On November 21st we celebrate World Television Day 2022. Since its invention and popularization, television has occupied a prominent position in our society. We’ve all spent hours and hours in front of this window to the world to get informed or just entertained. Precisely, one of the most famous characters created by television, Homer Simpson, summarizes the importance of TV in its daily life in one sentence: “It’s not easy to juggle a pregnant wife and a troubled child, but somehow I managed to fit in 8 hours of TV a day.”
From its very beginning, television had a vocation to inform. First, networks copied the radio bulletin model. Afterward, once the technical possibilities advanced, they introduced video images and made us travel from our living room to the main scenarios of global news. Somehow, we all have witnessed a crucial moment from a TV screen. Aware of this informative power, the UN declared November 21st as World Television Day in 1996. At VSN, we’ve decided to choose four news (all positive stories for memorial day) that TV brought to us as a tribute for the World Television Day 2022.
1. Usain Bolt breaks the World Record at Beijing 2008
Olympics are the most important sporting event in the world. Between all the sports of this incredible date, the 100M race is the big one and the fastest one: 9 seconds to decide the winner.
In 2008, Usain Bolt, a tall and smiley Jamaican, was called to enter into the book of History. He wasn’t an unknown athlete, as he owned the World Record with 9.72 seconds. Watching its relaxed pose before the race, no one could imagine that he was going to fly over the track to complete the 100 meters in 9.68 seconds. Gold medal and World Record. The fastest human ever. The TV showed us this race and how Usain Bolt became a world figure and broke its own WR again with 9.58 seconds in 2009. He also got time to repeat the Olympic gold medal in London 2012 and Rio 2016.
2. Man on the Moon
Many of us weren’t even born, but thanks to the recordings and live TV coverage, we watched Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon surface. All the world turned its eyes to TV screens on 1969, July 20th. The race space was a significant propaganda element during the Cold War and allowed the media to show each technical step, especially on TV.
Nowadays, space exploration still surprises us with incredible images. The last examples are the Mars landing of the Perseverance mission and the videos transmitted from the surface of the red planet in February 2021.
3. Live Aid Concert
Between 1983 and 1985, Ethiopia suffered a drought that ended with most of the population starving. The TV showed these pictures around the world and impressed the artist, Bob Geldof. He convinced Midge Ure, Ultravox’s singer, to organize the Live Aid concerts to help these people. These two didn’t know was that Live Aid was going to become the most extraordinary concert in history.
The top rock bands and stars of the moment like Queen, U2, The Who or David Bowie joined the initiative to participate in two concerts in London and Philadelphia on 1985 July 13th. Both were live aired via satellite in more than 72 countries and the fundraising surpassed 100 million dollars.rhaps more importantly – doesn’t go to the wrong ones – thus providing an added level of security and checking, and ensuring that expensive legal mistakes aren’t made.
4. The “Mauerfall”
On November 9th of 1989, thousands of Berliners crossed the border between West Germany and East Germany to meet their families and friends at the other side of the wall. Others decided to destroy “Die Mauer” that divided the city, and the world, for more than 50 years.
Each anniversary we watch the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we are not aware that this historical moment would have been impossible without TV. The DDR plan was not to open the border, but a mistake of Gunter Schabowski, the Communist Party leader in East Berlin, during a press conference lighted the fuse.
The speaker wrongly interpreted the Politburo notes and the answer to an Italian journalist implied that the border was open. The leading German networks were live on that press conference thousands of citizens immediately walked to the border and demanded to cross to the other side. The DDR gave up and opened the wall. Without that journalist question and the TV power to bring the news to each house, the “Mauerfall” would not have been possible.
Ready for the news of the future
Although television is constantly changing, it will remain the primary source of news and information, as we’ve experienced during the pandemic. Therefore, we need to equip our media professionals with the latest technology. A plugin web for Newsroom Computer Systems like VSNExplorer Newsconnect is essential for them, as it allows to combine on a single interface the MAM capacities with an NRCS. Journalists and editors can access their NRCS, CG, NLE, studio playout and MAM systems from a single window, the NRCS system interface of their choice, without installing any additional software or hardware.
Also, if our journalists count with VSNExplorer PAM, they should be able to manage and control efficiently all the production processes. For example, thanks to the Adobe Premiere integration, we can incorporate VSNExplorer functionalities into our workflow and edit video (also in low resolution) without leaving its interface. Therefore, we will be ready for the next big story on our TV.
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