27 February 2006
On 23 February Al Arabiya issued the following statement:
With a heart laden with sadness, Al Arabiya News Channel announces the death of its Iraq correspondent Atwar Bahjat, 30 years of age, and cameraman Khaled Mahmoud Al Falahi (39) and technician Adnan Khairallah (36), both of whom work for Wasan Media in Iraq.
According to eye witness accounts, a yet-to-be-identified armed group intercepted Atwar and her media team on the Dor road, north of Samarra. Iraqi security reports state the journalists were kidnapped and then killed as Atwar Bahjat was heading a team covering the attack on the holy sites of the two Imams – Ali Al Hadi and Hasan Al Asakari – in Samarra.
The last live broadcast by Atwar took place at 15:00 GMT, while Al Arabiyas newsroom last heard from her at 15:30 GMT.
Once again, Al Arabiya News Channel pays the ultimate price for persistently pursuing the truth. Until this new tragedy, Al Arabiya lost a total of eight colleagues in Iraq. Five of whom died in a car bomb that targeted Al Arabiyas bureau in Baghdad, while three lost their lives as a result of US fire. Also, Jawad Khathem, Al Arabiyas reporter in Iraq, was the target of an armed kidnap attempt that resulted in him being paralyzed from the waist down.
Al Arabiya wishes to extend its sincere condolences to the families of Atwar and her two colleagues. The channel also calls upon the authorities mandated with maintaining security – Iraqi and well as American – to look closely into measures to enhance the safety of journalists active in Iraq. Al Arabiya further calls on the Iraqi authorities to embark on an in-depth and transparent investigation into this triple-murder, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
27 February 2006
At NAB 2006, leading content management and delivery company GlobeCast will demo the next generation of its WING content management solutions, a suite of IP-based services and applications for broadcast, enterprise and digital retail signage. The multi-product WING showcase will feature WING Content Exchange for content contribution and exchange; WING Store & Broadcast for tapeless playout and channel management; and, WING Captive Audience, the newest WING offering for the delivery of retail advertising and digital display, being debuted at NAB 2006.
The WING Showcase will be on display at GlobeCast Booth C1530 and will feature:
WING Content Exchange video contribution from any Internet connection
Developed specifically for global video contribution, WING Content Exchange provides a powerful but user-friendly tool to capture, upload and share video between studio and field. A camera, a laptop and any wired or wireless connection allow authorized users to upload and exchange media in a unicast or multicast environment on this secure platform. WING Content Exchange is the winner of Cable and Satellite Internationals 2005 Product of the Year Award for best outside broadcast solution.
WING Store & Broadcast tapeless playout and program substitution via the Internet
An IP-based remote-controlled playout and playlist management tool for broadcasters, WING Store & Broadcast simplifies tasks such as regional customization, ad insertion, program substitution and rights management. Content is uploaded to secure WING Store & Broadcast servers at GlobeCast facilities in Paris, London, Miami, Los Angeles and Singapore. The service then allows remote playout of content via fiber or satellite to broadcast distribution platforms worldwide using an improved, user-friendly online interface.
WING Captive Audience compelling advertising delivery at the point of sale
Playlist management and customizable advertising delivery over retail signage networks are at the heart of WING Captive Audience. This latest WING solution combines all of the necessary hardware and asset management applications to initiate a new digital display network or upgrade an existing network, bringing video or multimedia content to television or PC screens at any number of retail points-of-presence.
More about the WING concept
Launched at NAB 2005, GlobeCast WING is network agnostic, user-friendly and is based on in-house developed applications built with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) components and Plug-and-Play technology for easy integration into any existing broadcast architecture. WING servers based at GlobeCast POPs in Paris, London, Miami, Los Angeles and Singapore provide a global ring, facilitating easy access into the WING platform from wireless or dedicated networks. From these access points, WING does the rest by ingesting, storing and delivering content to any network around the globe for truly flexible content management.
27 February 2006
Harris Corporation announced the appointment of Said Bacho as general manager in the Middle East for its Leitch Business Unit. The creation of this key position solidifies the company’s sales presence in a fast-growing market and provides support for an expanding customer base with leadership from an industry veteran.
Harris high-profile customers in the region include Arab Radio & Television
(ART) in Jordan Media City in Amman, Jordan; Al-Rai in Kuwait; PAYC in Qatar; and the Iraqi Media Network. This expansion of the companys broadcast sales force will ensure its current and future customers have local sales support as this significant broadcast market continues to surge.
The Middle East broadcast industry has been thriving for a number of years, and it has been a major objective of Harris to strengthen its presence in the region, said Dave Dougall, vice president, Europe, for Harris Broadcast Communications Divisions Leitch Business Unit. We are delighted to have Said join our team, as he brings a wealth of industry experience. We now have the support we need to strengthen our reseller channels, as well as to supply local sales and service support in the Middle East.
With more than 12 years of experience in the broadcasting arena, Bacho comes to Harris from Pinnacle Systems, where he established and ran their Middle East operations from Beirut, Lebanon. Prior to this, Bacho worked for TekVideo, a Tektronix and Grass Valley dealer; the Tutunjian Corporation, a Panasonic distributor in Beirut; and at Future Television, Lebanons terrestrial television channel and satellite broadcast station.
16 February 2006
Al Jazeera International, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel, headquartered in Doha, announced that award winning news anchor Teymoor Nabili has joined the channel. Winner of Best News Presenter/Anchor at the Asian TV Awards in 2005, Teymoor has also received awards from the UK Royal Television Society, for coverage of the Utah Olympic bribery scandal, and from the New York Awards, for reporting on economic development in Malaysia.
Teymoor will be the channels male news anchor in Kuala Lumpur co-presenting the news with fellow award winning presenter Veronica Pedrosa, formerly of CNN International. Kuala Lumpur is one of Al Jazeera Internationals four regional broadcast centres strategically placed across the world in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC.
Speaking on Teymoors appointment from the channels Doha headquarters, Director of News Steve Clark said, Teymoor will be one of our key journalists in bringing news to English speaking viewers around the world. He has a wealth of knowledge on Asia, The Gulf and Europe
Teymoor brings 17 years of experience to Al Jazeera International: writing, producing, reporting and anchoring in television, radio and print. He joins Al Jazeera International from CNBC Asia in Singapore, where he has been anchor since 2001. Previous roles include news anchor for BBC Television in London, and anchor for European Business News.
14 February 2006
By 2015, India will have 16 million qualified scientists. Thats more than the entire population of many European countries. The G-8 Summit of the worlds largest economic powers will be a very different group, with China and India expected to be part of the new, enlarged economic forum. Globalisation, sustainable development, technical convergence, public safety and climate change are just some of the issues that will affect us all ever more greatly.
Thousands of issues already affect the effectiveness of the message from traditional broadcasters. As lifestyles change, this industry forum will highlight those organisations that are adapting to change and are becoming the “media organisations” of the future. They are creating the new social currencies being exchanged through mobile phones, broadcast, broadband, wi-fi, cable and satellite.
New media is no longer “new”. 12 years have passed since the Internet became accessible to the public. Initial results are in. Digital Audio Broadcasting was invented 25 years ago; DVB was developed 12 years ago and DRM is a decade old in 2006. The AIB believes it is time to present an overview of what is hot and what is not.
This one-day Regional Forum for media leaders – which is open by invitation only – will focus on practical case studies. It has been designed to allow the sharing of ideas on relevant trends that are affecting the international media industry and how leading players are reacting. The Forum will take advantage of the location to examine how the Indian media, mobile and IT industries are serving a huge domestic market of citizens and consumers as well as more than 20 million Indians living abroad. The worlds largest democracy has some surprising insights to share.
From search engines to mobile phones, the AIB Delhi Regional Media Leaders Forum will cover the issues that matter, with reviews and predictions, plus case studies that provide pointers to the way media organisations have embraced the new opportunities and delivered success, in both the public and the commercial sectors. Taking place immediately before the Commonwealth Broadcasting Associations General Conference, the AIB Forum will be a truly international event, with cross-over attendance from some of the worlds leading broadcasters who are attending the CBA conference.
And recognising the pressures that todays media executives are under, weve scheduled the Forum to allow time for going to the office or having a meeting before the event, and plenty of time left after the event to do business as well.
SPECIAL DELEGATE RATE FOR SOUTH ASIA PARTICIPANTS: INR1,950. Contact Anmol Saxena or Rakhee Sakhuja at anmol.saxena@aib.org.uk, or call +91 (0) 11 416 33483 to take advantage of this special South Asia delegate rate.
Download the event brochure
here, or book online by clicking
here (all will open in a new browser window).
Remember, there is a special delegate rate for South Asia – just INR1,950.
14 February 2006
The world’s media gathers in New Delhi on Tuesday 14 February for the AIB Regional Media Leaders Forum. Titled Broadcasting 2.0 – the Audience is up to something, the Forum will debate and discuss the state of broadcasting in the multi-platform, multi-channel world. Delegates are travelling from throughout the world – from Taiwan, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and Fiji – as well as from India, Pakistan and the rest of South Asia.
The one day event – at New Delhi’s Habitat World – is designed to stimulate conversations between broadcasters and to brief them about developments in the electronic media industry around the world. Opening the event will be a keynote address by Dr. Madanmohan Rao, research director of Singapore-based Asian Media Information Centre. Rao has been investigating media and lifestyle trends in the Asia region for many years and will present developments across the region from South Korea to China, as well as South Asia. Rao will offer his views of some of the scenarios for the preferred futures for media and entertainment in Asia, home to two-thirds of the world’s population in an essential briefing for everyone involved in the electronic media in the region.
Jonathan Marks, former programme director at Radio Netherlands and now an international media consultant, travels the world on investigative media safaris. He’s been capturing great ideas that illustrate the sideways shift that is happening around the traditional bastions of broadcasting. For example, how can established media players shift resources to adapt in today’s complex media environment?
Other speakers include Mr K S Sarma, chief executive of Prasar Bharati, Tim Suter of the UK’s telecoms to media regulator, Ofcom, and Pawan Gandhi, Nokia India’s executive responsible for content as well as a range of other senior executives from the broadcasting and web industries.
“We’re seeing immense change in global media,” comments Simon Spanswick, AIB chief executive. “Members of the AIB wanted to learn more about developments in South Asian media, so we are staging this event to ensure that a dialogue starts between broadcasters from the region with those in other parts of the world. We’re also aiming to provide an insight into how major broadcasters are addressing the challenges of global competition, attracting viewers and listeners and developing businesses. With a truly international audience eager to learn from developments in India, this event will provide a unique opportunity for media executives to exchange views with colleagues from all over the world.”
The half-day conference, at Habitat World in central New Delhi, has delegates registered from broadcasters, production companies, satellite operators and related industries throughout India, South Asia, the Pacific, Far East, North America and Europe. The delegate fee for the 14 February event is INR1,950. To register, contact Sanjeev Kapur, telephone 098 11 639 274 or e-mail kapur.sanjeev@gmail.com.
