Stargate Studios Partners with Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) Group to Open Most Advanced Virtual Production Studios in MENA Region

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stargate Studios, the global, award-winning production company specializing in virtual production and visual effects, has established a groundbreaking partnership with the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) Group to open Stargate Middle East. The first two full-service virtual production studios will be located in Dubai Studio City (DSC), UAE and Cairo, Egypt; both will be equipped with the latest advanced digital camera technologies, LED lighting, motion tracking, real-time compositing, 3-D imaging and virtual sets. Both Stargate Dubai and Stargate Cairo will employ multiple visual effects supervisors, producers and local graphic artist talent together with extensive sound stages. Both studios will be fully operational by Jan 2013 in order to service multiple MBC projects currently in pre-production, including “The Palace” and “Love Without Borders”.

“This partnership connects MBC to the entire Stargate global digital network, effectively combining our production expertise and advanced technologies with MBC’s creative artistry and local programming.”

According to Stargate CEO Sam Nicholson, ASC, the partnership with MBC will further strengthen Stargate’s international presence and will bring the company’s proprietary Virtual Backlot technology to the Middle East. “MBC has given us the opportunity to dramatically change the face of the television industry throughout the Middle East,” Nicholson said. “This partnership connects MBC to the entire Stargate global digital network, effectively combining our production expertise and advanced technologies with MBC’s creative artistry and local programming.”

Fadi Ismail, Group Director of Services at O3 Productions - a subsidiary of MBC Group - says the creation of Stargate Middle East enhances MBC’s position as a global media group that enriches people’s lives through information, interaction and entertainment. Ismail further elaborated: “This advanced technology puts MBC on the cutting edge of technology while dramatically reducing budgets for producers; it certainly places the Group on the global map of advanced filming technologies and we look forward to setting up this new trend in the MENA region.”

Founded in 1989, Stargate has been nominated and won numerous awards over the years including Emmy Awards for their work on ABC’s, NBC's Heroes, Fox’s Touch and the HISTORY Channel’s mini-series Gettysburg. Stargate currently has offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Berlin, Vancouver, Toronto, Mumbai and Malta. The company’s global network allows clients to access more than 250 visual effects artists and supervisors all over the world, as well as high-speed data transfer and simultaneous international rendering and delivery. Stargate’s Virtual Backlot is the best low cost alternative to shooting on location, offering fully immersive environments to shoot establishing shots, multiple angle coverage, walk & talks and driving. It provides directors the freedom to cover actors as if they were actually shooting on location, saving significant location expenses and production time. The technology has been utilized in the United States by most of the major film and television studios, including Universal/NBC, Disney/ABC, Viacom/CBS, Paramount, Warner Brothers and HBO and on popular shows such as ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Episodes and The Walking Dead.

MBC Group is the first private free-to-air satellite broadcasting company in the Arab World which was launched in London in 1991 and later moved to its headquarters in Dubai in 2002. Over the past 21 years, MBC Group has grown to become a well-established media group that enriches people’s lives through information, interaction and entertainment. Based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, MBC Group includes 12 television channels.

O3 productions is a subsidiary of the MBC Group specializing in a variety of production and post production services. They are one of the regional market leaders in producing and distributing the best-of-content as well as providing inventive programming, documentaries, docu-dramas, factual entertainment, reality shows, Arabic drama, dubbed drama, and more. One of the most recent and successful productions of O3 is OMAR, the largest production in modern TV history within the Middle East region and a joint production between MBC Group and Qatar TV.