With effort, desire, dedication and faith, the Cristovisión channel has managed to be on the air and gain viewers and followers both in Colombia and abroad, fulfilling its goal of bringing the message of the Catholic Church to the community through subscription television operators.
Luis Fernando Riveros, technical director of Cristovisión, told TVyVideo+Radio that almost the entire content grid of the Canal is produced in house, thanks to 14 television producers, 60% of them young people committed and interested in the Canal process. They have recording for 18 hours a day, in which they broadcast masses from different places, as well as newscasts, magazines and youth content.
"The channel is a non-profit organization, so they do not have commercials and their support is through the money received by about 70 thousand donors who help with any value they can and want to give. Therefore, investments in technology in the Canal are limited," said the Cristovisión Engineer.
To support the operation, the engineering area of the Canal is made up of seven professionals, divided into two areas, one of television, with four engineers dedicated to the services that maintain the production infrastructure, and another three in the area of computer science, which specializes in internet, IP and TV services.
Cristovisión has a strong work rhythm because it is on the air 7/24. The biggest challenge is that 90% of the content is live. Live streaming is done with equipment based on 3G and 4G wireless networks, as well as wired. At its headquarters, the Canal has a television studio and different scenarios to record its programs.
The Cathedral of Fontibón is another recurring headquarters of the Canal, since from there content such as masses and special programs are broadcast. Because it is a constant scenario for the production of content and also the headquarters of the Canal is a few streets from the temple, both buildings are connected by means of fiber optic links.
Continuing with its religious vocation, Cristovisión broadcasts from different cities in Colombia attending to the specific activities of the Catholic calendar. They also have agreements with the Vatican and other religious communities for broadcasts, such as the different public meetings of Pope Francis. They have even made pilgrimages to different sacred places for the Catholic Church, both in Colombia and abroad, which are broadcast by the Canal.
Adapting its users to new technologies
As cristovisión's target audience is adults, it has been a challenge to be able to approach them with the new digital platforms. They started using streaming, then moved on to social media. They try to combine everything by taking their target audience by the hand. According to Luis Fernando Riveros, it has been a good experience through which they have been able to reach more places, such as the United States and Europe.
Today, in addition to the signal that is broadcast by pay TELEVISION systems, they have live streaming, mobile applications and broadcasts on social networks. With these digital media they have been able to evolve and adapt to new conditions of access to the user and subscriber. They consider it to be the present but they take it with caution.
New projects underway
Today the channel works in SD. They have plans to migrate to HD but are in the process of collecting the money to be able to do the migration. It is expected that by the beginning of 2019 they may be executing this project.
For the adoption of new technology, said the Cristovisión Engineer, they make a study from the technical, with which they identify the needs and the best equipment and systems available in the market that can help. For the choice of brands, they ensure that they have integration between the solutions, because they are not monobrand.
Radio is another of the projects that Cristovisión wants to carry out. They've had some experiences with podcasts and it's the next goal they plan to develop.
