Although City TV is a generalist channel, which has a concession for free-to-air TV in Bogotá, its main focus has always been local news, highlighting news that happens in Bogotá and has no place in national newscasts.
Walter Gomez, operations and engineering manager of City TV, commented that it is a programming that is broadcast and it does not make sense to repeat it. That's why all its infrastructure is news-oriented. Another feature is that they do a lot of live production and in the field, for this they have reporting equipment that allows them to go on the air from anywhere.
To support live production in the field they use reporting cameras. They have not yet wanted to migrate to low-cost cameras, they continue to use shoulder cameras with multipurpose broadcast lenses that work very well for the news environment. They are large cameras with large sensors and good sensitivity, which allow you to capture a good image quality.
Walter Gómez recalled that they were the first in Colombia to adopt P2, came from tapes and migrated to solid state and adapted internal production flows to handle that type of media that is not permanent, it is transitory while moving to another type of storage.
A second channel
City TV is part of The El Tiempo Publishing House, a group of media that include newspapers, magazines and television channels. In addition to City TV, they have El Tiempo Televisión, a news channel with a national focus that is linked to the newspaper El Tiempo.
The operation of the two channels is supported in two locations. The studios of the newscasts and the master's degree of El Tiempo Television share the building with the newspaper El Tiempo. In the second headquarters, located in the Center of Bogotá, is the master of City TV, and the transmission is coordinated, both to satellite and to analog and digital transmitters.
The engineering team for both channels is made up of seven professionals, each one has a specialty in the different areas of the channel, in order to address any failure or situation that may arise. They rotate in all operational shifts because in turn they are in charge of the technicians and live broadcasts. All technical staff depend on engineering.
Modernization of studies
According to Walter Gómez, technological evolution has benefited the channels. "If you compare what professional technical equipment of good level cost 15 or 20 years ago to what it costs today, you realize that it is much cheaper, thanks to technological development. Technology has lowered infrastructure procurement costs and makes work more efficient for production costs."
The Canal has always tried to have equipment of good level, first line of the most important manufacturers. The renewal of technology in City TV is done in two moments: first, when the equipment, due to its time of use, is affecting issues of reliability and service levels, or it is becoming difficult to support and maintain a team in operation. Second, when there are capacity growths.
For the choice of a brand, they take into account the technical qualities of their equipment and the needs of the Channel. They also look at the experience with the teams that have worked and take into account the cost of replacement to another brand, even if the initial cost of the product is lower.
Today all the base emission infrastructure has been in HD for several years, but there are still very small investments in news studios, more specifically in what is matrix, switcher, distribution, which have been postponed several times.
This is due to uncertainty about the business as such, with the third channel, then the Channel One tender, in which the channel owners were interested in participating. Today they are waiting for the renewal of the concession, which should take place at the beginning of 2019. Until this issue is resolved, the update will not be completed.
