Professionals of broadcast, film and multimedia industries from all over the city converged at the Y B Chavan auditorium to participate in the 11th Broadcast India 2001 Technical Symposium that culminated on Wednesday evening.

The penultimate talk of the two-day symposium centered on media asset management, a topic that offers vast potential in the burgeoning broadcasting industry in India. Dinesh Sawhney, the Hong Kong based manager with Sony Corporation, dwelt on the company's product offerings, which help convert analog video archives into digital tapes that are easily catalogued, accessible and secure.

According to Sawhney, CNN has already used Sony software in a two-year-old project to convert 50,000 hours of video archives in this fashion. Analog tapes, the conventional method of storing data, suffer from quality deterioration as well as outmoded methods of searching for particular files. The Peta site mass storage system and the Peta serve HSM system, patented by Sony, allows search and re-purposing of content, enables news broadcasters to provide comprehensive information, as well as allows them to prepare for video on demand (VOD) services that may enter India in the near future.

Archive migration in digital mode thus allows organizations to create a multi media repository, which will allow local as well as remote access using web browsers to trawl for data. Sony's HSM system also enables partial retrieval of files, making broadcasting newsrooms more efficient while searching archives, Sawhney said.

Citing another example, Sawhney said that HBO too has used the Peta serve system for video archive storage, and uses its automated facility for pre-programming up to 48 hours of its promos, so that no manual intervention is necessary to play them on the channel during that period.

The symposium's other sessions focused on interactive TV, routing technology, content management, digital cinema, screen writing and film editing, among other topics. The symposium will be followed by a three-day exhibition on broadcasting equipment at the World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

Sony and Panasonic are to exhibit the equipment and technology used by George Lucas to digitally shoot the latest episode of Star Wars. Brand names like JVC, SGI, Discreet, Thomson Broadcast and Seagate will present their wares at the exhibition, covering the trades of TV, radio, video, film, cable, satellite, multimedia, transmission, computer graphics, animation and broadband.

For the first time the annual trade event will present the Seagate Technical awards for excellence in digital technology for films and television. The awards will be presented on 2 November 2, in conjunction with the Radio Advertisers and TV Practitioners Association of India and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees.

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