Are there business opportunities on YouTube for those not part of the the major channels? What are the challenges faced by ‘youtubers’? What attracts audiences? These were some of the questions posed by Xavier Alabart, driver and co-founder of Up Video, to a few young Catalans who manage successful Youtube channels.

The dynamic session was held in the old Estrella Damm factory as part of the Digital & Media Forum 2016 (#digitalmediaCAT), whose program has been created by the Cluster with the aim of stimulating ideas and connecting the digital world with the media.

The participants were Valenti Sanjuan, specialized in the sports world with a long history in the audiovisual sector; Eduard Esteller (pro Android), qwho focusses on mobile phones and apps; Mel Dominguez (Focusing) and Belena Gaynor,monologuists on various topics; Neus Viciana (Fetsquins), specializing in fashion; Jordi Cor, ‘youtubers’ advisor; Ester Molina (Shinya Murata), focused on the Japanese context and Sandra Pedrosa, a newcomer to Youtube.

Together, the speakers agreed that Youtube is a new ecosystem that is expanding, it rivals television, as it continues to accumulate audiences, and offers many business opportunities.

The first edition of the University and Industry Audiovisual Pitching Session for took place on 21 and 22 October. This session, promoted and organized by the Cluster, gave a forum for university students to present their fiction, nonfiction and new platform projects to audio-visual companies.

The event exceeded all expectations. It involved 12 university centers in Catalonia, 16 projects were selected, and the event was attended by 58 companies and a total of 227 people. 107 meetings were held between students and producers.

The initiative aimed to promote the incorporation of new university developments in the audiovisual industry. Reflecting on this, Xavier Guitart, chairman of the Catalan Audio-visual Cluster, was especially pleased “by the high level of involvement of the industry and universities in this first edition.” He also said that the “integration and complicity of all actors in the sector are the key that will strengthen the audiovisual industry in Catalonia”.

The 16 selected projects:

No Signal, 461, Incredible Shrinking Detective and Cubzzle were the selected projects on new platforms.

In the field of fiction, Daimon, L’Última Carta (The Last Letter), The Show of God and Mediocrity were selected.

The projects seleted in the non-fiction category were I Quartieri Spagnoli, Detrás de los perjuicios (Behind the damage), La realitat dels somnis (The reality of dreams), In(capaços), Reinventados, Lligams (Links) and El Gran Premi de Carol.

The 12 participating universities were the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), University of Barcelona (UB), ​​Communication and International Relations Faculty of Blanquerna (Ramon Llull University), Pompeu Fabra (UPF), University Rovira i Virgili (URV), University of Lleida (UdL), University of Vic (Uvic), International University of Catalonia (UIC), La Salle Campus Barcelona, (Ramon Llull University), Abad Oliba University (CEU), ERAM University School (University of Girona) and Tecnocampus Mataró Polytechnic School.

In addition, the Audiovisual University-Industry Pitching received the collaboration of TV3, BTV and 8TV.

The Catalan Audio-visual Cluster participated actively in Cineposium 2015, the International Film Comission Summit held in Barcelona from 24 to 26 September, which brought together worldwide audio-visual professionals.

This year, the focus was on the relationship between audio-visual production and tourism. Therefore, different speakers analyzed instances in which the audio-visual and tourisism industries successfully worked together in the production and promotion of films and series.

This is a relevant issue, given that Catalonia is a very populartourist destination as well as an increasingly frequent location for film shoots. According to the 2014 report presented by Barcelona Film Comission, the number of film shoots in Barcelona continues to grow (increasing by 23% in 2013 and 61% in 2011).

The Cluster collaborated with Cineposium 2015 in the organization of the closing ceremony, which included a brief presentation on the talent of the Catalan audio-visual industry, and different projects and impressions of industry topics were shared with various international delegates and speakers.

(Gallery: closing party at the Palau de la Música. Xavier Guitart, president of the Cluster, with MaryAnn Hughes, vice president of Disney / X. Guitart with George David, president of the International Association of Film Comissioners.)

A group of Cluster member-companies, met once again in the second session of the Breakfast Meetings, an event that aims to allow members to exchange ideas and projects alongside coffee, croissants and pastries.

This second meeting counted on the participation of Carles Rams of Ebantic, Felix Balbas of Minimo VFX, and Sergi Vicente of Barcelona Television (BTV).

Carles Rams described the projects and solutions that are currently carried out by Ebantic, a company specialized in organizational systems of digital and multimedia content. For example, he spoke of the BPM4Media, a solution oriented towards managing audio-visual content, as well as the M4Media, a digital asset management solution for digital files.

Next, Felix Balbas presented Minimo VFX, which, though a newly established company, is made up of professionals with long careers. It is specialized in creating animation characters and having an international range of film and publicity customers. Balbas also lannounced a proposal for a future project: the organization of a core of companies and senior professionals working together in order to be able to manage the entire production chain of creating special effects.

Sergi Vicente pointed out that BTV is currently committed to increase not only innovation, but also audience participation. For this reason, BTV opened up a new line of demand for transmedia projects. Furthermore, together with Barcelona Activa, they have created the BTV Lab, a collaborative space that integrates the acceleration of projects, experimentation with data journalism and knowledge sharing.

This year, the Catalan Audio-visual Cluster participated in InterDocsBarcelona 2015, a section of the DocsBarcelona Internacional Festival, focussed exclusively on interactive and transmedia documentaries.

The association contributed to InterDocs by bringing in three speakers from the UK  who also participated as financers for Interactive Pitch: Adam Gee, Commissioning Editor of Multiplatform & Online Video for Channel 4; and Alex Nelson and Robin Cramp, two of the driving forces behind BBC Connected Studio.

The conference  also forms part of the Digital & Media Forum, an event organized by the Cluster, which was inaugurated on May 12 in the Blanquerna auditorium.

The advent of the Internet changed the business models of both television stations and production companies as well as advertising agencies and brands. The audiovisual world has had to adapt to a new ecosystem full of challenges, but also opportunities, that offers new technical, commercial, and creative possibilities. These are some of the findings of the Digital & Media Forum, a journey organized by the Catalan Audiovisual Cluster in the auditorium of the Blanquerna.

To reflect on the links that the audiovisual world has and will have with the Internet -and vice versa-, six professionals with very different profiles participated in the session “Digital & Media Forum”, divided into three thematic blocks and moderated by Sergi Vicente, director of BTV .

The first block, designed to examine the Internet through the lens of the audiovisual field, was introduced by Toni Esteve (Lavinia Group), through a presentation dedicated to the latest changes in audiovisual devices, as well as in audience habits that, according to the president of Lavinia, tend toward “immersivity”, meaning the active participation of users in the audiovisual content. Toni Esteve also predicted that the audiovisual will play an increasingly important role as an educational tool in the school curriculum.

In turn, Astrid Altadill, Branded Content Strategist of El Terrat, speaking from her extensive experience in the field of digital advertising, detailing how televisions, brands, and agencies were introduced in the Internet world, and how this new ecosystem required them to change the way that they produce and distrubute content, as well as to devise new strategies to interact with consumers.

The second block focused on the hybrid experiences that fuse the audiovisual and Internet. Professor and multimedia producer Arnau Gifreu highlighted the artistic potential of transmedia, with special mention of some innovative projects carried out in Spain and Catalonia, such as Panzer Chocolate, The Cosmonaut, Maleïda Ciutat or Cyborg Project. On the other hand, Nataly Rios, producer of the British company Transmedia Storytelling, spoke about new commercial strategies based on transmedia, through which brands can gain a greater presence forits customers through the development of interactive experiences. This is the case of Canal Plus with 19 Reinos, a transmedia game targeted at fans of the series Game of Thrones.

The final block closed the session with two professionals that reflected on the audiovisual sector through the lens of the Internet. Oriol Solé, founder of Seriesly, presented his latest project: Tviso, an online platform designed to facilitate and customize the viewing of TV programming, and Eudald Domenech, founder of Servicom, Telepolis, World Online, Inout TV, Techfoundries, Total Channel and Sincroguia TV, who accepted the challenge of describing how the audiovisual world will be in relation to the Internet in 2020. Domenech concluded that while broadcast channels will hold on to a majority of the market, there will be a strong presence of the second screen, apps and new devices, making up a framework of “hiperfragmented” content that is much more personalized and dynamic.

At the invitation of the Catalan Audio-visual Cluster, various associations and organizations of the Catalan audiovisual and creative sector met this morning to discuss the draft agreement of the new digital dividend which is currently being analyzed by the European Commission.

Jaume Pujol, of Abertis Telecom, informed attendees about the meeting held by a delegation of leading European organizations in the audiovisual and creative areas with representatives of the European Parliament. Faced with a proposal that would set aside most of the spectrum allocation for mobile phone industry use, the organizations stressed the importance of sufficient bandwidth for DTT within the audiovisual sector.

Following that meeting, the Catalan associations and organizations are studying the possibility of presenting a common position in favor of DTT during the public consultation period opened by the European Commission prior to the new spectrum allocation.

The Cluster and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia have signed a collaboration framework agreement aimed at working together in teaching, innovation and technology transfer in the audio-visual and information and communications technology field, as well as in activities related to the promotion and diffusion of the Catalan audio-visual sector.

The agreement, signed by UPC rector Enric Fossas and Catalan Audio-visual Cluster president Xavier Guitart, commits to establishing permanent collaboration channels, providing new opportunities in the field, and promoting the exchange of projects between the Cluster’s companies and the university, through the Barcelona School of Telecommunications Engineering (ETSETB), the Barcelona School of Informatics (FIB) and the Terrassa School of Engineering (EET).

This agreement allows the organization of conferences and round-tables, the adaptation of ideas and technological projects coming from the UPC students and researchers to business models, the collaboration in the design of academic programs, the participation of companies in teaching activities, as well as the organization of seminars and courses. It also allows the students to take on internship positions in the companies associated with the Cluster and gives the personnel of those companies access to additional training.