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This year is the 50th anniversary of Alamiya Media and Advertising, a company
which arguably pioneered media production in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and
has had to rapidly adapt to the sweeping internationalisation initiated by the
state since 2016.
“There's no small production in Saudi,” says Chief Broadcast
Officer, Miguel Caso. “Even for a press conference which you’d think is going
to be 3-4 camera is going to be 14. Even our smallest trucks are 20 cameras.”
Alamiya recently signed a three year agreement with DAZN to
be its production facilities partner on Riyadh Season boxing events.
Sultan Al Muheisen, Chairman & CEO, Alamiya Media, said:
“In a short time the Middle East, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has
leaped to the forefront of becoming the house of some of the biggest and
renowned sporting events globally. The combination of Alamiya’s production
facilities with DAZN’s host broadcasting capabilities and expertise, will
ensure exciting sports content for existing fans and new audiences.”
IMG also signed the Riyadh-based outfit in a new five year
deal starting from the 2024-25 season to provide facilities and infrastructure
for its host broadcast of the Saudi Pro League (SPL) on behalf of the Saudi
Arabian Football Federation (SAFF).
It runs a fleet consisting of 26 mobile facilities, almost
all capable of 4K and at least mid-sized productions. Caso explains, “Our older trucks are HD
1080i/50 but we keep investing and integrating new facilities and pretty much
all the trucks in both in the football league and major competitions regardless
of the match being in HD or 4K are switchable to UHD with standardised technology.
Recent investment has migrated Alamiya toward Sony cameras
with EVS servers and away from Grass Valley.
“Our aim is to meet international broadcasting standard tech
that is being used in World Cup or World Championships,” he says.
For transmission it has a fleet of 17 SNGs mostly 4K capable
encrypted with ATEME solutions. It also runs a special cameras department which
houses kit like a Skycam aerial cable system, cinematic style cameras, drones
and the AGITO buggy.
“They come up with ideas which we then present to clients,” Caso says. “The Spanish
and Italian Federations are very flexible and come back to us every year to
stage the Super Cups and ask what’s new that we can implement that we haven’t
used before. We keep up-to-date on the latest technologies by attending NAB or
IBC.”
Alamiya also has studios that mainly cater to local
broadcaster MBC and the Saudi Sports Company (SSC) which owns broadcast rights
to the Saudi Pro League, King’s Cup and the Saudi Super Cup.
It is in the process of expanding these facilities into an International
Broadcast Centre. In part this is to implement a remote production model, not
only for the Saudi Pro League, but for a range of other sports and
entertainment clients in the country, and also to prepare for hosting larger
scale international events.
“We aim to build a international broadcast centre from where
we run distribution, contribution and remote graphic operation for domestic and
international events,” Caso says. “Saudi Arabia is a very big country, so it
does make a lot of sense to move to a remote model instead of running trucks
out.”
IMG will also help SPL and SAFF to implement advanced remote
production technologies, allowing producers to oversee matches across multiple
cities on the same day, ensuring that the highest production standards are
maintained regardless of location.
“Little by little investments are being made and we're on
that road but connectivity is the biggest issue. It is patchy and is a wider
strategy of the country to improve. While the main venues in Jeddah and Riyadh
are already connected with dark fibre that’s not yet the case all over the
country.”
Alamiya employs about 400 people, 300 of whom are production
and technical crew and many of those are Saudi nationals.
“It’s challenging because media is such a new industry but
we have some very, very good local engineers. Our talent pool is international.
We have EVS operators, floor managers, VT coordinators, camera crew and even TV
directors from Egypt, Spain, Portugal, UK, Romania, South Africa and Saudi
nationals.”
Casco himself has been with the organisation for nine years,
long enough to have witnessed substantial change in the country.
“It was a totally different landscape in 2016 for sure. Alamiya were doing the
SFL and many other local events but the market was very domestic such as with
camel racing competitions.
Then, as the Kingdom opened, the company had to grow in
terms of skills, personnel, technology and investment. A few years ago,
entertainment was not a thing. There was no entertainment. In the region, the
centre of entertainment was Dubai. Now everything has shifted. All the big
concerts and sports competitions in the Middle East are being staged in Saudi
Arabia.
“So we had to switch strategy. Whereas previously, we had to
branch out to gain more business, now, on the contrary, most of the eggs are in
the basket of Saudi Arabia and we’re trying to cater for that.”
Caso, who is Spanish, has a background in economics and an MBA
in business administration. “Little by little I built the production technology
knowledge to run the company,” he says.
Last December, Alamiya was involved in providing coverage of
the announcement of Saudi as the host country for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
“It is a key project for this country and something that
really excites soccer fans here,” Caso says. “There is a genuine passion for
football here unlike in some other parts of the region. The passion is like
being in Spain.
“Everybody understands that it’s very strategic for the
country in terms of opening to the world, but there is genuine excitement to
have the world’s best football team competing on home soil.”
In terms of investment, venue infrastructure is being developed,
new stadiums have been announced and some projects are finished. Production remains
challenge because of the big disparities in terms of existing stadium facilities.
“The objective for the World Cup is that it will be played
in 11 newly built stadiums or entirely refurbished stadiums,” Caso says. “It
will be top-notch technology. The designs for the one in Neom is mind blowing.”
The proposed 46,000-capacity stadium in the Neom
megadevelopment will have a pitch situated more than 350 meters above ground
and, like the rest of the city, will be run on renewable energy, wind and solar
power.
“You can imagine the budgets that are going there. In terms
of the technology the biggest investment has to be in connectivity. Satellite
is good but events like this require a lot of connectivity for all the
different broadcasters to be able to perform their duties.
“As a company we are gearing up for it and hope to be part
of it. In our technical investment plan we also take into consideration the
needs of previous World Cups, mapping that, but without losing sight that
technology will change. That’s the tricky part. Knowing something is coming to
you, but learning to make the investments in the right time.
“I'm not a prophet but I'm sure something different in terms
of camera or workflow will appear between now and 2034. A World Cup always sets
the bar for football production. We are mindful of that ambition in the build
of our IBC that can connect not only our clients, but the country to other
productions and the world.
“I can’t give you exact numbers but you can imagine the [cost]
for this ecosystem to be created.”
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