Broadcastpro – Page 30 – Virtual BroadcastPro Tech Summit | 14 – 15 Jun 2022

MENA music streaming platform Anghami has announced the launch of its live music and voice experience, ‘Live Radio’. Developed in-house by Anghami, this is the first time a streaming service globally enables users and contributors to create a social audio experience for sharing music, conversation, and more.

Live Radio offers a combination of music and voice functions for the first time, allowing any user to both listen and talk in real-time. Any user, including artists, DJs, content creators and music influencers, will be able to talk alongside playing songs, playlists and podcasts from Anghami’s library of over 57m tracks. It gives everyone the chance to participate in a real-time version of a podcast experience and, by creating their own virtual events, users will be able to bring together communities with live interaction. Other features include applauding the host, sending text comments, meeting other participants and side-chats.

Speaking about the new launch, Elie Habib, Co-founder and Chairman of Anghami, said: “The social elements of music have always been part of our vision. In fact, ‘live radio rooms’ were part of our original business pitch in 2011, as we saw the opportunity for social audio features to take off. Having been integrating social features such as stories and chats since 2017, now we are leading the way in delivering the next level of social audio to our users and our contributors. With the pandemic keeping people at home and apart, the intimacy of voice and the need to be closer to others has become more valuable and we expect to see the social audio market realise significant growth.”

Anghami launched Live Radio in beta in mid-2020, featuring text chats and other functionality ahead of the full launch which now includes voice chat for the first time. Data from the beta-phase demonstrates the additional benefits for Anghami in terms of user engagement and retention.

Elie Habib added: “Anghami has an established track record and user base which continues to help us build and leverage our wide range of consumer behavioural data to create local experiences. Our beta launch in mid-2020 displayed how focusing on creating communities and adding interaction has been our best strategic asset, boosting engagement and retention – and a tribute to the region and the music that brings it together.”

Live Radio continues to build on Anghami’s commitment to supporting new and established creative talent. The forthcoming launch of Premium Live Radio and tokens provides the opportunity for artists and creators to introduce subscription-only channels and other revenue streams.

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The Biden administration has announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will helm the National Space Council, which is the principal unit for space commerce policy activities.

Harris wrote on Twitter: “As I’ve said before: In America, when we shoot for the moon, we plant our flag on it. I am honoured to lead our National Space Council.”

According to an official, Kamala intends to put her own personal stamp on the council. Her priorities are focused on policies including the advancement of STEM education, cybersecurity, supporting the long-term sustainability of commercial space activity, and diversity in the workforce.

The National Space Council (NSC) was first created in 1989 by the administration of George HW Bush to review the US space policy and make recommendations to the president. The former President Donald Trump re-established the council in 2017, after it had been inactive since 1993.

Harris follows former Vice President Mike Pence, who was the previous chair of the council.

The Biden administration has expressed support for the Artemis programme and the Space Force, but Harris is expected to bring additional policies to the fore.

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Regional podcast network Finyal Media has launched a sequel to the classic Arabic fable Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Entitled The 40 Thieves, it’s a spin on the classic tale that revolves around a new female lead called Shaden, the daughter of Ali Baba.

The contemporary take on the folk tale features a female protagonist in a conscious effort to add a modern twist to traditional stories in the Arab world by highlighting strong and independent women.

The 15-episode series is available exclusively on Deezer throughout the month of Ramadan, after which it will be rolled out on other podcast platforms. New episodes are released every other day in the lead-up to Eid.

The 40 Thieves is the first serialised show where the story stretches across multiple episodes, unlike previous productions that featured standalone episodes.

Speaking about the new series, Mshari Alonaizy, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Finyal Media, said: “Telling stories with a modern take on classic tales that our listeners know and love is something we love to do. Bringing these characters and folklores into the 21st century gives them a new lease of life while still keeping them authentic and true to the originals.”

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The King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for space cooperation. The implementation of the space cooperation has been assigned to Saudi Space Commission (SSC), according to a report in Asharq Al-Awsat.

SSC Chairman Prince Sultan bin Salman and ISRO Director Kailasavadivoo Sivan held a virtual conference last month to discuss the MoU further. At the conference, both parties discussed their partnership in research, science, expert training, technology, and cooperation in space exploration missions.

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Los Angeles’ New Beverly Cinema is set to reopen on June 1 after being closed for over a year due to Covid-19.

The theatre’s official Twitter account posted a photo of their marquee, which reads: “Re-opening June 1, 2021, because we love showing movies.” No other information was given on the reopening.

Last March, New Beverly Cinema announced that they would be closed until further notice amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The news comes almost two months after the reopening of theatres at reduced capacity was allowed amid vaccine distribution and lowered Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations.

The 300-seat theatre opened in 1929 at Beverly Boulevard near LaBrea Boulevard in Los Angeles. The two-time Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino subsidised New Beverly owner Sherman Torgan to the tune of $5K per month to keep the location open; Torgan, who passed away in 2007, owned the theatre at 7165 Beverly Blvd since 1978. Tarantino became the new landlord in the wake of Torgan’s passing, holding the line on developers who yearned to turn the venue into Supercuts.

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From left: NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Victor Glover, and Mike Hopkins, and JAXA astronauts Soichi Noguchi inside SpaceXs Crew Dragon capsule Resilience after splashdown on May 2, 2021. Photo credit: Bill Ingalls / NASA

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying four astronauts returned to Earth creating history after a 53-year hiatus as the last such mission from NASA was undertaken in December 1968.

The capsule splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City after a six-and-a-half-hour flight from the ISS as night-vision images relayed by NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft showed.

The capsule left the space station on late May 1 after bad weather at the mission’s main splashdown site twice delayed the crew’s return.

Crew-1 marked SpaceX’s second crewed flight to the space station and its first such flight to last for six months. The mission launched into orbit on November 15.

SpaceX’s first astronaut mission, Demo-2 in May 2020, was a two-month test flight that carried two astronauts to the station. Although SpaceX’s third crewed mission has launched already, today’s return marked only the second crewed splashdown for the program. That third flight, called Crew-2, won’t splash down until later this year.

This Crew-1 Dragon capsule, which astronauts nicknamed Resilience, carried Hopkins and his fellow NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi.

The Crew-1 astronauts were recovered by SpaceX within about 30 minutes. Soon after, they boarded helicopters for the mainland en route to Houston, home of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Crew-1 overlapped for about a week in orbit with its successor, the four-astronaut Crew-2 mission. That crew includes NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The quartet will remain in orbit until the fall, when the Crew-3 mission will head to space to take their place.

SpaceX is one of two commercial companies with NASA contracts to fly astronauts in space. The other company, Boeing, is developing its Starliner crew capsule for NASA missions. That vehicle is expected to fly on a second uncrewed test flight later this year but has not yet flown astronauts.

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Ooredoo Telecom has announced its collaboration with Nokia, in which Nokia will be supplying Ooredoo Kuwait 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) equipment for the operators customer premises. Ooredoo will now offer the Nokia FastMile 5G Gateway as a premium internet device for residential and business customers.

Ooredoo Kuwait is using FWA to extend the reach of its fibre network to premises not easily connected with direct fibre lines. This will support the company to significantly increase its fixed broadband customer base across the country.

Nokias self-installable 5G FWA gateway incorporates Wi-Fi 6 with self-optimising mesh technology to optimise performance in real-time and includes advanced antenna designs with higher throughput and better coverage resulting in improved customer experience and a lower operational cost for Ooredoo.

Commenting on the partnership, Essa Haider, Director of Network Planning and Design, Ooredoo Kuwait, said: 5G Fixed Wireless Access is essential for Kuwaits economic growth and diversification, and were delighted to be partnering with Nokia for this.

Rima Manna, Head of the Middle East Market Unit, Nokia MEA, added: We are extremely proud to have been selected by Ooredoo to offer our FWA FastMile solution to customers who want a great experience and easy installation. With this significant deal, we strengthen our partnership with Ooredoo Kuwait and looking forward to working with the operator more closely to deliver compelling 5G experiences to its customers.

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NollywoodWeek Film Festival, the first and only Nigerian film festival organised in Paris has taken its eighth edition online. This year’s line-up will be available to a global online audience from May 6-9, 2021. The selection of films has also expanded beyond Nigeria to include high quality, thought-provoking, and entertaining productions.

The organisers of the film festival have shared that this year’s edition will showcase films that hint at the emergence of a new style within the Nigerian film industry. “Arthouse and experimental films are finding a place in a landscape that has been dominated by a mainly commercial agenda in the past,” said festival director Nadira Shakur.

The festival will feature a range of films by a young group of Nigerians who are breaking the old codes and setting the new trends in the types of stories they tell and the cinematographic style they use.

Nadira Abdus-Shakur added: “This new approach to making movies is showing an incredible amount of maturity, drawing inspiration from styles across the globe, yet staying true to a strong Nigerian identity. Filmmakers are tackling more diverse themes such as mental health which we see in the film For Maria or in About a Boy which will be one of the world-premieres at the festival this year. The opening film All Na Vibes which tackles the issue of alienated youth in Nigeria’s urban centres is another example of this new wave of filmmakers who are featuring new voices and innovative story-telling.”

Serge Noukoué, Co-founder of the film festival, commented: “Nollywood is now an inspiration for so many other countries not just in Africa but around the globe and as such, it is only natural that the festival expands in order to create this dialogue between the Nigerian film industry and the many other budding industries around the world that are emulating Nollywood’s success.”

Despite being online, the festival will still include Q&A sessions after each film. There will also be panel discussions on screenwriting, funding the African animation sector and distribution of African content. The film festival will showcase over 30 entries, including feature films, animations, and short films.

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Egyptian film Souad by director Ayten Amin will have its international premiere at the 20th Tribeca Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place from June 9-20, 2021.

The film will be screened within the festival’s International Narrative Competition, competing with five other works, all by directors from European countries.

Souad revolves around the lives of two teenage sisters; one of them holds a secret life in the virtual world. Leading a double life, Souad presents different versions of herself to her conservative society and her tradition-flaunting peers. The film speaks volumes about various social dynamics.

The film is directed by Ayten Amin, who wrote the script together with Mahmoud Ezzat. The film stars Bassant Ahmed, Basmala Elghaiesh and Hussein Ghanem.

Souad is a co-production between Egyptian producer Sameh Awaad, marking his production debut, Tunisian producer Dora Bouchoucha, producer and screenwriter Mohamed Hefzy, Egyptian producer Mark Lotfy and Wim Wenders.

It was one of 56 films at the Cannes Film Festival’s Official Selection for 2020, an edition which was cancelled due to the coronavirus. The film was also chosen to participate in Berlinale 2021.

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Chinese technology company Hisense has entered into a partnership with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to become an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Hisense will be able to connect with FIFA’s global audience from on-site engagement opportunities to logo visibility across a range of FIFA platforms to global advertising campaigns. The collaboration, which began in 2017 for the tournament in Russia, also includes the opportunity for Hisense to present to its customers specially-created, video-on-demand programming using past FIFA World Cup content, delivered through its integrated VIDAA smart TV platform.

Speaking about the deal, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome Hisense on board as an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup. We are delighted to partner with this internationally respected brand, which also has a growing presence in the sports market, as we work towards Qatar 2022. FIFA and Hisense are both focused on technology, innovation and giving people the best possible experience. I am confident that this collaboration will support the global objectives of both organisations and contribute to the success of what is sure to be an amazing event next year.”

Jia Shaoqian, CEO of Hisense Group, added: “Continued investment in world-class sporting events represents Hisense’s determination in becoming a global brand. It helps Hisense build stronger relationships with its global consumers and accelerates the company’s globalisation process. It also creates a solid foundation for Hisense to compete with the world’s most innovated and leading brands in order to become a premier brand worldwide. ”

According to research around the event, the sponsorship of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia boosted Hisense TV’s awareness in China by 12% and globally by 6%, with the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Russia, Spain, and Japan performing particularly well.

The quadrennial FIFA World Cup is a celebration for global football and an essential opportunity for brands to show technological achievements and enhance fans’ viewing experience. Hisense adheres to innovation to provide multiple solutions for the increasingly diverse needs of consumers and to boost industrial development.

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will take place from 21 November until 18 December.

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