Off the wall: video wall training with Al Jazeera Arabic

Sharing his passion for creating powerful video wall sequences is trainer Martin Stanford, who worked for the 24-hour news channel, Sky News, in London for 25 years.

“Collaboration is never more important,” he says, “than in the devising of a really effective video wall sequence. Presenter, producer, graphic designer and studio director all need to work as a team to realise an effective finished television segment.”

Martin spent a week in Doha, Qatar, training a team of journalists from Al Jazeera Arabic on the opportunities presented when using video wall sequences for stories.

Trainer Martin Stanford with Aizeldeen Derghan, social media producer, Al Jazeera Arabic

The two training workshops were spread over a total of six days and the trainees, Mahmoud Zaibak, Aizeldeen Derghan, Karima Ben Hamida, were shown how to use powerful imagery for data trends and financial breakdowns, attributing data to real people, such as politicians, and adding movement to scenes, either by getting the presenter to move within the data or using two or three cameras to add dynamics.

“In both business and academia, the term “Death by PowerPoint” has come to encapsulate an attempt to pass on ideas and information through dull, overcomplicated or irrelevant graphics, tables, bullet point lists and charts,” explained Martin.

Collaboration is never more important than in the devising of an effective video wall sequence.

“Too often, TV teams, under pressure to cover a story that is either data rich or video picture-challenged, resort to this on television, with boring slides of overly complicated information read out verbatim by an anchor.

“It needs to be more memorable. The presenter should own the words – ad lib perhaps, certainly write or re-write the script in their own voice – invest time in rehearsals. It will be time well spent.”

Training in action

Watch Martin Stanford train the team at Al Jazeera Arabic on successful video wall sequences.