asiavision


Challenge and Response


Sedrick Ahn joined the ABU as News Director in January this year. In his first column for ABU News he outlines his vision and plans for AVN.


members and audiences. T


The arrival of cloud computing at AVN Centre in Kuala Lumpur in the near future will make AVN’s news exchange a lot easier, faster and more cost- effective, eventually replacing satellite by cloud servers. Its seamless services will free AVN coordinators from waiting for fixed satellite times, arranging schedules and other routine tasks. It will offer substantial budget savings to Asiavision and members in hardware and software, premises, staffing and satellite payments. And together with developments at the EBU, it will grow AVN membership beyond the Asia- Pacific region.


Asiavision is also focusing more on the needs of users and their audiences, to be more user-focused rather than supply-side driven.


A coordinator survey in March, 2012 showed at most two out of 25 items exchanged per day actually go on air.


Although better than before, the duration, number, topic, content and even quality of daily exchanged news feeds has remained the same for decades. When it comes to the quality, quantity and real-time simultaneity as a genuine news source, there is room for Asiavision to improve so that it can continue to meet its clients’ needs.


For Asiavision to be more widely known and respected as a news source in the world of Asia-Pacific journalism we must continuously improve not only our services but the delivery methods of those services. By this continuous improvement cylcle Asiavision will also gain a greater profile with our


24 ABU News


he ABU’s Asiavision service will be more accessible and more responsive to the needs of


members, within our region and on a wider scale.


On the other hand, Asiavision survives in the turbulently shifting Digital Wave because it successfully spotted a niche in the regional news pool maintained by supply-side support. In other words, both state-run and private broadcasters in the Asia-pacific region desperately need an Asian news network serving their own perspectives and values.


Because westernised international news agencies such as APTN, CNN and Reuters still have a tendency to only cover what they want from a Western point of view, coverage sometimes results in mistranslation, speculation and frequent distortion of real stories, facts and truth. As an alternative window, Asiavision has delivered video, sound and stories produced by its members “as is”, albeit advocating members’ views and even propaganda from time to time.


Meanwhile, times have changed over the decades. Throughout the world audiences have been giving up on TV news while keeping up with events in totally different ways. More ordinary people are now increasingly involved in broadcast journalism by covering, compiling, sharing, discussing and distributing news any place, any time. In fact, audiences are simply disregarding supplier-oriented media that does not cater to their views and tastes.


With enlightened audiences geared up for digital technology, how will Asiavision overcome the challenges, with conventional survival methods heavily dependent on unilateral supply- side constraints?


Asiavision should go closer to both client journalists and audiences, not just broadcasting owners. It also


needs to be more conscious of smart media technology, catching up with developments to join journalists in modern newsrooms increasingly armed with smart media networks and devices.


Fortunately, despite facing growing technical challenges, ICT itself provides many solutions to help Asiavision overcome present difficulties. Prime among them is cloud computing, specifically the Intelligent Platform proposal for AVN by a cloud service provider Akamai in March this year.


As well as the advantages mentioned earlier, the new AVN platform will be a stepping stone for the proposed Asia- Pacific View that is being considered by AVN and the ABU Administrative Council. It is designed to deliver to both the ABU and its members a whole new market to find and exploit new income sources in areas not yet explored. To make this tangible, a 2009 report by Microsoft and global IT research firm IDC suggested that at least 52 countries would benefit from cloud computing through the addition of US$800 billion in net new business revenues by 2013.


While the spirit of both ABU and AVN is to pursue non-profit, non-political goals, if approved, Asia-Pacific View will create new opportunities for the ABU. For example, members will be able to take advantage of new revenue sources in the new market by widening the reach of their content beyond national or even regional borders, with the help of the advanced Cloud Services Platform, worldwide CDN backbone and network.


It is now time for AVN to sow new seeds instead of fertilising drooping old trees. Everything is fair; one reaps as one has sown.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36