Today TeleMedellín makes 5 daily programs live, in studio and in the natural sets offered by the new headquarters. In total there are 12 new programs on the grid every day.
Richard Santa
The old nursery of the city of Medellín, a lot of 28 thousand square meters located in one of the areas that brings together a greater amount of population that lives or works in it, was the place chosen to build the new headquarters of Telemedellín, the Gabriel García Márquez park channel.
Inaugurated on December 15, 2015, the park channel currently has a built area of 9 thousand square meters concentrated in two blocks, one for television production and another for offices. In addition, it has contemplated the future construction of a third block that will provide 3 thousand square meters more, which complement the original design of the project.
TVyVideo+Radio spoke with Carlos Duque, technical director of the channel and who was in charge of the entire process, to know the details of the technological and urban adaptation of the project, which had an investment of close to 32 billion Colombian pesos.
The television production building has 2 studios, one of 250 square meters for the unitary programs of the channel and another of 400 meters, which is in the process of adaptation, designed for other types of formats, such as programs with public or provide services to third parties. The studios have as a feature that they are on the first floor and with shortcuts to load and unload any type of elements, thanks to very generous doors.
It has 11 editing rooms and 2 audio post-production rooms that are about to begin their endowment. Three other editing rooms are exclusively for the newscast. The graphing part has 8 workstations that centralize all the production of the channel. In addition, they created a separate parking area for three mobile units with special security. Currently the channel has two mobile units.
On the subject of lighting, they implemented LED systems, both for the studios and for the general lighting of the building. In the part of studies, they achieved benefits such as lower energy consumption, lower consumption of air conditioning and maintenance free. In studio 1 they have Fluotec lights.
For its part, the office building is based on an open architecture, in which only the directors have a closed office, which facilitates collaborative work. The terrace of the building is an area designed for employees, in one area is the dining room, an outdoor TV lounge, game tables, a five-a-side soccer field, gym, all focused on the well-being of employees.
Carlos Duque stressed that "in the process of construction of the building, the green issue was always kept in mind for the part where we are located, the old municipal nursery. That is why we wanted it to continue to be a lung for the city and we are in the process of LEED certification, which required taking into account bioclimatic studies and aspects such as employee comfort, lighting, water treatment, which are reflected in the different details of the work. "
Park Canal
The channel in its history has had several headquarters, always with some deficiencies for the operation of a television channel. Around 2010 they had a house confiscated by the State from the Castaño brothers, recognized Colombian criminals, in which they had little operational part but developed the park channel concept, in which the community could share with the channel different experiences such as courses, art shows and sports.
When in 2011 the possibility of the new headquarters began to be explored, the idea of making a park channel in which people could go to visit in external spaces and take a guided tour designed from scratch to know the operation of the canal was resumed.
"We believe it is the first channel in Latin America that has the concept of a guided tour designed from scratch. Today we are adapting the different activities that visitors will have and we hope to have it up and running by the end of 2016. It is a tour in which the visitor will be able to see all the operational areas of the channel, studies, master of broadcast, makeup, editing rooms, among others, without affecting the work. In the middle of the tour they will have a series of activities that will allow them to understand what is done in a playful and fun way. This space will be very interesting for the city," said Carlos Duque.
In addition, the building is surrounded by a large green area open to the public, which has access from three different parts and in which visitors can enjoy children's games, an ecological path in which they find quotes from the works of Gabriel García Márquez and large recreational spaces. Undoubtedly, this is a new reference for the inhabitants of Medellín and its visitors.
Technological renewal
Since 2012, Telemedellín is broadcasting its signal in high definition, so the equipment that was moved from the previous headquarters is of the latest technology. And since the new headquarters is larger, there was an investment in some equipment such as video arrays, intercom, all over IP.
The heart of the broadcast is based on an Evertz solution that allows the channel to be valid for the next 8 years before thinking about a renewal. It was also used to renovate the editing rooms and now have Avid systems.
The Technical Director of Telemedellín indicated that "for the adaptation of the second television studio, 4K systems will be implemented. Although it may seem rushed, in the year 2009, when the mobile was made in high definition, they told us what for?, and today it sounds coherent. That is why we are looking for a projection in time for studio technology with 4K, which gives it a wide validity. And hand in hand with 4K, all based on IP streams."
The new headquarters of Telemedellín was equipped with structured cabling, fiber optics and connections to 10 gigabytes for video transmission, in addition to a robust closed circuit television system and access control. Although these last aspects are not part of the television production, they are in accordance with the technological endowment for a building of these conditions.
According to Carlos Duque, Telemedellín is a channel that seeks to work with many brands, have different options and the best of each brand. Some of the teams they have today are:
Cameras: Sony, Panasonic, JVC
Infrastructure: Evertz, Imagine, the old Miranda.
Lighting Arri, Fluotec, ETC
Servers: Imagine
Edition: Avid systems and Mac computers
Intercom: New CLEARCOM and Telex IP Array
Switcher: Grass Valley and ForA
Monitors: TV Logic, Wohler, Sony and Panasonic
Microphones: Sennheiser and Sony
Consoles: Yamaha
Lenses: 90% is Fujinon
Telemedellín has developed its technological adaptation projects with in-house engineering, but for the new headquarters they linked the company Seel, which made an accompaniment from the technical designs in conjunction with the architects of the channel, making the distribution of technical areas. Then they supported the adaptation of the studios, light grids, air conditioning. Finally, all designs and electronic implementation with channel interconnection.
In addition, as Seel has a technical furniture manufacturing area, all furniture, racks, study control tables, were provided by them.
At the head of the project
If just entering the new headquarters of Telemedellín and seeing the magnitude of the work, both in its public areas and in technological matters, is a surprising experience for what is expected of a television channel, to travel it guided by Carlos Duque is to live the passion and commitment of those who took the project forward.
With almost two decades in the technical area of the canal, surviving the changes of the State entities with each new government, Carlos Duque has developed a great sense of belonging to the canal, as well as a great knowledge about the operation of the same, sufficient merits to have led the whole process, together with Juan Diego Hernández, planning director and who previously was also part of the engineering area.
"Now that the dream of having the new headquarters and being able to develop projects such as the guided tour, the new studio in 4K and IP has been fulfilled, it makes us feel very proud. We were part of the whole project, from the achievement of headquarters, permits, the tender for construction, carrying out all the ideas, listening to the suggestions of the employees, not only of the engineering for television, "concluded Carlos Duque.
Leave your comment