6 January 2009
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President Jeffrey Gedmin has called the decision by the government of Azerbaijan to take foreign broadcasters off the air on 30 December “a sad day for the Azeri people, who will now find themselves without access to free and independent media.” The OSCE calls the move a “serious step backwards” for Azerbaijan and the US State Department says the decision “retards democratic reform in Azerbaijan.”
In Baku, the Azeri National TV-Radio Council formally ruled to ban all international broadcasters, including RFE/RL, VoA and BBC, from the airwaves effective 1 January. The move essentially guarantees a monopoly for state-controlled media and prevents any independent news broadcasts from reaching the Azeri people.
Gedmin rejected Azerbaijan’s suggestion that RFE/RL can broadcast effectively on alternatives to FM frequencies such as Internet radio or short wave. “Losing our FM frequency means losing 90 per cent of our audience,” he said. “Nevertheless, we will find ways to reach our listeners. Our mission of bringing uncensored news and information to the Azeri people is now more important than ever.”
Since the announcement two months ago that authorities were considering this move, Azeri advocates of press freedom have joined the US, EU, OSCE, and international media watchdog groups in condemnation of the regime’s efforts at stopping the free exchange of information in Azerbaijan.
16 December 2008
Radio and TV Martí launched this week a newly redesigned version of its Spanish language Web site, www.martinoticias.com, giving users a full spectrum of media offerings including live streaming radio and television programming.
The site features more Web stories, including audio and video, allowing up to nine stories to be viewed and giving users a better idea of the full scope of the news from Cuba, Latin America and the rest of the world.
The site incorporates RSS feeds, and in the near future, will provide visitors the ability to subscribe to receive e-mails of news stories in their areas of interest.
“For anyone who wants to know what’s going in Cuba today, this is the place to come,” said Pedro Roig, director of the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí. “We want to enhance our Internet and digital media capacity and make it a priority. Our goal is to reach as many as possible, which is very difficult in Cuba.”
Other features of the site include a 24-hour news ticker, offering the latest headlines, as well as special feature news stories.
According to Roig, Radio and TV Martí hope to further augment its Internet presence, possibly with a presence on social media sites YouTube and Facebook.
15 December 2008
Wohler Technologies Inc. today announced that mobile production company Game Creek Video has installed VMDA-SUM8 analog/digital summing audio monitors in the company’s new Liberty HD two-truck mobile television production unit. Rolled out in August, just in time for the college football season on ESPN/ABC, Liberty HD relies on six VMDA-SUM8 units for flexible monitoring and mixing of intercom aux inputs.
“We’ve always worked with Wohler audio monitoring products, and we selected the VMDA-SUM8 for Liberty because it provides eight channels where most systems offer just four or six,” said Jason Taubman, vice president of design and engineering at Game Creek Video. “The summed output feature on the VMDA-SUM8 also was a major factor in our purchase decision, as it offers operators the convenience of creating a small eight-channel mix down into one headset. As a result, production staff can put that audio in their ears rather than in front of them.”
Ideal for mobile production applications, Wohler’s VMDA-SUM8 analog/digital summing audio monitor provides self-powered stereo or mono monitoring in a 1U rack size and depth of only 4.5 inches. A total of eight mono or four stereo channels may be summed together and monitored from the two speakers on the front panel. The user may select either digital AES/EBU or standard analog audio input sources for each of the eight input channels to be monitored.
Liberty production staff typically use the VMDA-SUM8 for discrete sources such as IFB talkback, network returns, and producer and director hot mics. Eight volume controls on the front panel allow for separate adjustment of each channel in the summing mix, and a recessed trim pot on the front panel serves as a master volume control for all eight selected channels.
“We are constantly finding new ways to add convenience to our clients’ production work, and the VMDA-SUM8 offers a combination of functionality and audio-channel density that serves the mobile production market very well,” said Carl J. Dempsey, Wohler president and CEO. “Game Creek Video is a leader in this market and a longtime Wohler client, and we’re pleased to see the VMDA-SUM8 implemented in the company’s newest-generation mobile truck.”
Game Creek Video has also outfitted Liberty HD with additional models offered in Wohler’s wide range of solutions. A VM-2A is installed for utility analog audio monitoring in camera control, while an AMP1-DA/106 is used for analog and AES monitoring in audio control. The utilitarian standard VAMP2-SDA has been installed for SDI signal monitoring of transmission video with embedded audio. Rounding out the Wohler solutions for Liberty HD are cost efficient VMQ-4 units, which provide monitoring of four simultaneous discrete analog channels and are located at virtually every operator position that is a router destination for video and audio monitors.
5 December 2008
The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network has won two Emmy Awards
for its investigative reports, “401K Hidden Fees” and “Deadly Brew: The Human Toll of
Ethanol.” The awards, in recognition of excellence in business reporting, were announced
at the 6th Annual Emmy® Awards for Business & Financial Reporting in New York City.
The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION network received the Emmy award in the outstanding
investigative reporting of a business news story category for “401K Hidden Fees,” a half-hour
special exposing hidden charges that can skim off more than half of investment returns over a
lifetime of retirement plan saving. “401K Hidden Fees” was hosted by anchor Mike Schneider
and produced by Gary Matsumoto.
The BLOOMBERG TELEVISION special “Deadly Brew: The Human Toll of Ethanol” received the
Emmy award in the outstanding documentary on a business topic category. The half-hour
program, hosted by Mike Schneider and produced by Randy Martin, investigates abuses
endured by Brazils migrant workers who harvest sugar cane for ethanol production.
2 December 2008
The first delivery of the UK’s digital switchover (DSO) by transmission company Arqiva in the Border television region (southern Scotland/northern England) has been supported by engineering and infrastructure solutions supplied by VT Communications.
In 2007 VT Communications was awarded a contract by Arqiva to install low power digital terrestrial TV (DTT) transmitter cabins at television relay stations throughout the UK as part of the DSO programme. These relay cabins facilitate the delivery of DSO to mainly rural areas, complementing the coverage from the UKs main TV transmitting stations, so are a critical part of the overall programme.
Border has two main transmitting stations (Selkirk and Caldbeck), plus Kendal and Douglas. Three have one or more associated low power relay stations. Fifty percent of television viewers in the Selkirk area rely on the relay stations to provide the digital coverage to these rural areas. In September, VT Communications successfully completed the installation of cabins at ten of the eleven relay sites associated with the Selkirk main TV station. The Selkirk relay chain was the first within the Border region to complete DSO on 20th November 2008.
Bryan Coombes, Director of Broadcast at VT Communications, said: “VT Communications goes beyond the delivery of traditional broadcast services. From the design, build and systems integration of bespoke projects like this, to working in partnership with customers to plan for the future, we not limited by the boundaries of existing processes, technologies or knowledge. Our team surveyed almost 250 sites and installed 25 cabins at sites in both the Border region and now West Country. However, this is only the beginning; we still have many more installations and four years to go!”
27 November 2008
Pharos is establishing a new software development facility at the famous ‘Pie Factory’ in Salford Quays, Manchester. It will be managed by software architect Brendon Abbott who has worked with Pharos for seven years, most recently on projects for MTV, BBC World Service, Channel 4, Ascent Media and HBO Singapore.
“The new office will add a brand new team to work alongside our established software development infrastructure in Reading,” explains Pharos spokesman Russell Grute. “Crucially, it will be close to the operations at Media City where many new workflows in acquisition, production, post-production and publishing are sure to be pioneered. The whole site is due to be multiformat with HD production right through to publishing for new media; certainly much more than conventional television. We have been working for over 10 years developing and refining the Mediator platform, listening to next-generation operators and engineers, to deliver desktop solutions that better manage workflow for multiformat content”.
The Pie Factory is a joint venture between Peel Media (a subsidiary of Peel Holdings whose assets include The Trafford Centre and Liverpool John Lennon Airport) and Sumners, the North West’s largest post-production facility. Other media-centric companies sharing the location include Lemon Casting, Purplecrew, Visual Impact and Just Shoots.
Salford Quays became one of the first and largest urban regeneration projects in Britain following the closure of the dockyards in 1982. It is being developed in partnership by the Central Salford Urban Regeneration Company, Peel Holdings and Salford City Council. Main tenant after initial completion will be the BBC.
Pharos delivers better workflow management to broadcasters and service-providers in television, radio, IPTV and telecommunications. Pharos solutions offer a next-generation platform to manage multiformat content and enable rapid expansion in playout, presentation and publishing. Founded in 1997, Pharos has continually developed its unique Mediator, Playtime and Pilot desktop broadcast management solutions. Pharos workflow offers greater efficiency for library management, ingest, quality-control, storage management, archiving, transcoding, post-production and playout. Pharos software architecture, integration and support services enable disparate broadcast and IT processes to be unified across the enterprise.
