the region is the communication about what piracy is. People genuinely believe paying $20 a year for an Android set-top box that gives you all of OSN, beIN, Netflix and Shahid is not piracy, because they're making a transaction. They associate piracy with free. There are technologies for detection and takedown, but the larger issue is for people to understand what is and isn’t piracy.”

It’s a never-ending story, said AlDairi. “The smarter we get with anti-piracy, the smarter the pirates get. What Dominic pointed at is an interesting challenge in the region. Anti-piracy is a priority because there’s lost opportunity in pirated content.”

As live streaming becomes increasingly important in sport, latency and bandwidth are things to consider when delivering to the consumer over OTT. Solving the spoiler effect with ultra-low latency holds the key, said Lods. “Glass-to-glass sub five seconds, so from stadium to

“For over a year, we’ve had SaaS products and services focusing on business transformation.

As cloud providers, we are looking to find new ways to simplify deployment” Jean-Louis Lods, VP Media and Monetisation, Ateme the phone that is all wrapped around the ecosystem that we’re in control of. It is the inter-opt technology behind it that enables us to do so and is an important milestone in terms of enabling sport on OTT, in comparison to traditional broadcast.”

With sport, seamless streaming regardless of bandwidth and end-user device is paramount, said AlDairi. Sports subscribers pay premium for a premium service and, unlike VOD users who can go “back to a

28 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

show”, sport users don’t have that luxury. “It’s tough,” remarked Farrell, “but there are technologies out there that make it viable to have an almost broadcast-like experience.”

Arshad agreed that low latency was an important factor while serving sports. Playback consistency was also a feature to consider, he said, “especially when you’re shortening segments, finding the right tweaks on the player and not breaking the experience. It’s not always the CDN, it’s also at the device level, if the device does not have enough resources to support that kind of video streaming because FPS on sport is higher than the usual bitrate. Supporting those kind of frame rates on low-end devices is also a challenge.”

As the session wound up, it had become clear that as companies battle demanding infrastructures and diverging components in the streaming mechanism strata, the goal is simply to enable the distribution of exclusive, uninterrupted content in real time to a growing audience that expects best-in-class services. – Kalyani Gopinath PRO

PROAVERTORIAL

RED CONNECTS THE DOTS Dive into the cutting-edge world of RED Connect, where cinema meets broadcast seamlessly. Jeff Goodman, Vice President of Product Management at RED Digital Cinema talks about why RED Connect is all the rage with remote production What is Red Connect all about?

RED Connect is a system that fully connects RED cameras over IP, greatly enhancing live and remote capture capabilities. Instead of capturing to media, the full quality compressed RAW files are sent over IP to an end device to be played out live at up to 8K 120fps 16 bits and/or remotely recorded. Or by using SMPTE ST 2110, a user can plug the camera into a digital infrastructure and have it work seamlessly for their broadcast.

What inspired the entry of Red digital cinema cameras into the broadcast market?

We were in the early stages of developing RED Connect for the IP ecosystem benefits within our core cinema market, when one of our key customers using XR live streaming needed to reach a resolution quality that had never been attained before.

We accelerated our development to achieve this goal for them.

What are the key benefits to adapt to this change when compared to the conventional system cameras?

• Full 8K 120fps images realtime from the camera in realtime allow: • XR, VR or other applications where resolution is the priority.

• the ability to play out at any other target resolutions, but retain the full quality files for post-production.

• leverage of automated object and face tracking within an 8K frame with a lower resolution final output.

• The remote recording aspects allow for much longer record time, full remote operation,

direct-to-cloud, and direct-to-edit workflows. This has significant advantages for array or volumetric capture work, simplifying the consolidation of all captured media to a centralized storage device.

• A V-RAPTOR camera system can also capture traditional pre and post event interviews as a cinema camera.

From an end user perspective, what challenges do you foresee in the adaptation?

The biggest challenge our customers have had has been adapting our cinema style controls into their workflow.

This has been addressed largely by RCP manufacturers such as Cyanview and Skaarhoj that have adapted controls via their RCPs to be inline what broadcasters expect. We will also have more updates in the coming year that will make this an even more seamless experience.

How can end users overcome

the challenge of matching the image quality of this camera with the rest of their workflow to ensure seamless transition?

Our cameras fit into traditional SMPTE fiber setups, allowing for interoperability.

They also work with an IP-based SMPTE 2110 workflow as customers begin making that transition. In addition, we have B4 mount adapter options that allow our camera to be used with traditional lenses, and because of our high-resolution sensors, this cropped output is still of high quality.

Are there any existing customers for Red Connect workflow, particularly in the Middle East region?

We have several customers using RED Connect and have created a “RED Connect” tab on our website to showcase noteworthy stories. Specifically, COSM, Media.Monks, and Amazon have been very innovative customers that have been taking early advantage of what RED Connect offers. For more details, visit red.com/red-connect

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 29

PROTRENDS

SIGNAL SHIFTS IN BROADCAST

How does the broadcast industry navigate unprecedented levels of technological innovation? Has AI affected the way content is created and streamed? Where do IP standards feature in the decisionmaking process for audience personalisation and to future-proof content? CTOs gathered at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit to discuss these topics in greater detail

Technology in the broadcast industry is evolving faster than video can be transmitted over high-fidelity lines. Innovations in other areas of communications are permeating this industry as well, with AI and cloud solutions enabled by edge computing.

In a highly engaging panel discussion titled Broadcast Tech Trends: IP, Cloud, AI, and Edge Computing at the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit, specialists in the MENA broadcast industry came together to lead a discussion on what works, what will become challenging and how we all must foray into the next generation of broadcast.

The panellists were Ayman Khatib, Managing Director, Ideal Systems Middle East; Hejar Berenji, CTO, Rudaw Media Network; Phillip Badenhorst, Director of Data & Strategic Planning, Shahid, MBC Group; Sammer Elia, Director of Sales and Business Development (MENA), Viaccess-Orca (VO); and Suhail Ahmed, Advisor Technology and Strategy, International Media Investments (IMI).

The discussion was steered and moderated by Nicolas Hans, Partner, Middle East, Broadcast Solutions.

Hans opened the discussion by pointing out how the first

30 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

anniversary of OpenAI’s ChatGPT was a few days away and reminded the audience that it had reached 1m users in just five days, 60 times faster than Facebook. To prepare for the panel, Hans said, he had asked Google’s AI tool Bard to list the top three things that had changed in the broadcast industry; it listed IP-based production, cloud and VR. He then started the discussion with a question on what the panellists considered their biggest headache over the past year.

Challenges in broadcast innovation Phillip Badenhorst noted that generative AI had changed things for him and the industry. He underscored how all verticals are impacted by the emergence of generative AI, in terms of how we approach and solve problems. He explained that Midjourney was already a defining force in media production, in considering how Marvel and Disney+ used it to generate the entire opening credits for the Secret Invasion television series. His point was that even a studio with a multimillion-dollar budget was using generative AI to create art.

Suhail Ahmed cited transformation as his challenge of the year. IMI is in the process of moving all its media properties,

PROTRENDS

including the National, Al Ain, Sky News Arabia and CNBC, to a single location. It has had to look at how to use IP, cloud and AI not just to improve the viewer experience, but also as newsroom productivity tools. The challenge with this transformation is the learning and migration curve for IMI, making education all the more essential as news and broadcast entities are run by people with traditional broadcast backgrounds.

Sammer Elia moved the discussion towards innovation in the broadcast space. At Orange, the telco of which Viaccess-Orca is a part, the main focus is AI for IT Operations (AIOPs). Elia explained how AIOPs entails creating an analytics framework to reconcile and correlate data from the various building blocks of networks. Where in the past various vendors stepped in to connect the building blocks, AI, through AIOPs, now does the reconciliation. The learning curve for him was in how to create rules to improve predictive maintenance, automate scalability and improve content personalisation.

Hejar Berenji had similar views to Badenhorst. Since 2008, Rudaw Media Network has

grown from a small media organisation in Kurdistan to a regional digital news media platform. Berenji commented that the one factor that keeps him awake at night is AI-generated deepfake content and misinformation. The risks of AI are paramount to Rudaw news operations, so he intends to focus on mitigating them.

Hans then asked Ayman Khatib for his insight with respect to the recent set-up and launch of Blinx. Khatib explained how the choice had been made to adopt network device interface (NDI) as the core infrastructure of the new social media hub, to accommodate cloud production and remote workflows. He detailed how enabling users to access content from their homes or remote workstations, all while seamlessly interacting with the cloud, was critical to its operations.

Impact of IP standards on broadcast operations Ahmed confirmed that this need for remote workflows made NDI the perfect

“We have trained AI models to help us predict how new titles will do before we green-light them” Phillip Badenhorst, Director of Data & Strategic Planning, Shahid, MBC Group

match for Blinx, and explained why it’s important to build the data framework around it, but also pointed out that “for what we are trying to achieve at IMI, SMPTE ST 2110 is more relevant … however, within the deployment, we are also keeping an element of NDI and SDI”.

Ahmed opined that the role of Chief Technology Officer should give way to that of Chief Data Officer. “Chief Data Officers will start taking more of a pivotal role as modern media organisations continue being built, and every system we choose needs to provide us with some sort of valid input to our data ecosystems.”

Badenhorst, with his dataspecific role at MBC, was prompted

by Hans to offer more insight into how the media network uses data to optimise scheduling and investments in content. He explained that Shahid uses the huge amount of media-related user data drawn from millions of customers to curate and create programs.

“Content is one of the major costs for media companies. We have fairly complex clustering that we do across multiple dimensions. We classify every individual user based on their preferences and how they

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 31

PROTRENDS

index towards many different taste clusters, telling us what content they like. We then consider our planning of titles coming up and ensure every individual at every point in time does not face a gap of two or three weeks when there’ s no new title or no current running title that would appeal to that person. This allows us to prevent cancellations and churn actively. Then, on the purchasing side, we use the data and AI models we have developed over the last few years to see trends.

We have trained AI models to help us predict how new titles will do before we green-light them.”

Elia explained how AI is used to combat CDN leeching. This latest form of piracy threatens operators’ revenues and is one of the most serious yet, as it poses a triple threat to their businesses. Using breaches in copyright systems technologies and the networks on which content is held, pirates place content links on other sites and networks, making it easy for them to monetise content delivery to unsuspecting users via advertising and brand displays. However, none of the revenue is passed back to the

unscrupulous operators, making many of these mitigating processes more intelligent,” Elia explained.

“We use AI to identify and connect the network to the user, and it can identify unscrupulous operators, making many of these mitigating processes more intelligent” Sammer Elia, Director of Sales and Business Development (MENA), Viaccess-Orca (VO) original IP- and content-owning networks.

Elia said that Viaccess has employed protection applications to mitigate the leaching of CDN links. It does this by deploying a microservice with one of the CDN controllers, allowing any operator to assess the CDN leeching effect on their revenues. The next step is to take action by creating a token to accompany the CDN link, which is delivered to the requesting individual only, not to any other operator.

“We use AI to identify and connect the network to the user, and it can identify

32 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

IP standards and trends in migration Steering the discussion towards IP infrastructure, Hans asked Berenji to elaborate on why Rudaw is building a UHD platform, a surprising move for a news organisation. He was bullish on this topic – “Why not?” – and asked why regional media needed to wait for Western entities to innovate, then copy them. His argument focused on the idea that local media entities have a deeper understanding of regional audiences, and that innovations in the media industry should therefore be primarily tailored to meet the specific needs of these local communities.

“Wherever you go in the world right now, you see entertainment channels, other channels, VOD platforms, conversations around Netflix, discussions around monetisation. However, look at the Middle East. What is happening around us? Is that news or entertainment? We generate over 65% of the news shown to people around the world, and news channels remain the most watched channels in our region. If people are watching news, and the news and information are affecting their daily life in the highest way possible, then why not show them news in the highest quality?”

Khatib enjoyed this part of the discussion, as high-quality, uncompressed media delivery to the masses is something he champions due to his underlying belief that public broadcasters are the keepers of the memory of a nation, record keepers of its history.

“Going uncompressed or moving towards IP is a no-brainer,” he said.

“Even though a lot of people say we are moving towards social media consumption, keeping history on

PROTRENDS

record is just like storing music, where you have the original digital record. Yes, there is compressed music, but the actual record and the source is always uncompressed and in the highest quality possible.”

He added that building an infrastructure based on IP gives users the flexibility to have their processing done on-prem or remotely in a data centre. The link between these two locations becomes invisible to the end user.

Hybrid cloud solutions for enhanced resources The discussion then moved to cloud solutions, as Hans raised the subject of multi-platform distribution with Ahmed of IMI, where cloud services are playing a big role. The underlying argument was that it is time for digital and broadcast departments to start talking to each other, and Hans asked him to provide an example of this.

Ahmed agreed that bridging the gap between the two newsroom styles is pivotal and that the ultimate end goal is a single pane or platform where journalists can deliver more rundowns, galleries and unique stories to digital platforms, and be able to curate those stories instead of just pushing what they’ve created for linear production.

Cloud-based solutions have proven beneficial for multi-channel and multi-platform content delivery, given the need from consumers for instant access on the go, whether in the form of news or entertainment.

Rudaw Media Network has been such a platform from the start, and Berenji chimed in at this point to elaborate on how it manages this from an operational standpoint.

“Rudaw was already a multiplatform network at launch, and at the time we had the idea of using the experience multiple users have when consuming from large organisations like the BBC and others. We thought if

we wanted to build that multi-media platform, we needed to have a crossplatform environment, which has two main streams: the intake and output.

However, the output these days is that if the content is being prepared for TV, it will be solely a TV-related preparation.

At the same time, for radio, it would be only audio and maybe digital audio. We

“If people are watching news, and the news and information are affecting their daily life in the highest way possible, then why not show them news in the highest quality” Hejar Berenji, CTO, Rudaw Media Network

knew, however, right at the start, that digital would play a huge role, even though we are still not using digital for monetisation.”

Berenji further explained that the primary goal is to provide news and information in an objective and expedient manner, while also building brand recognition. He emphasised the importance of using channel-specific templates to ensure that the content doesn’t appear to be carelessly presented to the audience, but rather thoughtfully tailored to meet its specific needs.

Broadcast 2.0: Future technologies in broadcast The broader discussion shifted naturally towards Broadcast 2.0, a significant leap in the evolution of broadcasting technology and media platforms that blends the traditional aspects of broadcasting with the advancements of the digital age. At the core of Broadcast 2.0, explained Elia from VO, are cutting-edge technologies such as hyper-personalised content through data analytics and machine learning to tailor viewing experiences to individual preferences; as well as exponential improvements in audiovisual quality, with highdefinition video and superior audio formats becoming the norm.

Moreover, Broadcast 2.0 promises

January 2024 | www.broadcastprome.com | 33

PROTRENDS

multi-platform accessibility, ensuring content is available across various devices and platforms.

Elia elaborated that “Broadcast 2.0 is the dogma behind taking back the ownership of your data from social media platforms”.

He added that quality of service also comes under this banner and underscored how Broadcast 2.0’s true focus is on user data, to help editorial teams serve relevant content to consumers.

Hans turned the conversation to Khatib, remarking how Broadcast 2.0 encompasses IP, AI and cloud, and asked what he would recommend to broadcasters.

Khatib pointed out that there was no real single generic answer, as what broadcasters want to deliver varies based on their audience.

However, these three technologies are indeed where broadcasters need to look for innovation.

“The infrastructure – for example, let’s take IP. If someone today told me that they don’t recommend building an infrastructure based on IP, it’s equivalent to somebody

“Chief Data Officers will start taking more of a pivotal role as modern media organisations continue being built, and every system we choose needs to provide us with some sort of valid input to our data ecosystems” Suhail Ahmed, Advisor Technology and Strategy, International Media Investments (IMI) back in the day saying we should not change the telephone switchboard from a digital switchboard to an IP switchboard, which we use today.”

Expanding on the topic, he explained that the current forms of AI – reactive AI, generative AI and GPT models – are effective in outlining storylines,

34 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

conceptualising media content ideas and aiding in infrastructure design.

As more broadcasters adopt these technologies, their AI systems will become adept at identifying content through probabilistic measures.

However, he anticipates a transition to a more advanced form of “true” AI which will mimic the human brain’s cognitive processes, moving beyond mere probabilistic reactions.

A new era for broadcast CTOs The conversation concluded with Berenji urging regional CTOs to unite and exchange ideas, emphasising the importance of a distinct identity. He highlighted the need for a shift from the traditional role of CTOs, who are often hastily tasked with launching new channels, to a more visionary approach. He appealed to CTOs in the Middle East to envision the future of broadcasting over the next decade, during which AI will play a significant role alongside traditional linear TV, with the youth of the Middle East continuing to be major social media influencers. PRO

PRO2024 has all you need to know about the top players in the region’s broadcast and satellite market. A compilation of profiles of broadcast and satellite companies in the GCC, the hardback coffee table book is a valuable resource for not only business entities but also customers looking for a ready reckoner of key industry players.

Group Sales Director Sandip Virk | +44 751 699 3862 | sandip.virk@cpitrademedia.com

© 2024 CPI Trade Media. All rights reserved.

PROGUEST

The Top Five Media and Entertainment Industry Trends to Watch for in 2024 We explore the top five shifts taking place in the MENA media and entertainment industry that are poised to accelerate in the new year.

AI’s Expanding Role AI will continue to be at the centre of the conversation in 2024. Technologies like ML and pattern recognition have proven to be valuable tools in our industry, and generative AI is poised to do the same in 2024.

The Rise of SMPTE ST 2110 SMPTE ST 2110 will continue its ascent as the dominant global standard for live production, a trend that highlights the increasing importance of IP technology in our industry. And while the standard has traditionally been reserved for major events, we’re seeing a shift as the technology matures, making it increasingly suitable for routine everyday events. ST 2110’s rising popularity can be attributed to its costeffectiveness and flexibility – especially when coupled with software control and network orchestration – and the ratification of JPEG XS, a significant milestone in enabling live, low-latency, high-quality contribution to the cloud.

Going Green Green initiatives that address power consumption and e-waste will be popular in the coming year. SMPTE ST and IP-based production is inherently more environmentally friendly than older SDI solutions, and the adoption rate is steadily increasing.

In the Middle East, we are seeing an uptick in customer confidence in the technology to go with fullIP infrastructure, particularly in

new greenfield sites. In existing facilities, many are starting their IP migration journey by taking a hybrid approach with their current set-ups.

Furthermore, evolving environmental regulations in a number of regions may force the issue by making it mandatory to consider carbon footprints when making technology decisions.

And in the pursuit of minimising e-waste, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment offers a longer lifespan and greater versatility than older modular equipment.

As infrastructure continues to transition to ST 2110, this equipment can be repurposed instead of being rendered obsolete.

Rethinking CTV Advertising Models From a business model standpoint, one of the most significant shifts in the industry is a renewed emphasis on profitability and efficiency for connected television (CTV). While CTV services initially leaned heavily on subscription-based models, they are now recognising the equal importance of capitalising on audience monetisation through advertising.

Evidence of this trend is demonstrated by the meteoric rise of FAST channels around the world and in the Middle East in 2023.

However, an increased focus on audience monetisation also leads us to one of the central questions our industry will confront in 2024: How can we seamlessly merge the advertising models of television and digital to create a new, optimised advertising model for CTV? We need to find the right balance that reorients CTV towards premium

36 | www.broadcastprome.com | January 2024

pricing, while simultaneously enhancing the viewer experience to increase the value of CTV advertising.

Regulatory Measures and Privacy Concerns While looking for that balance, CTV services will also have to contend with a rise in regulatory measures, which is already underway. This year, the UK’s Ofcom revealed its intention to extend the same content and advertising regulations that have long been applied to traditional broadcast TV to the realm of CTV. I anticipate this will become a global trend in 2024, with regions like the Middle East following suit.

This shift will also apply to consumer privacy regulations. The GDPR has already established a baseline for European countries, while the CCPA in California has done the same in the United States. Again, other regions like the Middle East will follow, as will a number of challenges. These regulations will influence how we tailor content and target advertising, and their constraints will be an obstacle to leveraging technology. We must overcome them to continue advancing within our industry.

Challenge and Opportunity As the industry faces a continuing shift from linear to digital, new regulations and pressure to improve carbon footprints, innovative media companies will use technology tools such as AI, ST 2110 and converged monetisation solutions to address these challenges and forge their own path to the future of broadcasting.

It’s going to be an exciting year!

Steve Reynolds is President of Imagine Communications