PRONEWS
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE ...
Andrew Davies leaves TSL for WRN Broadcast
Andrew Davies, who headed TSL’s Middle East operations, is due to head back to the UK after a seven-year stint with the company. Davies’ colleague Suhail Ahmed will take over his responsibilities. Davies has accepted a new position with WRN Broadcast, UK, as Head of Sales and Business Development and begins his new role on August 5. WRN Broadcast has had recent success in providing broadcast services, including playout, content storage and disaster recovery, to clients in the Middle East. In a statement to the local market, Davies said: “TSL has been a fantastic company to work for and it’s been a pleasure to represent them in this region. I look forward to continuing local relationships here in the Middle East as I start my new role at WRN Broadcast.”
LIVE HD gets new Head of Tech
Hamad Abdelrazaq, who has stepped down from his role as Engineering Director at Sharjah Media Corporation, has now joined LIVE HD, Abu Dhabi as Head of Technology. In his new role, Abdelrazaq will oversee the operations of LIVE’s business unit, ensuring that it continues to provide high-quality production services to customers. In the meantime, there have been some changes at Sharjah Radio and TV with Mohammed Khalaf, who previously headed Sharjah TV, now overseeing both radio and TV in the emirate.
AL SUMARIA TV DEPLOYS TRICASTER 8000
Iraqi broadcaster Al Sumaria TV recently deployed two TriCaster 8000 virtual sets from NewTek at its Beirut and Baghdad facilities to ensure that it could quickly provide a fresh look and feel to its channels on time and within budget. The sets were provided by UAEbased NewTek distributor MediaCast. Edmond Mouawad, Broadcast and Media Team Leader at Al Sumaria TV stated that the virtual set was chosen because of tight deadlines. “We did not have time to construct a studio in time to go on air from Beirut and later, from Baghdad. The virtual set came in handy for this. This is our first virtual set installation. We haven’t had one before this.” The TriCaster 8000 comes with the updated Virtualset Editor 2 allowing zoom, rotate and pan features, giving the end user a complete 3D environment within the virtual set, according to Peyman Dadpanah, Business Director of MediaCast. “The advantage of a virtual studio is that it doesn’t require a lot of space. Therefore, companies can cut down on the costs of infrastructure and equipment. To give an example, a one-time investment for a virtual studio setup such as the NewTek TriCaster 8000 with additional elements costs less than USD 50,000. This gives the user a huge advantage because it gives them the option to add unlimited number of virtual studios. It would take that much to create just one studio with all of the interiors. The value that a virtual set brings, therefore, in terms of costs cannot be quantified,” he explains. The distributor adds that this sale also reflects the increasing demand for broadcast systems from Iraq.
Awad Mousa joins TVU
US-based TVU Networks has appointed Awad Mousa as Regional Director of its MEA operations, with plans to open an office in Dubai in the next couple of months, BroadcastPro ME can reveal. As part of his new role, Mousa will oversee TVU Networks’ operations in the Middle East, Africa, Turkey, India and Pakistan. TVU Networks, which is headquartered in Mountain View, California has offices in New York, Boston, Raleigh, Shanghai. The presence of a local office, however, is intended to offer better support and service to its existing resellers and customers, according to Mousa. “TVU has customers in the region in UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Bahrain, Ghana and so on and we have a good network of resellers such as UBMS,” Mousa told BroadcastPro ME. “I have joined, however, to strengthen our operations and expand our business here with an additional staff in Jordan to support our customers.” With the Middle East being a hotbed for news, broadcasters are increasingly looking for faster and more cost effective methods for their reporters to get news from the field to the newsroom. Although most technologies in the market revolve around bonding, Mousa claims that TVU’s Inverse StatMux technology provides a more effective method to take stories to air.
John Aslett exits Avid Middle East
John Aslett, who has led Avid’s Dubai office and emerging markets operations for the last eight years, is due to leave the company August end. Aslett is said to have raised the profile of Avid’s ME office from being a pure sales operation to a turnkey facility with a team that included professional services, and delivery and solution specialists for the firm’s broadcast, audio and video product segments. In the Middle East, Avid seems to enjoy strong growth. In fact, it recently hired Ammar Fawzy to support Mounzer Bechara as Territory Account Manager for the Middle East. In addition, Avid is also in the process of building a huge demo facility akin to its Avid Centre of Excellence (ACE) facility in Pinewood at its Dubai office to serve its Middle East and North Africa customers better.
KSA mulls TV production and media park
Saudi Arabia is considering its first media zone to strengthen local audio visual news production and content by the end of the year. KSA’s Council of Ministers has stipulated that the project must comply with basic principles, including the need to coordinate with Arabsat administration and other relevant agencies. Dr. Riyadh Najim, Chairman of the Kingdom’s Audiovisual Commission, told Arab News that discussions have begun, with the objective “to ensure that there is harmony between the content and the ideals of Saudi culture”. The Commission is in the final stages of planning, and the media park is expected to be ready by the end of 2013, he said. Saudi Arabia’s Ideas Arabia company i