Carly Barnes

On 24 September, celebrated as National Heritage Day in South Africa, SABC3 will air the compelling documentary Miracle Rising – a moving journey of a nation’s deliverance into fair democratic elections.

Through captivating stories and testaments, iconic individuals unravel the challenges, victories and crucial choices that lead a divided nation into liberation. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, official spokesperson of the President Mac Maharaj, South African Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron, global entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, politician and activist Cyril Ramaphosa and South African-American anchor and news correspondent Anand Naidoo are among the group of inspiring narrators who illuminate a remarkable chapter of South African history in Miracle Rising.

A spectrum of compassionate accounts and personal stories of faith, such as Nelson Mandela’s will to learn Afrikaans while in prison and the amnesty hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, reveal valuable lessons learnt by a country that broke through the Apartheid regime to achieve peace and unity.

Remarks director Brett Lotriet Best: “I want people to realise the unbelievable power they hold in their hands at every moment of every day. History is not shaped by politicians; it is fundamentally created by the decisions of all of us, and choosing to forgive and let go – even the most unimaginable, intolerable situations – brings the kind of freedom that idealists dream of.’

Watch this epic story of visionary leadership and courageous conviction on SABC3 at 12h00 on 24 September 2013.

To watch and embed the trailer, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl9pVlcg0WA.

According to research recently published by Futuresource Consulting, global pay-TV decoder shipments are growing, although this growth is mostly in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region because developed pay-TV markets are approaching saturation.

At the upcoming DISCOP AFRICA multi-platform content market in Johannesburg in November, Richard Bell, CEO of the Wananchi Group, will present a season on the development of the pay-TV market in Africa.

Bell believes that Africa will soon become the world’s fastest growing pay-TV market. “This is because penetration is currently so low and over the medium term is likely to reach global penetration levels.

“Despite the steady improvement of free-to-air (FTA) offerings in Africa, FTA ad revenues are limited. Therefore, the ability of FTA broadcasters to generate content is constrained. Pay-TV operators have more revenue streams and can therefore invest in more content, so they have more to offer viewers. “The growth of pay-TV offers a fantastic opportunity to grow local content and on the back of that, expand the entire creative arts and sports entertainment industries on the continent. That’s where the Wananchi Group’s focus and passion lies,’ says Bell.
Positioned as East Africa’s leading home entertainment operator, the Wananchi Group is the second largest pay-TV operator in Africa after South African giant MultiChoice. Wananchi is the owner of the direct-to-home (DTH) satellite pay-TV offering, Zuku TV, and currently broadcasts in five countries to over 200 000 households.

Commenting on the present pay-TV landscape in Africa, Bell notes that there are a few home grown pay-TV operators in West Africa, as well as a few small ones across the continent. “But there’s nothing that we know of currently with much scale. In addition there are some DTH companies broadcasting from the Middle East on a free-to-air basis, but not with pay bouquets that we’re familiar with.’
He cites as a negative milestone in the development of pay-TV in Africa the fact that GTV, HiTV, Smart TV and Top TV launched onto the market and went out of business.

“A positive milestone is that Wananchi has now been around for four years and continues to go from strength to strength,’ says Bell.

The regulatory framework in Africa also presents challenges for pay-TV. “Every one of the 53 countries in Africa has a different broadcasting regulator and different policies. The advent of pay-TV has coincided with a drive towards the digital switchover in Africa. This has caused a lot of confusion with regulators and the market.

“Generally pay-TV is not regulated too heavily which is a double edged sword. On the one hand getting licences is fairly straight forward. However, issues such as equitable access to premium sports content (such as the English Premier League), as well as local content provisions, and the FTA “must carry must offer’ are all being dealt with by regulators in a very haphazard fashion. The result is significant barriers for pay-TV operators in growing their businesses,’ explains Bell.

When asked about the viability of IPTV in Africa, Bell expresses the opinion that cable operations will grow exponentially in urban centres over the medium term.
“Wananchi also believes that IP based streaming will grow dramatically,’ he says.

Zimele Broadcasting Services showcased the Simple R slomo tv, the smallest professional multichannel recording and replay system, at this year’s Mediatech Africa. This was the first time the product was shown in Africa.

There was overwhelming interest in the device that is just 1U in size and which weighs approximately 4.5kg. The slomo tv is a multi-channel recording, slow motion / instant replay and sports refereeing device. Its features comprise three channels in, two channels out dissolvable / simultaneous search on all three channels with a recording capability of 33 hours HD video on the internal SSD Drive (optional up to 125 hours).

“The slomo tv was originally developed for refereeing purposes for ice hockey in Russia and is adaptable to any live sport event. Slomo tv replay is necessary when referees have to make decisions to determine scores,’ said Casper Klopper, CEO of Zimele Broadcasting Services (Pty) Ltd. “We decided to bring slomo tv to the South African market because, as a system integrator, we see the need for new and innovative solutions.’

A representative of slomo tv commented that although there are some other established players in the market, slomo tv’s technology is newer and easier to handle. According to him the device has more functions and costs significantly less than its competitors.

Kloppers said: “Slomo tv is ideal for emerging markets and fits like a hand in a glove in markets with cost restraints.’ Apart from being much lighter than its traditional counterparts that weigh in at 40kg, slomo tv uses SSD drives which makes it more robust and super fast.

“It offers a wide range of multi-channel recording and replay systems for any need of the modern broadcaster, all at very competitive pricing,’ concluded Klopper.
Slomo tv made its international debut at IBC in Amsterdam last year and was heralded as a ground-breaking device.