By James Ratemo
An international film and broadcasting conference kicks off in Nairobi on Tuesday to showcase latest global technologies in Africa.
The event comes at a time when convergence of technology has seen wireless services increase their share of the television market, Safaricom’s partnership with M-Net Africa to offer soccer and reality shows being a case in point.
Regional filming and broadcasting experts will be seeking ways to promote local content, and adopt the latest technologies to boost Africa’s growth.
Some of these technologies will be on show at the three-day conference that has been organised by AITEC Africa.
It is being held under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and Communication, and targets to sell Kenya as filming destination and an ICT hub.
In an Interview with The Standard, Kenya Film Association Vice Chairman, Mr Ernest Munyi said inadequate funding and too little local content fails the film sector.new film language
He urged film producers to embrace Kiswahili as a new film language for Africa and to produce productions saleable abroad.
Munyi said Kenya’s Riverwood, an equivalent of America’s Hollyhood and Nigeria’s Nollyhood, is quickly growing and would be boosted by the high profile conference. Dubbed African Broadcast and Film Conference, the event has already attracted over 50 broadcasting, mobile phone and filmmaking experts.
"Different equipment vendors will brief participants on how they see the technologies changing over the next five years and how their equipment will respond to these changes," said James Mwangi, Managing Director, AITEC Africa.
"The conference comes at a turning point for the industry, when new technologies, services and business models are being rolled out," said Suhayl Esmailjee, Chief Operating Officer of the Wananchi Group, the lead Ssonsor of the conference.
The conference opens as MultiChoice Africa introduced six new channels on its DStv platform.
The channels include BBC Entertainment (120), BBC knowledge (125), BBC Chubbies (306), ESPN (channel 231) and SetMax, a 24-hour premium Indian movie channel.
"MultiChoice Kenya has already launched DSTV mobile that enable professionals on the move to watch multiple TV channels," said Stephen Isaboke, General Manager, Multichoice Africa.
Isaboke said for the first time the most watched soccer programme, Soccer Africa, will be broadcast live on Thursday at 2pm from the expo venue (KICC).
Renowned SuperSport presenters Thomas Mlambo and Thomas Kwenaite together with world-class footballer, Daniel Amokachi, will be in the city for the programme.
Other supporting organisations for the event include the Communications Commission of Kenya, the Kenya Film Commission and the African Broadcast Network.
The emerging convergence of digital devices is a revolution that includes the Internet and mobile devices, and will eventually see their complete integration.value of convergence
The latest third generation (3-G) mobile phones, like the one on offer by Safaricom and M-Net Africa, act like cameras, computers and television sets, and allow users to receive TV by cable, satellite and Internet.
However, the true value of such convergence is likely to be seen once the various fibre-optic cable projects come online, with most mobile network hoping to move their high-speed value added services onto the super-fast link offered by the new links.
Fibre-optic cables are also more secure and far less costly to lease in the long run than satellite space, which is increasingly getting to be too congested.
What is needed are consistent research teams working in cooperation and in competition towards well-defined visionary and challenging goals.
NEM will provide the vision and the goals and will work with the EU and the national research authorities in the European countries to ensure Europe maintains a competitive networked and electronic media industry benchmarked with other business regions in the world. partnerships
The conference is expected to broaden partnerships by various broadcasts and film media across the continent using the latest technologies to lower costs of production and release quality products.
The increased consumption of broadcast content on non-TV devices has largely been driven by carriers and mobile operators seeking to lock in new multimedia revenue streams early enough.
Participants would do well to also examine how these changes are affecting traditional broadcast value chains. Opportunities and issues will emerge as telecoms operators’ battle one another for spectrum during the transition from analogue to digital terrestrial TV transmission.
Sunday’s theme day "Content production: technology, creativity and business in an era of headlong change" will provide invaluable insight into the broadcast sector’s perspective of the creative and commercial implications of the rapidly changing media landscape.
Another area, which big networks like CNN are already exploiting to good advantage is user-generated content, which allows viewers to send in stories and pictures via their mobile phones.
