Home Authors Posts by Cera-Jane Catton

Cera-Jane Catton

316 POSTS 0 JOBS
Cera-Jane Catton is a writer and journalist with years of experience in community newspapers, blogging and freelance journalism. She has worked in a cache of capacities, often finding herself behind or in front of the cameras, intentionally and less so. She has been a stunt double in two Bollywood movies, has worked in various capacities on a number of natural history documentaries, and other international productions shot in South Africa. Cera is a former Screen Africa journalist.

PlayBox Technology at NAB NY

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

PlayBox Technology will promote the latest additions to its range of broadcast playout and channel branding solutions at NAB New York, to be held between 9 and 10 November 2016.

“The PlayBox Technology AirBox channel-in-a-box system has long been popular with television networks in the USA and around the world,” says CEO Pavlin Rahnev comments. “Many broadcasters are now upgrading to the latest Neo software which is available as part of our annual maintenance contract. Neo attracted huge interest at the April 2016 NAB Convention in Las Vegas, with queues for demonstrations every day of the show.”

AirBox Neo adds UHD capabilities to the core PlayBox Technology content playout system which now supports UHD, HD and SD in single server. New features include a streaming input supporting HTTP, HTTP Secure, UDP, RTMP, MMS, MMSH and YouTube. RTMP Streaming Output improvements have also been added, allowing easy web streaming. AirBox Neo comes with a virtual output which now supports multiple instances. Third-party product support has been extended to Ross NK series routers and the Horita TR-100 timecode reader. Timecode can now be applied to MOV files. Multiple DeckLink cards can now be used for multi-channel ad insertion. Enhancements have also been made to the clip trimmer and audio level control. AirBox Neo is designed for 24/7 unattended operation. It can also be operated manually, including the ability to handle live-to-air throughput.

ProductionAirBox Neo is a media manipulation and delivery system with the near-zero latency demanded for the fast-paced work environment of broadcast news, sports and live production. A wide range of file formats and resolutions can be imported into the playlist, with up to 16 digital audio channels to accommodate multi-channel multi-language programmes. The feature set also includes forward or reverse shuttle at up to 32x speed, mixing of different video resolutions and formats in a single playlist, logical content trimming, multi-channel audio output, plus support for a wide variety of compression standards and media containers. The NewTek Network Device Interface (NDI) open protocol for IP production workflow is supported.

AdBox Neo enables content owners to maximise their business potential by targeting advertisements for specific audiences with ad insertion and Digital Programme Insertion (DPI) in both SD and HD, in either SDI or DVB (ASI/IP). It performs basic cost-effective digital ad insertion and can easily be scaled to meet the next-generation of targeted advertising solutions that are driving the revolution in today’s television advertising. In addition to ad insertion and DPI, AdBox Neo can include graphics capabilities ranging from simple logo insertion to full CG and interactive graphics insertion – using TitleBox Neo to enable a complete and very powerful local branding solution including SMS2TV. AdBox Neo can be installed locally or remotely at the headend and monitored and controlled via the internet. If required, many hundreds of hours of ad insertion and DPI can be scheduled and an entire stand-alone solution can be provided, or alternatively it can be integrated into the content owner’s current workflows and systems.

CaptureBox Neo allows HD or SD content to be captured from up to four video sources simultaneously. These can be monitored on a single screen and controlled via a streamlined user interface with enhanced multichannel control and operability. Audio levels can be monitored as loudness/true-peak displays and adjusted when required. Ingested content is available for playback seconds after ingest commences. Capture lists can be imported from third-party traffic systems.

EdgeBox Neo provides a tapeless file-based operation that has two parts: one integrated with the broadcast centre and the other at the remote site. At the broadcast centre it is fully integrated into the current or preferred systems including traffic, storage, MAM, ingest, transcoding and file transfer systems, or PlayBox Technology can provide these. This connects to the new remote EdgeBox site’s playout equipment via the public internet – making a huge cost saving over the traditional dedicated fibre or satellite links.

TitleBox Neo provides a wide range of interactive on-air graphics and titling capabilities which can be manipulated live. It includes substantial improvements for dealing with UHD projects as well as supporting HD and SD operation. A new API plug-in has been produced for use by PlayBox Technology development partners, allowing easy interfacing to third-party software devices. Improvements have also been made in dealing with ODBC data providers and RSS feeds. TitleBox Neo provides total control during on-air session, including text selection, running speed and transitions. The TitleBox feature set includes horizontal crawling text, vertically rolling credits and messages, still and animated logo graphics, analogue and digital clocks, banner slideshows and chat text with automated horizontal or vertical scrolling. Among the additional creative facilities are pre-constructed graphic components, video resizing (from live source or file), window-style display and website content ingest.

QCBox Neo analyses the relevant media files in a playlist, folder or selected files. Basic tests include checking for correct duration of streams, continuity (no missing or overlapped frames), frozen and black frames as well as audio tests, including loudness, phase and audio levels measurements. Test results are stored in a metadata file that accompanies the media file. The metadata file is checked prior to programme playout on AirBox Neo,and the AirBox Neo playout can be configured to skip the file, show a warning before playing the file, or play the file depending on the data parameters. In addition, the loudness measurement data from QCBox Neo can be used for automatic adjustment of the audio playback levels.

SafeBox Neo replicates remote content to local playout server folders for safe transmission. It implements a new graphic interface plus new significantly faster processing for moving primary or copied content to the playout and central storage servers. In addition, a new workflow routine protects content being overwritten. Expired daily schedule content is automatically deleted or moved to a predefined folder for manual deletion or archiving. Deletion can be performed automatically or by manual approval of deletion lists. Files can also be assigned specific protection to prevent removal from network sources. SafeBox Neo can be operated in playlist-dependent or stand-alone mode.

TimeShiftBox Neo is a dedicated product to meet the needs of satellite teleports, telecoms, international broadcasters and TV networks for delayed TV channel playout. It provides user-definable delay in 10 second increments up to seven days, logo overlay and multichannel audio. Audio is kept with all SDI ancillary data intact. Configurations include single-channel SD-SDI/HD-SDI or dual-channel SD-SDI/HD-SDI. For enhanced reliability the hardware is protected with features including RAID-protected media storage and redundant hot-swap power supplies.

CloudAir is a development of the EdgeBox remote playout concept which is used by many broadcasters around the world. Core software running on a proven server is located at the broadcaster’s choice of remote playout facility, typically a 24/7 service provider in whichever town, city, country or continent the broadcaster prefers. Management of playout schedules, ad sales, media management and monitoring are all performed in the usual way on the broadcaster’s premises via a fire-walled IP link. Integral to CloudAir are templates which customers can preconfigure to match their requirements, eliminating any need for subsequent manual interference. Every clip in a playout schedule, except the one which is currently playing, is accessible for trimming, editing or repositioning. CloudAir gives operators the freedom to change playlist order on the fly using commands such as skip-to-next or jump. Changes can be performed seamlessly without stopping the current playout session.

For more information visit the PlayBox Technology Limited website.

The challenges of an 8k workflow for post-production houses

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

For a post-production industry that suddenly has to manipulate and process images 70x what they were a scant couple of decades ago, the problems that the forthcoming massive leap in resolution about to engulf us brings are probably greater than most. Luckily, cloud technology will be there to provide the horsepower to cope.

As the French say: “plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose.’ The more things change, the more they stay the same.

For post-production, this is a perfect expression, because post-production facilities always have to consider upgrading. And for them, it’s always been the same.
I’ve been talking a lot lately about 8K. Even to the extent that some readers have complained about it. I can understand that. For most people, 8K is a distant dream (or nightmare, depending on your point of view). Many freelancers and facilities are still grappling with 4K workflows. And quite possibly the majority still work in HD or 2K.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in the wake of all this new stuff, the majority of people don’t merely have to write about it, but who have to sell it, service it, and most of all work with it. For them, it’s not undiluted excitement. Instead it’s pure hard work, and for business owners and freelancers, it means money too, mostly flowing in the wrong direction.

A couple of weeks ago, I was in a London post facility. I’m always impressed when I go to these places. The quality of work is astonishing, as is the intensity of work that goes into getting these world-class results.

Remember that 4K is pretty commonplace in the shops now. Easily 80% of sets on sale in my local department store are 4K. The same goes (I haven’t counted but it feels like this) for video cameras. So I kind of assumed it would be the same for post production. I’m pretty familiar with post workflows, but for some reason I haven’t recently asked what resolution post houses are typically working at. The answer was: “something a bit more than 2K.’

And this is where the headlines (including some of our own!) can sometimes lead to the wrong conclusions about the current post production industry. Look at it like this.

The move to HD from SD was a resolution increase (in terms of the number of pixels – not the linear resolution) of around five times. From HD to 4K is exactly four times. From 4K to 8K is another four times. From HD to 8K is sixteen times and SD to 8K is around seventy times.
This rapid increase in resolution is OK for cameras, fully accepting that it’s not always easy to accommodate the sheer amount of data. Increases in storage sizes and decreases in cost largely deal with that, and if they don’t now, they will, soon, in the future.

It’s different for post. Increases in resolution not only demand more storage, they call for more computing power too. To produce work in more detail, as you would if you were transitioning from 2K to 4K, you either need faster computers or more time. Often you need both.

So, while I was surprised to learn that the London post facility I was visiting only output at a little over 2K, I can certainly see why.
Post facilities always have to decide whether to spend money on upgrading to accommodate new “standards’ – in which case they’ll be more expensive to use, or to stay with the current tech and charge less. I would guess that a large part of the business skill in running a successful post house is managing this balance.
It’s always been like this. Even in the days of SD, there was the transition from tape to files. There are always new techniques. 3D didn’t go well. HDR has great promise.

And 8K? Well, I strongly believe that there is a case for shooting in 8K. For post, the increased resolution helps with keying and compositing, and it’s always possible to re-frame a shot if the output resolution is less than 8K – which it most likely will be. And it’s well known that if you shoot in a higher resolution and then downsample, every lower-resolution derivative will look better as a result.
But while there’s no end in sight for the post-production dilemma, the move towards cloud-based workflows can at least distribute the pain; farming it out out-of-house in a way that may prove to be far most cost-effective than previous generations of technological change.

One of the biggest issues facing post facilities is the unpredictable nature of their workload. One production might be easily accommodated with existing equipment. The next might demand significantly more computing power. But the cloud gives us the possibility of buying in computing power and storage on demand, located remotely and accessed via a fast network connection.

Need more horsepower? Simply press a button and banks of servers in some hidden, temperature controlled and possibly even underground facility on another continent can spin up and come online to help you. More capacity than you need? Simply cut them adrift. The point is that this all takes place invisibly to the end user. Apart from a bill at the end of the month, if the software is written in the right way you simply don’t need to know the details of what happens with your data in the cloud anymore than you need to know the internal architecture of the computer in front of you: you can delve into the details if you want to tweak performance to the nth degree, but for most users they can just understand that the power and capacity they need is there when they want it.

This is exactly how the likes of Netflix can pull off the stunt of rolling our its service to 130 countries worldwide with the puch of a button: it leverages the power of the cloud (in its case, mostly Amazon Web Services).
There are complexities. As Netflix said of its own 7-year migration from data centre to cloud, you can’t just forklift your old systems into the cloud and hope all your old problems go away; for true scalability and flexibility you need to be rebuilding cloud-native systems.

But the cloud is the ideal solution — perhaps the only realistic solution — for post and the higher resolution future. Not only is it expensive to buy high end servers, it’s not cheap to locate them on your premises, either. And when you do own them, they’re not exactly an appreciating asset! Being able to rent them on demand means that post facilities can commit to bigger projects and factor in the rental cost transparently and easily. It’s a much better way to run a business, and might be the first time that the “should I buy or should I rent’ dilemma doesn’t arise.

Source: RedShark News

USA announced as official guest country for DISCOP JHB 2016

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

Three years ago, President Barack Obama introduced the US Africa Leaders Summit attended by close to 50 African heads of state. This summit, the first of its kind, represents an increased willingness by the US to engage in trade with Africa, and the most recent DISCOP events have seen more and more US companies follow up on these African opportunities.

In celebration of this growing presence of American companies in Africa, DISCOP Johannesburg believes that the time is therefore right to honour the United States of America as DISCOP Johannesburg’s guest country for 2016.

DISCOP’s objectives with this partnership is to continue to assist and encourage major and independent U.S. companies in the entertainment and tech sectors to build stronger connections with the key players driving the continent’s multi-platform film and television content production and distribution industries.

Additionally, DISCOP will actively push for better collaboration between the U.S. and Africa, thereby expanding the reach of local culture stories with a truly global audience. Collaborations would also see the sharing of Hollywood’s (U.S.) know-how in marketing, financing expertise, global distribution, storytelling, production, directing, and casting with talent available in Africa.

Strategically located on the market floor, set-up in partnership with the US Commercial Service, the American Umbrella will welcome independent U.S. content distributors/producers and raise the visibility of the US’s presence at DISCOP.

Andrea DaSilva, global team leader, Media and Entertainment Industries, International Trade Administration, U.S. Dept. of Commerce explains the value of the partnership: “The U.S. Department of Commerce is honored to be represented at DISCOP as the United States has been chosen for the first time as the Country of Honor. Our partnership with Patrick Zuchowicki and DISCOP has been dynamic and exciting and we are eager for U.S. filmed entertainment businesses to explore opportunities in the South African and regional markets while in Johannesburg. Our team is very enthusiastic to support DISCOP in 2016 and to bring our expertise to the show via our Trade Fair Certification programme. With more than 100 domestic export assistance offices and with a presence in over 75 overseas markets our trade specialists stand ready to support U.S. exporters. DISCOP offers a unique opportunity for our team to introduce U.S. exporters and licensors to overseas buyers and joint projects in an emerging marketplace. We look forward to meeting with as many business partners as possible in the American Pavilion and connecting you to our programme and buyers.’

The following events will also take part under the American umbrella throughout DISCOP, taking place at the Sandton Convention Centre, 2 to 4 November.

2 November

11h40 to 12h40: The Anatomy of an adaptable scripted TV Show – Case Study: Love that Girl (US Sitcom)

How to write and produce a successful comedy sitcom in Hollywood. Budgeting, casting and shooting multi-cam with time and budget in mind. This session will show how to prepare an efficient scripted comedy sitcom shoot by looking at time and money without relinquishing the highest possible quality.

Speakers:
Trenten Gumbs, Producer, Harvest Studios (USA)
Bentley Evans, Producer, Harvest Studios (USA)
Ettore Botta, President, SpaceWoW Inc. (USA)

13h50 to 14h20: ATARI: Announces TV Strategy

The legendary ATARI will unveil their strategy to turn ATARI from a Video Game company to a top television company with a plan to license its formats all over the world – starting with Africa. Robert Blagman will also reveal how the Atari brand will bring new revenue

Speaker: Robert Blagman, Global Content Distribution, ATARI (USA)

4 November

10h35 to 11h35AM: US Production in SA

The influx of films/television series into South Africa is growing rapidly, how can South Africa prepare for this influx? Training programmes that are undertaken by foreign productions for South African residents and the success of those programs. The financial benefits of foreign productions shooting in South Africa. Discussion on Cast/Crew numbers as well as Terry’s experience with US Productions such as “Dominion’ in 2015 and now “Blood Drive’ in 2016 with respect to comparing the hiring of local Crew/Cast.

Speakers:
Terry Gould, producer, NBCUniversal
Benedikt Sabastian, producer, Motherland Pictures

Registration opens for the 2016 annual Film Finance World

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

The third annual Film Finance World is about the business of making films and registration is now open.

At this year’s event:

• How to prepare proposals for potential investors using Article 12 tax incentives
• Packaging you project for financiers and distributors
• Understanding product placement and what brands want
• Update from DTI on changes to the DTI Rebate
• Developing effective PR and Marketing strategies for your feature
• Meeting DTI Tax and BBBEE compliance requirements to claim rebates
• Opportunities for funding from TV licensing and commissioning

Speakers include Jeneen Galbraith who is a chartered accountant, registered auditor and chartered management accountant. Ryan Hutchison who is a senior audit clerk with Galbraith Rushby Inc. He manages the DTI film incentive division of the firm and regularly consults with producers and other film industry stakeholders on various aspects of the production financials and compliance issues. Janine Lloyd, who is the founder and CEO of PRExpert, who in 2015 won a Prism Award for her campaign for the feature film Hear Me Move. Reneilwe Sema who is the head of Mzansi Magic TV productions. Nicola Van Niekerk who is the head of Production at M-NET. Jane Fry who is the MD of Film Finances SA and has been a production accountant for more than 30 years.

Costs

Earlybird: R750 till 1 November
Standard price: R850

Details

10 November 2016
08h30 – 17h00
Atlas Studios, Milpark Joburg
Cocktails 17h00 – 20h00

For enquiries email keabetswe@destinymediaafrica.com or call +27 11 050 1312

Online bookings can be done on the Film Finance World Africa website.

Netflix to launch offline viewing mode before end of 2016

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

Netflix, the video streaming service provider, will be providing a distinguished feature, the offline mode, by the end of this year. The new feature will be added to the desktop and mobile apps of Netflix. Subscribers will have the option of downloading some of Netflix’s content (Netflix Originals).

Netflix Originals has a growing catalogue with Netflix partnering with various companies for investment into the production of its own series and movies such as House of Cards and Beasts of No Nation.

This new feature will actually be of great benefit for Africans. The limited broadband infrastructure and low internet connectivity available in the African continent (with an internet penetration rate of 29 per cent), users in Africa will have a great advantage. They will not have to always be connected for content viewing.

Source: Next TV News Africa

WGSA presents How Much Is My Script Worth?

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

This Saturday the Writers Guild of South Africa (WGSA) presents an opportunity to look at contracts, law and the industry rates for screenwriters.
Join a panel of writers, producers and industry professionals as we unpack how much you should get paid to write TV series and feature film scripts in South Africa. An interactive Q and A and discussion.

9h00 – 10h00:
Peter Goldsmid and Matthew Kalil take you through standard contracts and discuss rates for various script formats from TV to feature films and the WGSA Rates. They share their personal stories.

10h00 – 11h00:
Kevin Kreidemann discusses his insightful article, “Screenwriting, You Get What You Pay For’, which looks into various amounts paid to local writers for their films. http://www.kevinlikes.com/screenwriting-fees-south-africa/

11h15 – 12h30:
Producer Elias Ribeiro (Necktie Youth) and Dylan Voogt (Five Fingers for Marsellis, Unearthed, Hollywood In My Huis, Skoonheid, Retribution) talks about payment from the producer’s perspective as well as discusses his exciting Realness Residency and what that means for local writers.

12h30 – 13h00
Networking

Costs:
WGSA Student Members and SAE Students: FREE
WGSA Members: R50
Non-Members: R100

Date: 22 OCTOBER 2016
Time: 09h00 to 13h00
Venue: SAE Institute, UNIT A307, Woodstock Exchange, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock

Visit the WGSA website for more details or email admin@writersguildsa.org.

The Suit wins at Shnit 2016

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

Shnit International Short Film Festival in partnership with the National Film and Video Foundation and AFDA is a wrap and the Audience Award went to The Suit.

Director of The Suit Jarryd Coetsee said: “We are thrilled and delighted by the great honour of winning the Audience Award. Telling stories is a two-way street between the story-teller and the reader, listener or viewer. My primary motivation for telling stories through the magical medium of film has always been to arrive at a true and purest expression of the human condition through a mutual experience with the audience because we all have a vested interest in gaining a deeper understanding of ourselves. The Audience Award is confirmation that The Suit has connected to some degree in this way with the audience and for that I am grateful.’

Shnit International Shortfilmfestival presents a short film experience like no other. In its seventh year in South Africa, it returns to The Labia Theatre, the home of independent cinema. With additional events and screenings stretching to the furthest limits of the greater city, including The City Bowl Market, Waterkant Studios, Pepper Club Cinema, Truth Coffee and the Cape Town Club.

Shnit International Shortfilmfestival is a premier venue for the exhibition and celebration of short films. The festival unfolds simultaneously in multiple cities on five continents, bringing together more than 30 000 filmmakers and film lovers in ways rarely experienced elsewhere on the festival circuit. Over its 12 days, shnit celebrates more than 200 short films of all genres and styles and gives away US$100 000 in cash prizes.

For more information visit the Shnit website.
Watch The Suit trailer here:

ROK to Launch on DStv

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

ROK, the award-winning Nigerian film studio and entertainment brand, will launch across Africa on the DStv platform on 1 November 2016, on channel 168. The Lagos-based film studio, renowned for its original TV series and Nollywood movies, will join the DStv family, bringing original content to 52 countries, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The new channel will launch with ROK Studios’ exclusively-produced content, including Festac Town, Banks Chronicles and Bloodline. ROK will be available to DStv Premium, DStv Compact Plus and DStv Compact customers. Some of the ROK content will also be available on the DStv Catch-Up service.

Nigerian cinema, known colloquially as Nollywood, is the second largest film industry in the world, in terms of production output. In its short history, ROK has become one of the industry’s most prolific producers of new, original content, with arguably Africa’s most extensive Nollywood catalogue of 12 TV series and more than 150 movies.

The new, exclusively Nollywood channel will be fully programmed, produced and developed in-house, by ROK’s Lagos-based team. Mary Njoku, award-winning Nollywood actress and film producer who has spent over 12 years at the heart of Nigerian filmmaking, will head the channel, which will also be supported by IROKO, the VC-backed African technology and entertainment broadcaster and content distributor.

Speaking on the launch, ROK CEO Mary Njoku says: “Joining the DStv family is the next step in ROK’s evolution as Nollywood’s leading film production house and brand. Broadcasting our original content to millions of movie fans across the African continent, on a platform as far-reaching and illustrious as DStv, is an exhilarating prospect.

“What lies beneath every ROK production, the ROK brand, be it movies or TV series, is our fanatical love of African storytelling; we want to relate amazing African stories that our fans can recognise, be swept away by and be entertained with. We work with Nigeria’s most exceptional talent, in front of and behind the camera, and we continue to push the boundaries in terms of production values. This has given us the edge, in our short history, and has helped us build a fanbase around the world. ROK on DStv allows us to bring ROK to every corner of the continent and connect viewers with content they love’.

“One of the cornerstones of our customer promise is to deliver content that our customers love and enjoy, and that is why we’re excited to introduce ROK which will boost DStv’s local content offering and showcase even more African stories made in Africa, for us Africans,’ says the managing director of MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe. “This will ensure that our offering keeps the art of storytelling alive on the continent which, will in turn help to grow Africa’s creative industries like Nollywood into vibrant, economic powerhouses.’

Since its launch in 2013, ROK Studios has produced some of Nollywood’s most talked about originals, including Festac Town, Single Ladies, Stalemate, Banks Chronicles and Bloodline. The channel launches with these blockbuster titles, and going forward, ROK viewers on DStv will be the first to watch new and exclusive homegrown ROK content, before it goes anywhere else.

Nollywood is the world’s second largest film industry in terms of output, producing approximately 50 films a week and employs over one million people in Nigeria, and contributes 1.42 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP. Prominent themes in Nollywood films include family, religion, love and betrayal.

Request for a stakeholder inclusive public enquiry into the SABC

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

Statement from the Independent Producers’ Organisation of South Africa:

The Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) is a representative, national organisation of independent South African film, television and video producers constituted to represent, protect and promote the interests and needs of producers. It represents around eighty percent of working producers in South Africa.
Many of the producers of SABC content are IPO members and are concerned by governance problems at the SABC and what this means for the sustainability of the industry as a whole.

The IPO notes the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications’ sanction of the SABC Board for its ill governance of the public broadcaster and for its circumvention of the findings of the Public Protector and the Western Cape High Court against the Chief Operating Officer, and notes its call for the resignation of the Board and for a parliamentary inquiry into the fitness of the Board.
The IPO supports the stance of the Portfolio Committee, however it calls for a broader, stakeholder inclusive public enquiry, into the SABC. This enquiry should include:

• the SABC’s persistent crises of governance, management, funding, policy, programming and operations;
• and key requirements for the public broadcaster to effectively fulfil its mandate.
The current crisis surrounding the SABC Board is not new. It is one that South Africa has experienced before. It points to the problems of the SABC as systemic, needing to be addressed beyond the failings of the present Board and senior management.

The IPO believes the board of the SABC should not be appointed through a process that involves only party political representatives. Procedures for the appointment of the board should include non-party political role players too, including public broadcast industry stakeholders, constituted as an independent statutory panel. This is vital for the appointment of board members who would be accountable to an optimally shared vision of the public broadcaster and its values, and mitigate the politicised appointment of the Board, one underlying factor for the failings of successive Boards of the SABC.

The IPO calls for members of the SABC Board to be judged for appointment against and sworn to the following:

• commitment and accountability to a renewed, optimally-shared vision of public broadcasting services;
• appreciation of the dynamic, full spectrum role of public television in society and an overriding commitment to public service and the public interest;

• resolute independence from untoward state, party-political and civil constituency interests;

• a bold commitment to free and diverse expression;
• commitment to consultation and appropriate co-determination with stakeholder interests;
• unquestioned commitment to local content and independent commissioning regulations, and respective policy that is transparent, fair and of integrity;
• commitment to conducive terms of trade with the independent production sector, including money for value and just property rights recognition;
• commitment to a bold, dynamic and visionary commissioning structure;
• impeccable governance competencies;
• ability to effect a credible, competent and responsive management and operational structure.

The independent production sector is an essential public broadcast stakeholder, critical to the fulfilment of the mandate of the public broadcaster. We are at the coalface of the crises continually besetting the public broadcaster to the detriment of society and the viewing public. This must now be decisively addressed through a fundamental stakeholder inclusive review and overhaul of the SABC.

African-based satellite solution launched

Cera-Jane Catton
-
0

Pan-African telecommunication provider Gondwana International Networks (GIN) has launched Source, a fully managed, virtual network satellite operator service. Aimed at telecoms and internet service providers, Source will be rolled out across sub-Saharan Africa on the first Jupiter hub in Africa, which is owned and operated by GIN.

Mathew Welthagen, CEO, GIN says that the company has partnered with global satellite provider, Intelsat on a common vision to bring cost-effective satellite connectivity to Africa: “Our collaboration has resulted in the establishment of the first Hughes’ Jupiter Hub in Africa. We have over 15 years of hands-on VSAT operational experience, making us well positioned to deliver a new era of satellite services to Africa.’

He says that Source is geared for the modern telecoms service provider, and permits VSAT operators to focus on service provision and customers, not on network infrastructure. Ground support and network management services will be run from GINs facilities at Hartebeesthoek in South Africa.

Welthagen says this brings immense benefits such as African traffic being landed in Africa, lower latency and secure backhaul, “The location is also a national key point and has multiple levels of security and redundancy.’

Regional multi-national businesses with branches across multiple territories, will benefit from the minimum capacity requirements for designing network failover, and managing ERP data reporting back to head office.
As a wholesale Virtual Network Operator Platform, Source has two options: Raw Capacity and Managed Service VNO.

The Raw Capacity VNO provides the operator with full access to a VNO on the Jupiter Hub and the ability to architect and manage its own services. Operators will typically deploy their own packet shapers, provisioning and billing systems.
The Managed Services VNO is where the operator contracts capacity on a VNO on the Jupiter Hub, but GIN manages the VNO, creating bespoke services in a closed dedicated bandwidth pool. The operator is not required to have in-depth knowledge of VSAT design, and can leverage off GIN’s Allot packet shapers, and OSS/BSS provisioning and billing platform.
“Source is a high-quality, cost-effective, forward-looking communications solution which is needed across the continent,’ concludes Welthagen.

Source: Biztech Africa

1...678...32Page 7 of 32
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
© Copyright 2017

Pin It on Pinterest