Opinion
When setting
Broadcaster focus
standards for
HD production
broadcasters
should spare a
thought for the
problems that
HD’s challenging year
programme
makers face
This year is set to be a pivotal one for HD broadcasting, kicking off with
the much anticipated launch of Freeview’s HD service in the first quarter.
The launch promises to bring HD versions of the BBC, ITV and C4 to
a national audience, with Five’s HD service winning the fourth slot on
the multiplex with a launch date set for late 2010.
The inital rate of take-up will depend on the availability of Freeview
HD boxes and Freeview HDTVs, which will be needed to decode the
new DVB-T2 compression and transmission standard. These will need DAVID WOOD
to be available in large numbers by June, when the World Cup kicks off Industry journalist
– a tournament which is expected to be a big driver of Freeview HD. At A TV and technology
this point it will be available in almost 50% of UK homes, a figure which journalist and former
is set to rise to 98.5% by the end of digital switchover in 2012. The industry deputy editor of
has its fingers crossed that the tournament will be the HD equivalent of Broadcast, David
the Queen’s Coronation in 1953, which generated a huge spike in colour regularly writes for a
TV set purchasing. wide range of titles
An alternative is to get a subscription from a commercial platform such including Televisual,
as Sky. The satellite broadcaster has certainly set the benchmark for HD Broadcast and World
broadcasting with 37 HD channels and 1.6m customers. By the end of Screen.
this year around 4m households are expected to be watching services on
either pay, Freesat or Freeview HD.
The other big issue in 2010 is brewing at the opposite end of the HD
pipeline – a debate about broadcasters’ HD production requirements.
Last year broadcasters attempted to create a single standard for HD
acquisition. For BBC and Sky, content no longer qualifies as HD if it’s
shot on a camera smaller than a 1/2-inch sensor, recorded on HDV, Super
16 or any recording formats below 50Mb/s. There is, of course, some
sensible wiggle room. HD programmes can contain up to 25% of material
considered SD – to accommodate archive, or material which has been
acquired on smaller cameras for reasons of practicality and safety.
But as broadcasters broaden HD production into areas such as
daytime, reality television or news – which they need to do if they are to
reach their targets for increasing levels of HD production – they are
encountering genres where footage is acquired on smaller, compact
cameras designed for self-shooting. Many production managers across
the industry will be faced with a difficult decision in 2010; whether to
standardise their productions with higher specification cameras or
circumnavigate standards using bolt on devices such as the nanoFlash
(which enables cameras to capture at 50Mb/s).
Whatever happens, one principle needs to be preserved – the choice
of camera for different genres shouldn’t be dictated by technical standards
chiefs at broadcasters. What’s needed is more communication between
those who set the standards and their commissioning colleagues, who have
a more realistic idea of life at the sharp end of programme making. in my view
Winter 2010 theproducer 7
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