Technical Operations, the Network’s Beating Heart
A defining moment in my career was when I was entrusted with leading Network Operations, one of the vital organs of the organisation. There, we started the strategic planning to link all the network’s channel and overseas bureaus in one operation system. Together with our technical and engineering teams, we worked day and night to launch a fresh look for Al Jazeera’s 20th anniversary: elegant studios with world-class control rooms. Other projects followed, from linking broadcast centres in one operational system to renovating newsrooms. The peak was with the upgrading of the work environment and technical functions of Al Jazeera Mubasher to the automatic operating system. It is unprecedented in the region. The technological leap taken by the Network Operations extended to include our regional broadcast centres and bureaus overseas. The core element of all these projects was to pay due attention to our technical teams, honing their skills and enhancing their capabilities. A number of intensive training courses were customised for them. What makes Al Jazeera stand out among others is that it always embraces the latest technologies in the industry while accommodating the needs of viewers. In addition to the network’s editorial excellence, its solid technical operation provides an additional edge.
Shaikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, the then director general of the network, appointed me as the archive affairs consultant, where a new phase of operations began; it was to build a centralised archive to feed all the network’s channels - in Doha, the main broadcast centres in Washington DC, London and Kuala Lumpur, and our bureaus around the world. The main goal was to transfer Al Jazeera’s entire taped archive into a digital form.
329
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter