Montemorelos University faculty team up to produce television programs in Papua New Guinea

Hector Belvedere of Montemorelos University who served as the production manager during the Mega Project Hope in Papua New Guinea from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20, 2015. Image courtesy of Montemorelos University.

March 9, 2015 | Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico | Benjamin Garcia/IAD Staff

Three of Montemorelos University’s media center employees traveled to Papua New Guinea earlier this year to participate in an initiative led by the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s official television network Hope Channel. The initiative was to produce some 303 television episodes in preparation for the launch of the country’s first free-to-air Christian television channel.

The initiative, coined as Mega Project Hope, saw Hector Belvedere, production director, Iver Hernandez, post production supervisor and Eduardo Sanchez, engineering supervisor from Montemorelos’ UM Media center, work with 30 other professionals from around the world to train two dozen local professionals from surrounding islands on producing dozens of programs and running a television channel at the Pacific Adventist University in Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea.

Eduardo Sanchez, engineering supervisor, works in the control unit in one of the programs. Image courtesy of Montemorelos University.

“We worked on different teams for more than 12 hours each day in two studios simultaneously” said Belvedere. “We had people from ten different countries and you could hear Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Ukrainian, English and more and it was wonderful.”

Belvedere, who will head Hope Channel’s as production director in Maryland, United States this year, said the teams were able to produce 200 sermons and six programs series on the family, health, music, testimonies, and more.

Hope Channel’s Vice President Kandus Thorp said it was important to send Mega Hope Channel because the government of Papua New Guinea granted a new television broadcasting licence to the Adventist Church there. “The Mega Hope Project team was sent to fulfill the commitment to cover the required number of daily hours for local programming,” said Thorp.

To view photos of the Mega Hope Project in Papua New Guinea, click HERE