Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka to be ‘captured’ by GlobeCast
GlobeCast – the global content management and Distribution Company has been given the contract by the Sri Lankan government to design, build and operate the television transmission for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Sri Lanka next month, a senior state official said.
GlobeCast, a subsidiary of France Telecom, manages and transports 10 million hours of video and other rich media annually through satellite and fibre network to governments, broadcasters and retail clients.
The company will up link satellites to telecast live in five continents, the inauguration ceremony of CHOGM and other major events, Information and Media Ministry Secretary Charitha Herath told the Business Times.
It will also provide Satellite News Gathering (SNG) and live satellite broadcast facilities and five uplink paths, routing all feeds via its global satellite and fibre network bringing in specialist technical facilities and staff as required, he revealed.
GlobeCast was the media service provider for several previous Commonwealth summits and Sri Lanka has given the contract to the same company following the CHOGM traditions, he disclosed.
The Ministry of Media will spend a sum of Rs. 975 million for the complete CHOGM coverage and hosting 1000 journalists and other media related activities connected the summit.
“The Commonwealth funds 50 per cent of the costs and the Sri Lankan Government is sponsoring the rest of the activities. We want to showcase Sri Lanka to the CHOGM delegates, so it is not actually a waste of money,” he added. The Media Centre for CHOGM 2013 will be located at the main meeting venue, the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH). The Media Centre has been established to facilitate approximately 1,000 foreign and local media personnel and will be fully operational for the duration of the event. It is equipped with all the required latest facilities, including media broadcast offices, master control rooms, briefing rooms, video walls and direct satellite linking facilities.
The main media arrangements include designing and commissioning the CHOGM 2013 logo and website, creating a successful public awareness campaign and setting up a state of the art media centre capable of facilitating up to 1000 media representatives from around the world and providing accreditation to domestic and international media representatives, he added. An open competition was organized in 2012 to select the official logo of CHOGM 2013. With over 150 entries received nationwide the design submitted by Jagath Jayasinghe was selected as the logo of CHOGM 2013. The official logo depicts the national flower of Sri Lanka the blue water lily (Nil Manel) surrounded by multicolored petals, which represent the diversity and unity among the Commonwealth countries, Mr. Herath said.
The official website for the meeting www.chogm2013.lk was launched in June 2013 and now functions as the virtual office of CHOGM 2013. It has received over 300,000 hits and will be allowing live updates from the 1st to the 17th November, he disclosed.
As media access for the main events of CHOGM 2013 is limited direct coverage of the events will be permitted through media pools, which will be managed by the host broadcaster. It is anticipated that the host broadcaster and host photographer will cover all significant elements of the CHOGM 2013 programme; their footage, sound and photographs will be made available to all accredited media via the media center.
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