#CMCExperiences

Nikita Desai , PG – IMAC (Second Batch)

Experience at Star India–

The Students of Thadomal Shahani Centre for Media and Communications got a chance to visit Star India on 16th of November 2016 along with their Faculty Professor Javed A. Sajawal, members of C.I.I (Confederation of Indian Industries) and students from Wellingkars College…

The visit started at 10.45 am after a strict security check and protocol followed by a small brief regarding the company’s security policy for visitors… this required all visitors to have an identity card issued with name and mobile numbers submitted two days prior to the visit… After this the students were introduced to the members of C.I.I and Mr. Aditdva Tiwari from H.R department of Star India…

Later the students were led through the lobby towards the elevator area, which would take them to their first point of visit the Star Sports Studio situated on the Sixth Floor…. Gathering outside the entrances of the Studio the students were given a brief regarding the different set-ups around. They were explicitly asked not to click photographs in certain restricted areas…

The tour started with it’s first destination which was the commentators post match area of different sports oriented shows were these experts would interact with each other and discuss the proceedings of the game as well as speak about the performance of the players both in the analytical and mocking nature of words….

The second point was called the Fanbox, a kind of small place for thefansto interact with a certain celebrity of availability. At the FANBOX the students where also introduced to the technical aspect of camerawork… The camera’s in this room were automated and didn’t need a person at the controls as they could be controlled digitally from elsewhere….

The next part was a large Studio floor, which could change into any sport it wanted through a procedure of LED lights on the floor… built upon toughened glass… So basically, this was a set up where commentators from different sports would provide post match reactions about the game and the players involved for various sports in a 3D format… and interact with the audiences seated on the sides… some of these people… would be later invited to speak or participate in some kind of game or competition, which kept such interactions lively. This place also had a large 60 inches Plasma/Led on which the students where shown an Advertisement affiliated to Star Sports. They were also given a demonstration on how the sound equipment and pitch cameras are controlled during a game… on how the message is encoded within 6 seconds and relayed live for the viewers at home with minimum delay… The next part of the tour was through the control area where the programming was done by the Technical Director of the Channel, Director of the respective show along with the technicians involved including editors and sound engineers… The Students were given a glimpse of the sound engineering devices and the panels that controlled the robotic cameras from the early part of our visit…

This concluded the visit to the Studio floors and the students where lead to the 31st Floor for an interaction with Mr.Arnab Pal(H.R Head), the second part of their visit to Star India.

The session with Mr. Arnab started with Mr. Arditva concluding the first part of the tour and introducing Mr. Arnab who took the students on a small journey with Star from 1991-2016… The evolution of their logo and bifurcation into different streams… He started with asking the students about Doordarshan in the initial days of the 80’s erato the emergence of cable television evolving into DTH and Now the Digital Era… He also spoke about Prime time shows and the influx of various English channels that slowly walked into the competition, year after year… On how the market for television changed over the years…How they had to go through various strategic planning to know their audiences and then to maintain this target audience. They initially came up with ideas having daily soaps with emotional content to set a female audience. Then of course was the introduction of Sports related channels followed by English Movie Channels for the male viewership.

This was followed over a period of time with branching into various regional channels, music and children’s television to increase their reach and gather more audience loyalties…. He also mentioned that 70% of their revenue was generated from Advertisements and 30% from serials and the most wanted or prime Ad Slot being the…India – Pakistan Cricket Match….But there was always a downside to every successful venture… The problems they faced when audience got divided with other channels or the emergence of the Internet which expanded the choice of the viewers… to the failures of their anticipated television shows which had a few big names from the movie industry attached….

This concluded the session which was followed with questions from the students …

TSCMC students asked about the hiring procedure, especially for media students.

The answer given was regarding the avenues of content writing for the shows, digital support for both television and web related content as well as options of anchorage, programming and directing shows. A mention came aboutother departments,which specialized into Engineering,Sales, HR, and Marketing having separate hiring formats.

Further Mr. Arnab mentioned about the growth opportunities for employees in the company. This concluded the round of questions followed by refreshments provided in Cafeteria Area of the building and a warm goodbye to the students.

Overall experience at Star India was fantastic…A special thanks to TSCMC for giving us chance to visitthis company.It was a wonderful experience to explore our options in the Industry.