< Previous40 / JUNE-AUGUST 2020www.digitalstudiome.com 7 Production was the judges’ unanimous choice to win the Best Live Action Capture Award at the Digital Studio Awards 2020. 7 was contracted by its partners MBC Group, a local broadcast powerhouse, to cover the Formula 1 World championship 2019 season. The partnership would see 7 produce all additional coverage being broadcast on The Mauritian national broadcaster had two confl icting requests: on one hand the need to cover simultaneous events; on the other hand to have a big and powerful system to cover the large events. The heart of the OB van is based on the Ross Ultrix hybrid matrix, a compact yet powerful masterpiece of hardware that allow you to control both the SDI streams and their embedded audio. The UAE Pro League, the country’s premiere football body, won the prize for best Technology Innovation at the DS Awards 2020. The football body won the prize for implementing the player point of view system, which that was implemented in 7 PRODUCTION CAPTURES AWARD AT DS AWARDS 2020 TECHNICALLY SOUND ARET BAGS TROPHY AT DS AWARDS 2020 UAE PRO LEAGUE INNOVATES ITS WAY TO DS AWARD 2020 BEST LIVE ACTION CAPTURE BEST TECHNICAL INSTALLATION AWARD BEST TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION AWARD MBC Action alongside the race footage. An elated Hadi Ghanem, CEO, 7 Production said: “Our work speaks for itself, a company from the UAE has made it across the globe to fi lm F1 across all the race venues with our partners MBC. That says a lot of us as a business and the quality we deliver. It’s also a testament to the level of equipment we have. As a natural companion, the Ross Carbo- nite Ultra has been chosen as the video mixer. Both the video router and the video mixer are fully ready to work with 12G signal, creating a future proof system ready to be upgraded to the new upcoming standard. The audio signals primary travel on the fully redundant DANTE network, assuring the best signal with a negligible latency. This gives the Ultrix the power to draw any sound processed by the UAE Pro League matches. Provided by Sponix (a company that specialises in sport broadcasting technologies). The tech was tested for the fi rst time in the region in the recent season which gave TV viewers the player point-of-view during key moments in the match. WINNER BEST LIVE ACTION CAPTURE WINNER BEST TECHNICAL INSTALLATION WINNER BEST TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION Flawless coverage of the F1 for its client MBC wins the Best Live Action Capture trophy for 2020 ARET video and audio engineering delivered two truck for which it won the Best Technical Installation of the Year Winning the Best Technology Implementation Award was made possible by the UAE Pro League’s use of in-game live graphics Not many companies have the wherewithal to fi lm the F1 live. We’ve invested in the highest 4K equipment to make this happen. Coupled with the resilience and drive of our team we are pleased to be in this position.” The contract awarded by MBC Group to 7 Production is for a duration of three years, 2019 was 7’s fi rst full year of covering the Formula 1 race weekends. the audio mixer, embedding it into the video signals coming from the Carbonite Ultra. Dr. Eng. Raff aele Farinaro, presales engineer, ARET video and audio engineering said: “In our opinion, the winning feature of this solution has to be found in the extreme fl exibility both in the confi guration of the OBs and in the audio and video workfl ow. The possibility to have a modular system that can work both as two separated units and as a unique big production gives the operators endless possibilities for their storytelling.” Graphics and mixed reality are a crucial aspect of sport today, it is almost impossi- ble to watch any sport without the analysis featuring some sort of graphical repre- sentation of the performances. Taking it to the next level is introducing CG-like elements during live-action.JUNE-AUGUST 2020 / 41 www.digitalstudiome.com SPONSORSORS Maaz Sheikh, co-founder and chief executive of StarzPlay swooped up the coveted Broadcast Executive of the Year title at the 2020 Digital Studio Awards. The 16th edition of the prestigious award was streamed live for the first- time in its history. A delighted Sheikh spoke to Digital Studio after winning the award: “It’s an honour to accept this award on behlaf of StarzPlay and our employees. I’m passionate about what I do and I’ve always loved our indsutry, but I feel more so during current times our indsutry and services like StarzPlay are Fatafeat, Discovery’s Dubai-based local studio, won the Studio of the Year award 2020 swatting away competition from the likes of TwoFour54. Amanda Turnbull, general manager, Middle East, Africa, Turkey, Discovery said: “We’ve worked incredibly hard… producing hundreds of hours of high- quality content each year. Following a huge transformational upgrade to our facilities in 2019, the space is now at its most eff ective, not only housing the local production of all MAAZ SHEIKH CROWNED BROADCAST EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR 2020 DISCOVERY’S FATAFEAT IS THE STUDIO OF THE YEAR 2020 BROADCAST EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR STUDIO OF THE YEAR Maaz Sheikh, CEO and co-founder, StarzPlay. Discovery’s revamped Fatafeat Studios in Dubai. playing an important role in providing entertainment and some sort of joy, hopefully, to families as they spend more time in the safety of their homes. I look forward to celebrating the award with you all, hopefully we will be able to do that real soon.” Over the last 12 months StarzPlay has signed several lucrative new partnerships and extending existing relationships with network studios from around the world. A full list of the winners can be found here, a re-run of the awards stream is also available to view on YouTube. of Fatafeat’s content, but also lending its services to aid in the production of long- form television shows for other channels within the Discovery portfolio, including Food Network Italia, Food Network South Africa and Food Network US’s new App ‘Food Network Kitchen’.” In 2012 Fatafeat, the world’s largest fully Arabic cooking brand, became a subsidiary of Discovery Networks International. Today, the channel is in millions of homes via satellite with beIN, and has a digital footprint WINNER BROADCAST EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR WINNER STUDIO OF THE YEAR StarzPlay co-founder and CEO recognised for his efforts in steering the Dubai- founded streaming platform to new heights over the last 12 months Fatafeat’s upgraded facilities have been home to several productions thanks to the versatility it has gained of over 14 million in the MENA region. The brand also has a huge digital and social media presence, and has recently launched its new cooking course app, ‘Genius Kitchen’ in the UAE, Oman and Egypt.42 / JUNE-AUGUST 2020www.digitalstudiome.com Wavo, now OSN Streaming, was rewarded for a year of strong millstones with the Content Delivery Platform the Year award at the DS Awards 2020. Over the course of 2019 the platform landed several exclusive regional rights to air Game of Thrones Season 8, the platform Imagine Communications won the Outstanding Achievement in Workfl ow trophy for its eff orts in replacing the playout tech for Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA). SBA was looking to boost its operational effi ciency and eliminate human error for reliable and professional broadcasting. The broadcaster chose to use an integrated solution from Imagine Communications, who proposed a coherent end-to-end system Zaini Media picked up the Excellence in post-production award at the DS Awards 2020. The video created by Zaini Media for the Sharjah Child International Film Festival was used for promotional purposes of the fi lm festival. The creative direction was to OSN’S FORMER STREAMING PLATFORM WINS CONTENT DELIVERY PLATFORM OF THE YEAR IMAGINE COMMUNICATIONS’ OUTSTANDING EFFORTS WINS BIG ZAINI’S EXCELLENCE FOR SIFF PROJECT WINS AWARD CONTENT DELIVERY PLATFORM OF THE YEAR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN WORKFLOW EXCELLENCE IN POST PRODUCTION relaunched with a new user interface. In the space of three months, the number of Wavo subscribers jumped by 500% from April 2019 to June 2019. Following this surge, Wavo has been able to maintain a steady stream of growth. Zahra Zayat, senior vice president OTT and telco, OSN covering network infrastructure, routing, monitoring, ingest, asset management and playout under ADC automation control, to replace the current system based on hardware from multiple vendors. The proposal was largely based on software solutions running on commercial off -the- shelf (COTS) hardware, using industry- standard workstations from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. tell a story of a young boy with a big ambi- tion and creativity that would exhibit the creativity of kids participating in the event. Hashem Zaini, founder, Zaini Media said: “We were on the edge waiting for the announcement, and thought that our luck had run out as we failed to win any other WINNER CONTENT DELIVERY PLATFORM OF THE YEAR WINNER OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN WORKFLOW WINNER EXCELLENCE IN POST PRODUCTION Wavo, now OSN Streaming, enjoyed a strong 12 months edging competition A new playout system that brought Saudi Broadcasting Authority up to speed with its expansion plans held Imagine Communication in good stead Excellence in Post-Production honours picked up by Zaini Media for its work at the Sharjah Child International Film Fest said “We have seen new customers signing up for the platform off the back of the big content partnerships we have in place with HBO, Hulu and Disney+ which includes highest-rated TV shows of all time such as Chernobyl, The Sopranos and The Wire Golden Globe, in addition to winning Arab American series RAMY and brand new movies such as Artemis Fowl.” Hatim Abounassf, VP for engineering aff airs, SBA said: “To build for our future, we need a scalable network infrastructure and playout architecture that will allow us to use sophisticated automation to make our operations as effi cient as possible, while maintaining the very highest standards. We felt that a single, end-to-end system was the best approach, and Imagine Communications proposed a tightly integrated solution, based on modern COTS hardware a major step towards the IP world.” category that we were shortlisted in. Fortunately, we were recognised for the SIFF project and the team was ecstatic. Everyone jumped off their seats when our name was announced.” Sharjah International Film Festival for Children & Youth (SIFF) was launched in 2013. It is the fi rst children & youth fi lm festival in the country and the region, and it is a project of FUNN.DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDIGGGGGGIIIIIIIIITTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEE.CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMTV PROODUCCTIONN | SSPORRTS PROODUCCTIONN | LIIVE EEVENNTS | COORPOORATTE PRODUCTION MAXIMUM COVERAGE IN 4K AND UHD AROUND THE MENA REGION WWWWW.77PPROODUCCTION.NET enquiries@7production.net +971 4 4415797 | +961 71 182 777 +966 11 420 7777 | For more info please email or call UAE Lebanon KSA or visitNext >