For several years, RCN Television has been concerned with the evolution of information technologies that have permeated all areas of audiovisual production. To respond to this scenario, a couple of years ago they created a new development area for small implementations tailored to the Channel that help workflows and make content generation more efficient.
"The engineering area works hand in hand with the technical and executive producers of novels, unitary and news, to meet and solve their needs technologically. The team of the technical vice presidency has 120 professionals divided into a team of engineers and another of operators of areas that cover many technological disciplines, "said Andrés Galeano, Technical Vice President RCN Television.
On the technology adopted by the Channel, he added that they are always open to what the market offers, but circumscribed to their vision of content generation and trying to prioritize what gives them the most cost/efficiency. They have developed systems internally based on generic servers that lower storage costs in an important way and allows, with internal software developments, to generate very efficient workflows, in parallel with the other systems of traditional brands.
To do this, the engineering team maintains constant training, mainly from the manufacturers of the equipment and systems they use in the operation of the Canal. Today they have tools such as MAM, transcoding systems and flow handlers. In addition, they are exploring TECHNOLOGIES that rely on IT to make the products that facilitate content generation.
Adoption of new technologies
To acquire technology, RCN Television prefers to have locally someone to help show the use of new equipment and systems that collaborate with the creation of industry. "Sometimes local suppliers exceed costs and force purchasing areas to look for alternatives. But we always consider the efforts of suppliers to maintain local support and help with the generation of knowledge about certain technologies," he said.
All RCN Television productions are in Ultra HD, focused mainly on series and novels. Due to the distribution of content today, sports and news, are made in HD quality. They are evaluating how the distribution systems will be developed, either in OTT, but they do not see close yet that the distributions can be made in Ultra HD.
Year after year the qualities improve and they intend to reach higher. But they have always had a concern for producing and recording the novels, which is the most careful content, with the best formats, cameras, lighting systems and flows that optimize the qualities in recording and sound. Obviously without neglecting the production of sports and news.
Andrés Galeano commented that this year they are finishing the adoption of DTT under the Colombian model and consider that an adoption in open TV of a standard that allows transmission in Ultra HD is not yet seen in the panorama. From the point of view of subscription television, they also do not see the adoption of these technologies in the near future. Although they are analyzing how to offer the products they are doing in Ultra HD through the digital platforms of the Channel, either in the web portals or in the applications.
"Digital strategy is focused on portals and applications to deliver content. We look at how to develop them to deliver more content and provide more advertising options. On IP, the Canal is waiting for there to be real products and not those that apparently comply with that technology but are still branded and are not interoperable with the rest of the industry under the 2110 standard, "he said.
Currently from the Presidency of the Channel they are discussing and analyzing what are the strategic projects that RCN Television must execute from technology in the medium term. Some topics are IP, renewal of production infrastructure from HD to Ultra HD, a task in which they are advancing. They are also exploring the automation of live production, both for news and sports and magazines.
