DUBAI // An advanced production studio that has been designed solely for creating internet video rather than TV material is to be built for students at Zayed University.
The studio, the first such facility in a UAE university, is due to be completed by the end of the year.
It is being developed by the university's College of Communication and Media Sciences at Dubai Media City and outside organisations will be able to hire it.
The studio will handle live video streaming and make it possible to shoot and edit material and place it online in a much shorter time than at a conventional studio.
"It'll be a production studio based on internet content and there aren't many of these in this part of the world," said Giorgio Ungania, the executive director of the Zayed University Media Initiative.
"This is purely web, that's the novelty of it. It's been designed so we can create content in a different way. There are many studios in Media City but they're pretty much just broadcast studios."
Mr Ungania said the flexibility of the set-up would enable students to create, for example, a university news bulletin in double-quick time.
"If it was a traditional broadcasting environment you would need the big cameras, you would record on tape, edit the tape - it's a very long process," he said.
"Here you put everything on servers so you just record it and it's immediately on a computer as a file, it's edited, graphics are added and it's all done in 15 minutes.
"The studio could be hired by anyone interested in creating online content quickly without having to spend a fortune, including commercial clients.
"The proximity of Media City is why the college saw it as an opportunity for outsourcing."
The studio is part of an ambitious development programme at the university.
A conventional facility is being built at Dubai Academic City, while a large studio complex is being created at the Abu Dhabi campus.
