Being updated is not always buying the latest technology, with a good market study and a detailed analysis of the needs of the company, cameras, software, and other production equipment can have a useful life that in addition to amortizing the investment, will generate income for many years.
By Victor Alejandro Galvis
For many decades, television production companies have had the responsibility of choosing a technology that allows them to work with the highest possible quality and that in turn can take advantage of it in the short and medium term. That is, that it is not obsolete in a short time.
Currently, manufacturers are constantly expanding their product catalogs, this makes the commitment to buy much higher, because there are more options on the market and a mistake in the investment can mean insurmountable red numbers.
To avoid a bad financial move, most film and television production companies have directors and technology advisors who help them study investments. However, the flow of the industry is so fast, that the responsibility does not fall on a single person, but it is all the actors of the company who need to be updated at the time of a possible turnaround.
It must be borne in mind that when technologies evolve, what they do is "create new needs", which are not always required, explained Andrés Barragán, director of technology at Teleset, who affirms that "it is at that moment where research comes into play and the work team is raised with a cool head: Does this system work for me? Is the investment justified?"
Barragán pointed out that the producers can not be carried away by the rumor of the industry, since investments of this type are very large and must be amortized in a short time, "for this reason, it is necessary to have a previous study, if a good research and investment is done the equipment will pay for itself", Concluded.
The director of engineering and technological development of Azteca, Román Gómez, assured that all investments have some type of risk, "with so much equipment available there is always room for mistakes." In addition, he clarified that if the engineer makes the decision to update it is because "he has already evaluated several equipment and if possible, he also tested them in his environment."
Also, "you must take into account the warranty and support you will receive, it is not the same to have local support in your city or near it, than to send the equipment to a remote country to be repaired, or to have to call at night to have access to technical support by phone in a language that is not mastered in contrast to having it with a person who knows and who is trusted," added Román Gómez.
Finally, the director of technology of Azteca, also said that "you have to review the experience of other users with the team and with the company", to have a firmer conviction when buying.
When do I need to upgrade?
The more up-to-date the equipment, the higher the quality and performance of the productions. As it is unlikely that a production company will buy as much new system as it comes to market, the one it will choose will have to meet the needs for a considerable time.
According to the experts consulted for this article, changing the equipment in a television production company is necessary for two reasons, the first to add production capacity, that is, to make more or make new content that the previous team could not execute; and the second is to renew due to obsolence, it happens when parts are no longer found, the manufacturer disappeared, the equipment has constant failures or maintenance is too expensive or delayed.
Within content creation, the inclusion of new technology plays a crucial role. Andrés Barragán explains that a television channel has the obligation to provide material that is attractive to the consumer, "we are looking to make productions that sell, to carry out ideas whose technological execution provides pluses to the content," said the Teleset engineer.
On the other hand, Hernán Suescún, general manager of VCR, spoke about the importance of having the latest technology to protect and store audiovisual material, "record your files in the best technology you have at the time in such a way that in the future they are easier to migrate. Today's archive is tomorrow's asset," he said.
This will make it cheaper to reduce the costs of a future conversion of the material, for example it does not cost the same to convert files that are already within the digital context than to migrate videos that are in an analogous state, where more machinery is needed and therefore it will be a more expensive process.
Consequently, there is the issue of prices, which in the opinion of Román Gómez is a great component and greatly influences the decision, but it is not the most important. "It is preferable to pay a little more for equipment of well-known and prestigious brands, which adhere to the standards, have a guarantee and local support than to speculate with low-price equipment," said the Azteca engineer.
In addition, Hernán Suescún warns that the equipment has dropped a lot in price, "today we can have a high definition camera, with AVC-Intra recording, with a 22X lens, with a cost between seven and eight thousand dollars, which is very economical; if we go to the analog technologies we used about 10 years ago, the price was much higher."
In short, "you have to make the right decision, choose the technology that will keep you on that path to the future and lower costs, when solid-state recording began, memories were more expensive, but at that time it was expected that they would go down, as consumption increased. Today it is like this, memories do not rise in price, "concluded the general manager of VCR.
Guarantee, a part of trust
Once a production company concludes that it is necessary to acquire new equipment for audiovisual productions, "it is very important to buy equipment that meets 100% with industry standards, not to be seduced by the siren song of equipment that promises wonders but with proprietary or non-standard technology", advises Román Gómez.
Similarly, the engineer explains that it is necessary to look for equipment with the best signal-to-noise ratio and that pass the largest signals, for example, buy HD equipment over those that only pass SD; buy 3G equipment instead of HD.
Also, acquire equipment that does more than is strictly necessary, or those that can be updated by adding software licenses or software cards.
Finally, the expert of Azteca, advises to acquire equipment of recognized brands and consolidated companies and to be careful with the mergers and mergers of companies, "some large companies have left the market leaving many equipment installed with clients who trusted them".
Arguing this, Hernán Suescún, mentions that "currently the cameras can be updated via software, before there was a hardware that had to do with the recording format, you could not change the memory. Now the important thing is the codecs and while you are in the digital domain it is easily upgradeable."
This concept will help to channel much more the proper purchase of the equipment, as does the warranty time offered by the manufacturers, "if a camera comes with a five-year warranty, that time will be skillful the format, because the format was not created neither for today nor for tomorrow, but for a long time, what can change are the memories, which will be smaller physically but will retain compatibility," Suescún concluded.
A participatory region
Decades ago, like cinema, technology arrived in Latin America long after it was used in the United States and Europe. Now that gap has been reduced in a matter of days, because equipment manufacturers recognize in Latin America the great potential and demand that exists in this region of the world.
Latino production companies have the same access to technology as other regions with more scrolls in the television industry, "suppliers keep us informed of their releases, specialized magazines publish reviews and success stories so that information is available quickly," said Román Gómez.
In short, access to the latest technology is now more feasible, you can have some equipment on loan for a specific need or evaluation, in addition, it is possible to rent for larger tests and know if the new systems are properly integrated into the technical structure that you have installed.
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