19 November 2008
Al Jazeera Network announced the opening of a Commercial Sales office in Kuala Lumpur to be launched in Q1 2009 to focus on serving the Asia Pacific market. The office and existing commercial division will help advertisers and business partners in the region capitalize on Al Jazeera’s global reach and international brand.
“This is an important stepping stone for our commercial efforts in the region as we begin to extend our global brand. While we remain focused on bringing ground-breaking news to the world, we are venturing and expanding into new commercial areas. The Al Jazeera family of channels which now includes Al Jazeera Satellite Channel, Al Jazeera English, six Sports Channels and Al Jazeera Documentary gives extensive market reach and advertising value for our partners” said Dr. Al-Horr. “The aim of the Commercial Office in Kuala Lumpu r will be to get closer to our Asia Pacific partners beginning with introductory offers for new sponsors and potential partners for 2009 onwards.”
Al Jazeera English launched in 2006, has been making steady progress in the region with developments this year in Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, building on top of existing reach and strong market presence in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Macau and free-to-air Asia-wide footprint on AsiaSat3. Al Jazeera English is currently available to over 130 million households worldwide, including 25 million across Asia Pacific.
19 November 2008
PANORAMAdtv, the video products division of Wohler Technologies Inc., today announced that Australia’s Global Television is installing Wohler audio and video monitoring equipment in two new state-of-the-art HD OB trucks. Wohler’s compact HD/SD monitoring solutions will simplify high-resolution audio and video monitoring of Global Television’s programming, which includes many of the country’s highest profile reality, entertainment, and sports programs.
“As the first units in Australia to deploy 3Gb/s ready infrastructure, our new HD trucks represent leading-edge broadcast technologies,” said Terry Manley, chief engineer at Global Television. “The Wohler equipment is an optimal fit, enabling robust and flexible monitoring of digital audio and high-resolution video while taking up very little space in our truck. Space, power, and weight savings are critical to cost-effective mobile production, and Wohler’s monitoring solutions meet all these requirements while offering the premium performance our clients demand in HD production.”
The extensive installation of Wohler gear within the Global Television OB trucks includes MON series rackmount LCD HD/SD video monitors, along with Wohler’s digital audio monitoring bridges for HD/SD video and digital audio monitoring. The compact yet flexible design of Wohler’s MON high-resolution display monitors is ideal for confidence monitoring of multiple video feeds in mobile applications where space is at a premium.
The MON4-2W/HR features four side-by-side 4.3-inch wide-format LCD panels, each with dedicated recessed controls for contrast and brightness, native 16:9 aspect ratio, and selection between 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios for SD-SDI signals, as well as tally indicators and independent power and input termination switches. Each LCD is mounted in a cylinder and thus may be rotated approximately ±30 degrees in the vertical plane for optimum operator viewing angles.
A total of nine MON4-2W/HR HD/SD rackmount LCD video monitors are being installed in each truck, providing 36 individual widescreen displays in just 18 RU. These units will support the bulk of Global Television’s video monitoring activity. Seven MON1-T/7W-HR 7-inch high-resolution HD/SD monitors will be mounted adjacent to Tektronix Waveform Monitors in a Tektronix tub to facilitate detailed signal analysis.
Each OB truck will be equipped with 14 of Wohler’s AMP1-S8MDA HD/SD embedded audio monitoring bridges and a single E MON-1/M audio bridge with built in Dolby® E decoding. The AMP1-S8MDA is a complete audio monitoring solution capable of monitoring audio from HD-SDI, SD-SDI, AES/EBU, and analog signal sources. The 1RU system processes and monitors up to eight channels from an HD-SDI or SD-SDI bit stream, two sets of four AES/EBU signal pairs (balanced and unbalanced), or eight balanced analog channels. Eight high-resolution 26-segment tricolor LED bar-graph audio-level meters provide accurate and instantaneous visual level monitoring at a glance.
Sydney-based Quinto Communications supplied the Wohler gear for Global Television. “This will be the largest deployment of Wohler monitoring equipment in an OB environment within Australia,” said Tom Pavicic, general manager of Quinto Communications.
The first of the two HD OB units will hit the road by the end of 2008, and the second will be completed in early 2009.
19 November 2008
Autocue, the leading provider of teleprompting and newsroom automation solutions, features new prompting software developments at IBC to cater for the growing number of customers working on Windows Vista and Mac operating platforms.
Autocues in-house software development team has responded to increasing requests from customers of its Professional and Starter ranges for compatibility with Windows Vista and Mac operating systems. QPro and QStart, the prompting software for the respective ranges, are now fully tested and compatible with these operating systems including Macs running Windows-emulating software.
According to Autocue CEO Hyman, Mac and Vista have become much more prominent over the last year. A major benefit of having a large in-house software development team is that we can respond quickly to our changing customer needs.
The upgrade to the new version of the software will be offered at a greatly reduced cost to existing customers, and available via a single download from the website.
19 November 2008
Autocue, the leading provider of teleprompting and newsroom automation solutions, will launch a major development of QMaster/ QBox IP-based prompting solution, at IBC in response to demand from Middle Eastern and Asian customers.
CEO Hyman says Autocue have seen massive growth in the last 18 months in the Middle East and Asia, particularly the Indian sub-continent. Hyman adds, Until now, we have only been able to offer our legacy software product based on the traditional PCI card – the technology still used by our competitors. The demand for a version of QMaster/ QBox that works with complex languages is clear and we have a list of customers waiting to upgrade as soon as its ready.
Autocue will use IBC 2008 to launch Arabic and Hindi language handling, but the core of the development work for these languages mean that all other complex languages will follow with minimal new development work.
Hyman continues, Weve had incredible success in launching QMaster/ QBox to our European language customers, who have fully embraced its unique benefits such as remote prompting and in-built resilience. The new language handling provides us with clear product differentiation in the biggest growth markets of the Middle East and Asia.
19 November 2008
Autocue, the leading provider of teleprompting and newsroom automation solutions, will showcase a prototype LED backlit MSP20 at IBC 2008 and present their initial assessment of the much-hyped technology. Customers will be invited to compare the features and pricing with the more traditional TFT technology.
Autocue CEO Frank Hyman adds a word of caution, We have again led the way in opening up new prompting technology to our customers. At the same time, we are realistic about the infancy of this particular technology and the proclaimed benefits from manufacturers that are yet to be proven by panel suppliers.
The new generation of LED backlit panels use hundreds of individual LED lights rather than traditional fluorescent tubing to give a more consistent distribution of brightness and greater contrast, making text easier to read even at lower levels of brightness. It is claimed that the panels will also dramatically reduce the on-camera weight and power consumption.
Hyman continues, Our initial tests have shown very marginal results compared to the claims weve seen elsewhere only a 10% reduction in weight, yet the power consumption is actually 8% higher at comparable levels of brightness and the panels will be up to 20% more expensive. Our panel suppliers have also warned us that the end of life is unknown at this stage.
Autocue want their customers to judge the results for themselves and will only launch when the technology is proven. Hyman concludes, Its important that our customers dont get swept up in the idea of the new technology without understanding if it will truly benefit them. We are ready to launch at any time, but first and foremost we want to ensure these products can balance technical superiority with economic viability. Come and judge for yourselves at hall 11, stand F60.
19 November 2008
The World Teleport Associations 2008 Top Teleport Operators league has been announced, and for the fourth year running, content management and delivery company GlobeCast enjoys a high ranking on both the Global Top Twenty and Independent Top Twenty categories.
The list, which provides a unique look into the diverse teleport sector of the global communications industry, is conducted by surveying teleport operators around the world on their facilities, services and business results. According to the World Teleport Association, these rankings provide a unique insight into the often unappreciated realities of the teleport sector.
GlobeCast came second in the Independent Top Twenty category, which excludes operators and recognises companies based on revenue from all sources.
In addition, GlobeCast was sixth in the Global Top Twenty, which ranks companies based on revenues from all customized communications sources and includes operators of teleports, satellite fleets and fibre networks.
This ranking is an affirmation of GlobeCasts strength in its traditional business, while 2008 also saw a number of developments to reinforce its growing role as a content and media management company, including the acquisition of French software company NETIA, the recent upgrade of its London playout centre at Grays Inn Road and the addition of an entirely new playout suite in Singapore. These changes will enhance GlobeCasts range of services and its geographical reach through 2009.
