₦airaland Forum

Timi I learnt long time ago not to indulge in senseless online arguments with people who no matter what you say will never change their views. But I will make an exception and contribute here because you made a very valid point about Nigerians using foreign companies. I will tell you a story, some months ago one of the states in the south invited us (Nigerian company in Lagos)  to submit a proposal for a particular project, without collecting any consultation fees or anything, we went there saw what was on ground and produced an extensive proposal which was about 55% of what they had budgeted.

The technical people in this particular dept were quite happy and accepted our proposal, however when it was submitted to the Governor, we were advised to arrange a date to come and do presentation to the Govenor, the person giving the advice who was incidentally the Deputy Gov, he furthered advised that we should bring one or two white people to come and do the presentation. Why I asked? Well you know if he sees an Oyinbo man he will be very convinced said the Dep Gov. Now I have made Technical presentations to very big companies in Europe and consider myself competent on the subject area, so you can imagine my shock at somebody asking me to go look for an oyinbo man to come and present my own solution in my own country simply bc some village idiot passing himself off as Gov prefers an Oyinbo! A lot of Nigerians dont know that  oyinbo people often times offer solutions that dont work in Naija because such were based on wrong assumptions and lack of knowledge of Naija. We also have a client in Naija who has an Oyinbo man based in Lagos as his adviser, when we submitted a proposal the first thing the oyinbo asked was that we marked  up everything by 10% and pay the diffrence into his UK account, meanwhile the company is using him because the MD does not trust Naija people!

It is clear in this story that the foreign company is simply blackmailing his Nigerian partners. Twice they went to court and lost on both ocassions. Some people are underplaying the importance of a Naija man wining in a court in Oyinbo country. That can only mean one thing ie the Naija man has a water tight case. Like somebody said, these foreigners have lost in court and and simply want to damage their former partners and unfortunately some people are not seeing through this.

Maleeq, thx for your suggestion,I was just being lazy. Problem was the SBS was created with a valid domain name instead of .local , this made it impossible to access the company website which is hosted externally, but creating an A record in DNS which pointed to the IP address of the website fixed the problem, this saved me the hassle of rebuilding the SBS server. SBS boffins take note; the rule of thumb is that SBS domains should be .local if not you are in for a lot of pain

Thanks

reinstall windows

if you dont have a fully licensed product you can download server 2003 R2, it has a 90 day grace period (You need to confirm this from the microsoft website) This should be enough time o ryou to play with it. You can awlays tear it down and start again if you need more time. Or if you really want more you can install Citrix Xenserver which will allow you to configure 4 Virtual machines on one hardware. the Express version of Citrix Xenserver is free. If getting hardware is a problem then you are stuck with LABS which frankly are not it IMO

Is there anybody with the experience of renaming a Windows SBS2003 domain? I know you can use tools like rendom.exe for the full version of Windows 2003 but have no clue as what to use for SBS or if it will work. All suggestions will be appreciated, and yes I have tried Google

I try not to get into arguments, you clearly don’t know what you are talking about here, I am not just interested in broadcasting, I run a broadcast companies both in UK and Nigeria and I have built TV and Radio stations from scratch this is what we do day in day out, we installed a 10 channel automated play-out system at SoundCity (the largest implementation in Nigeria) they also bought the first set of HDV cameras from us, they paid before the cameras where even released!  Apart from this I have years experience in broadcasting, my company in the UK produced all the foreign contents for  AM Express until about 18 months ago when we stopped because of falling standards, it was the same reason I turned down programme requests from BEN and OBE. I am only doing this (running my mouth off ) just to help educate others out  there in the industry nothing more, there is nothing we cannot do if we apply ourselves.  Anybody in the industry out there that wants an impartial advice is more than welcome to contact me directly or go to any of  our clients like Tunde Kelani, Patrick Oke,  DJ Tee, Julius Agwu, Soundcity, Channels just to name a few. Ok here goes.

Are you seriously suggesting that there is no difference in quality between DV and Digibeta or Beta SP? I have a lot of clients like you who make wrong assumptions about formats. Most of the HD cameras they use in Nigeria are the low end ones, they are mostly ZI or JVC GY-HD251CHE. (collectively they are known as HDV. There is another class called  HD Broadcast cameras which can cost about £40,000 for just the camera head, I am not aware of any production outfit that uses these in Nigeria) Secondly, most of them film in DV because the cameras are dual formats. There is NO TV STATION IN NIGERIA THAT AIRS IN HD (I have put some leading TV stations in Nigeria with their formats below, if you think I am wrong about any of them please say so)

Some  independent producers film in HD, edit in HD but when it comes to transmission they step it down to DV so at the end of the day there is no much difference between them and a person who films with a PD170 or a DSR 250! Some of them have realised this now and they just simply shoot in DV and no longer buy HD tapes which cost more. DV cameras like the DSR 400 or 450 are more expensive than HD cameras like z1s, most soaps in Nigeria are shot on DSR 250 / 400/ 450 or the new 530s. This is because they have interchangeable lens and some of the lens are actually more expensive than a Z1 (The replacement for this will be the Z7E and it will have interchangeable lens) What is the point of filming in HD when you cannot transmit in HD? I always ask my clients this anytime they come rushing to buy HD. Even the UK has only got a handful of HD channels, Nigeria is still  along long way away from HD transmission.

I have no interest in trading insults on line with anybody but you said … The only difference you are seeing, if not entirely of your imagination - is the quality of the camera used, lighting, etc.  Another important fact: most Nigerian shows are shot in the HDV format and not DV25…. You come across as confused. On one hand you say you cant see the difference between DV and digibeta then you say “ …quality of camera…” Are cameras not based on formats? You have DV cameras and you have Digibeta, HDCAM, XDCAM or U-Matic (outdated) VHS cameras etc. If you film and output anything in DV and I film and output anything in Digibeta or Beta SP,  the difference will be glaring just like if I film and out put anything in VHS and put it beside DV. Jacobs creek appeared low quality because it was put against a higher format, of course lighting does matter.

When you say Jacobs Cross is a big budget show, you are talking from your limited context of Nigeria. You need to put it in perspective, film budgets in Nigeria are peanuts compared to what obtains in the western world. Just to give you an example the Presenter of “Have I got News for you is paid £50,000 PER EPISODE, this is even small compared to what US TV stations pay, but that is almost N17 Million per quarter for just one presenter. The most expensive talk show in Nigeria today is Moments with Mo and I know what the equipment cost because we supplied and installed them! So your big budget in Naija might just be cab fare for production crew elsewhere!


NTA = DV
AIT = DV
SILVERBIRD = DV
Channels = DV
SOUNDCITY= SDI
Multichoice= Digibeta (not 100% sure)

Always at your service pbsfax@gmail.com

you are wrong a well run TV station should have standards as to the quality of things they air, they should be able to state the standard, for instance there are stations that will not air any thing that is not produced with Digibeta or Beta SP. With Nigerian TV stations anything goes as long as you pay for the air time, a well run channel should not be selling air time. You cannot buy air time from BBC, ITV or Channel 5 (UK channels). They will only allow spot commercials and they will tell you what format it should be. If you film something on VHS they will not air it and you cannot pay them to go and cover an event like they do with Naija TV channels

Channel 4 in the UK have a policy that all content for Dispatches a news programme must be shot with PD150 / 170 to achieve the grainy look, they will not accept a story if you shoot in digibeta, they will make this clear before they pay you, if you do anything diffrent you be in breach of contract. TV stations commission programmes and that commission is based on clearly stated standards so to that extent they control everything that airs on their channel. Exceptions are NEWS breaking events that are shot on mobiles or low quality cameras. With Nigerian TV stations they will expect you to produce your programme at your own expense and then pay them to air it! Well run TV stations dont work that way, Ben, passion, AIT and OBE have simply carried over this philosophy and this is why most of their programmes have come up short.

Jacobs cross was so-so because I think it was a DV 25 format (it was most likely filmed with a DSR 400 or something similar) and if you run it back to back with something shot on Digi Beta, the difference becomes 7 up (clear) So no it wasnt the story quality it was picture and sound quality.

Content, quality of productions is comparable to anything you will see on main stream channels. The signals are clearer which tells me the bandwidth they are using is more than that of Ben or Passion or AIT. Their promos are excellent, voice overs are just fantastic, the soaps I saw were high quality. The camera angles are very good and the pictures have been treated, the only one that was a bit so-so was a Nigerian soap called "Jacobs Cross". I think they might be using Beta SP right through and not DV like the other African channels. These guys are professionals and I just wish we in Naija can up our game.

On the basis of what I saw last night, I can say the other channels have their work cut out

Finally A An African Tv Channel To Be Proud Of

I stumbled on this TV Channel (http://www.theafricachannel.co.uk/aboutus.php)on SKY yesterday and I was so glad that some African has finally decided to put a well organized, high quality TV channel on air. The likes of BEN, OBE , Passion and AIT (broadcasting as Creative TV) need to learn from these people who are definitely professionals. For a very long time now these channels have portrayed Nigeria as a country full of inept TV producers and Directors.

so just you dont think we are dodgy If you are in Lagos visit our office

LTMX
4th Floor
Novem Plaza
3-9 Olu Koleosho Street
Off Simbiat Abiola Way, Ikeja
Lagos.

we supplied al lthe studio lights, cameras, teleprompters and automated play-out systems at Soundcity TV and the new animated CG system at Channels TV. Various independent producers buy from us. When you say you want lights, how many, where are you lighting? Is it outdoor is it indoors how wide is the place, what is the hight? All these factors determine the sort of lights we sell or recommend. the number of lights you buy will affect the price and discount because you have to factor in shipping and with shipping comes volumetric weight. But assuming I am delievring to you in the UK then I can just give you a box price. That is how it works my friend, so dont go thinking somebody wants to ripp you off. This is my final word. Seasons greetings

We transact face to face business there

I will pass on this then, we have a diffrent business model and we dont put up prices on internet boards. I cannot tell you more than that we do the best prices in the industry as far as Nigeria is concerned, we always pre qualify all leads before quoting because we are Value Added Resellers and this is what the Nigeria office is for. You can drop me an email at pbsfax@gmail.com if you want to progess this. Enjoy the rest of the day.

drop me an email with your contact details (would rather discuss that off board )and I will go through the prices with you. The attached pics are the L1600 and S800 they have dimmer control and the 1600 can be viewed at our office off Medical Road Ikeja. They can chnge the bulbs to Tungsten from daylight.

I can see where jfoxx is coming from, it is a joke for white American audience and yes it is racist

I only use ARRIs for keying, the main lights are flourescents and they are the a lot cheaper than ARRIs or any other, the largest of the ones you are looking seem to have just 6 tubes. This means more lights and more cable runs. The ones we sell are IKANS and have 6,8,12 and 16 tubes and they also come with on board dimmer control. We dont rent out professionally, we only sell, but we got the 16 tube one purely for demo purposes, but we do give it out to known clients. You can view our lights installation at Soundcity TV studios at Lekki. Our prices are no difrrent from the one you are looking at but the shipping cost is very ouch!!

Seun let me have your contact details and I will be able to advise you regarding this. I can get you fluorescent lights that can be set to either daylight or Tungsten. We actually have (in Lagos) the largest Fluorescent light in the world (16 tubes- it is a monster) I have been trying to get my clients to go fluorescent because of low heat output and little power usage, but some of them are so old school and they dont wanna know. I always go flourescent and use ARRIs for keying

self study is the best way to proceed. Look for a decent PC with adequate processing power, Memory (above 1GB) and hard disk (uncompressed dv files require about 13GB HDD space for 1 hour footage) get a copy of Adobe Premier Pro, a cheap firewire card and you can start from there. Try this before going on any course but if you insist on wasting your money; try NI something at VI (sorry cant remember the name) If you want more drop me an email at pbsfax@gmail.com

How about just installing a keystroke logger on the PC or Laptop? There are free or evaluation copies on the net. It is called due diligence and not snooping

If you dont want to go down the path of router and Hub, simply get a cross over ethernet cable and connect both computers and install a free proxy (just google there are many ages ago I used one called AnalogX) Install the proxy on the PC with the internet link and configure th esecond to use it as a proxy, look out for the ports!

I have assumed both computers have ethernet ports and internet connection is already set up on one of them. Dont forget to give each a diffrent IP address but within thesame subnet

Hi, does anybody know of any company in the Warri Asaba axis that has redundant fibre that can be rented out? I am looking to shoot some media files down the link and looking for cheaper alternatives to Satellite. Any help will be appreciated.