22 September 2014
The BBC World Service is launching special Ebola broadcasts for West Africa starting today (Monday 22nd September). Each evening shortwave transmissions to the region will be increased. There will be a round-up of News concentrating on efforts to combat the virus particularly to the three worst affected countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
News About West Africa will be a 9-minute daily programme (Monday to Friday) broadcast live at 19:50 GMT around the world and presented by BBC Africa’s Kim Chakanetsa. Through local stories, correspondents and interviews, the broadcast will include the latest information about local, regional and international effort to contain and combat the disease. There is a great deal of new information emerging about how best to respond to Ebola and the programme aims that to share that with an African and global audience.
BBC Africa in conjunction with the BBC’s international development charity, Media Action, has since August been broadcasting two weekly Ebola bulletins on the BBC’s English, French and Hausa services.
BBC Media Action has also been helping to tackle dangerous misinformation about the disease in a new radio programme. Kick Ebola Nar Salone (Kick Ebola out of Sierra Leone), is a 30-minute show produced weekly and broadcast three times a week on 35 partner stations across the country.
Peter Horrocks, Director, BBC World Service Group says: “Lack of knowledge and myths about the disease are killing people as surely as Ebola is. Quality information from both within and outside the countries affected about how the risks of Ebola can be safely managed will save lives. The range of emergency activities on Ebola from the BBC World Service are in the finest traditions of the humanitarian instincts of our broadcasting.”
This week’s programming includes:
Assignment (Thursday 25th September) will hear from a wide variety of people living through the three-day lock-down in Sierra Leone as the authorities hope to restrict the spread of the disease.
A special edition of BBC Africa Debate (Friday 26th September) from Ghana will look at the state of Africa’s health systems in the light of the Ebola outbreak. The debate will be hosted by BBC Africa’s Akwasi Sarpong, and broadcaster and health practitioner, Dr Graham Easton.
Over the weekend, Mike Williams asked why people risk their lives for strangers as they talk to health workers who return to the packed West African hospitals to help those with the disease in The Why Factor. (Source: BBC press release)
19 September 2014
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service marked its 60th anniversary on September 18 at an event in Kyiv, attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko and hosted by the Prague Freedom Foundation.
In keynote remarks, Yatsenyuk said, “Empires collapsed, walls fell, dictators disappeared, but Radio Svoboda exists and will exist, as well as freedom.” The Prime Minister told the audience of diplomats, members of the Ukrainian parliament, civil society leaders, and journalists, “I wish all of us to listen to Radio Svoboda and be free people thanks to the truth and thanks to Radio Svoboda.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, currently visiting the U.S., sent a written statement that was read at the event. “Generations of modern Ukrainian politicians grew up listening to your programs, despite artificially created obstacles,” he wrote. “Your many years of work are an example of how to care for the interests of the society, independent of party interests and political regimes.”
Also attending the anniversary celebration were Karel Schwarzenberg, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Czech Chamber of Deputies; Laima Andrikiene, a former member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Subcommittee on Human Rights; Ukrainian parliament members Iryna Gerashchenko and Hryhoriy Nemyria; and Hromadske TV founder Mustafa Nayem, all of whom participated in a panel discussion on the role of propaganda and the power of independent journalism in situations of conflict and war.
Service director Maryana Drach said the Service’s accomplishments draw on a distinguished history, citing the service’s support of dissidents during the Soviet period and its reporting on issues long hidden by the Soviet government and media, such as Holodomor (the man-made Great Famine of 1932-33, which resulted in the death of millions of Ukrainians). Drach added, “Today Radio Svoboda reports on the seizure of the [Crimean Tatar parliament] Mejlis, the closure of Ukrainian schools in Crimea, and alleged torture of captives in Eastern Ukraine,” always remaining faithful to its mission to provide journalistically sound news and analysis.
RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda, began its first broadcast from Munich, West Germany on August 16, 1954 with this call: “Brothers and sisters! Ukrainians! We live abroad, but our hearts and minds are always with you. No Iron Curtain can separate us or keep us apart.” The Service has enjoyed dramatic growth among local audiences this year as a result of its live-streamed coverage of events relating to the Euromaidan demonstrations. Its on-site reporting from Crimea and the conflict zones in eastern Ukraine, and investigations into the properties and finances of the Yanukovych regime is regularly cited by major international and local media.
About RFE/RL
RFE/RL is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 21 countries, including Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). (Source: press release)
19 September 2014
Vizrt, together with Sky Sports and ChyronHego, win the IBC 2014 Innovation award in a ceremony held at the Amsterdam RAI during IBC 2014.
Vizrt’s Rex Jenkins accepted the award along with Mike Ruddell from Sky Sports, and Mark Bowden from ChyronHego.
Vizrt worked with Sky Sports and ChyronHego to create a unique studio production for their flagship production “Monday Night Football” (MNF). The production that aired first on August 19th 2013 is a game-changing evolution of the show which premiered in 1992 when Sky Sports first obtained English Premier League rights. The key innovation that led to the award was the creation of a virtual set that gave the illusion of having a much larger physical set in the MNF studio.
The award ceremony, held Sunday, September 14th at the Amsterdam RAI, featured several awards for innovation in broadcasting. Vizrt’s Rex Jenkins accepted the award along with Mike Ruddell from Sky Sports, and Mark Bowden from ChyronHego.
Building a new studio
A unique requirement of the Sky Sports studio is that the virtual studio graphics should sit alongside and be visually-indistinguishable from the physical-set elements. This meant that not only must the graphical rendering be ‘photo-real’ but the tracking must be accurate enough so that when cameras move, the rendered virtual graphics would exhibit a seamless blend between reality and virtual.
Sky’s creative team have been designing Vizrt 3D graphics for live coverage for over 10 years, so they are accustomed to designing in Viz Artist. However, the concept of Virtual Studio design to this degree of photo-realism was new. Given the design-complexity of the 3D studio design and required functionality built into it, care had to be taken to ensure graphics-rendering performance was optimised to run in real-time.
The result was a genuine collaborative effort, not just on implementing the design, but also with the Sky Engineers who needed to learn how to operate and support the new technology. From the time when the installation started and to the first live-broadcast show in August 2013, regular training-sessions were conducted for Sky designers and technical staff at Sky and the Vizrt UK staff.
The final on-air product is a studio which appears massive in size but also very flexible, allowing the Sky MNF presenters to have several set locations. The presenters could utilize data driven-graphics displayed in monitors or immersed into the studio as part of the virtual set. Using a tracking system by MotionAnalysis, the virtual set was able to be tracked with extreme precision, allowing the physical and virtual set to appear seamless as the camera pans from one part of the set to another.
19 September 2014
Bloomberg is one of the world’s premier multi-platform business information providers. MIPCOM and MIPTV offer the opportunity to not only present Bloomberg Media’s programming assets to global television and digital networks and airlines, but also provide the opportunity to increase awareness of the Bloomberg Media brand, meet with the distribution and carriage platforms and connect with the growing network of international broadcasters we have localisation agreements with. This is why this year we’ve decided to take a booth to host all these meetings in our own branded environment.
The syndication of our long-form programming catalogue, mainly to international broadcast networks, has long been a successful model for Bloomberg Media at MIP. In-flight is also an important part of our syndication business and agreements are signed at MIP and at the more airline-focused APEX Expo.
Our Bloomberg Game Changers series which gives an insight into business leaders and entrepreneurs who have climbed to the top of the ladder is a perennial favourite. This year on the programming side, we’re presenting a new series – C-Suite with Jeffrey Hayzlett – and our Inside… series is also a fairly new addition to our offering, which takes viewers into the inner sanctums of Fendi, Pixar, Lego and others.
Perhaps less well-known is the fact Bloomberg creates thousands of pieces of news, photos, footage, data and content from the Bloomberg Professional service each day that can be licensed for use by broadcasters, publishers and digital media companies through our Bloomberg Content Service team who also attend MIP each year.
Adam Freeman, MD, Bloomberg Media, EMEA
16 September 2014
VEEDO sp. z o.o. [Ltd.] a company owned by TVN, has launched Veedo.pl – an entertainment video portal featuring outstanding talents,
remarkable events and web’s best videos from all over the world. The website enables its users to upload their own short-form films.
Veedo.pl will serve as a platform for talent promotion. The website is aimed at people eager to share their passions and interests and to reach a wide audience of the internet. The service enables the authors to share short-form videos featuring their remarkable skills in multiple categories: from artistic talents through sports stunts to lifestyle tips.
The cooperation with Veedo opens numerous opportunities for the users: the most talented will be offered a chance to showcase their achievements on air or even to sign an advertising contract. Owing to cooperation with Veedo the authors of the most popular films will also be able to earn money by receiving a revenue share of the advertising displayed next to their videos.
Veedo will also include a comprehensive stock of web’s best hits from numerous sources – contributed both by Polish television channels, as well as international media and published by the x-news service.
Each website’s user can act as a juror. Veedo encourages user involvement and interaction through dedicated stickers that are unique on the Polish market and serve to express one’s judgments and opinions on particular videos based on emotions they arouse. Such a system
of assessment enables users to communicate a wide spectrum of personal impressions and emotions as well as to categorize the content.
„Internet users browsing for the most attractive videos from all over the world will gain a quick access to the most popular and amusing clips on the net. The videos on this website will come from both professional and amateur sources. We want Veedo.pl to turn into a platform
that will help talented individuals to find an audience and inspirations as well as to network with other creative people with similar interest. We offer each user an opportunity to evaluate video content using an amusing scale of subjective preference.” – said Maciej Maciejowski,
Member of the Management Board in charge of Business Development at TVN and Veedo CEO.
(Source: TVN press release)
15 September 2014
Eutelsat Communications (NYSE Euronext Paris: ETL) and leading broadcast network operator, MEDIA BROADCAST, announced today at IBC in Amsterdam that they have inked an agreement for the distribution of the satellite-based IP broadcast solution, NewsSpotter. MEDIA BROADCAST is optimising the NewsSpotter service by linking it with its Broadcast NGN (Next Generation Network) to offer the media industry new options for IP-based data transmissions and digital TV production. It will market the service under the name NewsSpotter+.
The NewsSpotter service operates in Ka-band using Eutelsat’s High Throughput KA-SAT satellite for cost-efficient, portable, IP-based Satellite News Gathering (SNG) services. The innovative service uses compact, lightweight and easy-to-carry terminals to enable fast and high quality transmissions from the field. MEDIA BROADCAST will market the service under the name NewsSpotter+ and combine the IP broadcast solution with its own operated Broadcast NGN (Next Generation Network) without using the public Internet to offer an end-to-end QoS without any shared resource. By combining its fibre network capabilities with access to a flexible, portable satellite-based contribution solution, MEDIA BROADCAST will be able to offer new options to the media industry for IP-based data transmissions and digital TV production.
“NewsSpotter+ is something new in the broadcast and media industries. By linking the complete BNS Community (Broadcast Network Services) to this satellite-based, mobile IP broadcast solution for portable News Gathering, we are closing a gap in the digital production chain,” explained Bernd Meinl, Head of Broadcast Satellite Services MEDIA BROADCAST, at the contract signing. “With this solution, we also meet the demand from our partners for cost-efficient, fast and flexible two-way solutions for signal contribution compared to Ku-band solutions. This will push the market for file-based IP broadcasts solutions as the importance of IP streaming within the digital production process continues to increase.”
Jean-François Fenech, General Manager Eutelsat Broadband said: “This agreement with our longstanding partner, MEDIA BROADCAST, once again underlines the critical role that satellites can play for news teams and broadcasters. The NewsSpotter service can be integrated easily into IP infrastructures and offers a wide variety of applications from coverage of live breaking news to sports and cultural events and contribution of footage direct from the field to a broadcaster’s master control room.”
MEDIA BROADCAST will market NewsSpotter+ with two-way dedicated bandwidth that is scalable between 512 kbps and 10 Mbps (Up- and Download, End-to-End). Signal contribution is made via the MEDIA BROADCAST NGN with fixed assigned bandwidth and at the customary high availability. This comes with high-performing Internet access from MEDIA BROADCAST’s own ISP. End customers will be provided with an optimised online management, reporting and booking portal that can be easily used via PC, smartphone or tablet. The price model for the service is flexible and transparent. It is based on volume of best effort and booked sessions for transmissions. High quality service with 24/7 technical support completes the service package. On the hardware side, MEDIA BROADCAST supports the complete range of KA-SAT antennas, from fully automatized SNG-solutions to portable flyaway bag solutions.
EUTELSAT’s KA-SAT is the first High Throughput Satellite (HTS) in Europe, offering throughput of more than 90 Gbps. Eutelsat and partners offer a range of innovative services through the infrastructure for broadcasters, business customers and consumers in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East under different brands including the Tooway™ consumer broadband service as well as NewsSpotter for professional applications.
