DUBAI, UAE—The Boqin Group is no stranger to working under pressure. Founded as a boutique sports management consultancy in 2008, we’ve tried to embody the same innovative, forward-thinking philosophy that Dubai is known for across the world. Our approach has always been future-focused, and we’ve always tried to mitigate risk to create better products.
Part of that approach is adopting innovative technology, so when we were asked to facilitate a live broadcast production from atop of Dubai’s The View, Palm Jumeirah observation deck with Australia’s Channel 9, we knew we could source the right tech.
Even if we only had a few days to do it.
Top of the View
The mission was clear: Timed to broadcast during the week leading up to the Dubai World Cup thoroughbred horse race, Channel 9 wanted a live TV linkup from the top of The View, situated at the iconic Palm Jumeirah island in Dubai for its primetime sports show. With a TV audience in the millions, the workflow had to incorporate a two-way live interview between Channel 9 in Australia and Australian broadcasting legend Eddie McGuire in Dubai, and it had to happen in eight days.
Channel 9 was keen for us to use Dejero for connectivity, which we had never used before. We contacted Dejero who understood our requirements straight away. Through their local partners, Dejero was able to quickly deliver an EnGo mobile transmitter in Dubai, as well as set up connectivity to an existing Dejero WayPoint receiver at Channel 9 in Australia.
The Dejero kit checked many boxes for us: the location was challenging, the timing was tight, and we needed to guarantee bandwidth to get the job done successfully. The big question was, how do we get this done quickly without any drops across our audio and video feeds?
Island Connectivity
The equipment arrived two days before the live broadcast. Palm Jumeirah is effectively a man-made island that reaches a kilometer into the sea and The View is 54 stories up, so the production’s location was already challenging.
Our biggest concern was bandwidth, and while the EnGo video transmitter can combine IP networks with cellular and satellite connectivity for maximum versatility, the Dubai Palm’s tech team was able to guarantee bandwidth on its internal system over fiber. We simply plugged a 100-foot cable into the EnGo and we were done.
Our second challenge was the weather. Concerned about audio quality, given the arrival of seasonal winds—called “Shamals”— we set up in a more sheltered location on the 52nd floor, but when Eddie McGuire arrived he insisted on the original location.
He was right, of course. It was the money shot, with a stunning vista of Dubai in the background.
Dejero made this last-minute move much easier and cut setup time considerably. We moved the entire setup in under 15 minutes, hid Eddie’s lavalier mic in his lapel to protect it from the wind, ran the return audio to his earpiece and started running tests with five minutes to go.
When we went live, the EnGo transmitted high-quality video at incredibly low latency. It also provided two-way, duplex voice comms between the Channel 9 studio and the camera operators in Dubai for enhanced coordination, as well as interruptible foldback to Eddie’s in-ear monitors.
The live segment was flawless.
The speed of setup, supply and expertise from the Dejero team were all factors in the success of this project. As we say, Boqin is no stranger to working under pressure, but we had the best support to test and succeed.
More information is available at www.dejero.com.
