Bryson Jones and Ola Melzig at Mediatech Africa

The last few years have yielded a seismic shift in the realm of advanced technology. Rather than merely facilitating the delivery of entertainment and information, technology itself now drives the very demand and dictates the format in which it should be delivered. The tail has indeed come to wag the dog.

The trend continues in 2011 as South Africa crosses its own technological Rubicon, with the country's migration from analogue broadcasting to digital terrestrial television (DTT), while worldwide, the 3D revolution is rapidly gaining momentum.

Mediatech Africa also presents international expertise and flavour to this event. The resume of America's Hi-Def Cowboy, Bryson Jones, includes tenure as IT administrator at E! Entertainment Television, before founding his own technical services business, Techworks in 1997. Since then, Techworks has built Digital Asset Management systems, media archiving and middleware solutions for such hallowed names as NBC.com, Yahoo Originals, BET, Sony Music Entertainment, Hollywood.TV and Fox Digital.

Bryson Jones

Jones will speak at the Screen Africa Technology and Production Conference on Wednesday, 20 July 2011. His first address on 'Media Asset Management for the Mid-Sized Production' will describe how smaller producers, like large-scale networks and producers, can collect and manage their digital assets. This will be followed by a Q&A session, where participants will get frank answers, courtesy of Jones's hands-on experience.

Immediately following, Jones will continue with a conference slot titled 'Media Asset Management: Broadcast and Producer Dialogue', during which he will open a dialogue between the broadcast networks and producers, to address the problems of digital delivery, as enterprise-level broadcast solutions are blended with desktop video creation tools in the modern production workspace.

The Hi-Def Cowboy's years of real-world experience in the post-production trenches, his solid IT and programming skills, along with his frank and engaging manner, make him a fascinating and highly knowledgeable industry pro.

Ola Melzig

Ola Melzig has production managed such high-profile events as the Commonwealth Games, several Nobel Prize Awards banquets and countless TV shows and corporate events. It was, however, his work as technical production manager for the Eurovision Song Contest that made him a household name in the international production community, after 2000.

Melzig will host two workshops at Mediatech Africa, as part of a Mediatech and TPSA initiative. The 'Eurovision Song Contest Workshop' takes place on 21 July from 12:30 to 15:30 and the 'Commonwealth Games Workshop' from 11:00 to 14:00 on 22 July.

Be sure to check out www.mediatech.co.za to see the full events schedule and register for free entrance into the expo before 18 July 2011 to avoid paying R50 at the door.