ISSUE 136 | DECEMBER 2021 Licensed by Dubai Development Authority
CELEBRATING
Honouring the innovators and changemakers in MENA Media
and Entertainment at the 2021 ASBU BroadcastPro Awards
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PROINTRO
GROUP Welcome
Managing Director
Content seemed to dominate last eleven years, I have witnessed
Raz Islam an evolution in the quality of the
[email protected] the conversation at the ASBU productions from a tech and story
point of view. Gone are the patchy
+971 (0) 4 375 5471 BroadcastPro Summit, and it’s abstract stories; today we have well-
rounded, sophisticated productions
Managing Partner certainly the content players that that hold their own against any
Vijaya Cherian international production. This is indeed
walked away with most of the prizes a proud moment for the Arab world,
[email protected] and we had the joy of celebrating
+971 (0) 4 375 5472 at the awards gala we hosted on some of those truly compelling stories
at the ASBU BroadcastPro Awards.
Director of Finance & November 16 at Westin Mina Seyahi.
Business Operations As the UAE celebrates its 50th
We have heard it said that since anniversary, it’s also a truly proud
Shiyas Kareem moment for the country as high-quality
[email protected] 2020, half a billion dollars has been productions helmed by Emirati teams
are now making headlines. Al Sununu
+971 (0) 4 375 5474 spent on developing Arabic originals from Visioneers is a good example,
but this is only the tip of the iceberg.
EDITORIAL just for streaming platforms. BroadcastPro also celebrated several
Editor Investments in high-value other players who are continuously
innovating in terms of both technology
Vijaya Cherian Arabic productions have gone up and strategy. This issue is an
[email protected] steadily over the last few years and opportunity to relive some of those
aggressive investments from MBC glorious moments from last month.
+971 (0) 55 105 3787 and OSN in that space have perhaps
inspired more production houses Vijaya Cherian, Editorial Director
Assistant Editor to start catering to that demand.
Urooj Fatima The rise of small media houses
that take these Arabic productions
Sub Editor to international shores and make
Aelred Doyle them available in partnership with
major cable or telco operators in
ADVERTISING those countries has further fed
Group Sales Director this appetite. Lebanese production
house Cedars Art Production also
Sandip Virk landed a major coup in October
[email protected] with the sale of the format of Al
Hayba – one of its productions – to a
+971 (0) 50 929 1845 leading Turkish production house.
+44 (0) 7516 993 862
As someone who has been part
DESIGN of the BroadcastPro jury for the
Art Director
Simon Cobon ISSUE 136 | DECEMBER 2021 Licensed by Dubai Development Authority On this
month's cover…
Designer Let’s create a vibrant
Percival Manalaysay CELEBRATING online broadcast community!
MARKETING & EVENTS Honouring the innovators and changemakers in MENA Media The winners of the 2021 @BroadcastProME
Events Producer and Entertainment at the 2021 ASBU BroadcastPro Awards ASBU BroadcastPro Awards www.facebook.com/BroadcastProME
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December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 3
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PROCONTENTS
Inside this issue December 2021
07 NEWS QATAR STADIUMS CHOOSE GRAVITY MEDIA KSA GEARS UP FOR FILM FESTIVAL
Gravity Media and Belden 07 14
provide broadcast solutions for
four Qatar stadiums; IBC cancels TECH LEADERS EXPLORE THE POWER OF AI IN BROADCAST AND STREAMING
in-person event in Amsterdam;
TVU Networks ties with DMI 16
to provide video footage during
Expo 2020; Shahid launches OTT CHIEFS ON HOW TO TAKE STREAMING TO THE NEXT LEVEL
new user interface in French;
Progressive Generation Studios 22
launches OTT service for
kids in MENA; and more THE CHAMPIONS OF THE 2021 ASBU BROADCASTPRO AWARDS
16 EXPLORING HOW AI TECH 28
CAN SUPPORT BROADCAST MENA INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES DISCUSS IP AND CLOUD WITH GRASS VALLEY
MENA professionals in
broadcast discussed the 40
impact of AI technologies
on various aspects of
newsgathering, production,
contribution and distribution
at the ASBU BroadcastPro
Summit in Dubai last month
22 CRACKING THE
OTT STRATEGY
As more streamers enter
the market and consumers
subscribe to multiple
services, the OTT panel
explored the means to crack
navigation and how to ensure
subscribers stick around
28 WINNERS OF 2021 ASBU
BROADCASTPRO AWARDS
A closer look at those who
bagged the awards this year
40 GVX ME TECH SUMMIT
Grass Valley's top management
came together with MENA
leaders to discuss industry
challenges, regional needs
and the path to IP and cloud
46 GUEST COLUMN
Alaa Al Rantisi explores how
demand has cropped up in
new sectors for production
equipment in recent times
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 5
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PRONEWS
Gravity Media and Belden provide
broadcast solutions for Qatar stadiums
Belden Inc and Gravity The Ahmed bin Ali Eamonn Dowdall, Executive Belden’s broadcast solutions,
Media have announced their stadium in Qatar. Director for Gravity Media, including SMPTE, Triax,
involvement in four major said: “It was an honour to be Video, Multi-Core Audio
stadiums hosting the 2022 the broadcast cabling systems involved in such prestigious and single-mode fibre cable,
World Cup. In 2010, it was for the opening match venue projects. With the combined enabling host broadcasters
announced that Qatar would Al Bayt Stadium, Al Thumama expertise of Belden and Gravity to connect their facilities
host it, and Gravity Media and Stadium, Khalifa International Media, the solutions provided to 50+ camera positions in
Belden were then awarded the Stadium and Ahmed bin Ali will support the stadiums’ each of the stadiums, which
projects to deliver broadcast Stadium. Gravity Media shaped needs well into the future.” include interviews, arrivals
systems for the four stadiums. the project design using input and other off-field activities.
Since then, Qatar has been from local broadcasters and The installations required This will enable broadcasters
a hive of activity as it equips its expertise with high-profile to transmit content to billions
the host stadiums with the international federations. of fans around the world while
latest broadcast technology. simultaneously future-proofing
The one-year countdown to the stadiums’ systems for
the opening of the world’s long-term, sustainable use.
biggest football tournament
kicked off on November 21. Four matches will be played
each day during the group
Gravity Media partnered stage. The tournament will
with its long-term supplier last 28 days and culminate
Belden to design, supply, on December 18, 2022, the
install, test and commission National Day of Qatar.
IBC cancels in-person TVU Networks ties with DMI to provide
event in Amsterdam video footage during Expo 2020
IBC has announced that its in-person TVU Networks has partnered for rent or purchase, as well as
event due to take place on December 3-6 with Dubai Media Incorporated solutions within its cloud-based
in Amsterdam has been cancelled. The (DMI) to provide exclusive video production ecosystem:
move follows growing concerns about the footage from the six-month- TVU Partyline, TVU Producer,
Covid-19 situation in the Netherlands, long global festival, Expo TVU Server and TVU Grid.
which has deteriorated in recent weeks, Dubai 2020, which began on
and feedback from the IBC exhibitor and October 1. In conjunction Paul Shen, CEO of TVU
visitor community. The IBC Partnership with DMI, it is sourcing video Networks, said: “This is an
Board made the decision to prevent footage from the region to incredible opportunity for
exhibitors and visitors from travelling. anyone around the world TVU. This is a high-profile
interested in seeing the event. cultural event that showcases
In a mail to exhibitors, Steve Connolly, a country’s most compelling
Sales Director at IBC, said: “IBC 2021 will Two live video sources from developments. We’re proud to
now take place on IBC Digital and will include Dubai TV are being offered stand alongside such known
its AI-based exhibitor platform that allows to TVU MediaSource and TVU innovators. Live feeds enabled
exhibitors to show their latest products Grid customers, as well as by our cloud-based solutions
and innovations, plus a comprehensive TVU Search subscribers free are helping broadcasters
content programme and the opportunity of charge. TVU Networks is bring the excitement of
to meet and connect with the industry.” offering its TVU One 4K HDR 5G this exhibition to their
mobile transmitters to visitors viewers and the world.”
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 7
PRONEWS
Shahid announces new Signiant
user interface in French acquires
Levels Beyond
Streaming platform in French, but they will
Shahid from MBC Group also be able to access The acquisition will see
will now have a French their favourite new Levels Beyond’s talent
interface in addition programmes subtitled in and technology used to
to Arabic and English. their preferred language. extend the functionality
Aimed at users from of Signiant’s SaaS
territories including Shahid is also adding platform, adding new
North Africa, Europe, new French and North capabilities for simplifying
Canada and the Levant, African series and and modernising media
the brand-new French other shows over the workflows. Commenting
interface comes with a coming months. New on the company’s
host of features similar to releases – either in second acquisition of
those available in Arabic French or subtitled in 2021, Signiant CEO
and English. Not only French – include French Margaret Craig said: “By
will Shahid and Shahid drama Stalk, Algerian- virtue of our underlying
VIP subscribers be able Syrian drama series acceleration technology
to navigate the service Ward Aswad and French and broad-based role
thriller series Inside. in the global flow of
media, Signiant can
OSN to stream Turkish series exclusively on app provide customers with a
foundation that addresses
OSN will bring Turkish OSN, said: “The Turkish edgy plot twists and multiple supply chain
dramas across a wide TV genre has delivered brilliant production challenges efficiently
range of genres, including some of the Middle East’s leave audiences and at scale. Our SaaS
crime thrillers, romance most compelling shows, emotionally hooked platform has critical mass,
and action, exclusively capturing the hearts and wholly connected it serves as the core of the
to its streaming app. and minds of viewers to their favorite series. B2B media ecosystem,
throughout the region. At OSN, this is what we and it is the ideal anchor
Darine ElKhatib, Senior The rich storylines, call premium content; point for adjacent media-
VP of Arabic Services & depth of characters, we understand the centric functionality.”
Original Production at audience’s anticipation to
watch the latest episode The company recently
Thalath Qurush is one of the new additions the minute it’s released. acquired Lesspain
to OSN's raft of Turkish content. We are committed Software to facilitate
to bringing premium organising, finding and
entertainment to the interacting with media
region that resonates assets, and the Levels
with their needs.” Beyond acquisition
extends Signiant’s
New Turkish additions offerings to include a
include Thalath Qurush range of configurable
(Three Pennies Üç workflow building blocks.
Kuruş), Al Qada’a (Yargı),
Al-Tufah-Al Haram Signiant Chief Solutions
(Yasak Elma – The Officer Mike Flathers
Forbidden Fruit), Ikhwati added: “By leveraging
(Kardeşlerim) and Fatat Levels Beyond's know-
Al Nafitha (Camdaki Kiz). how and the Signiant SaaS
platform, we can give
customers a much lighter-
weight, more productised
approach to workflow
implementation.”
8 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
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PRONEWS
MBC Group signs deal with COFE App
MBC Group has partnered COFE App CEO Ali Al Ebrahim (l) and Fadel Zahreddine, partners of the MBC brand.”
with COFE App, an online Group Director of Emerging Media at MBC Group. The partnership with
coffee-centric marketplace
which currently serves partnerships that support pivotal milestone for the COFE App is part of MBC’s
across the UAE, KSA and the startup to establish an COFE brand. We believe plan to actively explore new
Kuwait. The partnership will even stronger footing in we can become a market media and emerging types of
see the broadcast network the beverage tech arena. leader in the beverage content, services and events
support the digital app in technology space across to aid regional businesses
achieving its growth strategy Commenting on this the region and beyond, and in offering innovative and
through MBC’s channels, milestone in COFE App’s can only reach our goal up-to-date products and
digital platforms and events. growth journey, Founder and with the support of the vast services for customers.
While the network will play CEO Ali Al Ebrahim said: network of channels and
a crucial role in adding scale “This partnership marks a Fadel Zahreddine, Group
and visibility to COFE’s Director of Emerging Media
growth trajectory, this deal at MBC Group, said: “MBC
will also give MBC investment believes that innovation in
priority in COFE App’s responding to consumer
future funding rounds. behaviour is the essence
of entrepreneurial digital
COFE’s collaboration solutions. MBC is committed
with MBC Group is the to supporting and elevating
first of a series of key regional entrepreneurs
through visibility.”
Saudi authority Lebanese TV station Al Manar Saudi Film
approves NEOM chooses Etere ETX for upgrade Commission
AAA video picks The
game project Al Manar needed to bring a channel Tambour of
will upgrade on-air, including ingest, 4K Retribution as
Saudi Arabia’s General its existing playout, closed caption/ Oscars candidate
Authority for Competition Imagine subtitling insertions,
(GAC) has approved a playout dynamic overlays, text over Saudi Film Commission
project to implement, system recorded/live videos, and has chosen the feature
manage, operate and with Etere’s NDI, IP and SDI inputs/ film The Tambour of
develop a video game channel-in-a- outputs in a single piece Retribution (Had Al Tar) to
studio in NEOM. The box software. of software. Etere ETX represent the Kingdom in
JV between NEOM After a will also replace the the Best International Film
and MBC Initiatives series of already outdated Imagine category at the Oscars.
will be the first AAA demonstrations and Nexio video servers.
video gaming project evaluations, Al Manar Films competing
in the Middle East. decided to replace its for the award will
existing playout facilities pass through several
The Authority gave with Etere ETX. Al Manar screening stages before
approval to the economic continues to leverage the American Academy
concentration process Etere technologies to of Arts and Sciences
between the two entities maximise efficiencies chooses the final list.
following a study of and monetisation
the Kingdom’s video opportunities. The winner will be
game market and the announced at the 94th
issues concerning Etere ETX integrates Oscars that will be held at
competition in the sector. all the playout features the Dolby Theater in Los
Angeles on March 27.
10 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PRONEWS
Progressive Generation Studios in
Jordan launches OTT service for kids
Jordan-based Progressive offer it directly to audiences us set up a subscription- Progressive Generation
Generation Studios will across the MENA region. based ser-vice quickly, with Studios chose Red Bee
launch a new streaming broadcast-quality streams as its OTT partner for PG
service called PG Kids “We want to create one of and precise personalisation Kids and we look forward
for children in the Middle the world’s biggest streaming and recommendation to seeing the service grow
East and North Africa on services for children’s content functionality.” and evolve,” commented
January 1, 2022. At the time in both Arabic and English, Houssam al Khaled, Head
of launch, the subscription- providing a safe online space PG Kids will be available of Sales and Operations,
based streaming service for edutainment. Working at less than USD 5 per Market Area Middle East,
will have more than 100,000 together with Red Bee, this subscription. All content is Red Bee. “Direct-to-consumer
minutes of original content is now becoming a reality,” protected through Red Bee’s streaming is absolutely
in Arabic and English. commented Ahmad Al Masri, advanced geo blocking and booming at the moment and
CEO, Progressive Generations digital rights management with support from our OTT
After having distributed Studios. “With more than (DRM) functionality. As Services content owners and
original content through linear 15 years of experience, an add-on, Progressive creators all over the world are
broadcasters and other third and over 100,000 minutes Generation Studios also transforming their business
parties since 2006, Progressive of original content in our offers merchandise related model, reaching larger
Generation Studios decided portfolio, we are ready to to their original content audiences and monetising
to gather all its original introduce PG Kids to the through PG-merch.com. their assets in new ways.”
content in one place and world. Red Bee helped
“We’re happy that
Netflix to celebrate Arab cinema with launch of award-winning collection
Netflix will launch a new world and their iconic stories. Venice and more. All eyes "The collection isn’t
collection of Arab films titled Nuha El Tayeb, Director are on the films, no matter just fictional stories but
Celebrating Arab Cinema on where they’re from and what also includes powerful
December 9. The collection of Content Acquisitions, they’re about, welcoming documentaries, such as
will include 58 films that Turkey and MENA at authentic storytelling from the exploration of first
have been recognised Netflix said: "Each year, the all parts of the world. responders in war-torn
at various prestigious entertainment community Syria in White Helmets,
global awards ceremonies and cinephiles around the "We pride ourselves which won an Oscar for Best
and film festivals. world turn their attention on giving people the Documentary Short Subject.
to global award ceremonies opportunity to experience The Celebrating Arab Cinema
The collection includes such as the Academy the content they may not collection brings together the
films from renowned Awards, the BAFTAs, Cannes, have had a chance to see. best from the Arab world.
filmmakers such as Nadine
Labaki, Annemarie Jacir, "Many of these movies
Elia Suleiman, Hany Abu- were also selected to
Assad and Ziad Doueiri, as represent their country in the
well as many recognisable Academy Award submissions
titles such as The Present, for Best International Feature
Lift Like a Girl and White Film, spanning different
Helmets. It builds on the parts of the Arab world
previously released Prestige covering Egyptian, Lebanese,
collection 2020, celebrating Palestinian, Syrian,
outstanding talent from Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian,
different parts of the Arab Jordanian and Iraqi stories."
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 11
PRONEWS
MBC Studios, JB Pictures and AGC
Studios team up for Desert Warrior
MBC Studios, the production Desert Warrior, featuring dramatic and consequential a production of the scale of
arm of MBC Group, has Anthony Mackie and battles in history. Spectacular Desert Warrior as our first
partnered with US studio JB Aiysha Hart, will be the action and great bravery set feature film highlights the
Pictures and AGC Studios first tentpole film to be against stunning mountainous confidence the film industry
to produce Desert Warrior, shot at NEOM in KSA. desert landscapes.” has in our ability to deliver
an action-thriller feature a seamless production
film set in seventh-century – features Anthony Mackie Wayne Borg, Managing experience. Our fresh and
Arabia. MBC Studios’ biggest (Avengers: Endgame, The Director, Media Industries diverse locations, world-
production to date, it is also Banker) and Aiysha Hart at NEOM, stated: “Attracting class production team
the first tentpole film to be (Mogul Mowgli, Colette). and attractive incentives
shot at NEOM in KSA, a new make NEOM a very
milestone for MBC Group. It JB Pictures’ Bolt appealing destination for
is supported by the NEOM commented: “Desert Warrior screen production.”
Media Industries Sector, with will give audiences a ringside
major productions a catalyst seat to one of the most Filming for Desert Warrior
for the development of the commenced on September 12
regional media industries and is expected to continue
epicentre at Neom. until the end of this year. AGC
International, the international
The international title – sales and distribution
which has just commenced arm of AGC Studios, will
filming in Neom and Tabuk handle worldwide sales.
Media Mania chooses Ross Video solution for OB van Palestinian
film Amira
Roland Daou (c) of Media Mania, flanked by Benoit routing/AV processing wins in Rome
Rousseil (l), Regional Sales Director SEUR, and product. This solution will
Deepraj Sandhar (r), Regional Manager of Ross Video. form the backbone of a new Palestinian film Amira,
OB truck that will be used to directed by Egyptian
UAE production and the various solutions create international sports director Mohamed Diab,
company Media Mania they offer, Media Mania productions throughout the received an Amnesty
has selected Ross decided to invest in Ross Gulf region and beyond. International human
Video’s Hyperconverged Video’s latest Ultrix Acuity rights award and a special
production platform for Hyperconverged production Roland Daou, CEO of mention from a jury
its new state-of-the-art platform, a new production Media Mania, said: “After that included university
12G 4K UHD OB van. solution that combines the many months of assessing students from Rome
company’s flagship Acuity the broadcast industry, it at the 27th MedFilm
After spending more production switcher with was clear that Ross Video’s Festival in Rome. Amira
than 12 months reviewing the software-defined Ultrix local team in the region and is Diab’s third film as
broadcast industry vendors the innovative software- a director, after 678
defined technology met our (2010) and his 2016 hit
technical and operational Clash (Eshtebak). The
requirements. We are film is a co-production
delighted to put our third between Jordan, Egypt,
OB van on the road to start Palestine, the UAE and
producing exciting and Saudi Arabia, and was
innovative productions all shot entirely in Jordan.
over the Middle East.”
12 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROFESTIVAL
Saudi Arabia gears up for Red
Sea International Film Festival
The inaugural lineup A still from Quareer by The Red Sea Souk will also welcome a
Ragheed Al Nahdi, which will series of key players to lead discussions
Saudi Arabia’s first large-scale film be screened as part of the on a range of topics including the global
festival, in partnership with Vox New Saudi Cinema section. content boom and demand for content
Cinemas, MBC Group and Saudia creators, the post-pandemic industry
Airlines, has announced the programme for Saudi filmmakers to present their and sustainable media production.
for its inaugural edition, which will work on the big screen to the global It will also showcase over 20 local
run 6-15 December in Jeddah. film industry and local audiences. and regional exhibiting companies
including buyers, sales agents, film
The Red Sea International Film Festival Alongside the Red Sea Competition, red commissions, distributors and exhibitors.
will feature 138 feature films and shorts carpet galas and special presentations, the
from 67 countries in 34 languages from festival will host a range of cinema in the Immediately following the Souk
both established and emerging talent, following sections: Festival Favourites, on December 12-13, the festival will
and will host 25 world premieres, 48 New Saudi/New Cinema, Red Sea hold Talent Days, a two-day initiative
Arab premieres and 17 GCC premieres, Treasures, Red Sea Arab and International designed to support the development of
with a number of filmmakers and actors Spectacular, Red Sea Next Generation, the next generation of Saudi filmmakers.
in attendance for many of the films. Red Sea Immersive and Red Sea Episodic.
Red Sea Immersive
Cyrano, a musical romantic drama The Arab and international explores VR world
directed by award-winning British competition will showcase the highest
director Joe Wright and written by creative achievements from an array Red Sea Immersive, the programming
Erica Schmidt, based on her 2018 of filmmakers in its Red Sea Feature strand of the Red Sea International Film
stage musical, will raise the curtain. and Shorts Competition sections. The Festival, has announced a 21-strong
The festival will close with the world lineup of 18 shorts and 16 features programme of virtual reality experiences,
premiere of acclaimed Egyptian director showcases compelling works produced and will run December 7-15 at Jeddah’s
Amr Salama’s Bara El Manhag. in the past year. Winners in each new creative complex, Hayy Jameel. It
competition will be selected by juries will introduce immersive storytelling
A slate of 27 new films from Saudi and announced on December 13. experiences to audiences in Jeddah,
filmmakers will be shown alongside while also serving as an inspiration and
the best of new international cinema. The festival will also celebrate women catalyst to future immersive content
The lineup of features and shorts in film, with two very special talents creators and studios from the region.
will open a window for international honoured – Saudi filmmaker Haifaa Al-
guests to explore all aspects of Saudi Mansour and Egyptian actress Laila Eloui. Thirteen of the most significant
society, and provide a vital platform VR works produced in 2021 will be
The Red Sea Souk, the Festival’s
Whisper Down the Lane, directed by Raghad industry market, will consist of the
Albarqi, will be part of the Saudi shorts lineup. Project Market, with pitching and
meetings for a selection of 23 films in
development, and Works-in-Progress
Screenings, rough cuts of a selection
of films in post-production. More than
$800,000 will be awarded to the projects
selected in the Red Sea Souk Awards.
14 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROFESTIVAL
The Good Boss, written and The International will be accompanied by a Q&A from the
directed by Fernando León Spectacular section filmmakers or cast, aiming at showcasing
and celebrating emerging Saudi talent.
de Aranoa, is part of the This is a curated collection of some of
International Spectacular. the year’s most powerful stories from Mohyee Qari, Programme Manager at
iconic, award-winning international RedSeaIFF, said: “The Saudi programme
presented in competition for the Golden filmmaking voices. All eight films will of feature and short films, of which many
Yusr Immersive Award, which will be Arab premieres, showcasing the are directed by female filmmakers, speak
include a cash prize of $10,000 with eight best of international cinema to the to the very best of Saudi filmmaking.
projects presented out of competition. Arab world. Edouard Waintrop, Artistic They don’t hesitate to explore the
The programme is curated by Liz Director of RedSeaIFF, said: “The different genres of cinema ranging from
Rosenthal, curator of Venice VR at the stories told in these films, over half suspense to thriller, to social themes
Venice International Film Festival. of which are from female filmmakers, and relationships, to show us Saudi
portray a vibrant and diverse array of society in its richness. They indicate
Red Sea Immersive will be adjudicated views and we are thrilled to be able to an industry that is flourishing, both in
by an all-female jury of three leading showcase them all at the Festival.” terms of the diversity and content on
international artists. The jury will be screen, and point to the bright future
presided over by American avant-garde The lineup consists of Giuseppe that this young film industry has. We
artist Laurie Anderson, joined by BAFTA- Tornatore’s Ennio; Mona Lisa and the are thrilled to be able to give these
winning director Victoria Mapplebeck Blood Moon, written and directed by filmmakers a platform to share their
and one of the first Saudi Arabian street acclaimed filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour; work on the international stage.”
artists, Sarah Mohanna Al Abdali. French-Algerian director Yamina
Benguigui’s latest film Sisters; Maggie These films include Junoon by
The 13 immersive storytelling Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost directors Maan B. and Yaser B. Khalid;
experiences being presented in the Daughter; Belfast, written and directed Route 10 by Omar Naim; Quareer by
competition are Anandala, End of Night, by Academy Award nominee Kenneth Ragheed Al Nahdi, Norah Almowald,
Genesis, Glimpse, Goliath: Playing with Branagh; Spanish comedy The Good Ruba Khafagy, Fatma Alhazmi and
Reality, Kusunda, Laika, Lavrynthos, Boss, written and directed by Fernando Noor Alameer; Fay’s Palette by Anas
Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li, Marco & León de Aranoa; You Resemble Me, Ba-Tahaf; Becoming by Sara Mesfer,
Polo Go Round, Reeducated, Samsara the directorial debut of Egyptian- Jawaher Alamri, Noor Alameer, Hind
(Lun Hui) and The Sick Rose. American filmmaker and award-winning Alfahhad and Fatima Al-Banawi; Kayan
journalist Dina Amer; and The Colour by Hakeem Jomaah; and Cinema
The inaugural Red Sea International Room, directed by Claire McCarthy. Al-Hara by Faizah Ambah. PRO
Film Festival will take place
in Jeddah December 6-15. The New Saudi
Cinema section
The world premieres of selected films
from talented up-and-coming Saudis
will be among the 27 films presented at
the inaugural festival. Each screening
You Resemble Me is the
directorial debut of
Egyptian-American
filmmaker and award-winning
journalist Dina Amer.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 15
PROAI
BROADCASTPRO
SUMMIT:
A PLACE TO EXPLORE
INDUSTRY SECRETS
The summit has long served as a regional platform for the industry to
exchange ideas and experiences on evolving trends in the market and
each edition has drawn a larger international audience. This year's
summit discussions will be carried across two editions of BroadcastPro.
16 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAI
EXPLORING THE
POWER OF AI
AI experts across MENA broadcast gathered to look at the impact
of this evolving technology on various aspects of newsgathering,
production, contribution and distribution. Nicolas Hans, Partner at
Broadcast Solutions Middle East and Africa, and the moderator of this
panel sums up the discussion for us
BROADCAST SOLUTIONS ASHARQ NEWS DISCOVERY, ME A AND TURKE Y
Nicolas Hans Kathey Battrick Bassem Maher
EXPO 2020 TÜRK TELEKOM VITEC NEWSBRIDGE
Esteban Galan Umut Keten Fadi Jumaa Frederic Petitpont
AI is the new electricity. It has become ubiquitous in logistics and back-office systems. Then five years ago, perception
every consumer’s life. With every tweet, Facebook AI rolled out across smart homes, smart cities and smart factories.
post or social media swipe, an AI recommendation
engine is involved. The recent Facebook Files from the Today, the fourth wave, autonomous AI, has led to the boom
Wall Street Journal demonstrated AI’s impact on our in drones, robotics and autonomous vehicles. The broadcast
collective perception of reality. Beyond social media industry is no stranger to the AI revolution, and Netflix claims to
platforms, AI is booming across all industries. save a billion dollars every year thanks to cognitive technologies.
Society is experiencing the fourth wave of AI. The first started To better tackle the state of AI technology across
a decade ago with internet AI ruling web sites and mobile apps; broadcast and streaming media, the technology panel at
four years later, business AI affected financial services, medical, the ASBU BroadcastPro summit featured three media
professionals, one telecom operator and two technologists.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 17
PROAI
Kathey Battrick, Senior Manager, “It is predicted that the AI Newsbridge, the reasons for the
Library and Media Management at market in the sports industry boom in AI technology in the last
Asharq News, shared her experience will grow 30% every year until decade were not limited to the
deploying AI in her archiving 2027. It will reach $3.5bn” increase in CPU and GPU power and
department. Bassem Maher, Head the availability of cloud resources.
of Operations Discovery, MEA and Esteban Galan, Lead Manager, Broadcast Code sharing and increased
Turkey, explained how AI is supporting collaboration across organisations
the launch of the Discovery+ OTT Technical, Media Services, Expo 2020 are essential drivers of this AI
offering. Esteban Galan, Lead renaissance. “Science laboratories
Manager, Broadcast Technical, Media AI is not new; it turned 65 this year and universities are sharing how
Services, Expo 2020, explored how Since the start of the year, $50bn has been they're working and designing
media distribution and live production invested in AI, according to the CB Insights their systems. You're no longer
are both affected by AI services. ‘State of AI’ Q3 2021 report. According starting from scratch anymore.”
to PWC, AI will create $15.7tn in value
These media professionals were by 2030. And things are accelerating. All agree that the new approach to
complemented by Umut Keten, AI – which has partially abandoned
Senior Architect at Türk Telekom, As an AI evangelist, Umut Keten the development of rule-based
who shared his insights on how from Türk Telekom sees AI as generally engines for neural networks – relies
neural networks are used to monitor misunderstood. “Everybody thinks AI first and foremost on the relevance of
internet and mobile telephony is like a consciousness or something datasets. These datasets are critical
networks, and two technologists: human-like, when the basic principle because they are used to train AI
Fadi Jumaa, Director of Business of AI is much simpler. AI is just a way engines and are the cornerstone of
Development at VITEC, and Frederic for a machine to decide on its own the concept of machine learning.
Petitpont, CTO of Newsbridge, a without human intervention.” “Neural networks are the engine and
French startup specialising in content datasets the oil,” concluded Petitpont.
indexing using Multimodal AI. For Frederic Petitpont from
AI speech-to-text and translation are
We were keen to understand what
AI stands for and how it is already in changing archives and distribution
use across media organisations. From At Asharq, which launched just a
setting the stage to going under the year ago, Kathey Battrick went all-in
hood and exploring the challenges with AI when she set up the archives
AI presents, the debate was lively. department. “We wanted to use
The panel agreed that AI's carbon footprint appears to be high.
18 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAI
AI to help us preserve and create A full house at the ASBU BroadcastPro Olympic production facilities in Tokyo.”
rich metadata for our content. We Summit on November 16 at the In his eyes, AI technology that
considered three key areas: labels and Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai.
the flexibility to customise metadata; streamlines video encoding enables
people and the possibility to reference that when all these are aligned, we will new business models. “Covid
new faces and personalities; proper see AI used in high-end productions.” dictated this remote production at
support for both English and Arabic.” the Olympics in Tokyo. But later, it
For Fadi Jumaa, the impact of AI on was realised as a very viable business
For Esteban Galan from Expo remote production already became a model because it saves a lot of money
2020 Dubai, automatic translation reality at the recent Tokyo Olympics. “We and improves the return on investment
of metadata and transcripts across partnered with Eurosport to transmit the broadcasters like Eurosport
the three official languages of the Olympics. Because of the Covid crisis, make buying sports content.”
exhibition – Arabic, English and we took live feeds and sent these to
French – was the “coolest feature”. commentators in the comfort and safety AI helps manage telecom
He detailed how AI combined with of their homes. They added their live
cloud infrastructure facilitates the comments, and the signal was sent back to networks and reduce OTT churn
distribution of videos and stills to As detailed by Umut Keten, AI is
media organisations worldwide, to “We still have manual already used at scale by telecom
promote the image and increase metadata we create, but it’s operators. “In a telco, the network is
the reach of Expo 2020. vastly complemented by the big. There can be many outages, and
huge amount of metadata the AI one outage can relate to ten different
Bassem Maher explained that the platform could generate for us” causes. When operators monitor
focus for implementing AI at Discovery the network, they may get twenty
is primarily distribution and enhancing Kathey Battrick, Senior Manager, Library alarms and little time to determine
the consumer experience, with the and Media Management, Asharq News the root cause of that problem. That’s
recent launch of the Discovery+ OTT where AI makes our lives easier.”
platform and the creation of new
services across Siri and Alexa digital Beyond monitoring the state of
assistants. Although he recognised the network, Umut explained how
that AI for production was still a work AI helps telcos optimise data traffic
in progress, he projected a coming for OTT providers: “As an internet
adoption to manage the seventy provider, we support OTT services. AI
languages Discovery broadcasts in. monitors user traffic and knows where
He was confident about the roll-out, people connect to, what their latency
considering that Discovery operates is and what type of traffic they're
160 channels on AWS and can downloading. According to that, you
easily leverage cloud AI services. can determine which customers have
a good experience and which do not.
AI is changing the world of sport We use this to determine what kind of
Galan, who has been involved with outages cause customers to churn.”
the Olympics since 2012, shared the
growing impact of AI in sports. “It is Moving forward, Keten believes
predicted that the AI market in the that telcos and OTT service providers
sports industry will grow 30% every
year until 2027. It will reach $3.5bn.”
Convinced that the broadcast
industry will follow a similar adoption
pattern, he foresees the deployment of
AI in live production. “Supercomputing
will help, because the power of the
processing power is getting much
more powerful. The democratisation
of the cloud is making storage and
access to data much faster, and the
deployment of 5G networks will
only accelerate that further. I think
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 19
PROAI
Fadi Jumaa (second from left) commented that AI will affect production
the impact of AI on remote production was already
evident at the recent Tokyo Olympics. and change jobs
At Asharq, AI is not replacing
should collaborate to further optimise From Battrick’s perspective, false humans but working for them. “The
AI monitoring. “OTT providers should positives are not that frequent. “I news librarian or archivist role will
work closer with the telco providers, can't say we've seen a huge volume not go, and that's never been the
deciding where their CDNs should be of false positives. It does happen, but intention. We need that role. We still
located. When a leading OTT provider we took the decision early on that have manual metadata we create,
such as Netflix launches a new series we were going to manually review but it's vastly complemented by the
like the new season of The Witcher, and approve all the people suggested huge amount of metadata the AI
you can immediately see on the by the AI, to ensure that everything platform could generate for us.”
network many people trying to reach we import back into our media asset
one location, all at the same time. Our management system is 100% accurate.” Not all panellists were as confident
systems understand that as a denial- of the future impact of AI on jobs.
of-service attack and act accordingly. “When operators monitor For Galan, “Once we use computer
It just triggers a false positive!” the network, they may get vision for camera tracking, automated
twenty alarms and little time highlights, automated graphics, it will
False positives: the AI disease to determine the root cause reduce the number of people sitting in
For Petitpont, “False positives are of that problem. That’s where OB vans and impact live production.”
the disease of AI.” He illustrated such AI makes our lives easier”
false positives by explaining that AI has a serious carbon footprint
football player Ángel Di María of Paris Umut Keten, Senior Architect, Türk Telekom Meanwhile, AI already affects
Saint-Germain looks like Franz Kafka, the planet. Petitpont explained:
and both are identified as the same “When you are running on a public
person by a facial recognition engine. cloud provider, it's a challenge to
estimate your carbon emissions.
“When it comes to cognitive We need to decorrelate the time
services, there are different ways to and the energy you need to train
tackle false positives. The first one the dataset from the resources
is feedback learning to improve the required to use the engine. Every
dataset, but that requires many actions time a user is using AI, we need to
from users. The second is to improve know how energy is consumed.”
the quality of your original dataset,
improving the quality of the pictures According to Jumaa, AI can play
you give the AI to learn from. Finally, a role in helping decrease energy
the last one is to use multimodal or consumption: “For the green
multi-role AI. With multimodal AI, you MPEG GreenPEG initiative, we
don’t limit yourself to the vectors of will incorporate an AI programme
the face. You use all other available that will optimise how much
contextual data for better results. energy is spent by each device.
Multimodal is used a lot in the medical At VITEC, we plan to be carbon-
field. To identify a specific disease, you neutral by the end of the year.”
need to consider all the symptoms.”
A brave new world
Asked what advice she would
give to an editor-in-chief or head
librarian deciding to roll out AI
technology across their operations,
Battrick was blunt. “My first piece
of advice is to be brave! Change can
be scary. The second one would be
to run a good proof of concept and
understand your business and user
requirements, to make sure that
the content or the metadata coming
back meets those needs.” PRO
20 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
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PROSTREAMING
TAKING STREAMING
TO THE NEXT LEVEL
With the rise in prominence of streaming services, winning share of time,
mind and wallet has become critical in an increasingly crowded market.
This panel explored new strategies and discussed how to market, manage
and monetise content, and build a subscriber base that sticks around
AMANDA TURNBULL ASSOCIATES STARZPL AY INTIGRAL
Amanda Turnbull Danny Bates James Walmsley
AT E M E COMCAST TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS WEY YAK BY ZEE VIU
Jean-Louis Lods Martin Webb Nadine Samra Rohit D’silva
As more streamers enter the market and consumers Chief Business Officer, Weyyak by Zee; and Rohit D’silva,
Chief Business Officer, Middle East & South Africa, Viu.
subscribe to multiple OTT services, this panel looked
Moderator Amanda Turnbull, CEO Amanda Turnbull
at the technical and operational means to crack Associates, first took the audience through an overview of
the current status of streaming services in the region and
navigation and discoverability across services. They how platforms are trying to stand out from the crowd.
looked at how to take streaming to the next level. Directing her first query at Rohit D’silva, she asked him
On the panel were Danny Bates, CCO and co-founder of to elaborate on his ‘staying in lane’ stance with Viu.
StarzPlay; James Walmsley, Director of Entertainment Products, “The reason this space is competitive is because it is obviously
Intigral; Jean-Louis Lods, VP Media Supply Chain Solutions the present and the future of this industry. We have experienced
at ATEME; Martin Webb, Senior Product Manager, Cloud
TV, Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS); Nadine Samra,
22 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROSTREAMING
intense competition in Southeast “Our acquisition costs are the pandemic, grew to over 70% at
Asia, where you have the big global one-sixth to one-seventh of the peak and even now has only fallen
giants on the one hand and the big the standard acquisition cost back to 50%. Therefore, ensuring
Chinese players on the other. And on sport. It has made a real functionality to target all screens in
in that space, we have found a way difference to our acquisition a uniform manner is essential in that
to be in and we enjoyed over 50 strategy and how we onboard time, device and place shifting won’t
million MAUs for H1 and second in customers onto our platform” be barriers to content consumption.”
terms of streaming minutes,” D’silva
said, adding that remaining focused Danny Bates, CCO and co-founder, StarzPlay Second, we must be responsive to
on content relevant to the space in emerging ideas in the market, and
which Viu is operating, and identifying was connecting the world and what was companies must be ready from a
the right kind of content, is vital. essential in order to achieve flexibility tech and organisation point of view
and agility for streaming services. As the to adapt to those changing trends.
“As this game gets more CTS cloud TV solutions unites them with
competitive, we would rather stay global brands across all segments, Martin Third, he recommended building
in lane and make sure we have as Webb offered four recommendations. one-to-one relationships with
much fuel as possible, as in money, consumers, urging broadcasters
and we think being focused and First, you need to be where your to create an aggregated and
delivering on that proposition audience is, which means being present anonymised dataset – but most
is where we are best suited.” on smart TVs, not just mobile devices. importantly be holistic, and be able
to track consumer consumption
Viu offers an AVOD and SVOD “Our white paper, called Riding across the whole catalogue. “You
model, which D’silva says is ideal for the Premium Content Wave, focused don’t want silos in that data.”
this market. “Consumers have the specifically on this region and showed how
option of staying on in the free layer large-screen viewing, which made less than Finally, platforms must be open to
or moving up. So there’s space to 20% of overall video consumption before adopting flexible business models.
grow and scale within that segment The single-tier SVOD market has
... Also, because consumption is led moved on, and since consumers
by a mobile device, an easy entry have limits to SVOD stacking,
and easy exit is important to take AVOD offers that beachhead to get
streaming to the next level.” one’s service in, he pointed out.
Nadine Samra, who heads He added: “Cloud gives you that
Weyyak, an Arabic-language unifying point to target all these
AVOD-SVOD service built within platforms in a single way. From where
the Zee entertainment framework, we see it, broadcasters and operators
said the platform has been going are on a digital transformation
from strength to strength thanks
to its Indian content. The team
has built on that with investment
in Arabic original productions as
well as dubbing Indian content.
“The huge library of Indian content
we have is our main USP. We are
also investing heavily in a lot of
Arabic originals; we have localised
our product so that people feel like
it’s their own,” she commented.
Weyyak has also acquired a lot
of Arabic originals from the GCC,
Syria and Egypt, and Samra added
that the team has been very active
on the content side, the marketing
side, the telco partnership side
and the advertising side.
As a vendor, Turnbull questioned
how Comcast Technology Solutions
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 23
PROSTREAMING
The OTT panel brought together a mix of stakeholders content providers to really scale
who explored strategies to up the streaming game. their business? You start dovetailing
this to the other associated factors
journey, where online becomes a core “So how does the business scale around and ask how do you
part of their overall strategy. Being using the lowest bitrates at the deliver video to the consumer.
in the cloud with the right kind of highest quality so the consumer that
video platform is important in order is consuming the entertainment is “We talk about sport, and latency
to achieve scalability with highly having a premium experience while the comes into this. It’s very important:
concurrent events, because those network costs, the storage costs and how do I not have that spoiler effect
platforms use micro services, although everything associated with delivering where my neighbour has experienced
that misses out programmability. We that service is at the optimal level to a goal and 10 or 20 seconds later, I see
would advocate using micro services enable the platform and the service that goal appear on my screen? By
where each service is opened up offering that end-to-end experience
so that services are combined like “Customers are no longer and services of the encoding, origin
interlocking bricks, allowing the video choosing just a single and packaging of that CDN, we can
platform to adapt to your strategy streaming service and enable the delivery of services which
rather than forcing your strategy content providers are become ultra-low in latency and
to adapt to the video platform.” starting to push their own match the same delivery technologies
applications over content buyout as traditional DTT cable and satellite.”
As platforms scale, there are also agreements in some cases”
some fundamentals of technology Roping James Walmsley in,
that will help create that finer James Walmsley, Director of Turnbull asked about the idea
viewer experience. Jean-Louis of Intigral becoming a super
Lods stepped in to elaborate. Entertainment Products, Intigral aggregator and to explain his
‘own the coffee table and not
“At ATEME, we really work and necessarily the screen’ analogy.
focus on the video playing level so the
end-to-end experience is important, Providing some perspective,
from the football stadium through Walmsley said that Intigral has,
to the glass of the user experience. from the outset, “been building
We focus fundamentally on how to a product that features its own
make the video experience of the content while also showcasing
best quality for the user no matter content from other providers”.
their device, and based on that the
quality of the encoding and the “This sums up the next phase of
timely distribution of that content where we want to be. We have been
that quality of experience extends building out Jawwy TV to showcase
… so, for instance, how quickly does content from other providers in the
my service start up when I request way they would want their content
my programming, which is coming presented. We have partnered with
through from the middleware from StarzPlay for many years, amongst
CTS. And it’s that user experience others, and decided to give content
that really is always going to be so owners their own space on our
important for platforms as they scale. platform rather than curate it as we
see fit including ingesting the same
genres, categories and promotional
carousels they design for their own
services. Content owners invest a
lot of time and effort into curating
their library so it makes sense to us
to make sure that is translated to
their presentation within Jawwy TV.
We also have a very diverse range
of customers in diverse countries,
demanding a wide variety of content
verticals to cater to them and
necessitating a different presentation
and curation strategy. Providers want
24 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROSTREAMING
to control the way they sell their “We are also investing for us, the customer influx and
content and this plays a little more heavily in a lot of Arabic the acquisition costs,” commented
into where we are going in the future originals; we have localised Danny Bates, highlighting a
because every service, us included, our product so that people combined organic acquisition of
invest a lot of time in scheduling feel like it’s their own” 60-70% subscribers coming into
and curating their content whether the platform. “Our acquisition costs
it be Arabic, Western or Khaleeji. Nadine Samra, Chief Business Officer, are one-sixth to one-seventh of
the standard acquisition cost on
“Going forward for us, and coming Weyyak by Zee sport. It has made a real difference
back to the coffee table analogy, we to our acquisition strategy and
will put as much focus on our content even when it’s not our content on the how we onboard customers onto
partners as we do on our own library. main screen. Of course, this does come our platform. It is really not even
We realise that the market is evolving; with additional challenges, requiring us to about standing out from the crowd,
customers are no longer choosing just think differently about how we measure but being part of the crowd.”
a single streaming service and content success, but in the long term we believe
providers are starting to push their this is the best solution we can offer to our Turnbull asked what that meant
own applications over content buyout current and prospective customer base.” for content navigation and discovery.
agreements in some cases. Netflix
set the trend in only allowing their In the meantime, StarzPlay has “We are lucky that our DNA is
content to be showcased by them been partnering with different content rooted in digital marketing and
through their native applications, partners. Its most recent achievement performance marketing,” said
but other players are moving in that has been cracking a smart way of D’silva. “Everyone runs their funnel
direction, with Amazon Prime and getting sports assets on its platform. differently; the beauty is that there’s
Disney+ launching in this fashion. We no one-size formula that works. We
want to be ready for this move and be “The great thing about sport is its are looking at adjacent industries that
in a position to offer our customers organic reach. It has been a big evolution will provide us with a user base, such
the best of both worlds. By offering as influencers, who consume things in
customers a great baseline of our own the way we are all designing products,
titles, complemented by our partners’ so this space is moving faster and the
libraries and third-party applications, good thing is there are more ways
we believe we can remain at the to address these issues; the only
centre of the customer’s experience constant is the need for more money.”
Did Weyyak have a slightly
ATEME's Jean-Louis Lods (fourth from left) pointed out that
the end-to-end video experience is important to the user
irrespective of the device they use, and that ensuring quality
of experience will remain important as platforms scale.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 25
PROSTREAMING
different approach? “Ensuring functionality for quality and completeness of
“I like to tap into the idea of being to target all screens in a metadata, but also highlighted the
uniform manner is essential key element of consistency. “We see
part of the crowd,” said Samra, in that time, device and place situations where fragmentation in
“there’s space for us all. The MENA shifting won’t be barriers how video services are implemented
and the Arabic audience can consume to content consumption” lead to a number of different
multiple OTT services. So out of metadata databases, which can
the eight or six hours that a user Martin Webb, Senior Product Manager, Cloud lead to consumer confusion in
spends, if we find half an hour or TV, Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) the content discovery process. So
one hour, we are happy; if we can quality is important, but I would
achieve that, we’re successful.” recommendation engines and so on. like to see consistency too.”
“It is really about acquisition, getting
A creative and experimental those big shows, bringing people on; Closing, Turnbull asked D’silva if
attitude has played a predominant second, giving them something new to having a ‘good departure’, as Bates
role in the Weyyak strategy. “We stay in; and thirdly, the win-back cycle. had phrased it, chimed with his views.
have adopted a ‘why don’t we try Give customers a good experience as
this out’ approach,” commented they leave, so that they come back.” “I have a different perspective
Samra. “If things don’t work for on sports. While what the StarzPlay
us, we move on, we learn.” James countered that while sports in team is doing is fantastic in trying to
itself is a big draw, providing content and find new ways to engage with sport,
Walmsley agreed with Samra about value between actual consumption is the cost of sports rights makes it
space for multiple people at different crucial to getting subscribers to return. difficult to make it work on OTT.
times in a customer’s journey. “In “Retaining that base or bringing them Sport can give outsized returns,
terms of content discovery, the back will be the next big challenge.” but you also need an outsized bet.
challenge will be a metadata one, but Having said that, like the rest of the
the breadth of content is expanding, Picking on from Walmsley’s point streaming services, things will evolve
technology is also improving, and about metadata, Webb stressed the need and hopefully sports streaming
as we move through the next few will become viable in the future.”
years, things will get better.” The cost of sports rights makes The discussion ended with how sports
it difficult to make it work on services are getting increasingly more
Creative level changes are taking OTT, said Rohit D'silva. pragmatic and how sharing rights
place in content delivery too, altering costs and partnering with telcos
viewer features and delivering whole could help build those “outsized”
new experiences, Lods highlighted. bets to reach wider regions and
larger audience bases. PRO
“We have a thing called film grain
synthesis, which takes the noise or
the film grain that was captured and
put on purpose by the director, that
is often not seen by the consumer.
We can now synthesise that film grain
and reproduce at player level while
saving enormously on bandwidth,
almost 90%. So delivering the
experience to the consumer which
is as real as what was endeavoured
by the director becomes vitally
important about how you differentiate
your content and give it a feel of
ownership to the actual user.”
With all the different content,
segmentation and audiences, how are
channels bringing content to the fore?
Bates pointed out that what was
once about acquisition marketing has
now evolved into content discovery
experience and communication
with the customer, curating
services, surfacing technology,
26 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
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28 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAWARDS
HONOURING THE
WINNERS OF 2021
The ASBU BroadcastPro Awards 2021 edition in Dubai, hosted on
November 16, honoured the champions whose passion, ability and tech
know-how have taken the industry to an unheralded era of innovation
The 11th edition of the ASBU BroadcastPro Awards in paving the way for a new industry landscape.
The awards are well-known for their regional scope
Dubai once again proved a powerful barometer of the
and each year, BroadcastPro ME tries to celebrate
trends shaping regional broadcasting and streaming. The winners across different regional markets. This year saw
some remarkable projects from the UAE, Iraq, Bahrain,
‘content is king’ mantra has never felt truer than now, when Saudi Arabia and North Africa that mirrored a number
of key initiatives in these countries, with companies at
content innovators are playing an increasingly important the vanguard of industry ambitions and performance.
role in deciding where the smart money should be spent. While two awards were reserved for the satellite segment, 18
With the OTT revolution, new ways of delivering content awards were given away in the broadcast segment. A big thank
you to our judges this year: Afzal Lakdawala, Head of Digital
are introducing a brand new set of dynamics – and on 16 Transformation, ARM Holding; Badih Fattouh, CEO, Creative
November, the champions of these new working styles were Venture; Hassan Chahine, founder & CEO, Media Digital Space;
honoured at a gala ceremony at the Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai. Heba Korayem, Content Market Consultant , H.consult; Mustafa
Tell, GM of Broadcast Operations, ART, Jordan; Rochdi Nouira,
Earlier in the day, the ASBU BroadcastPro Summit Head Engineer, Deputy Director, Technical Department, Tunisian
focused on critical areas of content curation and delivery, Radio; Sanjay Raina, Media & Entertainment Consultant;
while the content game-changers who excelled with their and Vijaya Cherian, Editor, BroadcastPro Middle East.
pioneering spirit were featured in the night’s Awards line-up.
The ASBU BroadcastPro Awards do not aim to
just acknowledge the big players whose budgets and
global outreach lead the way. They also honour the
smaller, outlier businesses whose breakthroughs are
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SUPPORT SPONSOR
NETWORKING PARTNER HOME PLUS NETWORK CONTENT PARTNER ENTERTAINMENT PARTNER ENDORSED BY
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Middle East & Beyond
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 29
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
BEST TV PRODUCTION
OF THE YEAR
Qayd Majhoul – OSN
Qayd Majhool, OSN’s first
Arabic original production, is a
psycho-thriller drama series that
entertains superbly while also
highlighting mental illness – a
topic that most producers tend to
skirt around for want of knowing
how to tackle it appropriately.
This production saw renowned
Arab celebrities take on intense
roles and is testimony to how
producers and broadcasters are
willing to push the boundaries of
storytelling in the MENA region.
Besides the innovative storytelling,
this one impressed for great
direction and high production
values. Pictured with the award
is Rolla Karam, SVP Content
Acquisition – Programming, OSN.
BEST OTT PRODUCTION
OF THE YEAR
Nemra Etnein –
Shahid
This series is an impressive
combination of independent stories
that bravely explore modern
relationships in the Arab world.
It received an almost unanimous
vote of confidence from the
judges over other competing
entries for its compelling and bold
storytelling, slick look and overall
quality of production. Its take on
relationships without making any
judgements perhaps added to the
appeal. The trailer screened at the
awards gala was received with loud
applause. Ali Ghamloush (l), Head
of Originals – Shahid, received
the award from Nitin Michael,
co-founder of SynProNize.
30 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
BEST CONTENT STRATEGY
OF THE YEAR
NINETNINE
Ninetnine, a young content distribution
company, has disrupted the way Arab
broadcasters monetise their content
overseas. Ninetnine took a data-
analytics approach and helped create
targeted TV bundles for the Arab and
North African diaspora in Europe and
the Americas, adapting them to different
markets. Its content strategy helped
reshape Arabic content consumption
in Europe. More recently, Ninetnine
became the exclusive distributor of
MBC channels in Europe, with TV
rights to its linear channels. For its
game-changing approach to catering
to the Arab diaspora while helping
regional content owners monetise their
assets, Ninetnine took home the award.
Ninetnine co-founders Adel Hamla (l)
and Samir Zehani with the award.
FILM INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR
Italia Film
This award was created to recognise
a company that has helped to bring
audiences back to the big screen
through its regional initiatives.
Italia Film was the first to get a
distribution licence in Saudi Arabia
when the country lifted its 35-year
ban on cinema. It launched the first
movie in Saudi theatres with Black
Panther. It still tops the charts for
the highest ever grossing movie in
the region with Aladdin. Recently,
it hit a milestone by being the first
distribution company in 2021 to
reach more than 2m admissions in
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia after
only nine months of film releases.
John Chahine (l), GM, UAE & Gulf
Lower region, Italia Film received
the award from Hasnaa Descuns,
co-founder of SynProNize.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 31
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
BEST RADIO INITIATIVE
OF THE YEAR
Ministry of
Information Affairs
– Radio Project,
Kingdom of Bahrain
This project stood out for the $6.5m
makeover that the Kingdom of
Bahrain's Ministry of Information
Affairs (MIA) undertook in
conjunction with systems integrator
Glocom for Bahrain Radio during
the pandemic, transitioning it from
the legacy analogue facility that
was built in the '80s to the state-of-
the-art digital setup that is now on
air. Eng Abdulla Ahmed Albalooshi
(l), Assistant Undersecretary for
Technical Affairs at the MIA, received
the award from Baher Al Zaher,
Managing Director for RCS MENA.
BROADCASTPRO ME INNOVATIVE
PROJECT OF THE YEAR
Expo 2020 Dubai
Expo 2020 bagged this award for
a MAM underaking that helped
facilitate the distribution and
access of high-resolution videos,
audio and stills on a global scale to
all media. The project minimised
on-premise deployment by using
cloud-based services and leveraged
AI technologies to optimise content
indexing and cataloguing. The
system could cater to 250 users at
any given time, allowing them to
download high-res content at the
same time. Mandy Keegan (l), Vice
President, Expo 2020 Dubai, and
Pedro Freitas (r), Senior Manager
Media Asset Management, Expo
2020, received the award from
Razik Zaghlouli (c), Regional
Director MENA, ATEME.
32 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
BEST 2021 TECH
IMPLEMENTATION IN OTT
Home Plus
Network (H+)
When Hares Consultancy conducted
a study into streaming services, it
discovered that an OTT app’s success
depends almost entirely on the ease of
content discovery. The research also
showed that customers preferred a
single provider to make available all
the TV services they want to watch
on one platform. This led Hares
Consultancy to create the region’s first
OTT aggregation platform – no small
feat – where consumers can search and
stream content and manage multiple
subscriptions. Frederic Petitpont (r),
co-founder and CTO of Newsbridge,
presented the award to Ammar Hares,
CEO and co-founder of Lovetodomedia
and the company behind H+.
OUTSTANDING SPORTS
INITIATIVE OF THE YEAR
IP Studios
When IP Studios was entrusted with the
opportunity to bring two combat sports
to the UAE across multiple platforms,
the Abu Dhabi entity went all out. It
collaborated with international partners
to bring the sport to the region, and
built a whole production ecosystem
and a calendar of TV events around it. It
also built an app to feature live games,
VOD content and training programmes
for subscribers. Essentially, it helped
ignite the dreams of martial arts athletes
and unleashed real-life superheroes,
offering them a stage to shine. For
these initiatives, IP Studios stood head
and shoulders above other entries.
Mohamad Yehya (l), Founding Director
of IP Studios, received the award
from Klaus-Joerg Jasper, Senior Sales
Director Middle East and CIS, Lawo.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 33
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
STREAMING SERVICE OF THE YEAR
Shahid
Shahid is a shining example of a product
that MBC has nurtured with investment
and talent, and the team has delivered a
successful streaming service, with high-
quality content, a great user interface
and a fantastic viewer experience. It
produced 25 originals in 2021, versus
12 in 2020. It had 2m subscribers by
the end of Ramadan 2021, versus 1.4m
subscribers by Ramadan 2020. It is
the first Arabic platform to bring pre-
theatrical films to a streaming platform.
It now has a user interface in Arabic,
English and French. For the first time,
over 40 new Arabic titles were shown
on a single platform during Ramadan.
Guy Spivack (r), Regional Commercial
Director MENA of Comcast Technology
Solutions, presented the award to
Natasha Matos-Hemingway, Group Chief
Commercial Officer (VOD), MBC Group.
MENA TRENDSETTER OF THE YEAR
Cedars Art
Production
For the first time, this award went to
a production house and is testimony
to the rising significance of Arabic
content and formats that are now
travelling to international shores.
While Turkish drama series are
popular in the Arab world, for the
first time an Arabic format – Al
Hayba (a Cedars Art Production
series), one of the region’s most
successful five-season drama
series – was sold to a leading
production house in Turkey. The
production house was also the
first to distribute Arabic content
on a wide scale internationally.
Pictured here with the award is
Sadek Sabbah, CEO of Cedars Art
Production (Sabbah Brothers).
34 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR
OF THE YEAR
Wave Media
Solutions
We had some heavyweights
contending for this category, but
Wave Media Solutions was chosen
for bringing its systems integration
expertise to Iraq. In the last 12
months, this systems integrator
has completed six projects in Iraq.
It integrated Iraq’s largest studio
for Al Sharqiya TV in Kurdistan.
From studio robotics and full studio
automation to advanced VR and
AR graphics to large videowalls
with advanced videowall graphics,
it has been responsible for some
robust installations in the country.
Zaid Wattar, Managing Director
of Wave Media Solutions, is
featured here with the award.
OUTSTANDING KIDS’
CONTENT INITIATIVE
Spacetoon
Spacetoon has been involved in
some remarkable work with kids. It
released 30 new titles, 20 TV events
and five movies targeting 6-18-year-
olds in 2021. A new customised TV
block targeting Arab mothers and
preschoolers led to 60m views in
March 2021 when it was launched.
Since January 2021, subscriptions on
its YouTube channel have hit 6.6m, a
2.2m increase since December 2020.
The launch of The Moshaya Family
Animation saw a further increase
of 100K subscribers on its YouTube
channel. All this led to higher
acquisition and viewership in 2021.
Media & Entertainment consultant
Sanjay Raina (l) presented the award
to Edy Saaiby, Head Of Sales – Digital
& TV at SpaceToon Kids TV.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 35
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
OUTSTANDING OB
PROJECT OF THE YEAR
INC System
Integrations DMCC
– 4K IP OB van for
Sharjah Broadcasting
Authority
This award recognised INC for
successfully integrating one of the
region's first IP UHD ST-2110 OB vans
for Sharjah Broadcasting Authority
(SBA). Equipped with eight LDX-86
4K native cameras (but wired for 12),
this expandable trailer supports the
production of content in 4K/UHD HDR
format, as well as HD. The vehicle has
since been used to cover two live events
successfully. INC founder and chairman
Mohammed Zaim (l) received the award
from Adil Memon, VP – Content and
Marketing Head at Zee Entertainment.
ENTERTAINMENT APP
OF THE YEAR
Fannbox App
Who wouldn’t like a celebrity to sing
at their wedding or at their children’s
party? The Fannbox app from
Rotana Audio Visual offers users the
ability to book their favourite Arabic
singer or celebrity and have them
perform virtually in their private
events or special occasions such as
weddings, engagements, graduation
parties, even corporate events, while
offering an engaging experience to
all attendees. The app caters to the
music and entertainment needs of
Arab fans all over the world but is
targeted primarily at users in the
GCC, North Africa and the Levant
region. Nesreen Hamdan Hasayen
(r), Fannbox Director, received the
award from Hasan Sayed Hasan,
Managing Director of Master Media.
36 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
BROADCAST EXECUTIVE
OF THE YEAR
Manoj A Mathew,
Exec. VP & Territory
Head (MENAPT),
Zee Network
Manoj Mathew has taken Zee to new
heights since he took charge of the
revenue and the creative side of the
company's business in MENA. As
passionate about technology as he
is about content, he boldly launched
new products in the market. He
was part of the launch team for
Zee's Arabic channels and led the
network’s foray into original content
production and Arabic remakes as
well as co-productions of all foreign
language content. Manoj (l) received
the award from John Illingworth,
Sales Director at Bitmovin.
CTO OF THE YEAR
Peter Riz, CTO, OSN
Peter Riz made headlines when
he completely reshaped OSN's
streaming app, transitioning it
in record time from the old app
burdened by legacy coding to a
brand-new platform that uses new
technology to drive agility and
ensure adaptability. He helped
architect the new app that is
designed with machine-learning
capabilities to help make sharper
predictions and recommendations
based on customers’ preferences
and viewing habits. He also placed
emphasis on the app’s intuitive
user interface being tailored with
cutting-edge solutions through
a strategic partnership with
software partners. Pictured here
with the award is Peter Riz.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 37
PROAWARDS
Broadcast Awards
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
– UAE PRODUCTION
Al Sununu,
Visioneers Holding
We have seen an exceptional drama
series emerge from Visioneers
Holding, an Emirati-led production
team in the UAE. Al Sununu was
developed, produced and shot in
Dubai from inception to release.
The storyline is a reflection of life in
Dubai, which brings together people
from different cultures; it showcases
the beauty of its diversity despite
cultural and social differences
through a compelling plot. With some
big names, a slick production and an
outstanding story line, Al Sununu won
our hearts. Younis Alkanzy (l), Head
of Production, Visioneers, received
the award from Paul Wallis, Chief
of Revenue B2B, The Entertainer.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION
– KSA PROJECT
VITEC
When the Jockey Club of Saudi
Arabia was looking to bring some
of its weekly horseracing coverage
to an international audience via
internet streaming channels, they
deployed an encoder from Vitec
to achieve this. This solution
eliminates the need for a satellite
truck, saving considerable cost.
The broadcast workflow only uses
the public internet and is able to
power multiple streams and provide
remote monitoring from anywhere
in the world. The current setup can
provide 4K resolution, should it be
desired. Pictured with the award
is Aurélie Albert (l), Marketing
and Communication Manager,
and Nicolas Pons, VP – Business
Development, Middle East, VITEC.
38 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROAWARDS
Satellite Awards
SATELLITE OPERATOR
OF THE YEAR
YAHSAT
Yahsat hit major milestones on
multiple fronts this year. In February
2021, it collaborated with a local
entity to develop technologies and
produce satcom products. In July,
it created history by becoming
the first UAE-based space entity
to go public. Its mobility business
secured distribution contracts
worth AED 316m this year and
reported a net profit of AED 159m
for the first nine months of 2021.
The top line brought in revenue of
AED 1bn, demonstrating a strong
performance since Q1 2021. It also
serves as an incubator of homegrown
engineering talent through its
Space Programme. Yahsat CTO
Adnan Al Muhairi (l) received the
award from Amanda Turnbull.
SATELLITE SOLUTIONS PROVIDER
OF THE YEAR
ST Engineering
iDirect
ST Engineering iDirect teamed up with
Broadpeak, EasyBroadcast and EKT to
demonstrate the first end-to-end B2C use
case of native IP, showcasing origination,
transport, reception and consumption
of live OTT video over satellite.
Broadpeak’s solutions packaged the
transcoded streams into OTT formats,
ST Engineering iDirect integrated
its SCPC or VSAT solution for the
modulation and multicast transmission
of the content over satellite, EKT's
STB partner delivered the content
to TV or mobile, and EasyBroadcast
showed its 'edge' solution. Heba
Korayem (r) of H.Consult presented
the award to Tajani Bouqentar, GM
MEA, ST Engineering iDirect. PRO
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 39
PROROUNDTABLE
THE ROADMAP TO
DIGITAL INNOVATION
In Dubai’s Kempinski Hotel, the Grass Valley Middle East Tech Summit
tackled some of the most challenging aspects of digital transformation,
bringing together front-line decision-makers
The answers to the perennial question ‘Should there New branding, new capabilities
Setting the scene for the debate, kick-start presentations
be a full-on migration to cloud?’ are becoming more from Louis Hernandez, Jr – founder, CEO and Managing
Director of Black Dragon Capital – as well as the owner of
complex and pressing. The GVx Middle East Tech Grass Valley and other top management, focused on the key
criteria attracting Grass Valley to the Middle East market,
Summit, titled Digital Transformation in Action, as well as showcasing the company’s new branding.
assessed the practical and commercial implications of For Grass Valley, the region’s appeal is best summed up
by the continuing positive outlook for growth, with world-
the debate, bringing together key industry decision- class events such as Expo 2020 Dubai and the 2022 World
Cup setting global enterprise benchmarks. Other factors
makers well-versed in understanding the challenges include how the regional industry is pre-eminently in a state
of transition, with new production complex and expensive,
and opportunities of full digital transition.
Well-known for its end-to-end ecosystem of reliable,
open standards-based solutions, Grass Valley joined
forces with BroadcastPro to deliver an important closed-
door discussion that focused on a highly practical agenda
and assessed the most viable roadmaps for change.
40 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROROUNDTABLE
the rising costs of media rights, an Louis Hernandez, Jr, founder, • What’s the best path to
explosion of distribution platforms CEO and Managing Director of navigate towards a full
and the marked rise of OTT services. digital transformation?
Black Dragon Capital (BDC).
During this period of transition, • Should media companies
Grass Valley says it is positioned to key questions, reflecting how cloud and migrate to cloud, IP or both?
support media companies’ business IP solutions are frequently best suited for
transformation; efficiently create fast-tracking performance in a multi- • Should media companies
and distribute specialty content; screen culture, while also recognising adopt private, public or
unify linear, streaming and social the potential hurdles and watersheds. hybrid cloud deployments?
workflows; eliminate the risk of new In response to the first question,
revenue models; and – critically – It doesn’t mean the end of
increase operating efficiencies. broadcasting as we’ve known Hasan Sayed Hasan, Managing
it; we’re simply choosing the Director, Master Media, commented:
Tim Banks, Vice President of parts of the AI mix that are “While many issues come to
Sales for EMEA, made special of most use. We’re asking mind, we fundamentally have to
reference to Grass Valley’s recent which aspects will empower ask: why are we doing it? What’s
wins in the region, including Abu performance across key areas the benefit of that full digital
Dhabi Media’s investment in GV and give us the best returns” transformation to the organisation?
cameras, switchers, replay and
IP infrastructure for Expo 2020. Peter Van Dam, CEO and founder, AV Consulting “Once we can answer that
Other upcoming projects include question, the next aspect is
Al Jazeera’s GV deployment for leadership. The leadership must
Studio 5, the first AMPP MSP be prepared to explain the benefits
(Managed Service Provider) of the transformation to the whole
agreement with AVC delivering organisation. Everyone must
remote production for regional understand it, and that means
sports events, and the 2022 World departments like Accounts, HR and
Cup’s adoption of GV cameras and Distribution, as well as Production.
switchers, as well as other big wins Without everyone onboard, the
including Asharq in Saudi Arabia, process simply won’t work.
participation in the Arab Cup in
Qatar and the IBC Accelerator “Training is also crucial here. It’s
Projects (5G and AMPP) along with the key to empowering people across
beIN, Ooredoo and Al Jazeera. every different level in the business.
My experience shows that typically
This was followed by two there will be some junior people who
interesting case studies – one from will be antagonists, and they will be
Gordon Castle, SVP Technology
and Operations EMEA Eurosport/
Discovery at Discovery Inc, who
spoke about the use of cloud and
IP technologies for their coverage
of the Tokyo Olympics, and the
other from Peter Van Dam, CEO
and founder, AV Consulting, who
spoke about partnering with Grass
Valley to enable cloud-based
remote sports production for
leading clients in the Middle East.
Expert voices Peter Van Dam shares a case study
Grass Valley also hosted a panel from Saudi Arabia with attendees.
session moderated by Vijaya
Cherian, Editor of BroadcastPro ME,
published by CPI Trade Media. She
presented the participants with three
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 41
PROROUNDTABLE
against the transformation, but if you Louis Hernandez, Jr kickstarted the discussion with a
can genuinely explain the reasons brief introduction about BDC's interest in Grass Valley.
behind the changes, they can be
brought onboard. So this is really all I need to work and collaborate with. end of broadcasting as we’ve known
about ensuring good communication “Of course, it’s important to add that it; we’re simply choosing the parts
between silos, job descriptions and of the AI mix that are of most use.
grades. Everyone has to know what many of the old ways of working will We’re asking which aspects will
the organisation is doing and why continue for years. It doesn’t mean the empower performance across key
it’s doing it, because – and it’s vital areas and give us the best returns.”
to remember this – every change is “So many new solutions
also a cultural change. For it to work, are now arriving after quite Migrating: Where to and how?
to change the culture, everybody a few years of development, Is it best to migrate to cloud, IP or
has to be aware of what’s happening and we should all recognise both? Ruba Ibrahim, Director of
and buy into that change.” that the cloud has already Operations, Al Arabiya, believes
happened. It’s not on its that “while we might want to
Apart from the efforts required to way, it’s already here!” involve everyone in the decision-
change, digital transformation offers making process, there’s no doubt
certain benefits over traditional Miljenko Logozar, co-founder and CEO, that democracy can make things
analogue approaches. These include StoryDeck.io very slow. Sometimes it really
increased working flexibility and hinders the process. Convincing
more transparent costs and margins. people is very time-consuming;
everyone who’s been through
Peter Van Dam, CEO and founder, the process knows that.”
AV Consulting, explained: “I can
now give an exact figure for what my “However, it’s also true that to
projects tomorrow will cost me and be effective, the transformation
tell you exactly what my overheads has to be a full 360. If it is, and the
will be. Of course, this has great word gets to all the teams and all
advantages for costing the service the decision-makers, you can get
end-to-end and therefore gives me some good surprises. For example,
a better commercial edge. Also, I we thought it would be the younger
now have much greater freedom staff who’d be most interested, but
about where I choose to work. I’m it’s often people in their 50s and 60s
no longer bound by any of the old who’ve really led with this. They
constraints, and nor are the teams didn’t want to be left behind by
the younger members of staff and
were determined to challenge them,
showing how good they can be when
they combine all their experience
with the new technology as well.
“Of course, there have always
been the operational challenges,
42 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROROUNDTABLE
such as the cost and the availability the needs of editorial, and in fact the all, there are a lot of factors to
of the right bandwidths. So you need needs of all our key stakeholders. consider, so it’s critical that any
to ask if making the transition is business starts its transformational
really worth the cost. Plus, there’s “The challenge is not in the plan well in advance and plans
also the human aspect to consider. technology, it’s in the cultural change practically, with a good lead time.”
Some people are afraid that digital that the transition implies, and that
transformation will cost them their needs to be driven from above. This Public, private or hybrid cloud?
jobs, but in fact this often isn’t the isn’t an overnight process, because in What about the third question? As
case. In reality, you just need people order to start the transformation, you to whether companies should opt
to be more creative and inventive, and need the full support of the people for private, public or hybrid cloud
it’s actually more of a challenge to find on the ground. That’s not to mention deployments, Miljenko Logozar,
a very skilled human resources pool.” the cost – after all, even moving to IP co-founder and CEO, StoryDeck.io,
is not always a cheap solution. All in argued: “It’s really time that things
Contributing virtually to the like post-production and playout
debate, Ibrahim Nassar, Manager were moved to the cloud. So many
of Broadcast Engineering, Al new solutions are now arriving after
Jazeera, seconded this but added quite a few years of development,
that the strategic angle is as and we should all recognise that
important as the cultural angle. the cloud has already happened.
It’s not on its way, it’s already here!
“I think we need a mix of
approaches – there really isn’t a “The fact is, we’ve all been busy
one-size-fits-all solution. I think it doing our own things, and we didn’t
will be a long time before we are notice what’s been happening in
always in the cloud, and we have areas like content development. In
to understand what works best for the time that it took for many of us
every skillset and department. For to discuss what to do next, many
example, we need to understand
Above, Miljenko Logozar and Ibrahim
Nassar join the discussion virtually from
Qatar; below, Tim Banks, VP of Sales for
EMEA, GV, addresses the gathering.
December 2021 | www.broadcastprome.com | 43
PROROUNDTABLE
startups have already acquired half “Digital transformation ways of handling production. If
a billion users. All of these things is full of surprises. We we ignore that, we are neglecting
have already happened, and if we thought it would be the one of the principal benefits that
don’t accept them here in broadcast, younger staff who’d be the new technology can bring.”
well, the internet definitely can.” most interested, but it’s
people in their 50s and 60s Future thinking
For Israel Esteban, Chief who’ve really led with this” It was clear from the panel session
Technology Officer at beIN Media that as cloud adoption gathers
Group, “It all depends on timing Ruba Ibrahim, Director of Operations, pace, the debate around the role
and your situation – in other words, of AI and digital transformation
it depends on your needs at that Al Arabiya is increasingly relevant. Grass
moment. You can only really make Valley’s role is evolving as a leading
the transition when it makes sense Manager, Abu Dhabi Media, remarked presence driving the industry’s
to do so. For instance, for two to that it’s “all about the workflows, realignment and commitment to
three years we were not in the and this can be a big challenge. digital transition. This was well
cloud, but at that time I didn’t feel We have to accept that sometimes emphasised by Sydney Lovely, Chief
we were missing anything. There we need a very specific focus, Technology Officer, Grass Valley,
simply isn’t a right or wrong answer, because one of the most practical who described the Grass Valley
only what’s right or wrong for you.” and effective ways we can use this Media Universe as “a connected
technology is by introducing new ecosystem for elastic media
Apart from cost and the impact production and distribution”. PRO
on organisational culture, Nabil
El Madbek, Technology Projects
Left: Ruba Ibrahim from Al Arabiya; right, Jan Lange, Grass
Valley's Chief Revenue Officer, with MENA attendees.
Mohammad Saifi and Jean Claude Rahme from Abu Dhabi
Media on the left, and Hasan Sayed Hasan from Master
Media and Peter Van Dam from AV Consulting on the right.
44 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
PROGUEST
“It goes without saying that the pandemic has
played a major role in accelerating the efforts of
all sorts of companies towards digitisation”
Changing
production needs
in the MENA market
The timely launch of the New Media BMW. Not long ago, these companies audience, as traditional TV viewership
became aware of the importance and has been continuously declining and
Academy by His Highness Sheikh necessity of social media platforms increasingly moving online. This is
as a marketing tool. Originally, where we start to lose traditional
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum they began relying on third-party broadcasters such as Dubai TV and
specialised media companies to Abu Dhabi TV as regular clients.
last year represents not only the sort strategise and oversee their digital
networks. However, especially in the However, the great news is that as
of ingenious forward thinking that past two years, it has recently become the proliferation of streaming platforms
clear that they need to establish and OTTs flock people back to their
defines the leadership of the UAE, in-house media departments that televisions again, broadcasting stations
can handle their marketing needs. are presented with an exciting new
but also reflects the exciting new opportunity to adapt and reform by
These companies are now investing producing content that guarantees
trends that we have been observing in multifunctional, cost-effective loyalty and viewership. For instance,
products that can generate both photo ADtv, Abu Dhabi Media’s video-on-
in the market as a leading supplier in and video at the same time. It is truly demand platform, has gained a solid
an exciting and defining moment in reputation and a dedicated growing
the MENA region. We have witnessed our lives as suppliers and trainers. Our audience in the region. The same
most sellable and attractive products can be said about MBC Shahid,
a departure from traditional modes – camera, light, sound, tripods and all which has established itself as the
related accessories – are the ones that leading Arabic streaming service.
of production, broadcast and can serve multipurpose for marketing.
Naturally, we have shifted our focus This shift in viewership habits has
marketing in recent years, especially to supplying products and providing of course reignited the energy and
the necessary training that can secure potential of production houses to create
in non-production companies and these services for our growing clients. engaging content that capitalises on
this momentum to maintain and grow
streaming platforms, who despite Meanwhile, the increasing reliance their audiences. This means revitalising
of these companies on in-house the traditional drama soaps or creating
their many differences are affected marketing means that traditional new competition programmes that have
broadcasting stations are losing thankfully brought the industry back.
by this new era of content creation. advertisements. If companies
Content creation has revolutionised are able to use their digital social This is the future, and this is where
media platforms to advertise their everyone is investing their focus
and revitalised marketing across products in a manner that best and energy. It goes without saying
all companies, regardless of field or suits them without having to pay a that the pandemic has played a
background. On one side, we see the fee to broadcasting stations, then major role in accelerating the efforts
sort of digital content that is being of course there is no doubt that of all sorts of companies towards
specifically created and curated they would opt for the former. Not digitisation, but that is certainly a
by companies for said companies only have broadcasting stations topic we can discuss separately.
on social media platforms, and been losing advertisements but
on the other end of the spectrum they have also been losing their Alaa Al Rantisi is Managing Director of
we see traditional broadcasting
stations adapting to these changes Advanced Media.
by moving their services online
and mass producing content that
appeals to the traditional TV viewer.
This is where we see tremendous
change in our customer portfolio.
Where we once used to supply to
a niche group of customers, meaning
traditional production houses that
provided a variety of services to
regular companies, now we have a
wide range of new customers from
companies such as Spinneys, Sephora,
DAMAC and even Emirates Bank and
46 | www.broadcastprome.com | December 2021
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