The DPP becomes an independent organisation

4 October 2022

The DPP becomes an independent organisation

Building on its success as a membership organisation, the DPP has announced plans to become fully self-sufficient. The founding shareholder members, BBC, ITV and C4 will relinquish their Board positions and revert to normal DPP membership.

This change in control acknowledges the evolution of the DPP since it was founded in 2015. It has fulfilled its original purpose of helping to accelerate the transition of the media industry to file-based digital working, and has now become an international membership organisation providing strategic insight and a huge range of events, as well as facilitating technical collaboration.

To support this strategy, the Board has appointed two new Non-Executive Directors. The first is Sadie Groom, Founder and CEO of Bubble, a global PR, Events and Marketing Agency, and also the Founder of Rise – a group for gender diversity in media technology. The second is Danny Meaney, Founder and CEO of UP Ventures Group.

Other DPP Board members will be existing Non-Executive Director, Emma Springham, CMO of TSB Bank; DPP CEO Mark Harrison; DPP CTO Rowan de Pomerai; and DPP COO Kelvin Jones. The Board will continue to be Chaired by Helen Stevens, Operations Officer for Content & Delivery at ITV through the transition before a new Chair is confirmed later this year.

“The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 are proud of the contribution they have made to the media and entertainment industry by helping to found and guide the DPP” says Helen Stevens. “Now is the moment for the DPP to fully explore its potential as a global membership organisation that can deliver value to any company that works with audio visual content.”

“We feel privileged that each day we get to work with an incredible range of companies from across the whole media supply chain, and from around the world,” added Mark Harrison. “It is their input that enables us to keep evolving and refining our work so that we meet our aim of being a valued, independent, and expert resource in a constantly changing market.”

The DPP is currently delivering major insight work around the future of news production, the role of standards, innovation in localisation, and how to build more effective relationships between customers and suppliers. Its Leaders’ Briefing conference will take place in London on 16-17 November; and it will hold further conferences in Berlin in March 2023 and New York in June 2023.

[Source: The DPP press release 3 October 2022]

NHK WORLD-JAPAN’s focus in October is Tochigi

29 September 2022

NHK WORLD-JAPAN’s focus in October is Tochigi

Tochigi: Nature’s Beauty Meets Treasures of History

The Professionals

Lacquer Is My Life: Noritake Sato, Lacquerer

Join us as we observe lacquer artisan Noritake Sato apply the age-old craft so associated with Japan to the restoration of the intricate decorative façade of the Toshogu Shrine World Heritage site in Nikko.

October 15 Sat.
1:10/7:10/13:10/19:10(UTC)

Journeys in Japan

Ashio: Memory of the Forest

Australian-born potter Euan Craig visits Ashio in Tochigi Prefecture, once the site of one of Japan’s largest copper-mining operations, to see how the forests and waters of the area have been restored after being scarred by pollution from the mine.

October 18 Tue.
0:30/5:30/10:30/15:30/21:30 (UTC)

DESIGN TALKS plus

Design Hunting in TOCHIGI

Join us on a journey through Tochigi Prefecture, where we explore handcrafting traditions and the efforts of artisans to mine the past for motifs and techniques while adding a fresh spin to age-old designs.

October 27 Thu.

1:30/6:30/12:30/17:30/22:30 (UTC)

SNOW COUNTRY

Kawabata Yasunari’s Snow Country, the first Japanese literary work to win a Nobel Prize, has drawn praise around the world. Famous for its spare writing and depiction of the doomed love between a Tokyo dilettante and a local geisha, the story unfolds against a backdrop of winter scenery at a rural hot-spring resort.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Kawabata’s death, NHK has produced a dramatization that aims to bring new life to this classic of Japanese, and world, literature.

Part One October 2 Sun.
Part Two October 9 Sun.0:10/6:10/12:10/18:10(UTC)

Climbing Japan

Fall Colors in Oku-Nikko: Mt. Nyoho

Autumn in Oku-Nikko. Join us on a climb to the summit of Mt. Nyoho (2,483m). The trail begins with 1,445 steps, followed by a long and difficult path with many ups and downs.

October 12 Wed.
0:30/5:30/10:30/15:30/21:30 (UTC)

Wonderful Fungi

As scientists delve ever deeper into the life cycles of fungi, we take a closer look at these fascinating organisms. Join us as we view images of fungal life on a microscopic level, captured using special camera techniques. Our guides are actor and outdoor enthusiast Oshima Yuko and nature photographer Osaku Koichi, who scour the forests of Tochigi Prefecture for fungi. A famous chef also makes an appearance and cooks up some rare mushrooms in this feast of a program.

October 19 Wed.
0:30/5:30/10:30/15:30/21:30 (UTC)

Broadcast times are subject to change

[Source: NHK WORLD press release]

Arqiva and MediaKind launch Arqplex head-end service

12 September 2022

New headend-as-a-service simplifies content processing for broadcast and OTT networks

Arqiva and MediaKind have announced the next stage of their pioneering partnership with the launch of Arqplex, a new hybrid content processing service that is set to transform headend services for broadcast and OTT networks.

The fully managed headend-as-a-service has been designed and developed for a broad range of broadcasters and network or platform operators, including leading global, regional, and national broadcasters and regional cable and satellite network operators.

The Arqplex service provides secure and reliable content aggregation, encoding, multiplexing and packaging for content distribution and will unify OTT and broadcast operations, reducing complexity, increasing efficiency and delivering rapid speed to market for customers.

About Arqplex

Arqplex is underpinned by decades of experience in broadcast and broadband services for tier-one service providers. The partnership combines MediaKind’s cloud-native multiplexing, encoding, and packaging headend media processing technology delivering globally renowned content quality and distribution reliability with Arqiva’s expertise in systems integration, connectivity, and managed services. Arqiva’s operational teams fully manage and monitor the service, bringing real economies of scale to headend operations.

Through MediaKind’s cloud-native headend software, Arqplex will deliver broadcast-grade service levels to OTT operations. The service utilises Arqiva’s global content network to collect content from any source, whether satellite, fibre, cloud, or the internet. It also includes options to manage ad insertion and catch-up functionality for customers.

The highly scalable and flexible Arqplex service is built on a cloud-based subscription model, removing the need for large capex investment in the latest technology advances. Customers can have technology upgrades and patches securely applied as soon as they are available, removing the need to source and install updates.

Media service providers can use AWS public cloud, an alternative cloud provider or Arqiva’s UK-based datacentres. Where customers opt for cloud processing, operations can be sited in the region most appropriate for their services. The Arqplex service also integrates seamlessly with other products across the Arqiva portfolio.

The existing Arqplex roadmap will be extended further, with Arqiva and MediaKind integrating a range of partners to expand the service’s capabilities. Arqiva has already begun the process of migrating existing headend customers to the new headend-as-a-service offering.

Arqplex will radically simplify the headend operations of broadcast and OTT operators, enabling them to focus on growth. The ways in which content is consumed, and the content itself, have become increasingly diverse in recent years. At Arqiva, we’re embracing cloud technology to remove hassle and empower agility for our customers, so that they can meet the needs of their consumers. We’ve already begun the process of migrating existing headend customers to the new headend-as-a-service offering. We’re excited to be leveraging our partnership with MediaKind once more, building on our cloud-migration proposition.

Shuja Khan, Chief Executive Officer, Arqiva

NHK WORLD Monthly Focus: China targets seabed supremacy

8 September 2022

NHK WORLD Monthly Focus: China targets seabed supremacy

In its ‘Monthly Focus’ for September NHK WORLD reports on the following:

Tracking China’s Mystery Ships: The Race for Seabed Supremacy

The international competition for resources has reached the depths of the seas. China is looking to earth’s “last frontier”—the deep ocean floor—for oil and natural gas, and for minerals used in smartphones and electric vehicles. In this documentary, NHK analyzes China’s activities using both maritime and satellite data.

The crisis in Ukraine has sharpened the need for countries to find stable energy supplies. The ocean floor may ultimately determine the future of security and the global economy.

September 10 Sat. 15:10/22:10

September 11 Sun. 5:10/10:10

September 12 Mon. 19:00 (UTC)

Momo and the Seven Papagenos

Momo gets on well enough with her parents, and finds her boyfriend acceptable and her job only mildly annoying. This is not enough to prevent her from having thoughts of death, however. Momo thus begins a series of encounters with people she has connected with on social media who have found reasons to go on living despite suicidal thoughts. These Papagenos, named after the character in the opera “The Magic Flute,” provide her with ideas on what makes life worthwhile.

September 10 Sat.

1:00/7:00/13:00/18:00 (UTC)

DOSUKOI Sumo Salon First-Time Title Winners

DOSUKOI Sumo Salon delves deep into Japan’s traditional sport using newly acquired data. In this episode we look at first-time title winners. Which of the six annual tournaments is most likely to have a newly minted title winner? How many tournaments does it take a wrestler new to the top division to win his first title, typically? What changes do wrestlers make after they take their first title? We go behind the scenes to answer these questions and more!

September 3 Sat.

0:10/6:10/12:10/18:10 (UTC)

Japanology Plus

Fresh insights into Japan. Stories behind Japanese life and culture through the eyes of Peter Barakan, a 45-year resident and watcher of Japan.

Thursdays

2:30/7:30/13:30/19:30 (UTC)

[Source: NHK WORLD press release]

NHK WORLD-JAPAN debuts on Freeview UK

6 September 2022

NHK WORLD-JAPAN debuts on Freeview UK

NHK WORLD-JAPAN launches on Freeview channel 271 via the Channelbox platform.

NHK WORLD-JAPAN, the international English-language channel from Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, delivers to the world the latest information about Japan and Asia. This channel reaches over 380 million households in 160 countries and regions via local satellite and cable TV providers.

NHK WORLD-JAPAN is available in the UK on Sky and Freesat and now became available also on Freeview, channel 271 bolstering the Channelbox news category which includes Bloomberg, Euronews, France24, TVP World and many other international news channels.

“NHK is a window to Japan and Asia and this TV channel is a perfect addition to the Channelbox and Freeview lineup of news channels”, said Tanya Kronfli, Head of Channelbox content and business development.

Channelbox is a multi-channel platform available on connected Freeview, channel 271, and Channelbox mobile applications.

Channelbox is free-to-air and has over 60 TV channels including Euronews, Fashion TV, NTD, France24, Fuel and many others.

France 24 | September programme highlights

5 September 2022

France 24 | September programme highlights

France 24 has announced the highlights of its September output across the English-language service

Beyond the News | Reporters

Central Africa, under Russian Influence | September 10 | 1710 GMT

As the world watches the war in Ukraine, Russians are carrying out another fight, in Africa. Since 2017, the mercenaries of the Wagner Group, a Russian secret army have set up their base in the Central African Republic. They protect the regime in exchange for mineral resources and deploy aggressive propaganda to cover up the massacres, rapes and torture they are accused of.

Taking advantage of France’s loss of influence in its former colony, torn apart by decades of a deadly civil war, Russia has turned the country into the laboratory of a new information war. Using education, cinema, and even vodka.

France, by France 24 |

Champollion: The Man who Cracked Hieroglyphics | 9 September |1545 GMT

On 14 September 1822, Jean-François Champollion became the first Egyptologist in the world to crack the mystery of hieroglyphics. With support from his brother, he led the way in the study of ancient Egypt, lifting the veil on 1,500 years of history. In this special edition, “France in Focus” travels to Vif, in Isère, to follow in the footsteps of the “child prodigy” who would become the first head of the Louvre’s department of Egyptian antiquities.