Al Jazeera Arabic, replaced a failing newsroom system with a new workflow to streamline operational efficiencies.
Original article published by BroadcastPro ME.
In an exclusive interview with Vijaya Cherian, Miljenko Logozar, who headed the project and Ali Elhusseini, Programme Manager, provide more details about the installation
SnapshotClient: Al Jazeera Media Network
Objective: To put in place a transitional and sophisticated newsroom system and related elements in the workflow at Al Jazeera Arabic until a more comprehensive and fully operational system can go live in Q4 2016.
Key vendors: Avid, Vizrt, Telestream, TSL, Pebble Beach, VSM, Dataminer, Calrec
With this project, the team achieved the following:
Update all AJA newsroom workflows to be compliant with the new technology and migrate all tape-based workflows to fully file-based ones
Design (create AutoCAD drawings, cable list, installation guidelines) and physically install new equipment
Build new network infrastructure in the newsroom and operational areas
Move to the new Pebble Beach Marina playout system in the transmission area
Upgrade video workflow in the creative department with the installation of new workstations with Adobe Creative Cloud and Media Composer applications
Install 120 computers in the newsroom and upgrade nearly 100 existing ones
Give training to nearly 800 employees (from the newsroom, technology and operations as well as the creative departments)
Move to a new control room and move to Mosart operations
Upgrade the full Vizrt infrastructure, playout, storage and design tools
Fit out a total of 11 edit suites for news and promos
The projectAl Jazeera's Workplace Transformation project has been the talk of the region since 2011 but it looks like the pieces of the jigsaw may finally be falling into place with a tentative completion date in Q4 of 2016. One more piece fell into place with the transitional upgrade of the newsroom system at Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA) in December 2015. Miljenko Logozar, Director of Technology Solutions & Integration at Al Jazeera, headed this project along with Head of Network Operations Standards, Ali Elhusseini, who served as Programme Manager on this project.
Al Jazeera Arabic (AJA) was in dire need of a new and robust newsroom system, explains Logozar. For those who are not familiar with Logozar's credentials, he is known as the man who helped build Al Jazeera Balkans (AJB) in Sarajevo, from scratch - literally.
My passion has always been to move channels forward through new technical and operational challenges, he says, and is presently engaged in projects that are being undertaken to migrate the network from a broadcast environment to an IP and virtualised environment.
At AJB, Logozar was responsible for everything required to build a TV channel from the civil design and broadcast technology to helping with the recruitment of staff for the Technology and Operations department. His core specialty has always been building or moving to new facilities. Logozar also led the technical design team that delivered AJAM in New York in 2013.
In this case, Al Jazeera Arabic was working with a Thomson Grass Valley News production system and an outdated version of Avid's iNEWS Newsroom Computer System for the last ten years.
The lack of upgrades to the system for many years has resulted in health and performance failures, along with serious hardware issues. When spare parts were required, we had to source them from commercial websites such as eBay, as they were no longer available from the official suppliers, so our Executive Director Mohamad Abuagla gave us the green light to proceed with the planning and execution of this critical project, Logozar says.
With the Al Jazeera Workplace Transformation project announced in 2011, the team was hoping to wait until a complete system was implemented and fully delivered later this year.
Over the last two years, however, it became evident that the issues with the AJA production system had become critical, with the risk of the channel falling off air, explains Logozar.
Waiting could have become fatal for the channel.
The AJWT project delivery for AJA was too far in the future and as such, it was necessary to urgently implement an intermediate solution to replace the old and unstable systems at AJA in the summer of 2015, he points out.
Thus began the Al Jazeera Arabic project, which went live in December from Doha after months of preparation, testing and rehearsals.
The transitional system, which is based on Avid technology, paves the way for a fuller upgrade to AJA's newsroom, which is due to come into operation by Q4 2016, when the workplace transformation project is also scheduled for completion. The system promises greater networking and sharing of material between Doha and Al Jazeera's other newsrooms worldwide.
The installation includes a VSM main control system in the production control room (PCR) as well as a Viz Mosart main playout application for playing the video files.
The new Viz Mosart user interface in the PCR is the first step towards more optimised AJA PCR workflows in the future, explains Logozar.
We have a Telestream Vantage in place. It represents the main transcoding farm for all incoming and outgoing files. Vantage is integrated with Avid Interplay via Avid web services. The complete electrical power infrastructure in the PCR and the edit rooms is monitored and managed by TSL power distribution units.
To elaborate, the Telestream system is a fully redundant file-based workflow solution. It integrates Telestream's Vantage Transcode Pro Connect, Analysis and Avid Advanced options running on GPU-accelerated Telestream Lightspeed servers alongside an Avid news system. The Telestream Vantage transcode farm is used to ingest media into the news production workflow. Its
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Al Jazeera Arabic, replaced a failing newsroom system with a new workflow to streamline operational efficiencies. 
