A news anchor goes through the paces ahead of Wednesday?s launch of STAR Ananda. Picture by Pabitra Das

Wednesday at 9 am is when ?the first truly 24x7 Bengali news channel? goes on air. STAR Ananda is from the stable of Media Content & Communications Services India Pvt Ltd (MCCS), a joint venture of ABP TV and STAR group.

State-of-the-art technology (the country?s first Macintosh-run television channel), and a comprehensive and credible range of local, national and international news (with an emphasis on live coverage) are being touted as the key components of STAR Ananda.

?It will not be a local channel, only the language of communication will be Bengali,? stressed Uday Shankar, CEO, MCCS. ?There?s a huge appetite for news in the East and we will try to identify the news people care about and then present them in a special way.?

The dream for the new channel, according to STAR Ananda executive producer Suman Chattopadhyay, would be to ?do in Bengali what can be done in English and, to an extent, in Hindi?.

So, the competition is not deemed to be local. ?We are not benchmarking the channel with other Bengali channels, as this will be the first truly 24-hour news channel in Bengali,? said Chattopadhyay.

The focus, for the second television venture of STAR and ABP after STAR News, would firmly be on news. ?There will be various new programming concepts introduced from time to time,? said Shankar. ?It will also be an interactive channel, where the viewer will play a more active role. STAR?s 7827 SMS platform will be used extensively for this.?

STAR Ananda, which will function independently of STAR News, has a staff strength of around 100 in Calcutta. ?Live coverage is an area of emphasis,? said Chattopadhyay.

Technology is the other, for the country?s first Macintosh-driven channel boasting an array of Apple iMac G5 workstations and PowerBooks, besides other cutting-edge production tools.

?The set-up enables a correspondent to process and edit raw footage, add voiceover and write the script, all on his laptop,? explained senior producer Gaurav Banerjee.

Three swank studios at the AJC Bose Road address add glitz to the grind of news production, while BBC Broadcast Design helps 3-D graphics blend better with the stories.

With all city multi-system operators ? SitiCable, Manthan and CableComm ? confirming that the channel would be available on their networks, every cable and satellite home in Calcutta will be able to tune in on Wednesday.