Al Arab Integrates Viz Mosart

Al Arab, an independent 24-hour news channel launching this year, is being built around two Viz Mosart studio automation systems.

Al Arab, which will broadcast from Bahrain, is relying on Viz Mosart to help it deliver high production values while creating a consistent user experience and workflow. The project marks Vizrt's first major sale of Viz Mosart licences since the newscast automation solutions specialist became part of the Vizrt group.
The deal, for two Viz Mosart newsroom automation licences, will cover two studios in Manama, the Bahraini capital. The larger studio will be for a 24-hour rolling news live broadcast and the Viz Mosart studio automation will control equipment from Snell, Sony, Calrec, Avid, and Vizrt graphics, among others. The Viz Mosart system will also integrate closely with Avid iNews and with the LSB Virtual Studio Management (VSM) switching and management system.
The second studio will be used to produce news features and packages to insert into the rolling news output, where Viz Mosart will interface with the Avid Airspeed 5000 editing environment and Vizrt graphics. The Al Arab installation will be the first Viz Mosart installation which interfaces directly with Avid Interplay. The Viz Mosart ActiveX functionality in Viz Mosart allows it to appear as a web client to Avid Interplay.
"We believe that Viz Mosart will help us to quickly make a big impact," said Yahia Al Masri, Chief Operating Officer of Al Arab News Channel. "Our audiences look to us to be the first with the news and clear, independent, in-depth analysis. Viz Mosart will enable us to consistently deliver engaging, graphics-rich news television to our viewers, all through a lean and efficient studio operation."
"This is our first major sale of Viz Mosart licences since it became part of the Vizrt group, as well as the first sale to an Arabic-language news broadcaster," said Francois Laborie, Chief Commercial Officer of Vizrt. "The fundamental reason for choosing Viz Mosart remains the same: by providing continuous improvement in workflows we help broadcasters make better news, by providing huge efficiencies, and by allowing them to focus where it matters: on the news-gathering."
Al Arab also purchased a compliment of Vizrt broadcast graphics and media asset management (MAM) tools for the news channel. These include a newsroom workflow for journalists to control media content from within the Avid iNews interface.
A series of Viz Pilot templates allows the journalist to search for clips in Viz One, Vizrt's MAM system, as well as choose and edit graphic templates. The edited graphics and video are added to a playlist that will be controlled by Viz Mosart in the control room. Additional tools such as the mapping system, Viz World, and the design system, Viz Artist, compliment this workflow.

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(IT/JP)