DD studio grapples with junk8217;

PUNE, May 22: Even before the first production work at the much-publicised Doordarshan studio coming up at Paud Road could take off, the alr...

PUNE, May 22: Even before the first production work at the much-publicised Doordarshan studio coming up at Paud Road could take off, the already delayed project appears to be heading for a major trouble with serious doubts being expressed about the efficacy of the production equipments installed at the centre.

Most of the production equipment undergoing installation at the Paud Road centre was either bought or imported by the Doordarshan as early as in 1993 with a huge investment of about Rs 7 crore. The highly sophisticated production machinery involving cameras, vision mixer, audio consoles, video tape recorders had been lying idle at the Mumbai DD Kendra godown all these years as the State Government failed to provide a suitable plot of land for the studio.

Now that the installation work is nearing completion and the production of programmes is likely to start in the next few months, the performing ability of the equipments is being questioned as most of them are feared to have become outdated.

It is not only the problems regarding working conditions of cameras and other equipments, but more so about the qualitative production of the programmes in the light of the entry of highly advanced instruments in national and international television production scene.

8220;An equipment which has been out of use for so many years is bound to develop some problem but more than that the cameras bought by DD nearly five years back are not being used for quality production work in leading production centres in the country,8221; sources at Film and Television Institute of India told The Indian Express.

The DD studio is coming up at a plot of land provided by FTII which is the only production training centre for all DD kendras in the country. Although the studio is coming up on FTII land, the DD has not kept the concerned FTII officials informed about how it is exactly going about the project on which several crores of rupees have been spent so far. 8220;The KCK-40 camera bought by FTII in 1990, which is one from the same series of cameras purchased by DD, has been replaced by other superior cameras for major production in the institute,8221; said sources.

Given the fact that production technology is changing at a rapid rate and whole machinery becomes outdated in three to four years, little could be said about the performance of the cameras purchased by DD five years back and which have been lying idle all these years, the sources added. At present either digital or charged couple dense CCD cameras are used for production work in leading production centres of DD and also those owned by private satellite channels. The new generation of production equipments is not only user-friendly and requires low input but also ensures quality production.

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The Pune DD studio will come under the purview of DDK Mumbai and will be used for recording programmes which will be taken to Mumbai and then aired subsequently.

Former chief engineer of Doordarshan and All India Radio, Western Region, M Y Thote who mooted the idea of having a production centre in Pune which was strongly supported by V N Gadgil, then the Union Information and Broadcasting minister said,8220; The project was mainly delayed because of the State Government8217;s failure in providing a suitable plot of land for the production centre.8221;

About the performance of the equipment, Thote hoped that despite some initial starting problems the production work should not face any problem.