Canal 1 acquired a Blackmagic workflow to serve both broadcast and social media audiences, recording up to 6K in the studio and on location, and handling post and promos in-house.
Colombia’s Canal 1 has been delivering diverse programming to the country’s viewers since 1954. Located in Bogota, the state-owned station produces news, entertainment, TV series and other genres. Recently, Canal 1 premiered two new shows. The station’s President Ramiro Avendaño hosts ‘1 a 1’, interviewing prominent personalities, and ‘Tú Tienes la Sazón’ is a cooking show based on a collaboration with the culinary school Gastronomía Mariano Moreno.
Wanting to deliver these shows as polished, high quality viewing experiences to audiences across broadcast and social media, Canal 1 has acquired equipment to set up a new, more modern workflow, adopting Blackmagic Design gear for the complete project from production to post.
Cost-Competitive Image Quality
“One of several reasons for selecting Blackmagic Design was its high quality to price ratio,” said Raul Gertel Moreno, TV engineer at Canal 1. “It was important for us to stay within budget without sacrificing the quality our viewers expect from us. We also needed gear that both our production and post production teams could integrate fairly easily into their existing workflows.”
To capture the shows, the team uses two Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pros. Raul said, “While both shows are shot in the studio, we needed cameras that were versatile enough for us to take in the field when shooting alternate scenes, and be able to deliver the same level of cinematic image quality. With the Blackmagic Studio Camera 6K Pros we essentially have two cameras in one – a studio camera in a design that is compact enough to move around out in the field.”
The crew typically shoots in 4K, but Raul remarked that having cameras that can shoot in 6K is important as a way to future proof the station’s gear. The cameras’ Ethernet connections to support remote production are valuable for the same reason.
Live Switching with IP Transport
The Canal 1 crew also works with an ATEM SDI Extreme ISO live production switcher for studio and location recordings, using an ATEM Streaming Bridge converter to transport the ATEM’s signal over IP, and a HyperDeck Studio HD Mini broadcast deck to quickly record and play clips.
“The ATEM SDI Extreme ISO is small but also quite powerful, which is the combination you want for offsite projects. It is easy to carry around, and still functions without hiccups. Also, it gives us the ability to stream and record all inputs simultaneously with the program output. To be able to produce two quality shows to broadcast on open TV without setting up a complex, costly workflow makes a huge difference for us.”
Accelerated Post for Broadcast and Social
In post production, the team colour grades and edits the shows for broadcast on DaVinci Resolve Studio, and later posts them to the station’s YouTube channel. The team also cuts clips to post on the station’s social media platforms to promote the shows.
Although DaVinci Resolve Studio was only acquired at the same time as the cameras, the station’s post team was able to start using it fairly quickly. “We weren’t facing a huge learning curve, and having a software that the team can use to grade and edit simultaneously is a time saver,” said Raul.
“The quality of the image we get from the cameras is very high, leaving only minor colour adjustments to take care of to give the shows a certain distinctive style. Then, as the team works on the final edit, they can identify which clips they want to use to promote the episode on social.”
A DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor keyboard is a further advantage when searching and pre cutting content. “The DaVinci Resolve Speed Editor helps save time on basic editing processes, leading to opportunities to speed up our post process and become more efficient, which is essential for shows that are airing weekly,” Raul said.
“So far, we have achieved quite a lot with Blackmagic Design here at the station. The experience we’re offering our viewers is top notch. Both shows have been a huge success, and we are planning to start using the new gear on other shows very soon.” www.blackmagicdesign.com
