Saudi Arabia’s broadcaster Asharq News enhances resilience and agility through AMPP Playout X and Framelight X to ensure business continuity without relying on hardware infrastructure.
Asharq News is a multi-platform Arabic specialist news service, owned by the Saudi Research & Media Group (SRMG). Launched in 2020, Asharq delivers 24/7 news and business coverage for corporate decision-makers, entrepreneurs and younger professionals across the MENA region.
Through an exclusive content collaboration with Bloomberg Media called ‘Asharq Business with Bloomberg’, Asharq’s multi-platform business news service gives audiences access to Bloomberg’s global financial reporting network, comprising about 2,700 journalists and analysts.
Part of an ongoing effort to strengthen operational resilience through scalable, software-defined broadcast solutions, Asharq has transitioned from a traditional monolithic playout system to a cloud-native disaster recovery (DR) architecture that runs on Grass Valley’s AMPP Agile Media Processing Platform. Asharq initially launched DR channels for its History and Discovery services in June 2025 and followed with a third for its main News service in October 2025. Another recent move to expand its cloud-based DR capabilities is the deployment of Grass Valley’s Playout X and Framelight X solutions, which are both based on AMPP.
Business Continuity with Independence
“Our vision is to operate with a high level of reliability and flexibility across our entire media ecosystem,” said Omran Abdallah, CTO of Asharq News. “Working with Playout X means we can ensure business continuity from anywhere in the world, without depending on traditional hardware infrastructure. The SaaS model suits us because it simplifies management and gives us the scalability we need to grow with confidence.”
Grass Valley is supplying the system as a combination of Playout X services and Framelight X services, fully hosted and powered by AMPP, with the underlying cloud-hosted compute. The arrangement means Asharq can manage its disaster recovery as a single, predictable monthly SaaS expense without the complexity of managing and maintaining cloud infrastructure components.
From Asharq’s point of view, moving to this kind of OPEX-driven model also avoids the need for capital-intensive hardware investments, and increases access and agility.
“Asharq News has been a pioneer in adopting cloud-native broadcast operations in the region,” Hany Bartela, VP of Sales for MEA at Grass Valley, remarked. “Their continued investment in AMPP demonstrates the real-world advantages of software-defined workflows – from disaster recovery to full-time operations – that can scale with relative ease to meet evolving demands.”
Cloud-Native Playout and Management
The deployment combines Playout X for flexible, cloud-native channel playout with centralised control, and Framelight X for cloud-based media asset management, serving as a foundation for both live and on-demand content delivery. Access to this functionality will help Asharq maintain operational continuity and meet its obligations to deliver real-time news across its platforms.
Combining playout functionality with scalable architecture, Playout X simplifies control and management of complex playout workflows for different channel types – OTT, FAST and traditional broadcast. It has a customisable HTML5-based user interface, where Asharq’s operators can configure control layouts that suit specific workflows. Through AMPP’s GV.UI, users can create dashboards across multiple screens for real-time monitoring, event management and schedule design, accessible from a browser. API support allows further customisation, integrating custom tools and applications as needed.
Regarding distribution, Playout X can integrate directly into the OTT and FAST workflows, allowing management of multiple outputs and regionalised channels from a single interface. It supports live inputs including SDI, SMPTE ST 2110 and IP streams, and output formats from SD, HD and UHD to HDR.
To ease quality and compliance concerns, multi-language audio management, built-in loudness correction and support for closed captions are included. Graphics and overlay tools, with HTML5 graphics rendering, are integrated and feature DVE support and live tickers.
Keeping It Simple
But perhaps the most important factor is Playout X’s integrated support for Framelight X asset management in AMPP. This integration assures operators that media assets are organised, accessible and ready for playout at all times.
The content registration workflow in Framelight X allows direct drag-and-drop functionality into Playout X channels, so that content preparation and scheduling can be done without leaving the platform. Similarly, content doesn’t have to leave the facility or operator control, even when operations are hosted in a public cloud.
Ultimately, this integration makes content handling and playback at Asharq simpler and more efficient. By federating media into a unified, searchable system with browser-based access, collaborative editing and management are possible from any location. Furthermore, Framelight X not only has its own set of basic editing tools, but also integrates with GV EDIUS and Adobe Premiere Pro as well.
This means that users can initiate edits and perform basic editing tasks, such as rough cuts, sequence arrangement and transitions, directly within the platform without switching to other software. Then, once they are ready for more precise editing, users can continue their work in Edius or Premiere.
Federated Content, Centralised Distribution
Designed for high-demand environments, the centralised nature of Framelight X simplifies news and sports content creation and distribution, avoids redundant workflows and takes full advantage of assets. Framelight X’s content federation ensures teams work from a unified asset pool, saving time, bandwidth and storage, and allows media to flow across production stages.
The effectiveness of this deployment has had the effect of influencing broader adoption within the region, while Asharq’s technical leadership are exploring further use cases within the business. For Grass Valley, the expansion of its partnership with Asharq is an example of its growing presence across the Middle East and its continued collaboration with SRMG and Asharq in driving digital transformation in broadcast operations. www.grassvalley.com
