Afdlin Shauki

Yesterday was the day that Afdlin Shauki came to our office. He was invited to be the judge for our Management Information Services (MIS) Blogging Contest, the open blog contest that was ongoing from September last year till February. Afdlin is one of Malaysian artist that also active in blogging. I just read his blog this morning and the story is very..interesting. Mostly about film industrial in our country.

Anyway, back to the blogging contest. 70 Media Prima staff participated and 12 has been shortlisted. Afdlin checked the blog of the 12 participants one-by-one and about an hour later, the judging, analyzing and the selection was done. We finally got the winner! But, who is it? Shhh...the winner will only be announced during the launch of Media Prima's new Intranet, peopleconnect 2 on 13 March. Hoho for your information, the winner will take home a Macbook worth RM5K. What a deal! hahaha.

During the judging process, Adflin mentioned that the blogging contest was a good idea, because it's like you shares your experience, life, anything around you with people. Our boss, En.Muzamir later told Afdlin that most of the participants were a beginner blogger and Afdlin said this is great! Haha bakat terpendam revealed! :P Afdlin said some of them are really good bloggers, some of them uh, still need to brush up their skills and learn how to make their story more interesting. Blog is like a story-telling. You are communicating with people who read your blog. So how you present your story is like how you perform for your public speaking. You must also update your blog on regular basis. Don't just add 1 post then senyap setahun. Haa...hahaha. Share your opinion, suggestion and idea on something. Hahaha after hearing that i realized that my blog entry yang lepas2 tu pun salah konsep jugak.

Dah cakap pasal blog kemudiannya tukar cakap pasal current project. He is working on this one comedy movie, about an instutuition of hantu. Student there will be taught about how to become a monster, perogol, penyamun dan banyak lagi. The graduated hantu will then be sent to various village, and have the task to scare as many villagers as can. This one graduated hantu were sent to this village named "Kampung Sri Puaka", where the villagers are already familiar with ghosts and hence are not afraid of any kind of ghost. Hmm..imagine what's the reaction of the graduated ghost will be.........sounds cool right? hahaha. Afdlin then had to leave for another appointment with TV9. All MIS staff would like to thank Afdlin for his time with us ;)

This morning, I took my time reading his blog. I read his entry about his current project "Kapoww" and another blog entry "Wajib Tayang". I am really interested in the "Wajib Tayang" article where he gaves his opinion about the "Wajib Tayang" scheme introduced by Finas that protects local films have its place for screening in cinemas in Malaysia. He criticised that with this scheme, his new film "LOS dan FAUN" that was only allowed for screening for just 3 weeks to give way for the other wajib tayang films to come in, while US film "Twillight" which started one week earlier was given more time. These shows that the scheme itself has a problem. He actually likes the scheme. In fact, without the scheme our local films industry will never survived. But for him, the scheme must be improvised! To find out more visit his blog. I strongly recommended! http://afdlinshauki.blogspot.com/ ;D

Overall, I am so happy to meet people like him. As an intern for such a big company, i am very thankful with this opportunity. Oh and uh, i have just create my flickr! http://www.flickr.com/photos/amrsji/Haha..kecoh betul. Feel free to take a look at it aite? And do leave comments, this will help to improve my photography skills. I'm still new with it though. Haha. Till then.

Hot FM Big Jam 2009

Di mana adanya event yang memerlukan khidmat live streaming, di situ adanya kami. Haaa! Seterusnya kitorang ke Johor Bahru bersempena HotFM Big Jam 2009 yang berlangsung pada 1 Mac 2009 di tempat letak kereta Festive Street Mall, Danga Bay.

Bertolak ke JB sehari sebelum event tu, iaitu pada hari Sabtu 28 Februari (birthday liana) haa. Our ‘boss’ Mr.Elisa dah gerak awal dan dah ada kat sana dah pun. Kitorang berkumpul di Sri Pentas jam 9pagi. Yang bestnya kitorang naik bas skali dengan artis plak. Terus kena ‘chop’ sebagai band ‘The Streaming’ hahaha. Perjalanan mengambil masa 6 jam termasuk berhenti makan dan sebagainya. Kitorang memang banyak tidur je la kat dalam bas tu, rehat cukup – cukup coz lepas ni kena kerja sehari suntuk untuk 2 hari.

Tiba di Danga Bay jam 3ptg. Sampai – sampai bukannya pergi hotel check in dulu tapi terus buat kerja. Masuk ke kanopi kitorang dan terus bukak video toaster, pasang laptop, set up and test streaming. Artis pulak ada sound check so sambil-sambil diorang perform kat atas stage tu kitorang test la streaming. Ada problem plak la time nak set up streaming tu. Internet yang kitorang langgan dari Maxis tak boleh buat connection plak 1 hari tu. Nasib baik ada backup Internet dari IPSAT. But still memang kena pakai 2 connection, 1 untuk streaming dan 1 lagi untuk upload content kat web. Cable dari OB plak tak boleh nak keluarkan output ke video toaster. Audio pulak tak keluar. Macam-macam lah dugaan time tu. Haaaa. Sehari suntuk tu try solve problem-problem tu. Berkat kesabaran dan ketekunan kitorang akhirnya dapat jugak la selesaikan masalah-masalah berkaitan. Cuma yang tang Maxis tu je still belum ok lagi coz memerlukan orang dari Maxis tu sendiri untuk datang check and betulkan apa-apa yang patut kat situ.

Habis sound check kitorang pun pack barang dan chow. Sebelum gerak pergi hotel singgah la festive street mall tu. Boleh tahan la, ala-ala batu feringghi tapi kureng sket sebab barang-barang dia mahal. Air kelapa dia pun rasa semacam je. Tanye member dia cakap tu air kelapa selat tebrau, sebab tu lain. Boleh plak macam tu. Habis jalan-jalan kitorang pun gerak ke hotel kitorang, The Grand Paragon Hotel. On the way ke hotel kitorang round JB dulu. Dapatlah tengok Singapore dari JB tapi gelapkan bukannya nampak sangat dan Singapore yang mengadap JB bukannya ada apa pun. Sampai hotel aku dan Zahir terpegun jap tengok bilik yang kitorang dapat. Besar gak la siap katil sorang satu lagi. Haaaaa. Penat punya pasal balik tu lepas mandi terus tidur.


Keesokannya awal pagi dah bangun. Pergi breakfast dan lepas tu terus gerak ke Danga Bay. Maxis punya problem tu still belum settle lagi coz orang dia belum sampai. Lepas dah set up balik streaming kerja kitorang ialah kena tunggu je la sampai pukul 4 sebab konsert start petang. So kitorang banyak la masa lapang dan waktu itu aku gunakan untuk berjalan-jalan ambil gambar. Nasib baik ada tag ‘crew’ so boleh access ke mana-mana, tiada gangguan daripada security. Petang tu konsert start. Yang Maxis punya hal tu tak dapat settle sepenuhnya so terpaksa lah share Internet connection dari IPSAT tu. Kitorang buat kerja secara rotate so boleh la gilir-gilir pegi tengok konsert kat depan. Petang tu hujan lebat plak tapi orang-orang JB yang datang tengok tak berganjak pun tetap stay kat situ sampai lah ke malam. Time malam aku banyak lari pegi amek gambar kat depan sebab malam banyak artis-artis best perform. Habis Meet Uncle Hussain perform maka berakhirlah HotFM Big Jam 2009. Kitorang pack semua barang-barang streaming, hantar ke lori dan kemudiannya chow balik ke Hotel. Penat kaw-kaw sampai after party pun tak pergi.

Esok tu macam biasa bangun pagi, pergi breakfast dan get ready untuk pulang ke KL. Bertolak jam 11pagi dan tiba di Sri Pentas jam 4petang. Secara keseluruhannya HotFM Big Jam 2009 memang seronok. Dapat pergi JB, jumpa dan berkenalan dengan ramai artis, makan free, hotel free, jalan-jalan free, streaming berjalan lancar. Best lah. Artis pun sempoi macam Lotter dan Aizat siap lepak dengan kitorang lagi, dalam bas buat lawak la. Overall memang best.

One FM Live Concert 2009

The next task: set up live streaming for One FM Live Concert.

Date: 14 Feb 2009 8.00pm – 10.30pm
Venue: Main Road, Sg Wang Plaza

The work started 2 weeks before the actual event date, which was on February 4th 2009 when some of the crew went to the Sg Wang for a recce. The reason for that reece is to know what exactly we need to do and the equipments we needed during the event. Our job on that event is to set up the live streaming video on the web.


1 day before the event the New Media team sent the video toaster and the streaming box to the team that is in charged for the equipment transportation. On Saturday we arrived at the event venue at 8.00am. The truck that brought our equipments arrived about an hour later. Once we get the equipments we brought it to our canopy and later performed the set up of the live streaming.

Our work on that day was not too hard and too busy to do compared to our previous event which was the Anugerah Juara Lagu ke-23 (AJL-23) because the streaming was working smoothly without any single problem and there is no commercial break during the event so we does not have to frequently switch the video during the commercial break like the one we did during the AJL-23. The live concert was held smoothly.

After the concert ends we straight away packed our things, cleaned up the canopy, rolled up the cables that we have used and sent the video toaster and streaming box to the truck. The equipments were headed back to Sri Pentas. The work ends around 12am on that day.

Overall the work progress was done superbly and thanks to Mr. Elisa and few New Media crew the set up of the live streaming for the One FM Live Concert has been done appropriately without any flaw and the streaming has been working smoothly.

Anugerah Juara Lagu ke-23

On January, me and few other people from Media Prima has been given task to set up and run the Live Online Video Streaming for Anugerah Juara Lagu ke-23 (AJL-23) which will be held at Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil on 18 January 2009. The team was consist of me, Zahir, our mentor Mr. Elisa and few other member from New Media.





The crew begin their first task for the AJL-23 on 16 January 2009 with setting up the New Media room at the Stadium. These include setting up the Internet connection, get the cable from the control room, and drag the cable from the New Media room to the Red Carpet Area and others. Then the team run the test of switching and streaming the video live during the AJL-23 Dry Run Rehearsal, which was held on that night.

Same task was been done the next day, which was running the streaming for testing during the dry run and rehearsal. But in addition on that day was that there were more team member from New Media that 'turun padang' and with only two weeks i've been working with Media Prima this is the chance for me to get to know with them. I was also get the chance to watch how the rehearsal was held and watch some team from New Media doing the interviews with the AJL-23 finalists. The videos of the interview are then edited were uploaded on the web. The job was done smoothly and proffessionally by each one of them.

On Sunday, the system check is been done by the team members to make sure that the systems will run smoothly and to make sure there will be no problem occurred during the event. On that night, the team start their live video streaming by displaying the live video from Red Carpet in front of Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil entrance where artists and VIP will walk their way into the stadium through the red carpet. Later when the event started, the team control the live streaming and make sure that the video is switched every time during the commercial break from AJL-23 show to other video such as AJL-23 promo video to avoid user from other country to be able to watch the commercial video. According to Elisa, the commercial videos are not supposed to be showed to user from other country because the company of the commercial brand pays to broadcast their product/company to Malaysia only. The work was done approppriately throughout the event. The team then dismantled and packed the stuffs they have used and went home. haaa





Overall the work progress was done appropriately even though there were some problem occurred during the event. Both video toaster computer and dell laptop were having errors in their system during both the red carpet and the early start of the AJL-23 show that forced both the computers to be restarted automatically. These caused the live online streaming system unable to run smoothly at some time during the event. The team members have been doing anything they can to find the cause of the problem and fortunately they managed to solve it. As this was my first time experiencing this such of big event, i was so happy to be part of the team. A lot of thing I have learned from this event such as how to set up the video streaming, overcoming problems bla bla bla. haaaa :D