From September 9 through the 13, the Havana’s Conventions Center opened its doors to world broadcasters interested in showing their products at the Expo-International Fair which was developed as part of the Cuba 2013 Radio and Television Festival.
Providers and suppliers of digital technologies for television, service distributors, foreign companies and entities engaged in the production of public good contents were present at an event that in the words of Katyusha de Hombre, Director of International Relations of ICRT “aspires to become an obligatory reference in the world of visual communication. “
At the end of the event Omar Olazabal, its president, announced that, in October 2014, Cuba will host the First International Convention of radio and television which will be dedicated to young artists and the defense of the identity from the media.
Yoel Ortega, vice president of the Organizing Committee of the Festival and director of RTV Commercial Company, said that the event became framework for the signing of cooperation agreements, memoranda of understanding and exchange of content between Cuba and countries like Spain and Nigeria.
Speaking exclusively to OnCuba, Ortega pointed out that through RTV Commercial “we are positioning ourselves in the international market which are in great demand of new productions of movies and teleplays, as well as content related to adolescents and soap operas that tackle today’s reality.”
It is no secret that in Cuba the majority of television productions are made with analog technology in a world where almost everything is digital and broadcast in high definition (HD for its acronym in English).
“We are trying to correct in the new soap opera productions which are made with much higher quality due to the scanning process that takes place in the ICRT. “
As part of the fair business were generated, especially with Spain, in order to co-produce for different markets, always being consistent with our content policy.”
The Commercial RTV director added that among Cuban television products of higher demand are now “documentary-style television series as Duaba, la Odisea del Honor, directed by Roly Peña which addresses the issue of disembarkation of General Antonio Maceo in that area of eastern Cuba during the struggle against Spanish colonialism. It has a very interesting making and meets all international standards. “
Another program that has great international demand is the documentary series Habitat on Cuban nature, directed by Randol Menendez. Its contents are of great interest and it is made in HD.
“We are moving into production of films for television. We premiered Penumbras, by Charlie Medina, that was recently at the Puerto Rico Film Festival where it received five awards, including for best foreign film.
“In addition to Spain we have started distributing Cuban products in Mexico and Venezuela. We revived the agreements with Bolivia. Meanwhile, Cubaplay, a French and Spanish company, is responsible for the distribution of Cuban contents in the United States and other geographic areas of great interest, “Ortega said.
Cuba opens to the international market
Domènech Permanyer, representative of the Spanish firm Percon (Connexions SLU) stated that he had come “to the fair because in Cuba they major changes are underway. We have to be here for them to know our products.
“We produce cables and connectors. We have been working for 30 years for the world’s leading brands: Sony, Panasonic, Ikegami, Itachi. We negotiate directly with Cuban television on the subject of cable for quality transmissions “.
For the first time a representation of Almayadeen news agency, independent Arab satellite news channel headquartered in Lebanon, Beirut, visited Cuba.
On the importance of this participation in the Havana meeting Ritta Wehbe, Almayadeen program producer, praised for its excellence and correspondents in Washington, London, Tehran and Europe, said:
“It’s the first time we participate in a festival of this kind because we are a very young channel with just one and a half year on the air. We intend to spread our channel throughout Latin America. “
Ghassan Ben Jeddou, Almayadeen president, plans to perform some kind of exchange of cultural programs with Cuba. We like to establish a correspondent in Latin America. “
One of the countries to which was the Festival was dedicated was China. Anna Wang, representative of the Dissot firm, headquartered in Beijing, explained that “our products are very useful for television. We are producers of intelligent lighting, sound equipment, and professional makeup and microphone cables. “We came to know the Cuban companies and TV channels in the country. Here in the expo-fair at the Conventions Center they use intelligent lights and cables made our company. “
