20 TVBEurope TVBEurope 1993-2013
Digital composite D2: Are its days numbered?
By Simon Croft
A FEWyears ago, D-2 was embraced with enthusiasm by users who saw the format as a more affordable gateway to digital video than D-1. True, D-2 was only composite but there were many applications where this was appropriate, and others where the price differential served to convince users that a component system was not essential. But now that Ampex,
Panasonic and Sony are releasing new low cost component VTRs, where does that leave D-2? Is it still the trusty workhorse or is it now time that it was put out to pasture? A recent D-2 purchaser is the
UK’s ITFC, the Independent Television Facilities Centre,
which edits and archives all the ITV transmission material. Asked whether ITFC kept with the D-2 format because it thought it was the best technical
the bulk of ITV companies, certainly as far as the network is concerned, use D-2. London Weekend Television and Carlton swayed us a great deal.”
“D-2 has had a lot of success, particularly in the transmission area with automated systems” Ian Collis, product manager, Sony Broadcast
option or because it was now locked to the format for continuity reasons, director and general manager Chris Higgs said it was “a little bit of both. Yes it is what we are committed to but we also have to think of the archiving format and also
OLE on the way
MANCHESTER-BASED INHOUSE Productions has become the first facility in the north of England to purchase a Lightworks random access editing system. Patrick Haggerty, owner of Inhouse, decided to use the Lightworks after using the system to edit a
10-minute short, Accrington Sandy, for Fabula Films. “Lightworks means I can use my creative film editing skills as well as having the facility to view mixes and wipes,” he said. “Plus, it has the bonus of four tracks of broadcast quality sound.”
Europe confident
on HDTV project European R&D groups meet as Eureka project breaks into compressed HDTV transmission
By Fergal Ringrose
EUROPEAN RESEARCH into digital television including HDTV is rapidly gathering pace. As pan-European project VADIS, a part of Eureka 625, announced it is expanding its digital TV compression system into HDTV, over 20 projects researching digital television throughout the continent recently came together for the first European Seminar on Digital Television in Geneva.
Having produced “very successful results” using standard definition pictures, project coordinator Dr Leonardo Chiariglione told TVBEurope that “HDTV is now a precisely defined target for VADIS.” The group is working
closely with coding standards activities including MPEG (of which Dr Chiariglione is European convenor) in developing compression techniques reducing data rates by a factor of up to about 50 while retaining “virtually all of the original quality.”
ITFC now has six D-2 machines. “We also happen to think it’s the best format,” said Higgs. Perhaps understandably,
manufacturers Sony and Ampex deny that D-2 is nearing its sell-by date. Ian Collis, product
manager D-2 and Digital Betacam at Sony Broadcast, said that D-2 was designed to “remove the weak link in the chain” by replacing C-format with a digital VTR. Our overall philosophy is to support
formats that are optimised for their application. D-2 has had a lot of success, particularly in the transmission area with automated systems. It is a reliable format, as well as being digital.”
Are you ready for automation?
By Brian Aird
SOME BROADCASTERS have found that advertising revenue has only just kept ahead of inflation; growth in satellite, cable and terrestrial channels, although slow, has given potential advertisers more choice. As today’s television channels
proliferate, and markets become tougher and more competitive, station operators are having to look at reducing costs, increasing efficiency and
maximising the profitability of selling transmission time. Automation, one method of
increasing efficiency and reducing costs, might be thought of as simply the computer control of equipment such as robotic cameras or cart machines. However, there is an increasing trend to integrate machine control and programme or commercial playout systems together with programme planning and air time sales (or traffic and billing as it is referred to in the US).
www.tvbeurope.com April 2013
Automation software gives solutions for playout, planning and sales
AUTOMATION SUPPLIERS
Autocue, AAVS, Alamar, Ampex, Basys, Boss, BTS, Columbine, Data Science, Dynatech Newstar, Enterprise, Focus, Hoskins, Ibis, Logica, Louth Automation, Odetics, Panasonic, Probel, Sony, Thomson Broadcast, Utah Scientific, Vistek
Sony DAT reaches maturity
OVER 45,000 SONYDAT recorders are in professional use across Europe, and it is estimated that in 1992 Sony’s annual sales figures for DAT hardware in Europe will have risen above
50,000 machines for the first time ever. The figures were released at a press event held by distributor HHB Communications at London’s Digital Museum. HHB has sold well over 12,000 DAT
recorders, more than 90% of which were purchased by professional users. 31% of HHB’s sales have been portable recorders and 26% have been dedicated professional units.
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