1 April 2007
The third annual Al Jazeera Forum is underway in Doha, Qatar. Around 300 journalists, producers, academics and bloggers are gathered for debate and discussion about the role and work of the media in the Middle East and beyond.
Alongside the conference is an exhibition highlighting the work – increasingly varied – of Al Jazeera Network. This includes initiatives on training young citizens from Middle East countries to produce material for news broadcasts. Al Jazeera Talk is an important move by the network, and confirms the Qatar-based broadcaster as a major centre for media excellence in the Middle East, putting something back into the community it serves.
Al Jazeera is also developing new ways of reaching audiences. The network is planning to launch an international newspaper. It will be in markets around the world, including China, according to sources at the Network.
In a provocative opening keynote adress, US author and media critic Seymour Hersh suggested that it is impossible for there to be non-partisan, unbiased coverage of news. Media outlets in the Middle East will inevitably report news in a different way to those in the west.
The first debate, hosted by Al Jazeera English reporter Rageh Omar, examined the role of “parachute” journalism, where reporters arrive from their homes on the other side of the world to cover stories and then fly out again. Veteran TV journalist Martin Bell said he had always been a parachute journalist and had no regrets. Whether someone is a local reporter or a parachuted-in journalist, there are only two allegiances that the journalist must have – one to the audience, the other to the truth.
Session Two: Politics, Media and Misinformation. Allister Sparks is the opening speaker. He’s reported on his home country, South Africa, for 55 years through the rise and fall of apartheid. He says that there is a real danger of the world slipping into a a time when people have – and want – less and less information. What are journalists there for – “we have to be the parents of society”. Sparks wonders whether journalists have lost touch with the ability to challenge authority.
Steve Clark, Director of News at Al Jazeera English says that Doha is now at the centre of a seismic shift in journalism in the Middle East. Al Jazeera English is, for the first time, starting to report from the South. As an example, Clark cites Al Jazeera English’s roll out of bureaux in Africa; the channel has eight and it will have ten by the end of 2007. It is working in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the world’s most under-reported war is on-going and where around 1,000 people are dying every day. The channel is also working in Zimbabwe and will be broadcasting what Clark describes as the “definitive” interview with President Mugabe in the next few days.
Haroon Siddiqui, Editor Emeritus of the Toronto Star says that it’s widely reported in the media in the West that the West is under siege from the Muslim World. Siddiqui disagrees – he says that the Muslim World is under seige by the West. He cites the number of deaths in Iraq – as many as 600,000 people, Siddiqui says – compared with those who died in the 9/11 outrage. The West is talking to the West, Siddiqui says, while the Middle East is talking to the Middle East and never the twain shall meet. Al Jazeera English has the opportunity to change this and to encourage cross-cultural discussion and change this narrative.
Session Three: Building Bridges. A heated debate for the first time today…four speakers on the stage, debating the rise of new channels working in Arabic, targeting audiences in the Middle East. The BBC’s Daniel Dodd explains that the Arabic-language TV service is to launch in November 2007, providing an international news service in Arabic and building on the success and heritage of the BBC’s Arabic radio service, established in 1938. Abdul Bari Atwan complains that new channels are interfering, both politically and culturally. Not only are the news channels in Arabic from countries outside the Middle East interfering, the music channels for the youth are damaging Arabic culture.
Ibrahim Helal, Deputy MD at Al Jazeera English, reminds the audience in an intervention from the floor that the new international channels such as France 24 and Russia Today TV have services in English targeting audiences in the West. It’s not the case, Helal says, that the new Arabic-language services have sprung up separately from services in other languages directed to other regions of the world.
We’ll be reporting more from the Al Jazeera Forum, continuing to explain the context and reporting the content, here on the AIB website.
27 March 2007
Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has introduced a suite of rich media management solutions optimized for public safety operations. The suite, which will be offered through the newly formed Harris Broadcast Government Solutions Unit, combines individual Harris products into total content delivery solutions – providing interoperability to public safety customers.
The Harris integrated solutions suite addresses requirements such as internal communications within local and state municipalities, traffic management and transit communications, emergency broadcasting, geospatial asset management and video surveillance.
The Harris suite of products also provides industry-leading broadcast solutions to support mission-critical video, audio and data transmission within and among city, county, state and Federal agencies and includes:
— Intraplex(R) NetXpress(TM) IP multiplexer, which features SNMP
management controls for complex audio and data video surveillance
requirements within land mobile radio networks (shipping now).
— Intraplex(R) SynchroCast3(TM) platform, which enables precise time
delay control for applications requiring the simulcast of mobile radio
systems (estimated to begin shipping spring 2007).
— The H-Class(TM) Content Delivery Platform, an integrated approach to
content management at the enterprise level, from ingest to distribution
over a variety of devices or networks; and the H-Class(TM) Digital
Asset Management tool, a core application within the H-Class(TM)
product family that uses metadata, an advanced thesaurus, and
innovative “deep-search” tools such as scene detection and speech
recognition to enable analysts to find exactly what they need in the
required resolution. H-Class(TM) Digital Asset Management now includes
a tool for connecting geospatial intelligence with rich media content
(estimated to begin shipping in July 2007 with Geospatial Media Asset
Management (GMAM) technology, which is a means of tying all media
assets to a geospatial location on a map).
— The AM/FM Radio Flyaway Radio Broadcast System – a completely portable
radio station in a small, ruggedized cargo container, providing
everything that is required to begin broadcasting a signal and
programming in the event of a disaster (shipping now).
— The NEO(R) SuiteView(TM) v.3 multiviewer – a tool for command center
and control room applications that allows a single monitor to act like
many, with the ability to adapt to router changes and display alarm
conditions (estimated to begin shipping spring 2007).
— InfoCaster(TM) digital signage solution, which allows for the creation
and display of information from different sources in a variety of
fields, banners, and crawls and is used to display vital public
information on a daily basis and/or during emergencies over a broadcast
network (shipping now).
“Providing a consolidated suite of products from our commercial Broadcast Communications Division product lines for public safety applications highlights the benefits of our ONE initiative,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Harris Broadcast Communications Division.
“The ONE initiative showcases the company’s unique ability to provide a single choice for entire integrated workflow solutions.
“Government organizations, similar to commercial businesses, need to leverage the benefits of information technology to streamline their everyday operations. By integrating the entire Harris product portfolio, we enable improved organization workflows and enhanced communication to the public,” Thorsteinson continued.
27 March 2007
From April 15 to 19 S4M – Solutions for Media will present its Integrated Broadcast Management Systems in Las Vegas. During the Broadcast fair NAB 2007 the S4M team will show tailor made presentations of S4M’s cutting edge solutions as well as provide intensive workshops for customers and potentials in the Marriott Courtyard Las Vegas Convention Center. Emphasis will be placed on S4Ms integrated solutions for the core business of broadcasters, including program planning, rights- and license management, cross media sales and video content management.
S4M Solutions for Media
The Cologne based company S4M Solutions for Media, a subsidiary of arvato-systems and RTL Television, develops and distributes software solutions specialized on the broadcast- and newmedia industry. Today, S4M systems are used in 30 countries around the world. Whether commercial air time sales or video content management; whether program planning, rights licensing, ratings evaluation or production planning: S4M has got the solution. Furthermore, the S4M portfolio includes professional consulting services to pass along combined knowledge of media and IT to customers.
27 March 2007
Sending dynamic sales messages to plasma screens across France, content management and delivery company GlobeCast has equipped 113 of France Telecom/Oranges sales boutiques with its digital signage solution GlobeCast Captive Audience. The product will allow France Telecom to remotely aggregate content, create and manage playlists and to broadcast to the network of plasma or LCD screens at their different agencies.
Developed by GlobeCast, Captive Audience is an IP-based digital signage solution that uses the latest technology in content management and delivery to effectively manage in-store displays that inform, entertain and communicate to shoppers. The client uses simple, user friendly software to organize content and playlists of targeted ads, product bulletins and entertaining clips, which are then sent to a Media Server, one of which is located at each agency. This Media Server then uses WiFi to command the ultra-compact Media Player box behind each individual display screen. Captive Audience is a scalable solution that can include content management, transport and playback.
GlobeCast is celebrating its tenth year in 2007 and sees this deployment as an example of how far content management companies have come in the past ten years.
France Telecom/Oranges test run of GlobeCast Captive Audience will allow the telecom company to present new products in a dynamic and targeted way. The content, while stored locally at the various agencies, is also backed-up on GlobeCasts secure content management platform at its Paris technical operations center. The platform used to store and transport this content receives constant supervision and maintenance.
GlobeCast Captive Audience is capable of delivering standard or High Definition (HD) content, and has been shown to reinforce key product information, reduce perceived wait time and increase brand loyalty.
27 March 2007
Pharos Communications announces the appointment of Russell Grute to its senior management. Joining the company on April 10 as Director of Marketing, he will lead the product management and marketing teams in driving the Pharos brand and Pharos’ technology to a wider audience.
“Russell brings a combination of experience in high-profile system sales and international marketing,” comments Roger Heath, Pharos’ Commercial Director. “At TSL he gained a unique perspective on the real-world integration issues that broadcasters face when making the transition to file-based asset management and automated workflow. His experience of broadcast system integration and workflow solutions will really help our customers. He will be working as part of the team at NAB 2007 as we launch the next generation of Mediator and Playtime.”
Russell arrives with over 25 years of industry experience. He joined Sony Broadcast in 1982, working in quality-assurance, international field service, product management and finally in professional audio sales. In 1993 he joined non-linear editing specialist Tyrell Corporation. Progressing to Leitch in 1997 as UK Sales Manager, he gained vital early experience in servers and storage area networks when the company acquired ASC. In 2002 he advanced via Marquis Broadcast to well-known independent systems specialist TSL as Head of Sales. During the last five years at TSL he has worked on a number of leading-edge projects for major broadcasters including TWI Mediahouse, Red Bee Media, CNBC, ProTV, Boom, ESPN Star Sports in Singapore and most recently the NRK Programme Bank Project.
“This is a very exciting time to be joining Pharos,” Russell Grute adds. “Working for a busy independent systems integrator over the last five years gave me a great opportunity to look closely at next-generation technology. I am very impressed with the Pharos enterprise architecture used for Mediator and Playtime. Pharos is an innovative, energetic and responsive company. I am really looking forward to joining the team and developing Pharos’ presence internationally.”
