8 April 2011
News, sports, and elections coverage are among the live telecasts that heavily rely upon captivating, interactive video wall displays, such as Viz Video Wall ER by Vizrt, to keep viewers engaged. High-resolution graphics, such as pie charts, bar graphs, and tables, are fed to the video wall in real-time from multiple sources and continuously updated with fresh data to keep viewers fully informed of news as it unfolds.
Since the underlying computer hardware feeding the video wall must be up to this mission critical challenge, Vizrt has tested and certified AMDs ATI FirePro V9800 professional graphics card for use with its Viz Engine 3.5 real-time rendering engine and Viz Video Wall ER display content solution. To demonstrate the synergy between these technologies, Vizrt will use ATI FirePro V9800 graphics cards to power its Viz Video Wall ER presentation at its booth (#SL5408) during the 2011 NAB show from April 11-14 in Las Vegas.
To remain competitive, broadcasters require more sophisticated and interactive visualizations to present information in new and dynamic ways. With a combined solution from Vizrt and AMD, they can be confident that they can meet these goals with superior performance, immersive graphics, and impact, said Christian Huber, executive vice president of IT and logistics at Vizrt. Our relationship with AMD is truly a technological collaboration that benefits our customers and their broadcast operations.
The ATI FirePro V9800 professional graphics card joins other AMD hardware previously certified for use with Vizrts Viz Engine and Viz Video Wall ER, including the ATI FirePro V8800, ATI FirePro V8750 and ATI FirePro S400 professional graphics solutions. All three of these AMD professional graphics technologies are used to quickly render and synchronize video content running on the Viz Video Wall ER, even in the most intensive 3D environments.
Supported by a massive 4GB memory capacity and 1600 stream processors, each ATI FirePro V9800 graphics card can support up to six independent displays, making it a powerful and space-saving solution. These high-performance graphics cards leverage AMDs innovative AMD Eyefinity technology, which supports multiple, independent high-resolution monitor outputs to create a single, unified video wall display.
By selecting professional graphics solutions from AMD that are certified for compatibility with Vizrts Viz Video Wall ER, broadcasters can rest assured that these technologies will work seamlessly together to meet their visualization, simulation and video wall display needs, said Janet Matsuda, general manager, AMD Professional Graphics (NYSE: AMD). Were pleased to collaborate with Vizrt to optimize our respective graphics display solutions for top performance and reliability, even in the most demanding live broadcast applications.
The Vizrt Viz Video Wall ER presentation at NAB will also utilize multiple Barco displays as well as Hewlett Packard Z800 workstations with dual quad core Xeon E5620 2.4GHz CPUs, 6GB RAM. Each HP workstation will be equipped with multiple V9800 graphics cards, and this output is synchronized with the Viz Engine real-time rendering engine.
8 April 2011
Award-winning investigative journalist Fatima Tlisova, who writes extensively about Russia, Islam and the Caucuses, has teamed up with Voice of America on a multi-media project aimed at telling the difficult stories that reporters are often punished for pursuing.
More than a blog, the Russian language project, titled “Journalism in the Crosshairs” (Pressa pod Pressom), is curated by Tlisova, and provides a digital media platform for reporters from the former Soviet Union and Central Asia, who are often beaten, threatened, or killed as a result of their work.
In Thursdays inaugural issue on VOAs all-digital Russian Service, Tlisova speaks on-camera with famed Russian journalist Vladimir Pozner, who discusses the state of the news media in Russia, where he says journalists often find it necessary to censor themselves.
In addition to taking advantage of Tlisovas extensive journalistic contacts, “Journalism in the Crosshairs” uses social media and crowdsourcing platforms to allow grassroots users to report on issues not covered by the mainstream media in the region. The site will also post video, audio or text from journalistic refugees about their experiences in other media environments, including Europe and in the United States.
VOA Director Danforth W. Austin says the program gives a platform to those who are often intimidated or blocked from discussing critical issues because of censorship. Austin called the new program, another example of how social media platforms are empowering people who live in restrictive media environments.
Tlisova, who spent years reporting on human rights abuses in the North Caucasus, was Editor in Chief of the Regnum News Agency, worked as a special correspondent for Novaya Gazeta, and reported for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and for the Associated Press. Her many awards include the Lyons award for Conscious and Integrity in Journalism from the Nieman Foundation, the German Zeit-Stiftun Award for commitment to reporting in Chechnya, the Human Rights Watch award for journalism, the Amnesty International Media Award for best magazine article, and an AP award for best report on a hostage situation.
7 April 2011
The Association for International Broadcasting
has announced that the 2011 AIBs, the seventh annual international media excellence awards, are officially
open for entry.
The awards, which cover factual programming in TV, radio, cross-media productions, marketing and technology, are unique in having an independent jury of eminent media professionals drawn from all over the world.
This year for the first time there will be awards for the best in sports coverage, science and finance.
“We are expanding the categories included in the AIBs this year to highlight the excellent quality of programmes produced in the fields of sports, science & finance; to celebrate how sports programming captures the imagination as well as often leading the use of new technology to provide immersive experiences for viewers; and to recognise and encourage the work of broadcasters in promoting the understanding on science and finance and explaining the vital impact it has on us all” commented Simon Spanswick, CEO of the AIB.
The 2011 AIBs categories are:
- Clearest coverage of a single news event – TV and radio
- Best current affairs documentary – TV and radio
- Best investigative documentary – TV
- Best children’s factual programme/series – TV
- Best science programme – TV
- Best financial programme – TV
- Best live sports coverage – TV
- Best creative feature – radio
- Best cross-media production
- Most creative marketing strategy
- Most innovative technology
- International personality of the year – TV and radio
- People’s Choice – Best Coverage of Democracy Uprisings
The closing date for entries to is Friday 1 July 2011.
An independent panel of highly respected media professionals from Africa, America, Asia, Australasia, Europe and the Middle East will judge the shortlisted entries in each category, apart from the People’s Choice for which votes from online viewers throughout the world will determine the winner.
The Awards will then be presented in London on
9 November at a gala evening attended by presenters, editors, journalists, marketers, technologists and executives from media companies all over the world.
Download the entry booklet [2MB] at the link
below.
6 April 2011
Silver Ant animation studios and Al Jazeera Childrens Channel (JCC) yesterday launched the co-produced animated feature film SEEFOOD. The event took place in Cannes, France at MIPTV 2011 where distributors, broadcasters, media networks, and production companies had the chance to have a first glimpse of this major co-production.
SEEFOOD joined the efforts of both corporations for the first time with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Malaysia and the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). The must-see animated feature film is a major leap in JCCs content making taking two years of production and 35 animators to complete.
SEEFOOD is expected to be released later this summer in theaters followed by DVD in English, Arabic and other languages. The film follows the exciting adventures of a bamboo shark named Pup, and when human poachers steal egg sacks from his reef, he makes it his mission to save his brothers and sisters no matter how impossible the task may seem. His determination to make right what is wrong takes him above water into Man’s world – a landscape fraught with beauty and danger – an exciting destination the young shark could never ever have imagined! Afraid for Pup’s safety, Julius the big blue shark, embarks on his own quest to bring home his best pal.
Goh AunHoe, the Film Director said: I am very proud to be here today to launch our companys first animated movie; the journey with SEEFOOD was exciting yet rough given the challenges we faced on several fronts that are known to our industry. Nevertheless, we have learnt a great deal during these last two years, and we hope this movie will touch the heart of the audience around the world as it did for me, my partner and all our team members.
SEEFOOD highlights different aspects of maritime life through a thrilling storyline that raises awareness on the intrusion of mankind into the ecological balance under the sea surface.
JCCs Executive General Manager Mahmoud Bouneb stated: It is vital for all families to see SEEFOOD as it raises a red flag on the damages occurring in the marine world where mankinds ill treatment of this precious environment and its inhabitants has already resulted in some extinction. We wanted the world to SEE, so we came up with the title SEEFOOD.
JCC and its partner Silver Ant will be working hand in hand to promote SEEFOOD on an international scale alongside our appointed global distributors. Bouneb added.
Al Jazeera Childrens Channel is present at MIPTV, a major peer to peer content platform, with a wide range of TV content in different genres between challenge and game shows like Maa Al Tayar (Power Struggle), science magazine Physiakawn (Discover Science), debate program Khair Al Kalam, quiz Al Aalam Soual (Quiz World), sports magazine Anta Battal (Be a champion!), and cookery Al Tabaq Al Taer (Flying Saucer). Preschool channel Baraem also comes with an offering consisting of famous animations like Everythings Rosie, award winning Nan and Lili, and famous skin character series Al Maaa (The Baaas).
5 April 2011
The Associated Press has appointed Julia Howe, a media executive with a considerable international background, as its director of marketing for Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia.
The appointment was announced by Senior Vice President Daisy Veerasingham, who heads APs video business. Howe reports to Veerasingham.
Howe will join APs London management team and lead on all aspects of APs marketing activity outside the United States and Latin America. In this new position, her primary charge is to raise global awareness and appreciation of the AP brand during a time of major transformation within the business and to communicate the vision and the value of APs products and services as the organization undertakes a comprehensive reinvention of its international video business.
Julia has an impressive record of success in European and international roles across both business-to-business and business-to-consumer media in a world where understanding your customer and customers customer is vital to success, Veerasingham said. She brings an ideal combination of customer targeting and thought leadership marketing to her new position.
Most recently, Howe was a brand strategy consultant at Loewy, a London-based brand and communications firm. Previously, she held senior marketing roles with media and entertainment companies, including as vice president of international marketing at Universal Pictures International and European marketing manager at 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Her educational background includes a bachelors honour degree in international business and French earned from the U.K.s Aston University, which included a year spent at Ottawa University in Canada.
AP is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar upgrade of its newsgathering infrastructure in order to provide high-definition images to the broadcast and digital industries. At the same time, AP will also significantly increase the depth and breadth of video content available from around the world. The upgrade is the single biggest investment in the APs London-based video business since 1998, when the AP bought its competitor, Worldwide Television News.
