Costa Rica. Experts and leaders of Ibero-American television and audiovisual production will meet in San José, on March 30 and 31, to share experiences and reflections on the digitalization of open television services, the generation of transmedia content and the challenges of the regional industry.
Canal Trece and Canal UCR will jointly produce, for the first time in Central America, the international television series TV MORFOSIS, within the framework of the I Central American Forum of Digital Television organized by the National Radio and Television System (SINART), as part of the initiative "Central America and the Caribbean in Network" of the Ibero-American Educational and Cultural Television Program (TEIb).
During the seventeenth season of TV Morfosis, entitled Digital broadcasting and transmedia content, eight television programs of 60 minutes each will be produced, which will be broadcast live – open television, via streaming and by different applications – from 09:00 and 10:30 in the morning, 2:00 and 3:30 in the afternoon, on Thursday 30 and Friday 31 March.
Since 2011, TV Morfosis has produced sixteen seasons in Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Brazil. Each series brings together personalities and creators from the audiovisual sector, media, academics and scholars of television communication, as well as the creative talent of the screens.
Mario Alfaro, executive president of SINART, explained that the series has an academic and specialized approach, oriented to the analysis of new models of audiovisual production and technological changes. The programs are produced in real time and have the particularity of promoting and sustaining interaction with audiences, through the integration of social networks.
"Central American countries are preparing for digital switching on, in a context very different from that faced by other countries. Today, content is transmedia and technology is transforming the production and consumption models of audiovisual. TV MORFOSIS is the ideal setting to share and exchange information that interests us all," said Alfaro.
In Costa Rica, for example, the so-called analog blackout is scheduled for next December. Regulatory bodies and public governing institutions, as well as broadcasters and the audiovisual sector in general, are preparing for digital switch-on, that is, to stop transmitting in analogue and offer the service of open television in digital signal.
The organizers of TV MORFOSIS Costa Rica 2017 confirmed the participation of guests from Mexico, Colombia, Spain and the United States, as well as from countries in the Central American and Caribbean region. The television programs will be produced and broadcast from the National Center for Culture (CENAC), in San José.
All about digitalization
The First Central American Forum on Digital Television was declared of public interest by the Government of the Republic. The program includes workshops, talks, round tables, expert panels and an exhibition space for technology companies, institutions and organizations in the sector. All activities are open to the public and free, but with limited space.
The meeting is sponsored by the Ministries of Science, Technology and Telecommunications, Communications and Culture and Youth, as well as the Costa Rican Center for Film Production, the National Institute of Learning (INA), the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) and the Embassy of the State of Japan. The project is developed with the support of the general direction of the media system of the University of Guadalajara, Mexico.
"All the countries of Central America are moving, to a greater or lesser extent and depending on their capacities, towards the digitization of open television services, so we see the need to promote and open spaces for information and exchange of experiences, training and cooperation; with a regional, solidary, inclusive and participatory approach. The public service media must be protagonists," argued the executive president of SINART.
With the organization of the forum and the production of TV MORFOSIS, Alfaro added, SINART intends to promote and position the initiative called Central America and the Caribbean Network, which is part of TEIb. Costa Rica, through SINART, holds the pro tempore presidency of the TeIb Intergovernmental Council.
The contents generated during the meeting may be disseminated by the public service channels in Central America, the network of partners of the Associations of Educational and Cultural Televisions of Ibero-America (ATEI) and the TEIb broadcasting platforms: ibe.tv and the Ibero-American Channel, Signal that unites us.
