27 January 2009
Russia Today is spreading its network of correspondent bureaux and is the first of Russian and international TV channels to open a correspondent bureau in South Ossetia.
Russia Todays bureau is located in Tskhinval. Its journalists have mobile satellite equipment, BGAN at their disposal to organise live broadcasting and feeds. It provides an opportunity to efficiently put news on air and broadcast live reports from South Ossetia and neighbouring republics: North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan.
The chief of the bureau is Naida Azizova, a journalist with extensive professional experience.. For more than a year Naida has been working as a military correspondent for Russia Today. Naida speaks English, Arabic, Hebrew, French and Persian.
It was decided to open Russia Todays bureau in South Ossetia soon after military action ended in the region.
Russia Today provided the most extensive coverage by an international TV station of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict in August of 2008 on air, becoming the main source of information about the situation in South Ossetia for viewers and media across the world. It was possible to see the biggest world broadcasters such as CNN and others use Russia Todays video footage on air. Russia Todays correspondents provided interviews and commentaries for the BBC World Service and many other media.
During the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict Russia Today was the fourth Most Viewed among Global Partners on You Tube. In comparison the BÂÑ was at 21 for the same period.
At present Russia Today and Russia Al-Yaums correspondent offices and bureaux are situated in Washington, London, Dehli, Paris, Damascus, Baghdad and Jerusalem and other cities around the world.
19 January 2009
WRN, the UK-based television and radio transmission company, is providing comprehensive satellite uplink and capacity and EPG services for Zee Radio, the newest radio station on the Sky Digital platform.
ZEE Radio is London’s all-Bollywood music station that will now be available nationally to all Sky viewers. The station, which is a part of ZEE Network UK, currently broadcasts in Greater London on 558AM (between 7am and 1pm) and on DAB digital radio and also across UK online at www.zeeradio.com.
Zee Radio will be available on Sky 0215 and WRN is also supplying EPG data compilation and submission services as part of the launch. ZEE Radio will join its TV family that consists of ZEE TV, ZEE Muzic, ZEE Cinema, ZEE Gujarati and Alpha ETC Punjabi, on the Sky platform.
Sangraam Marathe, Content Head, ZEE Radio said: “We are continuously reviewing our strategies to make ZEE Radio available to as many listeners as possible. After a fantastic first year on air in London, we now are going national by launching on Sky Digital, the home to our other ZEE TV channels.”
In February ZEE Radio celebrates its first broadcasting year on-air.
Sophie Wilson, Head of Sales and Business Development at WRN, says: “WRN is proud to have facilitated the launch of Zee Radio onto Sky Digital and we look forward to continuing to help them expand their reach across multiple digital platforms.”
WRN is able to supply satellite uplink and capacity and EPG services for Sky and guide clients through the entire process of launching on the platform.
19 January 2009
The Interactive Group, one of Italys leading post production companies, has purchased two eQ systems from Quantel.
When time is of the essence and the project demands the highest quality and reliability, then the only solution is Quantel, explains Interactive Romas Art Director, Elena Chiesa.
The eQs are an important step forward in speeding up all our post production processes. Since we opened for business in 2000, we have built our reputation on creativity and quality while offering a level of client service that is second to none, Chiesa continues.
Using other approaches, you waste a lot of time (and we all know time is money!) bouncing the media between several suites to carry out different parts of the post production process, both within and outside of the facility, explains Chiesa.
With the eQ, its perfectly viable to create the whole job on the system, from online editing to imported vfx, integrating titles, color correction, conforming, finishing and multi-format deliverables for every conceivable need. This multiple capability, combined with its incredible speed, means we can carry out the whole project in front of the client and make any required changes instantly as the job progresses, all without the use of any proxies.
It also means the client doesnt get any nasty surprises in the finishing sessions! eQ is the ultimate one-stop shop for all our post production requirements, Chiesa concludes.
19 January 2009
Darby Sanchez has been named CEO of GlobeCast Asia, based in Singapore.
Based in Singapore, Darby is responsible for all of the GlobeCast Groups activities in Asia, a role which she previously occupied from 2003 to 2006.
She replaces David Justin, who, following the successful growth of the company’s Asian business, has been called back to corporate headquarters in Paris to work with CEO Christian Pinon on GlobeCast’s worldwide strategy.
Darby Sanchez has been with GlobeCast for a decade, serving most recently as Senior Vice President of Sales at GlobeCast Europe in Paris as well as Vice President, Latin American Sales at GlobeCast America. Prior to joining GlobeCast, Darby was with L3 Communications and General Instrument Corporation.
12 January 2009
The International News Safety Institute has appealed to all parties involved in war and other conflicts to respect the independence and safety of journalists as the new year got off to one of its bloodiest beginnings ever for the world’s news media.
Warfare and other unrest claimed the lives of five journalists in the first eight days of 2009, the worst start to a new year since INSI began keeping records in 2003. More than 100 news media staff died in 2008.
There was significant evidence of journalists being targeted to silence their work.
“This is a dismaying start to the new year,” said INSI Director Rodney Pinder. “The deliberate targeting of journalists in war or peacetime is a crime and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
“Free societies cannot exist without press freedom and there is no press freedom where journalists are being killed because of their work.”
The first victim, a Somali radio reporter, fell on 1 January. Radio Shabelle correspondent Hassan Mayow Hassan was shot by a member of a pro-government militia in Afgooye, 30 km south of Mogadishu.
Hassan was with other journalists covering clashes between Islamist militants and armed groups that support the federal transitional government. When Hassan identified himself as a journalist a militant shot him twice in the head.
The most recent victim, on 8 January, was Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor in chief of the Sunday Leader and one of South Asia’s most prominent press freedom campaigners.
Gunmen ambushed his car as he drove to work, used crowbars to smash the windows and opened fire at close range.
Lasantha was the 16th member of the news media slain in Sri Lanka over the past three years as war rages between the government an the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
A delegation to Sri Lanka from the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission, which included INSI, reported that press freedom had deteriorated sharply over the previous year, marked by murders, attacks, abductions, intimidation and harassment of journalists.
It noted the authorities had taken little or no action over the killings even where there was evidence of identity of the perpetrators.
On 4 January, a suicide bomber in Pakistan killed at least seven people, including two journalists, Mohammad Imran and Tahir Awan of local dailies Eitedal and Apna Akhbar. The bomber struck when police, observed by journalists, were examining evidence of an earlier small explosion.
Two days later, a Palestinian cameraman, Basel Faraj, died of his wounds after being hit in an Israeli air strike in Gaza. Faraj, who worked for the Algerian TV network ENTV and the Palestine Broadcast Production Company, was filming with two reporters and another cameraman who were wounded.
The Palestine Journalists Syndicate (PJS) says Israeli forces have targeted vehicles and journalists clearly identified as such with “Press” or “TV” markings.
Two leading journalist support groups, The International Federation of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists, both INSI members, have accused the Israeli military of targeting Palestinian news media in the Gaza Strip while maintaining a ban on foreign journalists from entering the territory.
The
CPJ, quoting regional news agencies, said Israeli forces on Monday fired two missiles into the offices of the Hamas-affiliated Al-Risala news weekly and a few minutes later bombed al-Rantisi printers, a commercial firm which publishes Al-Risala.
The IFJ said each day brought “more cynical violations of press freedom and the rights of journalists trying desperately to cover events unfolding in Gaza”.
INSI urges all warring parties to respect in letter and spirit UN Security Council Resolution 1738 of 2006 which demands an end to attacks on journalists in armed conflict.
“All parties in situations of armed conflict were urged to respect the professional independence and rights of journalists, media professionals and associated personnel as civilians,” the resolution says.
INSI’s Killing The Messenger tracker of news media casualties around the world counts at least 1,375 dead in the 12 years since 1996.
12 January 2009
Pharos announces the completion of a major contract for BBC World Service. In the role of prime contractor, Pharos was selected to supply content management and automation for 68 channels of radio programming together with automation for live and time-shifted content playout.
Central to the project is a Pharos Mediator content management platform which has been chosen to integrate the network’s ingest, media workflow, transfer management, router control and playout. Mediator includes a task-specific web-based user interface which guides operators and supervisors through the workflow and allows search and browse of any material from their desktop. World Service workflows are prioritised and resources managed by Mediator based on the demands of an integrated programme schedule. A total of 32 channels are configured as complete playout-capable subsystems, each safeguarded by a fully mirrored channel.
“This latest contract was awarded after a lengthy OJEC process,” comments Nigel Fry Head of Transmission & Distribution at BBC World Service. “A full audit was conducted which Pharos passed with high recommendations. Pharos was then commissioned to look at our current operation and to co-operate with staff in creating an outline requirement for a future playout and routing infrastructure to cover the entire World Service operation. These requirements included flexible delivery of material to multiple platforms for both traditional linear broadcasting and new on-demand services. Reliability was obviously essential so the new playout infrastructure is protected by full redundancy. The overall system enables us to respond more quickly to late-breaking editorial changes and is scalable to meet changing demand.”
“Our Project Services team worked closely with the BBC to determine the system acceptance criteria,” adds Pharos Technical Director Spencer Rodd. “The new system is based on PC workstations running standard web browsers. Where staff previously interacted with individual audio elements manually, content management and switching are now automatically driven by the scheduling system. As material becomes ready for transmission, it is made available to Pharos Playtime automation for secure playout in conjunction with live and scheduled programmes switched from studios and other sources. All workflow states are tracked on-screen and used to generate reports as well as updating the material preparation status.”
Pharos has worked with BBC World Service for over 10 years, helping deliver new systems that maximise efficiency and allow prompt response to the rapidly developing media marketplace. Newly-developed features in this latest installation include a node-based online storage subsystem for content management plus a high-performance audio server. Router control was also a key challenge with thousands of on-demand sources and destinations. The audio routing system consists of dual Lawo Nova73 routers scalable up to 8,192 mono channels.
