CPTC to host CBU Satellite Earth Station

Dr. Hopeton Dunn, chairman of the CPTC Board, and Dr. Elaine Wallace, director of information in the Office of the Prime Minister, exchange greetings at the end of the CPTC Course on multi-camera directing and studio lighting. - Contributed

THE CREATIVE Production and Training Centre Limited (CPTC), will be the host institution in Jamaica for a Remote Digital Earth Station, as part of the regional satellite up-link facilities being operated by the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) and the Caribbean News Agency (CANA).

This was honoured by the chairman of the Board of the CPTC, Dr. Hopeton Dunn, in an address to the closing session of the latest CPTC Technical workshop last. He told the gathering of trainers, agency heads, course participants and media house representatives that the facility would be used to provide programming and news content from all participating media houses and news sources in Jamaica to counterparts in the rest of the region. It will also enable the CPTC to strengthen its own linkages with regional and global partners for the marketing of Jamaican media and cultural products at home and abroad.

The Jamaican satellite up-link facility, which is expected to be fully operational by year-end, is part of a network of remote digital earth stations to be located in eight CARICOM member states. The others are Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Belize, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Antigua, and will complement existing transmission facilities at the CANA/CBU headquarters in Barbados. The digital up-link stations are being provided as part of a regional development project being funded by the European Union in association with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the business development arm of CANA/CBU.

The new facility will assist in increasing Jamaica's media presence overseas and will also complement a range of new developments at the CPTC's production complex on Arnold Road. The organisation has been engaged in a re-structuring and technical development process, including a renewal of its marketing outreach and production facilities, upgrading of studios and other technical services, re-training of staff, and the establishment of its cable-casting channel CTV.

A new board of directors for CPTC was recently appointed by Minister of Information, Maxine Henry-Wilson, to help guide this new phase of the public sector company's development. In addition to Dr. Dunn as chairman, other members of the new board are A. Stewart Spencer, Fae Ellington, Orville Johnson, Carey Robinson, Berl Francis, Trevor Fearon, St. Rachel Haye, Patrice Samuels-Wedderburn and Marie Cunningham Clarke, the CEO.

The CPTC's production arm Creative Productions continues to highlight Jamaica's cultural and creative heritage, while training is expanding to include use of the digital production technologies and new production methods.

The most recently concluded CPTC workshop was on Multi-Camera Directing and Studio Lighting, presented in association with UNESCO, CELECT and Jampro's Trade Development Project. It was conducted by visiting television training consultants Sue Butterworth from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Jeremy Gould of the British National Film and Television School (NFTS). The fifteen participants were drawn from the production departments of TVJ, Love-TV, JIS-TV, CPTC itself as well as from independent production houses and individuals.

In addition to its regular schedule of courses, the CPTC summer special courses have included workshops on Screenwriting for Women Filmmakers, Advertising Design, and Documentary Production.

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