Colombia. Two years ago, after the closure of Teleproducciones, the Audiovisual Production Center of the Pontifical Bolivarian University, UPB, acquired the equipment that the production company had, including a mobile unit, in order to provide a more enriching experience to its students.
For a year the mobile unit worked with the equipment it was equipped with. But with Pope Francis' visit to Medellin, the Archdiocese asked the University to support the television broadcast of one of the events in the City. Therefore, the UPB decided to make a technological update of the mobile unit, migrating all its analog systems to digital and HD.
According to Álvaro Hoyos, director of the Audiovisual Production Center of the UPB, to achieve this they had the support of the engineering team of Era Electrónica, who in just 40 days had to carry out all the integration, using the equipment of manufacturers such as Datavideo, BlackMagic Design, Aja and Panasonic.
He stressed that the mobile unit was originally integrated and imported from the United States, so it has particular characteristics of mobile units of North American newscasts, such as a soundproof internal power plant that works with the vehicle's gasoline and stabilizer jacks. The vehicle is a Ford Econoline of 7500 CC, which although it is model 1995, has only 45 thousand kilometers of travel and is in perfect condition.
Engineer Boris Díaz, commercial manager of Era Electrónica, was in charge of designing the update of the mobile unit. He assured that the implemented solution obeys the standards of the industry, that is why a total renovation was made, both of equipment and in the physical part. The main challenges were the execution time of the project and to carry out an intervention in such a well-designed mobile unit. To achieve this, they even traveled to the United States to the headquarters of some manufacturers and thus made sure they had all the technology available.
The mobile unit has, among other technologies, a platform to place cameras on top with power connector, character generator with audio and video monitoring, streaming, replay, digital recording with solid state discs, intercom, pointer unit, digital audio console, cameras, measuring elements, matrix and external panel with monitor.
In addition to having a 100% digital and self-sufficient mobile unit, which has been used by the students of the University for their academic practices, as well as for external transmissions, this project ended up benefiting another population, the inmates of the Bellavista prison in Medellín.
Álvaro Hoyos and Boris Díaz, upon learning that in the prison there was a small channel in which the inmates work, led within the UPB the idea of giving away all the equipment that the mobile unit had and were in charge of going to prison, designing a simple system and teaching how to manage the equipment.
Today the accompaniment to Bellavista TV continues and both hope that channels and producers that have equipment that they consider obsolete for their operation, can donate them.
