Spyker love

For the final shot of our last report on GearOne from the Abu Dhabi International Motorshow we had our presenter sign off from the driving seat of the wondrous Spyker. When he slammed the door our JimmyJib operator swooped up to the roof for a spectacular panoramic shot of the well-filled exhibition hall as the closing credits rolled.

Our young in-house production team was augmented by brilliant guys who are shooters for CNN and Deutsche Welle and such big media outfits in their 'day jobs'. There were definite 'mentoring' moments which were of immense value.

The five-day reportage project threw up a few problems. Up until now we have been operating a 24/7 quasi video-on-demand channel, checkerboarding content across the week to permit viewers to watch our programming at the time of day they prefer. It's system which works well and corresponds with the notion of audience empowerment. However our playout automation system is not designed to handle content which is day-and-daypart sensitive - today's content replacing yesterday's, rather than being repeated over seven days.

So a review of our software architecture is a matter of some urgency and, guess what, that's what I'll be doing on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in Dubai!

But never mind, there was never going to be a Spyker under the Christmas tree.

Just a trivia note to close the automotive-themed string: Spyker is 16% owned by Abu Dhabi investors, which gives it a nice local angle. Believe me, now that Spyker also fields a Formula One team it's a brand destined for huge exposure in the year ahead.