The first fully functioning high-definition station in the Middle East was launched on December 8 from the exhibition floor of the MEBSHOW 2005 in Beirut when for two consecutive days, MEB HDTV broadcast live shows via ArabSat on 26 degrees East, 11604 MHz.
Filming exclusively in HD, eighteen shows were produced by university students specifically for the station including talk shows, cooking shows, sports updates and documentaries. Over 300 students from 12 Lebanese universities participated, all of them eager to undergo training in HD technology under the supervision of US technicians who came to Lebanon specifically for the purpose.
The response even took MEB organizers by surprise. “I certainly did not expect that many students to show up,” said Tony Farjallah, an instructor at the Lebanese American University and the general supervisor of the project. Although the enthusiasm was welcomed by MEB, the large number of students meant more work and longer hours. 
Nevertheless, Farjallah, who also owns Spirifilm Studios, was able to bring the project together within less than a month. “We had to have regular meetings with the students, assign new tasks and follow up on their progress. They enjoyed the technical and theoretical workshops on HD, but the hours were long.” Most students ended up working up to 20 hours a day to meet their deadlines, said Farjallah. “Even paid professionals would have been reluctant to take up this project in such a short time.”
Michele Dwayk, who coordinated  student participation, said MEB’s original plan was to rely on professionals to operate the station, and to have the students produce the programs. “But later we thought the student involvement should be greater. HD is tomorrow’s technology, so it made sense to go ahead and train them for it today,” said Dwayk, who currently heads MEB’s sales team.
Although MEB-HDTV was able to broadcast its programs as planned, organizers said logistics were at times nightmarish, with last minute delays in clearing the equipment from customs complicating matters further. More than 30 manufacturers from around the world lent their equipment to the station, and some key items were only cleared a day before the station was launched. High definition cameras were not ready to be picked up until the morning of December 8, the same day the station started its broadcasts.
Nigel Spratling, owner of the U.S.-based broadcasting consultancy company Mavens, and the main force behind the station said that receiving the equipment late meant that “we were still debugging and testing while on air.”  Another problem was being unable to rely on the Apple server system. “Faulty power was the primary reason…it was a major setback in the production workflow,” said Spratling, who was disappointed that many student-producers did not have the time to air their shows. “I am truly sorry, for they all had worked so hard,” he said. Students found themselves with only one editing system and they ended up scurrying around the exhibition floor to use other systems that were set up by exhibitors for demonstration purposes. “Most students were up all night to get the job done, driven by their enthusiasm and commitment,” said Farjallahh.
But despite the hitches, the verdict on the whole was positive.
Lebanese actress Takla Chamoun, involved in assessing and prioritizing students’ needs, believes that MEB-HDTV provided a glimpse of what they would be experiencing in a real TV station after graduation. “This experience was very important in terms of knowledge and know-how.”
Paul Seif, an audio-visual student at Universite Saint Joseph who assisted Spratling in setting up the station, said the experience was unlike anything he could have hoped to have at university: “It cannot be replicated by the university…It’s impossible,” he maintained. Like most of the students interviewed, Seif said he was looking forward to next year.
Spirifilm’s Farjallah believes, however, that if the experience is to be repeated next year, everyone will need to start preparing “at least six months” ahead. MEB staff say that is, indeed, the plan. 
Decisions for MEB 2006 will come out by early March, says Dwayk, and “students will be notified a lot earlier this time.”  The success of this first ever HDTV station in the Middle East, said Spratling, owes a lot to the students. “Their dedication to the task was exemplary. 
They are a new generation of media producers who will definitely be an asset to the industry.”