Download the free DS app and be the fi rst to read the latest issue on your mobile devices. RISING STARS Rajeev and Elan Dassani on the Jinn controversy NAYLA AL KHAJA Discusses her new project PLUS NEWS OPINION INTERVIEWS TECHNOLOGY COMMUNIT Y TRENDS EVENTS PRODUCTS SPOTLIGHT National Theatre Live in Dubai PRODUCER, SCRIPTWRITER, ACTIVIST, CHANGE AGENT & ARAB CINEMA PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR Vol. 21 Issue 07 July 2019 An ITP Media Group Publication oad the app the pp eadd ththhee ssuuee oon obobbiilile . PRO SCRIPTW AC CHANGE & ARAB C PERSO OF TH Vol. dia Group Publication NG STARS ev and Elan sani on the controversy YLA KHAJA usses her project SP Natio L IN FOCUS Trends in audio consoleswww.robe.cz REVOLUTIONIZING POWER & CONTROL THE NEW AUTOMATED FOLLOWSPOT SYSTEM FOR THEATRES AND TV STUDIOSCONTENTS JULY 2019 7 UPDATE CINÉPOLIS ENTERS SAUDI ARABIA, PANASONIC’S NEW MIRRORLESS CAMERA, CHANNEL 2 GROUP MOVES INDIAN COURT TO STOP ICC WORLD CUP PIRACY, MBC’S SHAHID GETS 27 MILLION MONTHLY VISITORS, AMAZON PRIME LAUNCHES IN UAE, FRENCH COURT RULES FOR ARABSAT, BENQ PROJECTORS STAY ON TOP OF THE MARKET, NETFLIX’S ‘JINN’ ANGERS JORDANIAN OF- FICIALS, OSN AXES PEHLA AND CRICKET CHANNELS, THE FIRST CINEMA FOR REFUGEE KIDS OPENS IN JORDAN 18 EDITOR’S COLUMN SUMMER OF CONTENT 25 IN THE CLOUD THE NEW PLATFORMS FOR MANAGING MEDIA ASSETS 50 5 MINUTES WITH THE UAE’S FIRST WOMAN FILMMAKER, NAYLA AL KHAJA 16 ONWARDS AND UPWARDS Mohamed Hefzi holds forth on his Cannes-bowing fi lms, upcoming series, supporting indie cinema and his plans to makeover the Cairo Film Festival. 21 IN THE SPOTLIGHT National Theatre Live’s technical advisor discusses the challenges of broadcasting live theatre. 13 JINN’S OUT! In conversation with Rajeev and Elan Dassani, co-executive producers of the breakthrough Arabic series streaming on Netfl ix. 31 SPECIAL REPORT: AUDIO CONSOLES Virtualised products are transforming traditional audio production roles. Digital Studio speaks to leading industry experts to fi nd out more. 16 13 32 25 42 21 31 www.digitalstudiome.comJULY 2019 / 3 SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE WWW.ITP.COM /SUBSCRIPTIONS WWWWWWW W.W.W.W.W..WW ITITII P.COM/SUBSCR IPTIONS DON’T MISS AN ISSUE! CH-1CH-2 Published by and © 2019 ITP MEDIA GROUP FZ-LLC MEDIA PO Box 500024, Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 4 444 3000 Web: www.itp.com Offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London & Mumbai ITP MEDIA GROUP CEO Ali Akawi Managing Director Alex Reeve Group Publishing Director Ian Stokes Group Editorial Director Greg Wilson EDITORIAL Issue editor: Shalaka Paradkar Tel: +971 4 444 3419 email: shalaka.paradkar@os.itp.com ADVERTISING Sales Director Andrew Cover Tel: +971 4 444 3502 email: andrew.cover@itp.com Sales Manager Nikhil Mathur Tel: +971 4 444 3501 email: nikhil.mathur@itp.com ITP LIVE General Manager Ahmad Bashour Tel: +971 4 444 3549 email: ahmad.bashour@itp.com PHOTOGRAPHY Cover Photography: Abdallah Sabry / Black Creative Studios Senior Photographers Efraim Evidor, Rajesh Raghav, Adel Rashid Staff Photographers Aasiya Jagadeesh, Fritz Asuro, Ajith Narendra, Yuliya Pertrovich, Jessica Samson PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION Group Production & Distribution Director Kyle Smith Production Manager Basel Al Kassem Production Co-ordinator Manoj Mahadevan Senior Image Editor Emmalyn Robles CIRCULATION Head of Circulation Vanessa D’souza Circulation Executive Loreta Regencia MARKETING Director of Awards & Marketing Daniel Fewtrell Events Manager Teri Dunstan ITP GROUP CEO Ali Akawi CFO Toby Jay Spencer-Davies Subscribe online at www.itp.com/subscriptions The publishers regret that they cannot accept liability for error or omissions contained in this publication, however caused. The opinions and views contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publishers. Readers are advised to seek specialist advice before acting on information contained in this publication which is provided for general use and may not be appropriate for the reader’s particular circumstances. The ownership of trademarks is acknowledged. No part of this publication or any part of the contents thereof may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers in writing. An exemption is hereby granted for extracts used for the purpose of fair review. www.digitalstudiome.com4 / JULY 2019NEWS UPDATE The world’s fourth-largest exhibition circuit, Cinépolis, has announced the locations of six new movie theatres in Saudi Arabia. To be rolled out across the Kingdom over the next two years, the fi rst is due to open in Lulu Mall, Dammam, at the end of this year, four are scheduled for 2020 and the sixth for 2021. The new openings will be located in Lulu Mall in Dammam, Al Hokair Time in Jazan, Obhour Mall in Jeddah, Cordoba Mall in Riyadh, Najran City Center and Al Massarh Mall, with a total of 63 screens across all six locations. Cinépolis partnered with the Al Hokair Group for ex- pansion into KSA along with its regional partner, Al Tayer Group, in August 2018. Cinépolis plans to introduce theatre concepts such as Junior theatres for families, with colourful interiors and bean-bag seating. Luxury auditoriums will include 180° leather reclining seats with maitre d’ call buttons. Macro XE auditoriums also provide Dolby Atmos sound for a pow- erful audio experience, with the screen being triple the size of an ordinary cinema screen. 63 screens in six new locations coming up soon CINÉPOLIS INVESTS $300 MILLION IN SAUDI ARABIA EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT THIS MONTH IN THE TV AND FILM PRODUCTION INDUSTRY 07 UPDATE 18 EDITOR’S LETTER 20 COVER STORY 32 BROADCAST ASIA PREVIEW 40 SPECIAL REPORT Cinépolis plans to introduce high-end theatre concepts Xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx www.digitalstudiome.comJULY 2019 / 5 PANASONIC LAUNCHES LUMIX S1H FULL-FRAME MIRRORLESS CAMERA WORLD’S FIRST CAMERA THAT RECORDS UP TO 6K AT 24 FPS Panasonic has developed the Lumix S1H, a new digital single lens mir- rorless camera equipped with a full-frame image sensor. This is the world’s fi rst camera capable of video recording up to 6K at 24 frames per second, 5.9K at 30p, and 4K/ C4K 10bit at up to 60p. The Lumix S1H prototype was exhibited at last month’s Cine Gear Expo 2019. Combining professional-level video quality and high mobility of the mir- rorless camera, Panasonic will release the Lumix S1H to world markets in fall 2019. Kunihiro Tanikura, general manager – audio video department, Panasonic Marketing Middle East and Africa, said, “The Lumix S1H off ers a completely new experience in the world of image capturing and videography with its best-in-class specifi cations. It eff ectively blends the most advanced features in a compact and lightweight body mak- ing the camera an easy solution for even the most challenging shooting situations. Solidifying Panasonic’s ongoing commitment to innovation, we are confi dent that the Lumix S1H is another important contribution designed to foster the development of the visual imagery culture.” The Jennifer Aniston-Adam Sandler comic caper Murder Mystery was viewed by around 30.9 million accounts in its fi rst three days since premiering on June 14, Netfl ix has claimed. The numbers were shared by @Netfl ix- IsAJoke, the offi cial Twitter account for the company’s comedy projects. Of those 30 million, over 13 million ‘MURDER MYSTERY’ BREAKS NETFLIX RECORDS OVER 30 MILLION WATCHED THE JENNIFER ANISTON STARRER were from within the US and Canada while the other 17 million or so were from across the globe. Netfl ix typically does not share viewership numbers for its fi lm, except for rare instances. Murder Mystery features Aniston and Sandler as a married couple who get framed for the killing of a billionaire’s elderly uncle while on holiday in Europe. INDIAN COURT RESTRAINS ICC WORLD CUP 2019 PIRACY UAE-based Channel 2 Group Corporation, exclusive broadcast partner with the Interna- tional Cricket Council (ICC) won a signifi cant court battle in India. The Delhi High Court restrained over 60 websites and a few radio channels from broadcasting the ongoing ICC World Cup 2019 event that ends on July 14. The ICC Cricket World Cup is likely to be the world’s most-watched sporting event. Presiding judge Justice JR Midha also issued notice to the websites radio channels, internet and telecom service providers as well as the Centre seeking their replies before the next hearing on September 4. In a recent interim order, Justice JR Midha directed search engines like Google and telcos UAE-BASED CHANNEL 2 GROUP MOVED COURT TO STOP PIRACY The ICC World Cup attracts record audiences to take down, delete or block access to links to infringing websites where illegal audio cover- age was available. The UAE-based Channel 2 Group had moved the high court on concerns over “likely abuse” of its exclusive audio and intel- lectual property rights, as has happened in the past causing it considerable fi nancial losses. NEWS UPDATE www.digitalstudiome.com6 / JULY 2019FRENCH COURT REJECTS BEIN SPORTS’ LAWSUIT AGAINST ARABSAT ARABSAT WAS ACCUSED OF DISTRIBUTING BEOUTQ The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) has won a case levelled against them in a top French court by Qatar’s Pay-TV operator beIN Sports, the organisation said in a statement. The lawsuit was fi led in the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Parisin France by beIN, against beoutQ’s piracy of events whose rights belong to beIN. A press release issued by Arabsat accuses beIN of distributing fake news. “The Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) welcomes the Thursday, June 13, 2019, ruling issued by the President of Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris on the false allega- tions made by Qatar’s beIN Sports and its France-based branch. “Arabsat greatly values and respects the integrity of the French judiciary, which has skillfully and professionally addressed the allegations of Qatar’s Al Jazeera subsidiary, beIN Sports. The ju- diciary’s ruling rejected all allegations made by beIN against Arabsat, confi rm- ing Arabsat’s valid position regarding all the accusations and defamation attempts led by Qatar’s media group, which sought to link our organization to the dubious beoutQ piracy. “The French judiciary’s ruling, rejecting beIN’s lawsuit and allegations against Arabsat, has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt our organization’s valid position from day one, despite beIN Sports’ attempts to cast doubt on that position; its media smear cam- paign; and its relentless attempts to push bogus and misleading claims.” MBC Group’s Video On Demand (VOD) platform, Shahid, has witnessed a surge in viewers and subscribers in recent months. At the end of Ramadan, Shahid had 27 million unique monthly users, an increase of more than 23% compared to the same pe- riod last year. Content on Shahid’s platforms had more than 248 million views, a 46% increase compared to last year, and a 62% increase in Shahid Plus paid subscribers. During Ramadan, Shahid added 50 premi- um programmes to its off ering, including 28 exclusive to the platform, such as Al Hayba 3, Zelzal, Dof ’at Al Qahera, Weld Al Ghalaba and Khamsa Wa Nos. Johannes Larcher, managing director, MBC Digital commented: “We announced major changes to our strategy and level of investment in Shahid early in 2019, and our solid performance during the fi rst fi ve months of 2019, including Ramadan, proves that audiences across MENA love where we are taking our service. MBC’S SHAHID REPORTS 27 MILLION MONTHLY VISITORS THE VOD PLATFORM HAD 23% SURGE IN VIEWER NUMBERS FROM LAST YEAR “We have recently provided Shahid users outside MENA with the opportunity to access the most popular regular MBC programes, with the fi rst episode of every series available on the service for free, including recently added series and shows for Ramadan 2019,” Larcher said. “As a result, we’ve seen growth of 42% in unique users outside the MENA region by Arab diaspora audiences.’ Shahid is now the largest premium VOD service in the world outside China, the USA, and India. As a pure OTT player, Shahid has a market share of about 85% on premium VOD viewership across MENA. AMAZON PRIME LAUNCHES IN UAE Amazon has launched its Prime stream- ing service in the UAE, bringing residents premium delivery options, TV on demand and more. Members can access free next-day delivery and a 50 percent discount on Same Day Delivery on hundreds of thousands of products in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Aj- man and Al-Ain. At Dhs16 per month or Dhs140 per year, Prime UAE is comparably cheaper than the UK (£7.99 per month and £79 per year) and the US ($12.99 per month and $119 per year). The promotional off er until October 31 is just Dhs12 per month, with a 30-day free trial period with no obligation to buy. “We are thrilled to bring Prime to the UAE just one month after the launch of Amazon. ae,” said Ronaldo Mouchawar, vice president ALL CUSTOMERS CAN ALSO TRY PRIME FREE OF CHARGE FOR 30 DAYS of Amazon MENA. “We are working hard every day to expand our product range, give customers even greater value, and continually improve the shopping experience here in the UAE. With the addition of Prime, customers can now enjoy the most convenient way to shop, access unlimited and award-winning entertainment, and shop exclusive deals on Prime Day.” NEWS UPDATE www.digitalproductionme.comJULY 2019 / 7OBAMAS INK PODCAST DEAL WITH SPOTIFY Barack and Michelle Obama’s pro- duction company, Higher Ground, will partner with Spotify to produce podcasts, similar to its multi-year production deal with Netfl ix to pro- duce TV shows and fi lms. “President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are two of the world’s most important voices and it is a privilege to be working with them to identify and share stories that will inspire our global audience, which looks to Spotify for unique, breakthrough content,” Dawn Ostroff , Spotify’s chief content offi cer, said in a statement. The fi rst podcasts from Higher Ground Audio are likely to debut in 2020 at the earliest. The Obamas- produced podcasts will be exclusive to Spotify, the digital music service with millions of songs that has ac- quired several podcasting companies this year. The fi nancial terms of the deal were not disclosed. But similar to the Net- fl ix deal, the tie-up with Spotify was described as a multi-year agreement. More than 13 million people across the world used unauthorised channels to watch Anthony Joshua lose his heavy- weight world titles to Andy Ruiz Jr on June 1, claims piracy UK-based digital piracy watchdog MUSO. Nigeria, Joshua’s parents’ country of origin, had the biggest share of 2.35 mil- lion, while there were 921,994 unlicensed viewers in the UK. The worldwide total is the highest since MUSO began tracking boxing in 2017, beating the 9.98 million streams of the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder fi ght in December. The UK is third on the list of audiences by country behind Kenya (998,027), with 93% of the world- wide audience using YouTube. “We saw how popular the Fury v Wilder fi ght was across piracy networks,” said Muso’s chief executive and co-founder, Andy Chatterley. “The Joshua v Ruiz fi ght has been the largest unauthorised audience that we’ve JOSHUA-RUIZ BOUT CLOCKS UP 13 MILLION ILLEGAL STREAMS PIRACY FIRM MUSO SAYS 93 PER CENT OF UNLICENSED AUDIENCE WATCHED THE FIGHT ON YOUTUBE ever tracked across boxing and it’s stag- gering to see that 93% of the audience watched via YouTube. “The official pay-per-view audience figures have yet to be published, but this is a massive audience that’s being ignored,” Chatterley added. “This highly engaged audience offers up huge insight and perhaps, more importantly, signifi- cant commercial opportunity.” BENQ 4K PROJECTORS STAY ON TOP IN MARKET SHARE BenQ has retained its top spot in the 4K projector market in the Asia Pacific and the Middle East for five consecutive quarters. In the Middle East, the company has 65.54% market share in Saudi Arabia and 33.76% in UAE in Q1 2019, while leading the market in Japan, India and Thailand, during the same period. Manish Bakshi, managing director, BenQ Middle East & Turkey, said: “We are delighted that the first quarter of the year has been so good for us and we are proud to maintain a leading position for the fi fth consecu- tive quarter this time. Getting to the top of this segment in two major global markets is certainly an achievement we wish to RANKED FIRST FOR FIVE CONSECUTIVE QUARTERS IN ASIA PACIFIC AND MIDDLE EAST’S PROJECTOR MARKET BenQ CinePrime W5700 DLP projector 93% of the fi ght’s audience used YouTube celebrate and continue to improve upon. It is our continuous effort to better our previous performance by staying focused on innovat- ing offerings that provide a seamless blend between utility and technology.” Regions included in the market share data source by FutureSource 2019 Q1 report are Australia, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Indone- sia, Japan, Korea, Maghreb, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Rest Middle East, Rest of Africa, Rest of CIS, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, UAE and Vietnam. NEWS UPDATE www.digitalstudiome.com8 / JULY 2019Netfl ix‘s fi rst Arabic Original, Jinn, has off ended several government offi cials in Jordan, where the supernatural series is set. They condemned the teen drama for its “lewd scenes” with calls for censorship and removal of the series from Netfl ix Jordan. The much-anticipated series started streaming on Netfl ix on June 13. According to the AP, several government offi cials con- demned the series and “vowed to censor it for alleged ‘lewd scenes’ that purportedly violate public morals.” The Jordanian cy- ber-crimes unit is in the process of getting the show removed from Netfl ix, although no concrete action has been taken yet. Netfl ix responded to the controversy via its Middle East and North Africa Twitter account. The company hit back at criti- cism of Jinn as a “wave of bullying,” adding, “Our position has always been centered on the values of diversity and inclusiveness” (translated from Arabic). The Royal Film Commission (RFC) NETFLIX’S ARABIC ORIGINAL ‘JINN’ FACES BACKLASH IN JORDAN FOR “LEWD SCENES” SEVERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS CONDEMNED THE TEEN SUPERNATURAL SERIES also issued a statement via its Twitter and Facebook accounts. “It is important to clarify once again the role of the RFC. According to the law, by which the RFC was established, its role consists in encouraging local produc- tions, attracting foreign productions and facilitating production in general. There is no censorship prerogative amongst RFC’s tasks and duties,” the RFC statement said. Therefore, the RFC statement added, “we don’t look into the scripts. This doesn’t mean that we are shying away from our TELSTRA DELIVERS WORLD’S FIRST TRANS- PACIFIC REMOTE PRODUCTION Outside broadcast and studio solutions NEP Australia and Telstra Broadcast Services have delivered the world’s fi rst remote production across the Pacifi c. Telstra’s remote production and delivery of the International World Relay Champion- ships in Japan for ITN marked the fi rst use of its Distributed Production Network (DPN), a high performance media IP network, for a live sports event outside Australia. Working with Nexion, Telstra transported 30 HD live camera and graphics feeds from the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama to Tokyo, and then onwards to the NEP Andrews Hub in Sydney, enabling the successful remote production of live coverage and competition highlights in Australia over the two days of set a new industry standard for international remote production. “We were looking for an opportunity to use the Telstra DPN and the NEP Andrews Hub to produce an interna- tional sports event. ITN’s broadcast of the World Relay Championships was the perfect two day event to debut the Telstra DPN out- side of Australia at cable distances of 16,000 kilometers return trip,” he said. Telstra DPN is an end-to-end IP net- work, custom built for the media industry. It enables professional media customers to produce live broadcasts at a distance from the actual event by sending multiple raw camera feeds, audio and equipment control signals over the network back to central- ised production hubs. MILESTONE ACHIEVED DURING BROADCAST OF WORLD RELAY CHAMPIONSHIPS IN YOKOHAMA, JAPAN ‘Jinn’ was shot in Petra and Amman the World Relay Championships. The signals travelled from Japan via diverse and hitless 10 gigabit-per-second circuits on the Telstra DPN to Sydney, using ultra-low-latency com- pression technology. Andreas Eriksson, director of Telstra Broadcast Services, said the collaboration between Telstra, Nexion and NEP Australia responsibilities but rather sticking to our tasks and duties. This doesn’t mean either that the RFC condones or approves or en- courages the content of a fi lm or a series”. Jordan Tourism Board (JTB) also said it was following up on the latest develop- ments regarding the series, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. “The production of such series is not within our jurisdiction and our role does not include monitoring the content and the script,” the JTB said, adding that “its role as stipulated in its regulations is to facilitate the mis- sions for the companies and institutes that use the tourist sites in the Kingdom”. Produced by Kabreet Productions, the drama is directed and executive produced by Mir-Jean Bou-Chaaya and executive produced by Elan and Rajeev Dassani, with Elan Dassani serving as head writer. Amin Matalqa, director of the Sundance Award- winning Captain Abu Raed, will be direct- ing the last episodes of the series. NEWS UPDATE www.digitalstudiome.comJULY 2019 / 9Next >