Partnerships and launches announced at CABSAT to shape the industry as a content powerhouse
Content providers need to collaborate across borders and disciplines to create a stronger media and content infrastructure catering to changing global consumer habits, according to Martin Gaiss, Former SVP Global Content at 20th Century Fox.
“We know that content consumption will keep changing, and this region is no exception. This is why content providers need to create the wave of change instead of riding it. Everything is becoming more and more connected; this is why smart brands and entities will create a world around their consumer from the moment they enter in contact with their brand.”
Gaiss’ comments were made during the opening session of the CABSAT Content Congress at the Dubai World Trade Centre, where he addressed the latest trends in consumer content and how providers can stay one step ahead to anticipate and proactively provide offerings that are relevant to audiences, across all media.
Added Gaiss: “The Middle East is a vibrant region and there is definitely a general excitement about the content and broadcast industry here regardless of the current barriers. Industry professionals here have to reach across the aisle to make this region the powerhouse it really deserves to be.”
Speaking about the role of CABSAT in impacting the broadcast and content industry trends, Gaiss said: “Given the constantly changing and ever-evolving global landscape, events like CABSAT play an accelerator role through offering the right platform not only to bring together professionals from all over the world, but also to give them the opportunity to hear different, challenging views and encourage them to embrace change that eventually leads to an overall evolution of the industry.”
Mergers and partnerships are paramount in expanding the Middle East’s market. To that end, CABSAT 2018 has already seen a host of announcements and launches, including partnership announcements such as Talia Limited and Arabsat’s multi-year agreement through which Talia Limited will offer high-quality IP VSAT services in Ka band to Iraq and Afghanistan that utilise the smaller, more affordable 75cm VSAT antennas.
Another leading industry player, Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) announced the broadening of its satellite and media solutions with the addition of IP-based delivery solutions and Over-The-Top (OTT) service at CABSAT.
In addition to providing a key platform for networking and partnership opportunities, CABSAT also allows satellite industry experts to bring new innovative solutions to the region.
Broadcasting company Rohde & Schwarz brought four new solutions to the Middle East: R&S VENICE channel playout, a new approach to live ingest, media processing and channel playout; R&S AVHE100 encoding and multiplexing solution with OTT features that can efficiently generate streaming formats in parallel with broadcast multiplexes on a single platform; a solution for live contribution over public Internet, RelayCaster for live contribution over public internet services; and a monitoring and multiviewer solution with latest standards, R&S PRISMON that runs interoperable implementations of the latest drafts for SMPTE 2110, AMWA IS-04, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby E codecs.
CABSAT is the leading platform for the broadcast, production, content delivery, digital media, and satellite sectors across MEASA, fostering disruptive innovation, creation, distribution, and monetisation opportunities in the regional market.