15 November 2016
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), operator of the world’s first Globalized Network, powered by its leading satellite backbone, tonight was named “Satellite Operator of the Year” during the 2016 Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) presents BroadcastPro Selevision Awards. The result was announced during a ceremony in Dubai.
Nominees were judged by a panel of experts across the MENA region on their work toward improving communications in the Middle East and North Africa and the lives of the people living there. Intelsat, as well as other operators in the region, enable voice communication, provide Internet access to fiber-lacking areas and give access to education or healthcare to those in remote locations.
“This award recognizes Intelsat’s continuing leadership as the innovator in space-based communications. In 2016, Intelsat delivered on the promise of high throughput satellite (HTS) technology when it launched the first two satellites in the Intelsat EpicNG network, providing immediate benefits to users,” said Shahrokh Khanzadeh-Amiri, Managing Director, MENA, Intelsat. “The launches established Intelsat as the first operator to implement a backward-compatible, open architecture HTS platform. Intelsat EpicNG will support the growth of telecom operators, service providers and media organizations with higher performance, improved economics and simplified access.”
Intelsat has also continued to give communities access to affordable, high-quality and reliable television/video programming. Intelsat 36, which has now entered service, bolsters the penetration of high definition programming for viewers in the broader Middle East and Africa regions.
The ASBU presents BroadcastPro Selevision Awards cover a broad range of categories to reward excellence in various fields across the broadcast workflow, from production and post-production to traditional broadcast and new media platforms.
(Source: Intelsat press release)
14 November 2016
Arab Satellite Communications Organization – Arabsat – participates in AFRICACOM Conference & Exhibition held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 15-17 November 2016.
Eng. Khalid bin Ahmed Balkhyour, President & CEO of Arabsat, stated that “Through our participation in this show, we are looking forward to presenting our services provided to the African continent, as our 5th generation satellites are covering the entire African continent broadcasting TV, telecommunications and Internet satellite services. Arabsat satellites also broadcast dedicated bouquets over North Africa and other dedicated bouquets over the whole African continent including TV & telecom broadcast, in addition to the existence of several ground satellite stations inside Africa connected to the European and the Asian satellite ground stations to provide Internet services and mobile networking. ARABSAT will also showcase the capabilities of its 6th generation satellites, scheduled to be launched next year which will provide extra massive satellite capacities covering the whole African continent and its potential market with full in Orbit – back up.”
Balkhyour concluded that “We are currently working hard on several important strategic projects to operate many of our new orbital positions and keep up with our customers increasing needs, maintaining Arabsat status as the best choice to provide customers’ needs in satellite broadcasting & Telecommunication services.”
(Source: Arabsat press release)
10 November 2016
The Association for International Broadcasting has presented its Founders Award to Abdul Rahman Ramadhan
Abdul Rahman Ramadhan (centre) receives the AIB Founders Award from Alexey Nikolov, Chairman of the AIB Executive Committee and Managing Director, RT (left) and Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive, AIB (right)
Abdul Rahman Ramadhan started work in 1980. It wasn’t a typical career for someone living in Nairobi’s Kibera slum. He graduated from the local madrasa and chose the profession of sound, landing a job at the Camerapix news agency run by Mohamed Amin in the Kenyan capital.
He honed his skills on the job, working with the standard location sound kit of the time – a Nagra reel-to-reel tape recorder. Those skills, which would be developed over the following three and a half decades, have brought the world sound from across Africa.
For Abdul has recorded the sound that has accompanied TV news reports from many of Africa’s most troubled places and challenging events. His first truly dangerous assignment was the civil war in Sudan in 1992. This was the first war zone that the young sound man had experienced. Along with the other Camerapix team members, Abdul dodged bullets from soldiers and bombs dropped from Antonov planes. He slept among the dead to avoid detection – a certain route to death.
Soon after, he accompanied Mo Amin to Ethiopia which was in the grip of the worst famine to hit the country in a century. It was the pictures and sound captured by Mo Amin and Abdul for the BBC and other organisations of the plight of tens of thousands of starving people led to the establishment of Live Aid. Bob Geldof saw the report that Michael Buerk filed for the BBC and was so moved that he organised Band Aid that recorded the global hit “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, followed in 1985 by Live Aid.
In 1994, with his wife pregnant with their second child, Abdul was sent by Mo Amin to Rwanda where the genocide had started. There Abdul and the Camerapix team witnessed many of the atrocities that occurred during the 100 days of the genocide. It was the first time that Abdul had seen tens of people being killed at the same time. In Somalia, it was just one killing a day, he recounts. In Rwanda, Abdul saw gangs killing ten people or more at a time, all in the most horrific ways.
He’s covered stories in his native Kenya, too, including the election violence in 2008. The two main tribes in the country fought running battles and up to 1,500 people died in the violence, with half a million or more displaced. Abdul was on hand, recording the sounds of battle on his own home turf.
Abdul is sanguine about the risks to his own life, saying that when his time is up, that’s just the way it is, however his life should end.
His wife supports him, despite not knowing if Abdul will come back from his latest assignment. She knows that capturing the sound that tells the most important stories is in Abdul’s blood, and that it is far more than just a job.
Sound is Abdul’s passion. Over the past 35 years, he has brought us some of the most momentous moments from Africa’s recent history.
Abdul shows no sign of hanging up his microphone. The Association for International Broadcasting is proud to recognise the work that Abdul has undertaken to help bring us the stories from Africa that need to be told. The AIB Founders Award pays tribute to a remarkable man – the Sound Man Abdul Rahman Ramadhan.
3 November 2016
12th annual AIBs reward factual programme makers from across the world
The 12th annual awards for factual television, radio and online productions – known as the AIBs – were awarded at a glittering gala dinner in London on Wednesday 2 November hosted by Mark Barton, anchor on Bloomberg Television. Sponsors of the AIBs 2016 include global satellite communications company Eutelsat and broadcast consultants MediaGuru.
As well as rewarding programme makers, the Association for International Broadcasting presented its Founders Award to Abdul Rahman Ramadhan (right) who for more than 35 years has been an unsung hero of news and documentary-making in Africa. He is “The Sound Man” who, working for Camerapix alongside the late legendary photojournalist Mohamed Amin, captured the sounds of war, famine and genocide across Africa. Abdul was the sound recordist who worked with the BBC’s Michael Buerk, who brought news of the Ethiopian famine into homes around the world. This led to the creation of Band Aid and the global Live Aid pop concert. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to recognise the work of Abdul Rahman Ramadhan,” said Alexey Nikolov, Managing Director of RT and Chairman of the AIB’s Executive Committee. “He has worked tirelessly in the most challenging of situations to bring the sounds that illustrate the news to viewers across the world. He has put his life in danger on many occasions and yet shows no sign of hanging up his headphones. Abdul is a worthy recipient of the important AIB Founders Award.”
Alongside the presentation of the Founders Award, the global panel of judges of this year’s AIBs rewarded programme makers in 14 countries, ranging in size from an Argentinian radio station to major TV networks such as the BBC.
Key themes among the entries were the migrant crisis in Europe and in particular the effects on children. There were also a range of productions covering issues around so-called ISIS, including the radicalisation of youth in western European countries. The judges praised the work of nominees, describing productions variously as “bold”, “engaging”, “compelling” and “comprehensive”.
The Association’s Innovation award was presented to the Private Engineering Office of Qatar for its ground-breaking TV and film archiving project that is preserving Qatar’s audio-visual archives on a scale unmatched anywhere in the world.
“We had the largest crop of entries in the 12-year history of the AIBs,” commented Simon Spanswick, chief executive of the Association for International Broadcasting. “Work from broadcasters and production companies on every continent was considered by our shortlisting team. Then our experts in the international jury evaluated which work was the best of the best. Some of the decisions were immensely close as the programmes we saw and heard in the shortlist were all of the very highest standard.”
With results in 17 categories ranging from news journalism to children’s factual, sport to investigate documentary, the AIBs cover the entire range of factual TV, radio and online production genres. There is an overall winner in each category and there are also special commendations that the judges said represented excellent work.
The list of winners appears below.
The AIBs open for entry again in April 2017.
Winners list
TELEVISION JOURNALISM – sponsored by MediaGuru
Winner – The Children of War – BBC News
Highly commended – Desperate Journey – PBS NewsHour
Highly commended – Paris Terror Attacks – CNN
RADIO JOURNALISM
Winner – Burmese Election Special – BBC Burmese
DOMESTIC CURRENT AFFAIRS
Winner – My Son the Jihadi – True Vision Productions for Channel 4
Highly commended – My Jihad – VRT
Highly commended – Chemsex – Vice
RADIO CURRENT AFFAIRS
Winner – ISIS: Young, British and Radicalised – Snappin’ Turtle Productions for BBC Radio 1
Highly commended – Corruption K: Cristina in the Dock – Radio Mitre
Highly commended – Alvin Hall Goes Back to School – WNYC & Public Radio International
SHORT FEATURE
Winner – On Assignment – Vicky’s Story – ITV News and MediaZones
Highly commended – Right to Fight – The Guardian
Highly commended – Winners – BBC World Service
SPECIALIST
Winner – It Ends with Murder – The Body in the Freezer – Danish Broadcasting
Highly commended – The Sound Man – Africa24 and Camerapix
Highly commended – The Special Needs Hotel – Lambent Productions
RADIO INVESTIGATIVE
Winner – Documentary on One: The Case That Never Was – RTÉ Radio 1
Highly commended – The Unfinished Story of Fighting FGM in Egypt – BBC Arabic
Highly commended File on 4 – Tennis – Game Set and Fix? – BBC/Buzzfeed
ONLINE
Winner – 6×9: A virtual experience of solitary confinement – The Guardian
Highly commended – Back in Touch – On Our Radar in partnership with New Internationalist
Highly commended – China’s Science Revolution – BBC News
SCIENCE
Winner – Iceman Reborn – Nova – WGBH
Highly commended – Secrets of the Brain – TERN International
INNOVATION
Qatar Private Engineering Office for the Old Films Archive Project
FOUNDERS
Abdul Rahman Ramadhan
CHILDREN’S
Winner – Checker Tobi – Bayerischer Rundfunk
Highly commended – Know Zone – The Mediae Company
SPORT
Winner – Formula 1 – Whisper Films and Channel 4
Highly commended – Rugby World Cup Final – ITV Sport
RADIO CREATIVE FEATURE
Winner – The Battle of Britain at 75 – TBI Media with Snappin’ Turtle Productions for BBC Radio 2
Highly commended – Growing Up Without a Dad – BlokMedia
SHORT FORM JOURNALISM
Winner – Brussels Divided: Molenbeek after the Terrorist Attacks – The Guardian
Highly commended – Syria: Witness to an Airstrike – CNN Worldwide
Highly commended – VTM News – Train of Hope – Medialaan
TV INVESTIGATIVE
Winner – ISIS: The British Women Supporters Unveiled – Channel 4
Highly commended – 101 East: Murder in Malaysia – Al Jazeera English
Highly commended – Spotlight – Selling Northern Ireland – BBC Northern Ireland
INTERNATIONAL CURRENT AFFAIRS
Winner – Children on the Frontline: The Escape – Channel 4
Highly commended – Kaos Hatti – Kos Island – TRT
Highly commended – We Love Gaza – RT
RADIO PERSONALITY
Viny Agrawal – MyFM 94.3, Indore, India
TELEVISION PERSONALITY
Hala Gorani – CNN International
1 November 2016
Arqiva, the communications infrastructure and media services company, has announced a partnership with Alexandra Palace that will see it illuminate the mast which broadcast the first ever regular high definition public television transmission in 1936.
This November 2nd marks the 80-year anniversary of the day the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) launched the world’s first high definition television service and the occasion will be marked with the illumination of the Alexandra Palace mast.
From 1936 until the early 1950s, Alexandra Palace became the major production centre for BBC Television, broadcasting landmark programming and coverage of historical events including the 1953 coronation. Converting former dining rooms and unused spaces to create two experimental TV studios, The BBC Studios became known globally as ‘the birthplace of television’.
Bryan Coombes, Director of Terrestrial Broadcast at Arqiva commented: “We feel incredibly privileged to be able to support the 80th anniversary celebrations at Alexandra Palace, and help deliver what will be an amazing public spectacle befitting of this historic location.
“When you look back on all the incredible things that the television industry has achieved – from the broadcasting of the coronation to the introduction of colour TV – it’s important to acknowledge just how much of the work that was done inside the Alexandra Palace studios all those years ago.
“With the mast standing at 65.5 metres high and continuing to provide TV and radio services to the surrounding area, there’s no doubt its illumination will be the perfect tribute.”
Louise Stewart, Chief Executive at Alexandra Park and Palace commented: “The BBC led the world with the development of television, and the first broadcasts made at Alexandra Palace exemplify a culmination of collaborative invention, pioneered by John Logie Baird, but ultimately carried forward by the Marconi-EMI system.
“It is fitting that we are able to work with Arqiva to the light the iconic mast as part of our celebration of this ground breaking moment in broadcasting history, in the very spaces in which the first opening night of television actually happened.”
Alongside the mast illumination, Alexandra Park and Palace Charitable Trust (APPCT) is marking the anniversary by inviting the public to an evening of talks and comedy in the Palace Suite, with the critically acclaimed comedy troupe ‘Do Not Adjust Your Stage’ as the lead attraction.
Ticket proceeds will be going towards the restoration of the Alexandra Palace studios as a visitor centre and museum capturing the history of television broadcasting in the UK. The Trust has committed to raising £1 million to complete the project, and restore and open the historic studios to the public for the first time in 2018.
For more information about and ticket purchases for the 80th anniversary event, please visit: http://www.alexandrapalace.com/whats-on/
Further details on the Palace’s fundraising and restoration efforts can also be found here: http://support.alexandrapalace.com/east-wing-restoration/
(Source: Arqiva press release)
