The Artist's Engineer
Above is the Company's logo having a vertical bar, 3 rings and the name of ABS-CBN. The bar represents the antenna tower for broadcasting signals. The 3 rings represent the signals being emitted from the vertical bar and their colors (red, green and blue) represent the fundamental pixel colors in a television set and also represents the 3 parts of the Philippines such as Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
For a brief history, ABS-CBN did not start the way it is now. The company can be traced from the Philippines first Television Station :DZAQ-TV which was owned by the Bolinao Electronics Corporation and was later renamed to the Alto Broadcasting System (ABS). ABS had its first broadcast on October 23 1953 at the Quirino Recidence in Sitio Alto which aired a garden party . 1956 came to a time when Eugenio "Kapitan" Lopez alongside Vice President Fernando Lopez established the Chronicle Broadcasting Network (CBN). 1967 was the year when the two companies (ABS & CBN) formally merged and was renamed (ABS-CBN).
Today, the company broadcasts primarily in the Philippines through its station in Metro Manila ABS-CBN Channel 2 and is backed-up by 25 regional stations, 8 affliates, 35 strategically-located relay stations across the archipelago and an international channel network called "TFC" of "The Filipino Channel".
 |
| The ABS-CBN Broadcasting Tower |
The company currently broadcasts in the VLF band having an operating frequency of 54MHz to 60MHz which corresponds to channel 2 in the TV frequency assignment. Since ABS-CBN is considered to be at the Very Low Frequency Band, The signals from this frequency tend to be easily disturbed and interfered. Channel numbers above 5 do not have this inherent vulnerability. ABS-CBN’s signal and reception issues in these areas are currently being addressed by transmitter upgrades and UHF alternatives in the area. Digital television is the long-term solution.
The company is still waiting on the issuance of guidelines from the National Telecommunications Communications, the country's broadcasting and communications regulatory agency. The NTC is still in the progress of deciding what technology the country will use for Digital TV Broadcasting. Assuming a certain technology is selected, ABS-CBN will spend additional Php 1 billion a year for Digital TV in the next 5 years to cover a big part of the country.
The resident ECE engineer, told us in our technical tour that countries all over the world are switching to digital TV transmission because it is significantly less susceptible to interference or other reception problems currently being experienced in analog transmission. Further, digital channels take up less bandwidth which means that more channels can be aired in a 6MHz channel rather than 1. Digital Broadcasting can also allow broadcast of high-definition content and provide interactive services. This in return is envisioned to not just double the revenue but rather, quadrupled if the proposed system is deemed successful.
Talking about the tours, our tour guide "JB" discussed to us the 3 operations being done before it is transmitted and shows up in our TV sets. The 4 operations are: Production, Management and Transimtting.
 |
| Inside Studio 10 |
For the first operation, there are two types of production namely pre-taped and live production. Pre-taped production simply means that a show is recorded and aired at a specific schedule whereas a live production means that the production itself is aired real-time (examples of such live production: ASAP, UKG and the Live News Reports). The setting where the production takes place has a very interesting history: out of 12 studios, only 9 are used. Studio 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11 and 12 are 250 sqm fully-air-conditioned 7-meter high studios which houses famous shows like Showtime, Kris TV, Umagang Kay Ganda and Gandang Gabi Vice. Studio 1 is the current "Dolphy Theater" (with respect to the Comedy King Dolphy) where it is a theater type studio which housed the "Eat Bulaga" noon show back in the old days. Studio 10 is a 500 sqm room in which the tour guide bragged that it is labeled as the biggest and the smartest studio in the country because of its advanced visual effects capability as it housed the Kokey teleserye back in 2010. To further differentiate the settings: there are two types of sets namely the permanent set and the temporary set. The permanent set are props and furniture used in the taping that will not be removed until the end of the shows contract. The temporary sets however, is a kind of setting wherein the props and the furniture are installed and removed before and after the show respectively. A temporary set is installed everyday (depending on the schedule of taping of the show) for about 6-8 hours before the taping starts.
The next operation of the company is the Management operation. This sector is responsible for the order of the shows to be aired according to audience availability. There are three main segments in their daily operation and they are the morning shows, the noon-time shows and the prime-time shows. The tour guide told us that prime-time shows generate most of their ratings because this is the time that workers go home and watch their favorite shows. Also, since prime-time shows attract the most audience, the advertising airtime is at the most expensive where it generates the biggest income for ABS-CBN.
ABS-CBN channel 2 is not the only channel being managed by the management operation but rather another free tv channel in the UHF band (studio 23), 11 Cable channels (ABS-CBN news channel or ANC, Balls TV, Cinema One, Cge TV, DZMM Teleradyo, Hero, Knowledge Channel, Lifestyle Network, Maxxx, Myx and Velvet) and 1 International Channel (The Filipino Channel) having a total of 14 channels all in all
 |
| Satellite Antenna's for regional and international communications |
The Management operation is also responsible for the communication among regional stations wherein shows and live feeds are exchanged by the means of microwave and satellite transmissions.
Now that the shows are arranged, it is now time to broadcast it to the world which leaves us to the third operation: The Transmission. During the Technical Tour, the resident engineer told us that all the channels (except TFC)are being transmitted through a cable service provider via a Fiber Optic Cable system. With regards to the big tower situated at the back of the studio, only ABS-CBN channel 2 and Studio 23 are transmitted there as "free tv". The Filipino channel or TFC is only available for subscription outside the country.
To elaborate more on how the transmission of the free-tv channels, inside the transmission facility houses the most complicated and state-of the art transmission systems that delivers 60 kW (346.2 kW ERP) to the whole Central Luzon. the video from the management operation is fed to the transmission facility and there, it is aired to every tv set.
A big question arises: "where do these TV stations get their wealth from?". The simple answer is that ABS-CBN generates income from companies' advertising schemes. It is said by the staff of the commercial office that the average cost of airing a 30-sec video is Php 400 thousand pesos per air. But wait, there's more! price of airing a commercial advertisement depends on the time slot the commercial is to be aired at. As discussed earlier, the most expensive airtime for a company who wishes to advertise is at the Prime-Time segment (typically at 4:00pm to 10:00pm).
The tour was overall fun and it really filled up the holes and gaps inside my brain concerning the process of broadcasting. I would like to thank our tour guide "JB" for sharing his time with us in entertaining our thoughts and questions throughout the duration of the tour. The facilities were astounding to see and made me realize that there is a big market in the broadcasting business if it is under good management. I would say that this trip made the stuff we see in pictures at school real in a way that we (as students) appreciate what we learn with respect to the real stuff in front of us.
I would give the operations of ABS-CBN a rate of 10 out of 10 because not only they focus on airing shows but rather explore, experiment and adapt to new technologies that make TV and the philippines a better place.
The Artists and the Talents are the Idols of the public's eye's but little they know that the engineers are the real artists behind what you see in the television.
-Charles Tingjuy
10822402 De La Salle University-Manila
No comments:
Post a Comment