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SA gets Special Recognition Award at global event

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SA gets Special Recognition Award at global event

The organisers of Creative Business Cup South Africa received an unexpected honour when they were presented with a Special Recognition Award in Denmark this year.  They were recognised for their outstanding achievement in putting the local event together at short notice and without any financial backing.

The National Partners Awards recognise the role played by the local Creative Business Cup organisers and their efforts in helping creative startup businesses in their countries. The other recipients were Australia, Estonia and Peru.

“We would like to thank our partners: Reed Exhibitions, Small Business Expo, Business Partners and BASA for helping the team to stage this event. Next year promises to be bigger and better as Creative Business Cup South Africa will be launched countrywide in 2018,” said local organiser, Mvuyo Ngqulana.

A look at the three-day event

Winning startups from over sixty countries were invited to a 2-day intensive boot camp hosted by CLEVER Academy. Their entrepreneurial skills were enhanced and they were helped to polish their pitches for the Creative Business Cup competition.

On the first day of the event, Creative Business Cup Marketplace was centre stage with all the startups showcasing their businesses. Local entrant, Smir Design’s Sanmari Vivier impressed visitors with her South African rugs, runners, cushions and her innovative see-before-you-buy AR app.

Investors and buyers engaged with startups and heard the stories behind the amazing work done by these entrepreneurs. Products ranged from apps to food, energy drinks robotics. Every one of these ideas was innovative and impressive.

Creative Business Cup managing director, Rasmus Tscherning, hosted the delegates for the opening ceremony. Then the closed pitching sessions, with a maximum of 20 invitees, began. Startups had three minutes to present their products or services to the jury panels, followed by Q&A sessions.

After the hectic Marketplace and pitching, national partners and contestants were hosted by the City of Copenhagen and Deloitte, the main sponsors of Creative Business Cup. This was an excellent networking opportunity for the national partners, the speakers, the jury as well as the contestants.

Finalists and global winner

On the second day, the twelve finalists were announced. They were called to pitch again in front of the packed Copenhagen City Hall.

Creative Business Cup’s impressive lineup of speakers included Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, Scott Halford, author of Activate your Brain, Brandon Kavulla, David Granger, Jeremy Bloom and Bonin Bough. There were also panel discussions on Investing in Creative Startups and Women Entrepreneurship, as well as Developing Startups and Co-working Spaces.

The top six finalists were:

  • AlgaLife from Israel,
  • Bildits from Lebanon,
  • BRCK from Kenya,
  • CellRobot from China,
  • Genki Instruments from Iceland
  • and Jala from Indonesia rounding up the top six

On the final day, the top three global winners of the 2017 Creative Business Cup were announced:

  • CellRobot from China won the first place
  • Genki Intrument from Iceland came second and were also awarded the Microsoft Special Award
  • and Bildits from Lebanon came third.

After this exciting day of events, all the participants were invited to a grand reception hosted by Estonian EU Presidency and again it was a chance for everybody to meet and mingle.  Lasting connections were made by participants as they prepared to return to their home countries.

“As this was South Africa’s first entry in this competition, we really appreciated the fantastic experience and learned a lot from the other national partners, and what startups in other countries are doing.  We look forward to the development of Creative Business Network and to be part of this amazing family that grows creative startups,” said Ngqulana.

 

Cartoon Network Africa brings wholly produced African shorts this festive season

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Cartoon Network Africa brings wholly produced African shorts this festive season

 

On Monday, 11 December 2017, Cartoon Network Africa will reveal the first ever,
wholly produced in Africa, animated shorts. In the weeks to follow, local audiences will
be able to take delight in three more locally produced animated shorts to be broadcast
every Monday until 1 January 2018.

The television premiere of the four Cartoon Network Imagination Studios’ locally
produced animated shorts comes hot off the heels of the recent FupiToons Film
Festival hosted in conjunction with African Animation Network (AAN) and Ster-
Kinekor.

Cartoon Network’s Imagination Studios, a drawing contest run in April 2017, was
created to inspire, motivate and celebrate the wild imaginations of children between
the ages of 6 and twelve years old, allowing them to conceptualise and create their
very own Cartoon Network friendly character duo, similar to the ones found on
Cartoon Network.
The groundbreaking shorts are a first in Cartoon Network’s aim to collaborate with
local African talent to bring to life authentically African stories and characters.

The four winning drawings have come to life through the infusion of style, motion and
sound from local animation experts and will hit the screen just in time for the festive
season.

Dida Bafor from Nigeria (8), Katlego Khambule (10), Maia Janse (11) and nine-year-
old Zoё-Jane Mans from South Africa, all had an exciting peek into the world of
animation and a rare opportunity to add their personal touch to Cartoon Network
Africa’s animated duos.

“I am so happy knowing that my drawing has been turned into a cartoon on Cartoon
Network,’ says 8-year-old Dida Bafor from Nigeria whose tale Adventures of the
Talking Pizza – The Great Escape, is a story of siblings John and Lizzy who
happen to be pizza slices.

“Seeing my creation coming to life is a dream come true!’ says Katlego Khambule
creator of The Doodling Duo – Attack of the Slug Monster a short animated
film about a giant slug monster that moves into Dash and Diana’s city.

Llama Drama creator, eleven year old Maia Janse says, “This year was actually
the third time that I have won the Cartoon Network Imagination Studios competition,
but the first time that I have won the actual animation of my drawings – I am very
proud and excited!’

If you’ve ever wondered whether banana peels are really that slippery, watch Robo
and Tekna journey to the source code to find the truth and settle their bet before Dad
finds out in Smarter Phones- Appside Town. “I am so happy and in awe of the
way that my creation has been taken to a whole other level,’ explains Zoe–Jane
Mans.

Creative director at Mind’s Eye Creative, Ryan van Eyk got to see the excited looks on
the children’s faces. “The really cool thing about this initiative is getting kids involved
in understanding animation production and the whole process of animating their
drawings locally has shown them that their imaginations can come to life,’ he says.

“We’re excited about showing the winning four animated shorts across Africa on
Cartoon Network. We have been extremely impressed by the creativity and
collaborative efforts from all our partners in making this possible. It has been amazing
to walk this journey with the Imagination Studios winners and see their imaginative
entries coming alive right before their eyes,’ says Jaime Ondarza, senior vice
president for Turner Southern Europe & Africa.

View the sneak preview
here:

Dejero completes major finance deal to advance product development

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Dejero completes major finance deal to advance product development

Pioneer in connectivity technology receives CAD$32 million injection from Kayne
Partners and satellite leader Intelsat

Dejero, an innovator in blending IP networks for video transport and Internet
connectivity while mobile or in remote locations, has announced significant new
financing to accelerate its product development roadmap and its global expansion into
the broadcast and media market. The investment will be used largely to fund
development and commercialisation of Dejero’s blended connectivity solutions into
new markets.

The investment of CAD$32 million comes from Kayne Partners, the growth private
equity arm of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors LP, an investment firm managing
approximately $25 billion in assets and satellite leader Intelsat. Intelsat, a strategic
investor, provides integrated satellite communications on a global basis and is already
a collaborating partner in the Dejero CellSat solution, which intelligently combines
cellular connectivity from multiple mobile network providers with Ku-band IP satellite
connectivity.

Dejero’s solutions provide reliable connectivity by blending cellular, satellite and other
IP connections from multiple network providers to deliver the bandwidth required to
exchange high throughput, low latency video and data. Its cloud-managed solutions
are used by news organisations to report live from around the world, and to provide
Internet connectivity in remote locations or while mobile.

“We are impressed with Dejero’s rapid growth and worldwide success, which are
clearly driven by its unique network blending technology that solves connectivity
challenges in portable, in-vehicle and fixed location scenarios,’ said Leon Chen,
managing director at Kayne Partners. “This investment will allow Dejero to bring its
innovative thinking more quickly to market and further extend its position as market
leader.’ As part of this financing round, Leon and Rob Shilton, also of Kayne Partners,
will be joining the Dejero board of directors.

Also joining the board is Michael DeMarco, Intelsat’s executive vice president of
Operations, who commented: “Following the success of our recent partnership that
brought the Dejero CellSat solution to market, we’ve made a strategic investment that
will accelerate our collaboration on additional multi-network connectivity solutions for
our customers.’

Bruce Anderson, CEO of Dejero, explained “Simple, fast, cost-effective and highly
reliable connectivity is vital in today’s interconnected world, and is becoming ever
more so through natural progressions such as connected vehicles and the internet of
things. With this funding we see huge opportunities to deliver a broader range of
blended connectivity solutions and services, not only to our traditional market of
broadcast and media, but to other markets where reliable, flexible connectivity is just
as vital.
“Our existing collaboration with Intelsat is greatly enhanced by this investment, which
we value as an endorsement of our skills in innovation and delivery,’ Anderson added.
“Kayne brings to the table a new set of insights and connections which will also drive
strong growth.’

Afrinolly appointed first DaVinci resolve certified training partner in Africa

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Afrinolly appointed first DaVinci resolve certified training partner in Africa

A few months ago at NAB 2017 in Las Vegas, Blackmagic Design announced a new
worldwide training and certification programme, along with certified curriculum for
DaVinci Resolve. Users can take training courses online or in person at certified
training centres. Afrinolly Limited has announced that they have been appointed the
first Certified Training Partner in Nigeria as well as in Africa.

Chike Maduegbuna, CEO Afrinolly Limited said: “We are excited to partner with
Blackmagic Design to provide a fully certified training programme for users of DaVinci
Resolve in Nigeria and Africa. This training programme will increase adoption and
expertise of the most powerful colourist tool and in turn increase the quality of post-
production jobs done here.” He went on to say, “in setting up the Afrinolly Space
creative hub, we wanted a platform to institutionalise global best practices in the area
of film/video content production and we are excited that Blackmagic Design
recognised this.”

In the recently released book The Definitive Guide to DaVinci Resolve 14,
Grant Petty, CEO Blackmagic Design said: “I think one of the most exciting things
about DaVinci Resolve 14 is that it combines a true professional video editor with the
same incredible colour correction tools used in Hollywood on high-end films and
television shows, and Fairlight audio, all in one software solution. Since adding
professional editing to DaVinci Resolve in version 10 we’ve been turning it into the
world’s best professional editor. I hope you’ll enjoy using DaVinci Resolve 14 and we
can’t wait to see the amazing work you produce!”

Afrinolly Space is a creative hub in the heart of Nigeria’s commercial city Lagos, for
filmmakers, screenwriters, mobile technology developers, animators and other
creatives. Essentially Afrinolly Space functions as “Where Technology Meets Art”. The
hub was designed for film/video content creators to make videos, collaborate with
other professionals in the production value chain, attend trainings/workshops,
network, host private screenings, and get post-production services using industry-
leading post-production equipment and resources.

“With the release of DaVinci Resolve 14, a tool originally designed for Hollywood’s
elite
colourists has been revolutionised into an advance application for professional editing,
colour grading and audio post-production. This training programme will initially focus
on DaVinci Resolve 14 and include Editing, Colour and Audio curriculum and
certification. I am excited to have the first class in December,” says Bobola Oniwura;
creative director and Afrinolly’s Certified DaVinci Resolve trainer who returned
recently
from the UK where he got certified.

The DaVinci Resolve 14 training will be available from Afrinolly’s training centre in
Lagos, Nigeria. For enquiries on training dates and booking, please visit the Afrinolly Space website.

Ebonylife TV shooting Nigeria’s first legal drama

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Ebonylife TV shooting Nigeria’s first legal drama

Castle & Castle is the first Nigerian legal drama currently being filmed by
Ebonylife TV. Popular legal dramas have been a staple of television for years, a boon
for producers to start their own with more local content. Law & Order, Suits, How
To Get Away With Murder, The Good Wife, etc. are only a few examples of some
crowd favourites internationally, and now Nigeria is getting its very first legal drama.

Starring two Nollywood titans, Richard Mofe-Damijo and Dakore Egbuson-Akande as a
married couple, Castle & Castle is about the lawyer couple who run a
successful practice in Lagos, which puts a strain on their marriage. Fashion
personality Denola Grey will also be taking a bold step and making an acting debut in
this TV show as Ben, their spoilt and entitled son.

Speaking about Castle & Castle, producer Temidayo Abudu said, “Castle &
Castle is the first of its kind in Nigeria. It is a pleasure to see the concept coming to
life and we look forward to showing the finished product next year. Working with such
a professional cast and crew is making the filming process quite smooth. We hope
that viewers will get hooked on this complex and interesting show.’

Source: NexTV Africa

AWS announces five AWS Media Services for complete video workflows

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AWS announces five AWS Media Services for complete video workflows

AWS announced five AWS Elemental Media Services, an integrated suite of services
that make it easy for video providers of all kinds to create reliable, flexible, and
scalable video offerings in the cloud.

Based on AWS Elemental video solutions, these five new cloud services let customers
build end-to-end workflows for both live and on-demand video with the professional
features, image quality, and reliability needed to deliver premium video experiences
to viewers across a multitude of devices. With just a few clicks in the AWS
Management Console, customers can build customised video applications and pay only
for the technology resources they use, without upfront capital investment.

Whether for entertainment, sports, news, education, community engagement, or
corporate alignment, consumers today expect great video experiences delivered
securely and reliably to any device including tablets, smart phones, connected TVs, or
set-top boxes. Previously, to meet these high expectations, video providers had to
procure very expensive, specialised broadcast equipment that was inflexible, slow to
adapt to new device platforms, hard to scale to meet times of peak demand, and
often lacked support for the latest video formats, resolutions, and streaming
techniques. What’s more, if the video provider wanted to adopt new revenue-
generating business models, such as personalised advertising to a global customer
base, they needed to spend considerable time and effort making that work seamlessly
across all devices.

AWS Elemental Media Services eliminate the need to procure expensive equipment for
video data centres. These services automate what were previously complex, labor-
intensive processes that manage on-going video operations. And, AWS Elemental
Media Services let video providers avoid wasted infrastructure due to on-going
technology obsolescence. With AWS Elemental Media Services, which combine the
proven broadcast-quality video solutions from AWS Elemental with the security,
durability, availability, and scalability of AWS, video providers can focus on making
great content that is delivered via the cloud instead of building and maintaining on-
premises video infrastructure. Projects that once took months or years—such as
standing up 24×7 live broadcast channels, converting a library of video-on-demand
(VOD) assets for distribution, or streaming a high-profile live event—can now be
completed in a fraction of the time with AWS Elemental Media Services. Additionally,
by using AWS Elemental Media Services, video providers can also incorporate
personalised advertisements into streaming video using advanced techniques to
generate additional revenues with their video content.

“For the better part of six decades, professional-grade video workflows were limited to
a few major industry players who could afford to build and maintain customised
infrastructure that would be updated only once or twice each decade,’ said Alex
Dunlap, general manager at AWS Elemental. “These companies spent a great deal of
time, money, and focus operating infrastructure with resources that could have been
better spent creating great content and viewer experiences. We built AWS Elemental
Media Services to let customers focus on delivering top-quality video reliably to any
device, everywhere, without the undifferentiated heavy lifting of managing
infrastructure. This not only helps traditional video providers innovate faster, but it
also opens up new opportunities for startups, government agencies, schools, and
multinational enterprises that, before today, had limited access to premium-quality
video technology.’

AWS Elemental Media Services include the following individual services:

• AWS Elemental MediaConvert: Format and compress video-on-demand content
for delivery to virtually any playback device, with high-quality video transcoding and
broadcast-level features.

• AWS Elemental MediaLive: Encode broadcast-grade live video for televisions or
connected devices. Quickly stand up broadcast channels or live events and deliver
them reliably to your viewers.

• AWS Elemental MediaPackage: Prepare and protect live video streams for
delivery to Internet devices with rich playback experience features such as start-over
TV.

• AWS Elemental MediaStore: Deliver video from high-performance storage
optimised for media.

• AWS Elemental MediaTailor: Insert targeted advertising into your video without
sacrificing quality to increase viewer engagement and boost revenues.

Customers involved in the extensive private preview of AWS Elemental
Media Services provided the following feedback on the services:

BT is one of the world’s leading communications services companies, serving
customers in the UK and more than 170 countries. To power its next-generation video
headend infrastructure which delivers video both to Internet-connected devices and
traditional broadcast set-top boxes, BT is looking to leverage AWS. “Rationalising
our on-premises converged headend and extending that infrastructure widely across
the BT enterprise requires an all-in shift to the cloud,’ said Ian Parr, director TV and
Broadband Infrastructure for BT. “AWS Elemental has played a key role in our TV and
Sport platform evolution over the past few years. The new AWS Elemental Media
Services are a natural extension of media workflows to the cloud. The ease of use of
these AWS console-based services for end-to-end workflows will provide a level of
flexibility and efficiency that will be a game changer for our industry while providing a
flexible option that can coexist with legacy on-premises live and on-demand
infrastructures deployments.’

Every year, Pac-12 Networks offers live coverage of 850 sporting events, making it
one of the top live sports producers in the United States. “To keep our focus on
the core mission of delivering the best experience with viewership of our live
broadcasts and events, and to stay ahead of technology at a fraction of the traditional
cost, we are excited to turn to the cloud with AWS,’ said Mark Kramer, vice president,
Engineering & Technology for Pac-12 Networks. “We look forward to launching our TV
Everywhere offering of all seven Pac-12 Networks linear channels, as well as the
hundreds of live event streams produced by our schools through Pac-12 Plus, on the
AWS Elemental MediaStore service in the coming months. AWS offers end-to-end
ingest-to-delivery workflow support, and we plan to leverage these latest services to
provide live and on-demand Pac-12 networks content for millions of viewers.’
Amazon Prime Video is streaming 11 NFL games this season—including 10 Thursday
Night Football match-ups and a special Christmas Day game—to tens of millions of
customers in more than 200 countries and territories. The live coverage is available
across more than 600 devices, from living room devices like smart TVs and Amazon
Fire TVs to Amazon Prime Video mobile apps on iOS and Android, Fire Tablets, and
the web. “Offering live sports like NFL games globally, over-the-top on a large number
of devices is complex, and we built our end-to-end architecture in the cloud,’ said BA
Winston, global head of Video Playback and Delivery for Amazon Video. “We used the
AWS Elemental MediaTailor service, which allows us to deliver targeted ads that are
seamlessly inserted into the main content, for a great viewer experience. Our end-to-
end architecture was engineered for low latency to minimise time-behind-live
performance, and we implemented user-centric features like viewer-selectable audio
tracks. I am confident that AWS Elemental Media Services are the path to use the
cloud for live streaming at scale.’

FOX SPORTS Australia Pty Limited (FOX SPORTS) is Australia’s leading producer of
sports coverage and is home to Australia’s favorite subscription television sports
channels as well as Australia’s number one multi-sports website and app.
“Committed to improving the viewing experience on any device for fans across
Australia, FOX SPORTS is at the vanguard of sports broadcast innovation,’ said
Alastair Robertson, chief technology officer for FOX SPORTS Australia. “Delivering live
sport on this scale to our subscribers requires scale, so we’re looking to adopt the
AWS Cloud and to leverage the end-to-end live event and content monetization
workflows only available in the cloud through AWS Elemental Media Services.’

fuboTV, the live streaming TV service that offers more than 30,000 sports events per
year, has expanded its base package to include more than 65 channels including more
channels that carry sports programming. Looking to monetise content through
personalised ad insertion, fuboTV is using AWS Elemental Media Services to enable its
live offering. “Timely content and a strong user experience are central to our
business. Our growth requires continuous innovation, including launching new
channels, user interface functionality, and upgraded apps,’ said Sung Ho Choi, co-
founder of fuboTV. “AWS Elemental Media Services not only help us with these
launches, but let us quickly test new monetisation strategies, allowing us to focus our
resources on creating the best sports streaming service in the market.’

Nine is a broadcast and video content business across entertainment, news, sports
and lifestyle programming in Australia. Nine trialed the new AWS Elemental Media
Services, including AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaPackage, to
expand its live streaming video offerings through the main 9News website. “In our
preview of the new AWS Elemental Media Services, we have been impressed by the
speed of setup of an AWS Elemental MediaLive encoding, AWS Elemental
MediaPackage and Amazon CloudFront CDN workflow to rapidly start delivering a live
streaming service in minutes,’ said Mat Yelavich, Nine’s chief information officer. “We
see plenty of opportunity to mature and expand our live streaming capabilities with
AWS Elemental Media Services.’

Singapore based Spuul is one of the leading VOD service providers across the globe,
with the service being consumed across a number of platforms. To support its live
streaming service, including 150 linear TV channels for viewers in Australia and New
Zealand as well as for future global expansion, Spuul is turning to AWS Elemental
Media Services. “We must overcome immense geographic distances and time zone
differences to provide the best possible viewer experiences. We are looking to AWS
Elemental MediaLive to give us tremendous scale, elasticity, and flexibility within our
video processing and delivery infrastructure and AWS Elemental MediaPackage to
support functionalities such as channel delay, seven-day catch-up, and start-over,’
said S Mohan, co-founder & CEO, Spuul.

M2A Media, a leader in cloud media services, offers innovative live streaming and live
capture solutions to content publishers worldwide. “Running live event workflows
in the cloud allows us to deliver the flexibility, reliability and scale our customers
demand,’ said Marcus Box, chief technology officer for M2A Media. “AWS Elemental
offers a best in market transcode solution and AWS Elemental Cloud extends this with
the robustness and scale of AWS. The new AWS Elemental Media Services are a great
evolution of the product suite that will enable us to build live workflows for both
subscription and ad-supported publishers. We’re really excited about the potential of
these new products and what they can offer our live event publishers.’

As one of the largest global cinema operators with nearly 850,000 seats across 13
countries, Cinepolis is expanding its theatrical experience with the addition of multi-
platform content delivery and an OTT service known as Cinepolis KLIC. “The AWS
Elemental Media Services were a perfect fit for us as they cover many of the
requirements we had in order to achieve the resilience and quality required for our
live events and on-demand services,’ said Marco de la Cruz, sub-director, Cinepolis
KLIC. “AWS Elemental MediaLive and AWS Elemental MediaConvert could be
considered our “Cloud 2.0’ with their serverless architecture and embedded
redundancy per event. Working with AWS Elemental Media Services has enabled us to
free up time to build up redundant workflows quickly and easily as well as to focus on
innovating new services and enhancing our existing offers.’

IMAGICA Corporation is a Japanese post-production company for movies, television
programmes and commercials. “Now, with AWS Elemental MediaConvert, we can
confidently commit to customers’ schedules and deliver content in the multiple
formats at high quality at low cost while meeting deadlines. For example, AWS
Elemental MediaConvert recently transcoded 600 hours of content in only 6 hours at
high video quality. This kind of performance lets us enhance our customers’
production value,’ said Takaaki Kudo, manager R&D Group Technology Administration
Dept. for IMAGICA.

AWS Elemental Media Services integrate seamlessly with other AWS services, allowing
customers to augment their video workflows with offerings such as AWS Direct
Connect and AWS Snowball for content ingestion; Amazon CloudFront for content
delivery; Amazon CloudWatch for monitoring; and Amazon Rekognition for artificial
intelligence.

Absa looks to boost card usage over cash with a campaign from FCB

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Absa intends boosting card usage over cash with a new campaign from FCB Joburg
that utilises television, radio, out-of-home, digital, social and internal communications.

“Swiiish’, which features a protagonist who enters the lives of people paying with cash
to question that foolhardiness at various points-of-sale, takes its strategic direction
from the platform “Anything cash can do, your Absa card can do better’.

But, rather than fall back on the “Anything you can do, I can do better’ ditty made
famous (at least in the westernised, English-speaking world in the 1950s musical
“Annie Get Your Gun’), the creative treatment is quintessential modern South African
– as it should well be.

Not only does the campaign use a very colloquial piece of music specifically created to
resonate with South Africans living in our dynamic and culturally diverse society, it
includes some great characterisation and a hand movement that could well make its
way into popular culture.

“The strength of this campaign is twofold. Firstly, it’s messaging is straightforward and
easy to understand. Second, it is strongly rooted in South African insights and truths,
thereby appealing to Absa’s diverse but truly local market,’ said manager for
Integrated Marketing Campaigns, Bertus van der Walt.

Created by executive creative director Gareth Paul, with creative direction by Loyiso
Twala and Greg Russell, art direction from Thandeka Gilbert and copywriting from
Boniso Modise, Siyabonga Moloi and Sifiso Ndhlovu, elements of the campaign broke
on September 26.

The TVC flighted for the first time on 15 October, and the campaign will continue to
roll-out through mid-December.

“With 65 per cent of all transactions in South Africa still done in cash, Absa wanted to
get their customers to pay with their card more often than with cash,’ said Paul.

“The reasons for a consumer to adopt this behaviour are simple and logical – you earn
rewards when you swipe, it’s faster when you Tap and Pay, it’s safer than carrying
cash, you can track your spend on the Absa app, and it’s more convenient.”

“But, if not delivered in an engaging manner, even the best of reasons could be a
turn-off.”

“South Africans are not boring people, so we gave them an energetic and engaging
musical that’s 100 per cent Mzansi with the assistance of Tigerfight and Bomb
Production.”

“At FCB Africa, we pride ourselves on consistently delivering work that touches the
hearts and souls of ordinary South Africans while helping our clients to achieve their
business objectives. I’m certain “Swiiish’ will meet the grade,’ he said.

Watch the ad:


Credits

Creative agency: FCB Joburg
Business Unit Director: Alan Schreiber
Executive Creative Director: Gareth Paul
Creative Director: Loyiso Twala, Greg Russell
Copywriter: Bonolo Modise
Art director: Thandeka Gilbert
Agency producer Barbara Clarke
Copywriters: Sifiso Ndhlovu, Siyabonga Moloi
Strategic planner: Jade Dos Santos, Antonio Petra
Media planners: Maxus
Music production Tigerfight
TV production: Bomb
Director: Tebogo Malope
Production house producer Marc Harrison
Editor: Evy Katz
Post production: Left and Fuel Content

Video surveillance demand to increase as South Africa gets more data centre infrastructure

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Mimicking global trends, South Africa can expect an increased demand for cloud
storage on the back of several trends including Microsoft’s recent Azure announcement. It is estimated that
more than 50 per cent of global information is now housed in a cloud and according to
Brent Cary, regional sales manager, Genetec Inc., a leading innovator of open
architecture, IP-based security systems, this trend will continue through sub-Saharan
Africa. He says that the physical security industry will see an increased demand for
video surveillance as a result of the local cloud storage options. This high demand for
cloud-based storage, he says, is largely related to an increase in enterprise data and
this trend will propel the sector as a whole forward for another five years.

“With the recent announcement from Microsoft Azure, and the subsequent opening of
two local data centres in South Africa, 2018 will see increased interest in video
surveillance as a service (VSaaS) and cloud storage, as a result of the local cloud
storage option. This makes the Genetec offering more relevant and attractive locally,
and because we have been working with Microsoft Azure for more than five years, we
are well placed to assist with cloud storage and service requirements within the
physical security realm—from hybrid-Cloud or all-Cloud archiving to VSaaS.’

Cary says that he expects the demand for cloud-based services in the physical
security industry to increase, as local customers realise the cost benefits and potential
of remotely locating their IT data and functions. In 2018, the use of the cloud, in
physical security in particular, is expected to fast-track, giving the channel an
opportunity to take advantage of this emerging trend.

“Cloud services and storage offer customers a wide range of benefits—especially since
today’s IP cameras are capturing higher resolution video surveillance footage and
feature-rich analytics, and longer retention periods—all requiring greater volumes of
storage. The majority of security customers don’t have the physical space or the
budget to purchase, maintain, and cool on-premises storage arrays. The cloud is an
increasingly attractive, secure, and affordable solution,’ added Cary.

Surveillance customers will achieve great cost savings according to Cary. By sending
video data to the cloud and storing video footage in a remote database, customers
can upgrade their storage in a way that meets current and new demands, but without
providing the space requirements and budget commitment related to on-premises
storage.

Addressing the security concerns of cloud for physical storage, Cary says that today’s
cloud service providers have successfully achieved very high levels of security and
“hardened’ protocols to thwart cyber-attacks—and in most cases, this protection is
better than what can be provided by on-premises storage solutions.

“We fully expect the physical security industry to continue to move toward cloud-
based services, fueled by rising trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT)
integration. A service provider’s IT experience is going to be more important than ever
before. A customer needs to know that their entry into any cloud-based services will
really benefit the bottom line and productivity of their business,’ says Cary.

The award-winning Strike a Rock is now showing at Cinema Nouveau theatres

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Strike a Rock, directed by Aliki Saragas and winner of the 2017 Backsberg-
Encounters Audience Award for Best South African Documentary, screens in Cinema
Nouveau theatres across the country from 25 to 29 November 2017.

Strike A Rock is the story of two South African mothers and best-friends,
Primrose Sonti and Thumeka Magwangqana. They live in Nkaneng, Marikana, an
informal settlement in rural South Africa that sprung up around a mine operated by
Lonmin Plc, the third largest platinum-extractor in the world. This company has
significant legal obligations to the community that they mine under and around, but
does not comply with all their responsibilities.

This community became internationally known after the 2012 Marikana Massacre,
when 37 striking mineworkers were killed by police. However, instead of improving,
the living conditions that motivated the strike in the first place continue to worsen.
And this is what Primrose and Thumeka are fighting against.

These two inspiring women formed a women’s organisation, Sikhala Sonke (We Cry
Together), after their friend Paulina was killed by police. Over time we see them grow
into two different leaders in the search for social and economic justice. Primrose’s
ambition lands her a seat in Parliament with a new, radical opposition party. But to
take up the post she must leave Marikana. Thumeka, left behind, faces her fears as
she picks up the reigns of the resistance as a community leader, and challenges
Lonmin in a landmark Complaint against them.

In a deeply personal journey, can these two women take on the Goliath composed of
high powered enemies that appear to collude against the people of Marikana, and at
the same time maintain a friendship that is threatening to break under the weight of
this pressure?

See the screening details, HERE

FOR-A to showcase equipment at the 22nd GV Expo

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FOR-A to showcase equipment at the 22nd GV Expo

FOR-A announced that it will highlight portable video switcher, video server, ClassX
character generator, and LTO video archiving recorder solutions at the 22nd annual
Government Video Expo. FOR-A will exhibit in Booth 530 at the upcoming show, which
takes place from 29 to 30 November at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center
in Washington, D.C.

One FOR-A booth highlight at the show will be the HVS-100 portable video switcher.
Offering exceptional cost performance, the switcher features mixed HD/SD input,
frame synchronising, re-sizing engine, 2.5D wipe effects, clip memory, DVE, Chroma
keyer and DSK. The HVS-100 also features a built-in Web server that allows users to
change switcher settings from a tablet or PC. A wide variety of customers rely on
FOR-A’s HVS-100 switcher, including content creators for government, media, and
entertainment, schools, houses of worship and corporate presentation venues.

FOR-A will also showcase ODYSSEY’s Insight Production Server – a versatile four
channel playout system designed for studio and OB Van environments. Offering a Web
interface for control from any device, the multi channel video server provides a wide
range of supported wrappers and codecs for media contribution and video playout
tasks. Insight’s flexible event processor allows users to connect multiple devices and
interact with video switchers, routing switchers, CG generators, GPIO connected
devices and other studio equipment to orchestrate event triggering for a seamless
production.

FOR-A will also showcase ClassX’s 3D graphic generator at GV Expo. Earlier this year,
FOR-A became the exclusive distributor of the ClassX’s premium suite of graphics
solutions in North, Central and South America. Customers now have the ability to
integrate ClassX real-time broadcast graphics with FOR-A video switchers. ClassX
solutions have been used by TV stations, network broadcasters, sports providers,
government organisations, universities, news agencies and betting channels for more
than 25 years.

The company will also display its LTR-200HS7 LTO-7 multi codec archiving recorder at
the show. Ideal for both archiving and exchange of recorded material or programs,
highlights of the LTR-200HS7 unit include HD/SD-SDI input/output, broadcast-quality
codecs, 6 TB of internal storage for backup and MXF (OP-1a) wrapping and
unwrapping.

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