Thursday, November 18, 2010

Vatican television ready for HD thanks to Knights of Columbus, Sony

Thanks to a discount from Sony and a contribution from the Knights of Columbus, the Vatican television center has a multimillion-dollar high-definition mobile television studio, which will be operational in time for the pope's Christmas midnight Mass.

The Vatican unveiled the mobile studio -- a 45-foot-long, 18-wheel truck with 16 workstations -- after a news conference Nov. 16.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican television center and the Vatican press office, told reporters the mobile studio and its all-HD equipment were worth just more than $6 million. 

Sony Italy gave the Vatican a discount of more than $1 million; the Knights of Columbus contributed more than $1 million; and the television center, CTV, covered the rest.

Father Lombardi said he knows people may think the project was too extravagant or too expensive, but with television broadcasters around the world moving to high definition, "the image of the pope would gradually disappear from the world of television over the coming years."

CTV is responsible for all video images of the pope taken at the Vatican; the television center provides those images to broadcasters and filmmakers around the world.

If the Vatican's production values do not meet the standards of broadcasters, he said, "we, in fact, would be blocking the broadcast of the image and, therefore, the message of the pope."

Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, told reporters Nov. 16 that the U.S.-based fraternal and service organization has been "privileged to have a role in bringing the good news of Christ to the world through the medium of television in cooperation with the Vatican for the past three decades."

The Knights cover the Vatican's satellite uplink costs for major papal liturgies -- including at Christmas and Easter -- and subsidize the download costs for television stations in poor countries.

The new truck, Anderson said, is part of the "unbroken Catholic tradition of bringing the good news of Christ to the greatest number of people possible in the clearest manner available."

Father Lombardi said there is a continuing dialogue at the Vatican between communications professionals and papal liturgists to find ways to meet the needs of both. For example, Pope Benedict XVI's altar often has high candlesticks and a crucifix that block camera shots and the pope has insisted on having moments of silence during the Mass.

The silence makes television directors nervous and can send radio producers into a panic because it can appear they've lost their signal, Father Lombardi said. In dealing with the silence, the television people add cameras to provide a variety of images, but it is still a challenge for radio, he said.

Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, also spoke at the news conference and said the new HDTV service is just one part of the Vatican's ongoing effort to reach a wider audience in formats people use today.

He said the Vatican's "pope2you" website is undergoing a complete makeover and, by early December, would feature comments and reflections from young people who were involved in Pope Benedict's recent visits to Portugal, Great Britain and Spain.

Archbishop Celli also announced that the Vatican is developing its own multimedia, aggregated news site. 

The site will be a one-stop Internet portal for news and features from CTV, Vatican Radio, the Vatican newspaper, the Vatican press office and Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

The new site does not have a name yet -- although "Vatican News" is a common suggestion, he said. Also, progress has not advanced enough to announce a launch date.

 SIC: CNS/INT'L