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FADI RADI: Welcome to Al Arabiya.
My name is Fadi Radi.
I'm going to take you through this clip
to show you what we do.
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Al Arabiya is the leading news channel in the Middle East.
We are based in Dubai and we are the leading news organization
in the region.
Our partnership with Unreal Engine
started a few years back, and we are
using Unreal Engine on a daily basis
to cover stories on the news and tell it in a different way.
Unreal Engine gave us the edge to go further and use
hyper-realistic images, hyper-realistic models
to get the idea delivered to our audience
to explain for them what happened
or what will happen in the future.
These tools are amazing because we can really
use them easily, represent them in real time,
and at the same time we can do any changes
at any certain point.
Let's go behind the scenes and talk to the team
and talk to the presenters how they feel about using
Unreal Engine in their stories.
AHMAD HAMOUDA: One of the biggest advantages for Unreal
Engine, especially in a very fast news-based environment
like ours, is its real-time capabilities
for play out and design.
Because for designers and directors alike,
seeing the graphics being built in the process,
and it's almost final look and feel not only gives excitement
while working, but also will give the ability
to save time by adding all the extra details and work
and effort where it's needed.
WALEED FATHY: Broadcast graphics through Unreal Engine
platform, adding the speed, the flexibility, and quality
to the virtual and make the reality.
SHUJA REHMAN: Here at Al Arabiya I use Unreal Engine as one
of my primary tools.
Things in Unreal Engine give me the ability
to create realistic-looking 3D scenario used in real time.
AHMAD HAMOUDA: In one of the projects,
we tried to play around in a different direction.
So instead of shooting our presenter in a Chroma
and feed it inside a full virtual set in Unreal,
we did the opposite.
We shot all of our set-- it was in the desert--
and we put markers.
We extracted all the tracking data, and the funny thing
that Unreal really had all the tools that we did not
need to composite it outside, like in After Effects.
Also, we had all the layers inside with the tracking data
and we got the output only at once, which was also
a very big save of time.
FADI RADI: Everything starts with the idea.
Idea is the most expansive asset that we have.
Once the idea is there, we start the process of creation
and we do the storyboarding, we talk to the presenters,
we talk to the journalists to write
the right script for that.
Then we do the storyboard, we shoot that on Chroma
or we do it in AR, then we start the execution.
Once we do the execution process,
we discover a lot of new things or new gadgets that can be
used-- or new tools--
inside the new version of the Unreal Engine.
And this is because the Unreal keeps updating their engines
in a very nice and fast way.
TAHER BARAKEH: Luckily, I worked in the Al Arabiya production
before and after the virtual era.
And I say this because we knew very well
the differences, the benefits, of the virtual era.
It made us be present in places we couldn't be there
for so many reasons virtually, and it made us go
and cover all the details that we had a problem in covering
before the virtual era.
Because, simply, we had a big problem
of how we can cover all these details visually
and in a perfect way that matches the content
that we want to deliver to our audiences.
I've always said that a good presenter has a 10% or 20%
of an actor inside him or her.
For sure the virtual era made us much better presenters,
anchors, and actors.
HANEEN SHOULY: Our virtual starts with visualizing.
We live the story before writing the script,
we brainstorm visuals, and we come up
with ideas to build our storyboard.
With the process altogether, we do our storytelling virtuals.
News, with all tools to be delivered
in smart, impressive, and innovative ways.
Virtuals enrich stories and shed light
on dimensions that can't find place
in usual ordinary and typical news bulletin.
It simply gave me the ability to go on a world journey
to tell news stories while I stand in the Green Room.
FADI RADI: IMR, interactive mixed reality,
is something that we really do our best
to achieve with every single element that we create.
This can give us an edge how the presenters can
interact with the virtual environment
and achieve more of the storytelling.
And this breaks the silence between the presenter
and the audience.
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That was a tour inside Al Arabiya.
This is how we do it and we're going
to keep doing it more and more and better
ways with the new features coming from the Unreal.
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