21 May 2005
Internationally-renowned journalist, Riz Khan, is to host the worlds most interactive interview show for Al Jazeera International the new 24-hour, English-language news and current affairs channel set to broadcast globally from early 2006. Khans new show, live daily from Washington DC, will feature world leaders, newsmakers and celebrities in a question and answer format led by viewer participation.
The Managing Director of Al Jazeera International, Nigel Parsons, made the announcement as part of the on-going development of what he called, “The most exciting television news and current affairs project in decades – one which will revolutionise the global news industry by offering viewers across the world a fresh perspective on news.”
Riz Khans show aimed at being the worlds most interactive interview programme will allow viewers to directly talk to newsmakers with their questions. “I think we are at a turning point where viewers across the world are looking for a fresh approach to news and information,” says Khan, “Al Jazeera brings together all the pieces to provide a complete picture on global issues. Im incredibly excited to have this rare chance to build something so new and influential from the ground up.”
After an extensive journalistic career at the BBC, Khan helped to launch BBC World Service Television News in 1991, hosting the very first show as the channel went on air. He was then head-hunted by CNN in 1993, where he became a senior anchor and launched his world renowned, interactive “Q&A” format. “Al Jazeera International is all about revolutionising viewer choice. Ive now got the chance to offer viewers around the globe a much-needed voice on the world stage,” says Khan, “Imagine, a person at any level in society, in almost any country, having the chance to talk directly with a President or a Prime Minister, or even a global celebrity. Its a wonderfully honest and equal opportunity for people something still uncommon in broadcasting.”
Al Jazeera International will launch in early 2006, and is already hiring staff for its broadcast centres. Its senior management team includes internationally-experienced journalists and broadcast professionals who have worked with news organisations including the BBC, CNN, MBC, APTN and a number of top independent channels in a variety of countries. Managing Director, Nigel Parsons, describes Al Jazeera International as uniquely positioned – being the only English language international network inside the Middle East looking out. He adds that while the channel may be headquartered in Doha, Qatar, it is establishing broadcast centres in, Kuala Lumpur, London and Washington DC, with supporting bureaux worldwide, giving it a true global spread with a decentralised news-making process. The channels Director of News, Steve Clark, adds, “Al Jazeera International will be the first English language alternative to Western news media, and will build on the strength of an established global brand with unprecedented access across the Middle East.”
21 May 2005
Two hundred broadcast editors and correspondents from all over Europe gathered in Brussels on 20 April for a two-day consultative conference under the title: Putting Europe in the Picture. It was the first time that senior editors from both public and commercial Television, Radio and Online news outlets have been asked to contribute directly to the development of a new European Commission communication strategy.
The Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström, responsible for Institutional Relations and the Communication Strategy underlined the willingness of the Commission of a better partnership with broadcasters. It may be hard to package Europe in sound-bites and attractive images. Its time to get away from the old approach of putting out the same dull and uniform messages to everyone in Europe. Its time to find out what people actually need to know, and to start giving them the information they need in lively language that makes sense to them, using the media they are familiar with. You the broadcasters are crucial to the success of this strategy.
Mrs. Wallström suggested regular meetings between the broadcasters and the EU institutions to assess the changing needs of both sides and to highlight the best TV concepts dealing with European affairs. She wished to encourage the development of European TV and Radio networks, a concrete co-operation also with regional and local broadcasters as well as use of attractive formats for putting across the message about the Union policies.
Appropriately held at the Maison de la Radio in Brussels, Flagey Centre, the former headquarters of Belgian Radio, the conference theme was to establish how the EU can help broadcasters to report European affairs more effectively. It was conducted in collaboration with the main European broadcasting associations, including the EBU European Broadcasting Union, CIRCOM Europes Association of Regional Television, ACT Association of Commercial Television, AER Association of European Radio, COPEAM Association of Mediterranean Broadcasters, ENEX European News Exchange, and AIB Association for International Broadcasting.
21 May 2005
To mark the French Open at Roland Garros from May 23rd to June 5th, the France Télécom Group is offering “Tennis Everywhere”, a multi-access audiovisual offer that will give the public the opportunity to follow the tournament, live or taped, whatever network they use. For this offer, MaLigne tv and GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Télécom, have partnered to develop a package of television channels that will allow viewers to watch live broadcast of all matches on the seven main courts at Roland Garros.
With MaLigne tv, tennis fans will be able to watch the matches in digital quality, without interruption or commercial breaks. An optional commentary by France Télévisions sports journalists will be available. There is no additional subscription or surcharge for subscribers to MaLigne tv who have a pay-TV package.
GlobeCast will transmit the programs over fiber optics from the French Open to the MaLigne tv IP video headend. The audiovisual signals will travel through the GlobeCast technical center in Paris where they will be encoded in MPEG2, multiplexed, then encapsulated in an IP flow to create the program package.
In addition to seven television channels, the package will include a mosaic screen to allow simultaneous viewing of the seven programs. MaLigne tv will also offer an exclusive Video on Demand (VoD) service so that viewers can follow the tournament based on their own schedules. They will be able to view matches whenever they like. The day’s tape will be made available just a few hours after the end of the match. Viewers can then watch the parts of the tape they want whenever they choose.
This service, exclusively for MaLigne tv subscribers, will be provided via a fully secure pay-per-view system. And a schedule of legendary matches (a retrospective on the 2004 tournament, the 1983 Noah-Wilander final and more) is available as of May14th. Each match will cost between 1 and 3 euros to view.
21 May 2005
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) announced on 12 May a significant increase in satellite television news broadcast into Iran.
The Voice of America (VOA) programme News & Views, which for nearly two years has been a nightly 30-minute direct-to-home satellite TV broadcast, is doubling in length leading up to Irans June 17th presidential election. The hour-long Persian-language programme will now air five times a day: the original show live during Irans prime time, plus four repeats with updates as events warrant.
News & Views is covering the election, the reformist candidates, and the calls to boycott the election and for a new referendum. The expanded coverage, funded by the emergency spending bill just passed into law, will be in addition to News & Views regular news reporting, offering news from Iran along with world news round-ups, analyses of issues and events, and special interest and cultural features. The longer show will also feature a womens segment, business and medical reports, and reports from correspondents covering news from Washington, D.C.
Strong coverage of what’s happening in Iran and whats happening around the world is one of the most important things America can do for the Iranian people. These five hours will effectively cover prime time, said BBG chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. By placing expansion of TV to Iran in the supplemental, the Bush White House and Congress demonstrated its support for what international broadcasting is doing in that part of the world.
The supplemental appropriation includes $7.3 million for the BBG to support expansion of programming to the broader Middle East, including expanding Arabic-language Alhurra satellite television to Europe. The BBG continues to blanket Iran with 24/7 radio broadcasting by VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
21 May 2005
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is set to make cinema history; not just in the box office but in its use of cutting edge DI technology. Most impressive is the thousands of hours of work put in by the ILM team to create a movie that sets a new benchmark in film.
Fred Myers, ILMs Principal Engineer, said, We built a very efficient digital pipeline for Episode III which allowed us to get Georges vision for the project up on the screen in an interactive way. The technical scope of Episode III meant we couldnt afford the delays of software/proxy based rendered color correction, given the scale of editorial and the reality of so many complicated CG shots delivering in the final weeks of the post production schedule.
Lucasfilm is all about innovation and pushing boundaries and the guys at Quantel share our vision. Myers continued, On Episode III, iQ played a key workflow role in mastering the movie and creating the digital intermediate. It was the final stop in building the reels to assemble the film out and record the digital cinema master. It was used to create the opticals the digital wipes and dissolve transitions between the scenes, as well as to slot in last minute updates. All the HD and 444 deliverables, the theatrical trailers and many screening reels were run through iQ.
We first used iQ on Episode II as a colour grading hub in its very early form. The thing we really liked was being able to work with the actual 10bit RGB frames up on the screen. If we made changes while on the system, we could export them and move on, knowing the image integrity was maintained. As the iQ toolset grew we used it on more and more projects including restoration of THX1138 and the original Star Wars Trilogy, concluded Myers.
“Having worked with Quantel so successfully on Episode II, the logical thing for us was to purchase an iQ specifically for Episode III,” said Star Wars Producer, Rick McCallum. Quantel is fantastic to work with, and they are there in an instant when you need support. With something as complex as Episode III we couldnt afford to screw around. Before we could get a call back from the competition, Quantel was in-house with something that actually worked. Their iQ is a liberating technology for film-makers.
Quantel Marketing Manager Mark Horton said, The more you watch of Episode III the more you appreciate what a ground breaking movie it is. The great thing about ILM has always been that they push the industry forward. Were proud to have played a part in helping them make yet more cinema history.
At NAB 2005, Quantel launched the Newsbox range of pre-packaged integrated news production systems. The pre-packaged approach of Newsbox ensures that server-based production need no longer be regarded as a major systems purchase. Newsbox is a convenient, self-contained unit that comes with all that is needed to ingest material, view rushes, choose shots, edit stories, review finished pieces and play them out to air. Its common progressive user interface and toolset are exactly the same as all the sQ systems from Quantel that are powering the news operations of some of the worlds greatest broadcasters. New ingest and playout automation from Quantel completes the Newsbox package, making it in effect the worlds first self-automating server. The Newsbox difference comes in the packaging of the server, which has been re-engineered to bring a new level of compactness and affordability a complete and very powerful, one-stop news shop from just $199K. Now every broadcaster, no matter what their market size, can benefit from the magic of the Quantel news workflow. A complete Newsbox system can fit into two 24 inch flightcases and can be up and running on location in a couple of minutes.
21 May 2005
Five Institutional and three new Affiliate members were approved for admission to the ABU by the Administrative Council at its half-yearly meeting in Islamabad.
The Institutional members are the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Prix Jeunesse, the World DAB Forum, the Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) Consortium and the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB).
These are the first Institutional members to be admitted to the ABU following the approval of changes to the ABU Statutes by the Almaty General Assembly last year.
The Institutional membership category is designed for organisations with which the ABU seeks closer relationships through reciprocal membership arrangements. Admission is by the invitation of the Administrative Council.
The three new Affiliate memberships approved were National Geographic Venture, USA; Multi Carrier (Mauritius) Ltd; and Network 1 Pvt Ltd, India.
The Administrative Council also agreed to have the applications from four broadcasters for Additional Full and Associate membership submitted to the Full members for balloting.
The ABU now has 148 members in 55 countries and special administrative regions.
The 78th Administrative Council meeting was hosted by PTV Pakistan. The Council accepted an invitation from Radio Television Maldives to hold next years half-yearly meeting in the Maldives.
