IBE Feature | Focus on Dubai
Andy Davies, MD, TSL Dubai
“We have been a little busy! For a start we had our work on Sky News Arabia’s installation and launch. While the core National Theatre-site studio existed [in nearby Abu Dhabi], we had to cut a few holes in its to build a newsroom, and then fit it out. It was a fantastic space and Sky had finished delivering their own HDTV studio back in Britain so had some good ideas as to what had worked well, and we built on those ideas.
Sky News Arabia
he continued. “Our objective was to help create a sound business environment for all these clusters. We knew we had to create the logistics to support these businesses, building on the back of the airline and airport. All that now works well. Film was not an original thought, but it simply grew out of the demand from the other aspects of media and culture. But film demands its own special infrastructure, not only in terms of buildings but also in terms of freelancers, training and the other skills.
“We knew we had some key advantages. First of all there is our location, just three hours from India, and within easy travelling time of just about everywhere. To the Arab world we are just a couple of hours away from Cairo and the other capitals. And we have our 360 days of sunshine, I can guarantee that!
“Our Media City was our starting gate, attracting so very many media and broadcast companies. With demand growing, and every sector of the media growing rapidly whether TV, advertising, production, creative, publishing.... all this helped push the real estate boom which by 2005 we saw that we were becoming a production hub and no longer just a back- office service centre. So the idea of Studio City was born, and announced in Feb 2005. We have today achieved 20 percent of the plan’s Phase 1, and much more under development taking us through Phases 2 to 4. We have everything from Boutique Studios to sound stages to warehouses and workshops. We have three million sq. ft. as a back-lot. Today we are 100 percent occupied,” Added Al Sharif.
“We also had some long discussions on what this region needed because they were going to have some very different staff skills and capabilities. We now have much more automation, and less human interface. Staff here can be well skilled, especially in RF and satellite work downlinking. But that pattern tends to be ‘one person, one feed’ and that was no good to Sky which wanted to cater for 40 separate assigned lines coming into the studio, and wanting to make the most of its ability to break news. Sky asked for our help in making that work.”
“We are talking about a number of major projects, in Singapore, in North Africa where projects in Libya, Morocco and Tunisia are all being looked at. There’s also a lot happening for us in sub-Saharan Africa although some of the enquiries we get are tricky in terms of what they are asking for. But Dubai and the near region is extraordinarily busy. We have four or five quotes a week leaving these offices, and we won’t win them all but you know that it is a statistical fact that some of them will come back. TSL has always been focussed on news, and file-based activity, and multi-channel play-out. Without breaking confidences I think you’ll see movement in terms of pay- TV in the region before too long.”
12
| May/June 2013
|
ibeconnects.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48