Cabsat 2013 provides unrivalled platform for brisk business

The 19th edition of CABSAT kicked off on 12 March and concludes today, 14 March, drawing a wide range of broadcast and digital media professionals from the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Held at Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), the exhibition attracted more than 850 exhibitors from 57 countries, bringing the very best technologies the world has to offer. Alongside this comprehensive exhibition were a number of conference themes, touching subjects as diverse as internet television and planning for satellite capacity in Africa.

Promising business deals

Exhibitors have reported serious business leads and a diverse range of trade visitors and enquiries from industry professionals this year.

Paddy Roache, Director and General Manager of Hitachi Kokusai Electric Europe said: "CABSAT is rapidly becoming more important to Hitachi than ever before with a bigger team, our regional representatives wider spread at the event and for this first time we have our team from Turkey - they say the exhibition is highly successful for them. CABSAT draws a large audience and I think it's been a very successful exhibition - the quality of visitors has been high and they are approaching us with real projects, real budgets and are placing orders for real business."

Hidetoshi Saito, Sales and Marketing Director at Yamaha Music Gulf FZE said: "We have received around 30 serious business enquiries from buyers who are interested in our new products and want to experience and test them at CABSAT. The event is a very good opportunity for us to showcase our products and I have seen it grow in size over the past three years that we have participated - this gives us access to more potential trade visitors and business than before."

Said Bacho, Vice President Middle East and South Africa, Harris commented: "We have enjoyed our participation at CABSAT over the years and this year is no exception. The show is very productive for us as we have always enjoyed great success, not only to develop business relationships and move forward, but also to close business deals on the show floor. We have closed orders and used CABSAT to launch four new products, one of which is a global launch."

State-of-the-art product launches

A vast range of product launches were seen at CABSAT, many of which were regional firsts for the broadcast and digital media industry in the GCC.

Oasis Enterprises LLC, which is the exclusive distributor of JVC products in the GCC launched a new JVC Professional shoulder mounted events camera at CABSAT 2013. The GY-HM70 camcorder boasts JVC's latest Falconbird technology, hot-swappable batteries and enhanced low-light performance. In addition, the exhibitor reported that British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will purchase more than 500 units of JVC Professional's GY-HM650 network-enabled camcorder, to be used in newsgathering operations throughout the UK and globally.

Yamaha and Steinberg recently joined forces to create an advanced production system, Nuage, which empowers professionals in the television, advertising, film, and media industries with unprecedented capabilities and efficiency. This collaboration was seen at CABSAT 2013, with the regional launch of Nuage in the Middle East, Africa and CIS markets. Toshihiro Yamamoto, Managing Director of Yamaha Music Gulf FZE, comments: "The Nuage system solution is the quintessence of merging dedicated post-production hardware and software seamlessly together to one complete studio environment, with the Nuage console and Nuendo 6 representing the most sophisticated platform for audio post-production available today. We are excited to launch Nuage at CABSAT 2013; an event which we believe provides a great showcase for the product to Broadcast and Post-production industry professionals in the region."

Evolving technologies

Creating a buzz at CABSAT 2013 was 4K technology, which offers four times the resolution of HD cameras with several exhibitors showcasing the latest in 4K products.

Paul Atkinson, European Pro Video Product Specialist at Canon Europe Ltd said: "For the first time we are able to introduce the entire cinema EOS range to Middle East customers and audience including the entry level C100 to the 4K C500. 4K currently has cinema as its primary outlet but it is a trend that will definitely come to the broadcast industry as well. We're finding that people are quite interested in 4K capture now for HD output." Atkinson added that just as HD was initially expensive and rare in the market, 4K technology is also growing in popularity and will be more widely available in cameras and television sets.

Knowledge exchange platform

Concluded yesterday (Wednesday), the Broadcast Conference has touched for two days on key issues for the industry, including a session on providing the satellite platforms to cater to the high demand of digital television in Africa. The other CABSAT 2013 conference, GVF Menasat @ CABSAT Summit, which is closing today, is presented by Global VSAT Forum (GVF) in cooperation with DWTC, and is regarded as one of the most influential forums for the discussion of hot topics in the satellite industry.

Specialist sessions in the two conferences have discussed hot topics ranging from the growth of the satellite industry and new techniques in covering live sport, to how the service-oriented architecture can transform automated workflows and asset management.