October 2013 l 47
VV & Sons’ PV Davis: “As technology changes, we pass it on”
Australia or Asia, so we get a lot of big names. It attracts a lot of investment and a lot of professional focus.” This is borne out by the adoption of Yamaha PM5Ds with Optocore cards by Dubai Artistic Innovation for its core wedding concert business; the purchase of the first K-array Anakonda and Cheesebox speakers in the Middle East by Abu Dhabi-based rental outfit Fonoon; and the use by SLS Production of JBL’s VerTec VT4888 line array at the Department of Transport Awards Night – best flyover in a supporting role? – in Abu Dhabi. With over 550 wireless links
deployed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, for example, and Sennheiser Group addressing key content management event CabSat at the Dubai World Trade Centre last spring on the crisis affecting PMSE, the forthcoming decisions on spectrum reallocation at the end of this year will be as crucial for UAE pro audio as they are everywhere else.
AL JAZEERA, JAZEERA, AL Nowhere does the character of the UAE show more vividly than in the broadcast sector, where the combination of control and commerciality is most concentrated. Most domestic media is state-controlled, you will not be surprised to learn, but investment is as high as the ‘tech’. The government has created two media zones – TwoFour54 in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Media City – expressly to act as a magnet for those with the money to spend and the knowledge of what to spend it on. As a focal point for the whole of the Gulf, those broadcasters who serve the entire Arab region are based here, such as the Middle East Broadcasting Centre and the Orbit Showtime Network, so boosting the country’s revenues over all the others.
This geo-political centre of
gravity has successfully pulled in the arch globalisers, too, including Fox, CNN, Sony, Reuters and – since last year – Sky. The result is a media that flirts with decadence, way more so than Saudi or China for example, while maintaining a tight grip on the national agenda via the two state-owned organisations: Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI) and Abu Dhabi Media. The former runs television while the latter handles radio, while allowing a few indulgences like the
English-language commercial stations Dubai 92 and City 1016. Radio Asia also has a base here, broadcasting in Malayalam, Hindi and Urdu. Recent market activity saw
Tek Signals deliver 10 channels of Shure’s new PSM series and 24 channels of URF-R to the DMI News Centre in Dubai Media City; and a large Nexo PA deployed by SLS Production for the launch of Sharjah Media
Corporation’s 2013 ‘Ramadan’ season package at a ceremony in Sharjah’s Al Jawaher Reception & Convention Centre, without peanuts.
ON COURSE Most significantly, given how it reveals faith in the territory’s potential, industry leaders are investing handsomely in training across the UAE. Adamson, Avid, Dolby, Sony, HK Audio and
DPA Microphones have all held recent workshops; distributor Thomsun Trading has run the training-intense Yamaha Commercial Audio Centre since taking on distribution in 2004; and Harris Broadcast has just opened its Harris Broadcast Academy in Dubai. According to
InternetWorldStats.com, the UAE had registered 5.9 million internet users by June 2012 and
livefeature
over 40% of the population uses Facebook – making it the most web-connected country among all the Arab states. What effect that has on this circumspect business environment remains to be seen.n
www.dolby.com www.nmkelectronics.com www.oasisppd.com www.slspro.net www.thomsun.com www.venuetech.ae www.vvsons.ae
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