“Wow, this is the future”, I thought to myself. “How do I get to be a part of this project”, my thoughts continued.
The demo I attended in August led me to apply for this job a month later. Now I have been the Yle Industry Partner for MeMAD project for almost two months.
Normally I work as an Assistant Producer, Director or Production Coordinator on TV. My tasks and work description depend on the requirements of each TV-program. This means that every now and then new work processes and computer programs are introduced to my team, but we rarely have a say to the content. Most of the time all development is done by engineers. Us users get a finished system or computer programs that either work or they don’t work.
Representing the industry professionals
This opportunity to work for MeMAD with several research teams, such as University of Surrey and Lingsoft, has offered me possibilities to think outside of the box and try to vision the future of TV-work. Some things will always remain the same: we are dealing with video and audio contents. That said, many work procedures have not made use of new technological possibilities. They have remained the same even though the work itself is more rapid and in many ways more demanding than for example 10 years ago. Mainly this is due to technological challenges and new systems.
Many of my colleagues have been both curious and supportive, when I have been talking about MeMAD. The most common question has been the same one I asked myself at the first demo: what will be the final result of MeMAD? I have given the same answer I got: to have firsthand knowledge at the Finnish Broadcasting Company to understand future innovations and fully benefit from all possible outcomes regarding audiovisual work.
Wishlist
Here is my wishlist for the future. Some of it is already a work in process, such as partly automated Music Cue Sheets and reporting in general. But there are many ways the MeMAD project can positively influence and hasten the existing work procedures, such as facial recognition, automated recognition of raw materials, automated translations of raw material, more efficient archive searches etc. All of this could lead to smoother work-flows and especially give more time for planning, manuscripting and pre-edit.
Personally I have found the MeMAD project a welcome chance to influence the ways video production will be done in the future. In January I will return to my regular team and continue making Talk-shows, Documentaries and basically whatever is needed. MeMAD has been every bit as exciting as I expected and hopefully I will have such chances to attend interesting projects again later on in my career.
Inari’s wishlist
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- facial recognition
- automated recognition and sorting of raw materials
- automated translations of raw materials
- efficient and reliable archive searches
- semi-automated reporting of music
– Inari Köngäs, video production professional at Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company