Mykola Chernotytskyi, Head of the Managing Board of Suspilne Ukraine, thanked the people of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for supporting the development of independent public service media in Ukraine and Suspilne’s team. He delivered a speech at the Japanese Autumn festival in Kyiv on 4 September. One of Suspilne’s outside broadcast vans, acquired with JICA’s support, was also showcased at the festival venue.
“Today, Suspilne is the largest independent media company in Ukraine. We operate three national television channels, four radio stations and 22 regional branches, supported by an extensive network of correspondents in local communities. We have a news website and social media pages with millions of followers. We produce news, investigations, documentaries, cultural, educational, children’s and youth content. To keep all of this running, we need equipment, expertise, strong infrastructure and backup solutions. And in all these areas, we have the support of Japan,” Mykola Chernotytskyi said.
Suspilne’s cooperation with Japan and JICA has continued since 2015 across three key areas: strengthening the technical capacity of editorial teams and production infrastructure, developing and digitising Suspilne’s audiovisual archives, and professional training and knowledge exchange with Japanese colleagues.
Modern technologies for editorial teams
With the support of its partners, Suspilne has strengthened the technical capacity of its teams across all regions, providing everything from cameras, laptops and lighting equipment to vehicles. In particular, editorial teams received 500 laptop sets, 201 workstation sets, 100 portable lighting kits, 50 video production kits, 12 mobile broadcasting systems, and five sets of equipment for film and series production.
For mobile journalism, partners also provided 80 Apple smartphone-based production kits and more than 50 kits based on Sony Alpha cameras, enabling journalists to film, edit and transmit material directly from the scene.
Within a short period of time, JICA provided equipment that helped the Suspilne Dnipro team restore stable operations at new premises after the branch building was destroyed in a Russian attack.
“For me, this is an example of more than international partnership. This is true friendship — something we genuinely feel and for which we are grateful to the people of Japan,” Mykola Chernotytskyi said.
With the support of Japanese partners, Suspilne received two modernised outside broadcast vans (OB vans).
One of the OB vans was showcased at the festival venue. Today, Suspilne’s team uses it for live broadcasts and recording major events across the country. The television production unit can support programmes using up to 14 cameras simultaneously, with fully equipped workstations for 13 members of the production team and two additional positions for commentators. Equipment of this level is unique in Ukraine.
The partners also helped modernise Suspilne’s production infrastructure by providing state-of-the-art equipment for the Radio Promin studio, a new full-cycle digital production studio, and the studio of the Ukrainske Radio Recording House.
Archives and preservation of audiovisual heritage
With JICA’s support, Suspilne has developed its own technological capacity for digitising and preserving audiovisual heritage. The new equipment makes it possible to work with Suspilne’s unique collection of around 5,000 film reels and gradually convert materials from physical media into digital formats.
Film reels are digitised using a Blackmagic Cintel Scanner G3 HDR+, acquired with the support of partners. More than 100 hours of archival footage have already been digitised using the scanner.
For magnetic media, Suspilne received an eight-channel Qudrus Machine Ingest system, which has already been used to digitise more than 350 cassettes and magnetic tapes.
In addition, with JICA’s support, Suspilne created its own Ceph-based file storage system, which currently holds 1.8 petabytes of content, including both digitised archives and contemporary Suspilne materials.
Training and knowledge exchange
Suspilne teams have visited Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, where they studied the operations of its headquarters and regional bureaus, backup broadcasting centres, archives, radio services, innovation units, and children’s and educational content teams.
They also explored how NHK organises its operations during emergencies, maintains backup television and radio broadcasting, works with metadata and physical media in its archives, and applies emerging technologies, including augmented reality.
The experience gained during these visits is already being applied in Suspilne’s work. In particular, following the study visits, the team developed three practical manuals covering the operation of a backup broadcasting centre, digital archive storage, and cooperation between regional production hubs.
The Japanese Autumn is a festival of Japanese culture held in Kyiv. This year, the festival marked the 20th anniversary of the Ukrainian-Japanese Center and brought together exhibitions, lectures, concerts, workshops and other cultural events.
As a reminder, in November last year, representatives of Suspilne Ukraine and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed an agreement on the third phase of the Project for Capacity Development of the Public Broadcaster of Ukraine. The new phase continues the long-standing cooperation between Ukraine and Japan aimed at modernising Suspilne’s technical infrastructure and developing the capacity of its team.
Suspilne Ukraine is an independent media company with a strong presence across all platforms: the TV channels Pershyi, Suspilne Kultura, Suspilne Sport, and a national network of local channels; the radio stations Ukrainske Radio, Radio Promin, Radio Kultura, Radiotochka. Find only verified news on suspilne.media, as well as on our national and local digital platforms. We broadcast in minority languages, represent Ukraine at the Eurovision Song Contest, develop the children’s platform Brobaks, and train media professionals through the Public Media Academy. Our Suspilne Mediateka platform offers unique video and audio archives dating from the 1920s to today. Defending freedom in Ukraine.
Main photo: Pavlo Lisovskyi
