The digital news production system is the zero priority of Romanian Television that needs investment. The proposal to the institution’s draft budget was discussed on Monday by SRTv representatives in Parliament.
“This investment is critical for the replacement of the production infrastructure of the News and Sports Directorate, a system that has reached the threshold of technological wear and tear. In the absence of urgent intervention, SRTv has a major systemic risk of interruption of the production and broadcasting of news programs, i.e. the interruption of the broadcast of the public television service, for the first time in over 70 years of uninterrupted operation of Romanian Television”, it is stated in a press release from SRTv.
Monday’s meeting was attended by Gheorghe-Ioan Bota, president of the Commission for Culture and Media of the Romanian Senate, and on behalf of SRTv Adriana Săftoiu, president-general manager, Monica Ghiurco, Catrinel Paula Trofin, Radu Carp, Cristinel Godinac and Sorin Torică, CA members, and Mihaela Woytovict, interim director of the Economic Directorate.
Other investments for which SRTv representatives advanced amendments to the draft budget are:
– the renovation of the Territorial Studios of Romanian Television – the five territorial studios produce content in HD format, but for technological reasons, the actual broadcast to the public is still carried out in SD format. This situation generates a major discrepancy between the real quality of the production and the quality perceived by the viewer.
– Broadcast automation system for national thematic and international channels from the portfolio of the Romanian Television Company
– The implementation of a state-of-the-art automation system is indispensable for managing the broadcast streams of the Romanian Television Company’s multi-channel channels. This technical separation is critical to eliminate the risk of propagation of faults and to guarantee the continuity of the broadcast on the main and thematic channels even in the event of interventions or breakdowns in the news production system.
– High definition signal transport system over the public Internet with low delay for television broadcasting.
– The implementation of state-of-the-art Internet transport protocols will eliminate high delays and audio-video synchronization errors specific to old systems and will allow a drastic decrease in operational costs related to live broadcasts.
– Modular system for creating emission profiles for satellite, cable and digital terrestrial – Investment of critical importance for the replacement of the signal processing platform in an advanced stage of technical degradation and officially declared without technical support.
– Modernization of server infrastructure and acquisition of data storage systems for vital systems – investment is mandatory to prevent the irreparable loss of SRTv’s digital heritage and to ensure the performance required by modern digital workflows.
Adriana Săftoiu, president-general director of SRTv, emphasized that the institution’s budget does not allow the realization of these absolutely vital investments for the operation of the Television, given that, of the annual allocation of 500 million lei, approximately 395 million represent the salary envelope.
Gheorghe-Ioan Bota, the president of the Commission for Culture and Media of the Romanian Senate, expressed his willingness to support the budget supplement to ensure the continuity of the Television broadcast and the fulfillment of its public mission, considering that the financing is aimed exclusively at investments in modernization and rehabilitation, not the increase of the salary fund.
The meeting took place following the decision taken by the Board of Directors of SRTv, which established, during the meeting on February 18, the formation of a working group to draft a series of amendments aimed at the institution and present them to the specialized commissions, before the vote on Romania’s budget.
