In our Aug. 15-Sept 11 issue, SHOOT canvassed production, post and VFX professionals about the pending transition to digital television (DTV), including HD. We also reported in that edition on the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) white paper titled “The Digital TV Transition: Production Implications for Advertisers.” The white paper was prepared by the ANA’s Production Management Committee and reflected valuable input from assorted sources including such organizations as the National Association of Broadcasters, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and the Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE). SHOOT’s coverage ran under the “Flipping The Switch” banner, which was the first installment of a two-part series.
Now in the second part of our coverage, SHOOT looks to the technologies side of the biz, gaining feedback on DTV and HD from key players in the hardware and software sectors. Sprinkled in for some big picture perspective (see sidebar) are execs from leading organizations the AICP, the AICE, the Hollywood Post Alliance (HPA) and the Production Equipment Rental Association (PERA).
The following two-pronged question was posed to the hardware/software community:
What advice would you offer to postproduction facilities and producers (that are active in commercials and other forms of sponsored content) about how to best adapt to–and benefit from–the fast approaching transition to digital television (DTV)? What new kinds of technologies–hardware and/or software–should post shops and/or producers consider investing in, experimenting with and/or renting and why?
Here’s a sampling of the industry feedback:
Nathan Adams,
senior account executive, Media Distributors Technology & Solutions Group
The switch to DTV means that most projects are working in HD now. Those working in HD for the first time should involve experienced professionals to avoid surprises. Start by getting the final delivery requirements in writing and create a plan that will get you to the finish line. Understand that all HD formats are not created equal. Different formats shoot at different frame sizes, frame rates and color depth, and the workflow associated with each format is usually different. Green screen work or projects requiring significant color correction should watch out for HD formats in 4:2:0. Mixing frame rates and frame sizes can be expensive and time consuming if the technical aspects are left until the finishing process. A fast FCP system with a quality HD reference monitor and an Aja Kona 3 card or an IO-HD should pay for itself very quickly by cutting down or eliminating time in an online bay. This setup offers HD conversion capabilities that are unrivalled at this price. Plus, now many projects are working with “broadcast quality” compressed material like Apple’s ProRes HQ. This allows them to edit “online” from cheap drives and eliminate or minimize the expense of an online session.
Michael Bergeron,
strategic technology liaison,
Panasonic Broadcast
Preparing for the DTV switch will involve preparation for HDTV, including equipment and workflow changes. Regarding equipment, for a full return on these investments, it will be necessary to consider all of the advantages to be gained from the new technologies. For example, the value of improved image quality is obvious; but in evaluating new acquisition gear, end-to-end testing is essential. An 8-bit recording may look stunning with a straight playback, but it may not hold up as well to postproduction image manipulation as 10-bit recording will. It’s very important to measure quality in the context of the post process.
The bigger long-term advantage of the new tools may have less to do with resolution and more to do with revenue generation and operational efficiency. With the move towards more file-based environments, I expect the value of creating file based content with rich meta-data support will increase. Looking towards the future, Panasonic leveraged forthcoming meta-data driven technologies by focusing on MXF and XML standards for our P2 solid-state recording products. This has already proven useful for creating a working, digital footage-archive system and will be key to enhancing an organization’s ability to repurpose content in the digital age.
Michael Bravin,
chief technology officer,
Band Pro Film & Digital
The effect of the transition to digital transmission means that the production and postproduction workflow becomes digital and in many if not most cases working with wider screen (16 X 9) aspect ratio pictures.
While at first glance it seems that the equipment necessary for the all digital workflow is costly, there are several advantages over the long run.
The post houses that have not made the transition to digital will find that the transition can be costly if done all at once. Many if not most commercial post facilities have long ago adopted a digital workflow and they are poised to move when the transition takes place because they have been doing this for the past several years merely downconverting for 4:3 analog deliverables.
For the producer the additional quality inherent in an all digital workflow when mastering for television, enables the ability to repurpose material for the web, mobile phone, print, and even the cinema. This allows for additional revenue streams or cost savings because of a master once use many times methodology as they are repurposed for each platform.
The DP has additional picture real estate to work with when shooting 16X9 and the additional image quality especially for product spots allows for more creative control. Digital offers a closer finished product to what the DP visualizes and then sees on set.
Mike Condon, SOC;
manager, digital department,
Clairmont Camera
There are many variables that should be taken into consideration when renting equipment for shooting an HD commercial. These include the preferences of the DP or camera operator, the environment of the shoot, the “look” that’s desired, the interfacing with post, and, of course, the budget. From a camera standpoint, Clairmont offers everything from the “workhorse” Sony F900/3 and Panasonic Varicams, up to the sophisticated film-like Arri D-21 and Sony F23. We also have the new Red One camera, which has many highly desirable features, including very high resolution (4520 x 2540 active pixel array). The tiny Iconix HD-RH1 has also become increasingly popular among commercial makers because of its ability to function in exceptionally tight quarters. Lenses play an important part in the creative process, and one that’s receiving quite a bit of play lately is the unique v3 MOE® (moving optical element) that enhances realism of a shot. The Long-Range Macro offers magnification up to 40x and avoids the lighting issues that come with normal length lenses. As for digital workflow, we have everything from the mobile Panasonic AJ-HPM-110 P2 recorder/player all the way to comprehensive digital workstations and fiber optic networks.
Ray Gilmartin,
WW marketing manager, DCC,
Workstations, HP
As a technology leader in the broadcast and postproduction industries, HP plays a crucial role in both the impending transition to DTV distribution and the ongoing evolution towards HDTV production. As a result, HP has been actively working with leading content providers to develop workstations with the increased CPU and GPU horsepower needed to meet the demands of these new, all digital workflows. The post industry can prepare for the switch by ensuring that their facilities are equipped with the computing power needed to handle digital content. All HP Workstations are equipped to handle DTV, while the quad-core HP xw8600 and xw9400 Workstations are ideal for anyone looking to make the switch to HDTV production.
By working closely with our partners in the content creation industry, HP was able to equip our existing workstations and displays with the processing power and digital I/O necessary to support these new all-digital workflows. By implementing these capabilities into our products well in advance of the mandatory cutover, HP has helped to ease the transition for our customers to DTV. In addition to all HP Workstations, HP’s Performance Displays meet the requirements to provide high quality DTV, including the new HP DreamColor LP2480zx, the HP LP2475w and the HP LP2275w displays.
Al Kovalick,
strategist, Avid
The DTV transition is the tip of the iceberg. DTV means more than moving from 4×3 to 16×9 and SD to HD. The transition opens up opportunities in multi-screen content creation; for digital TV, web, mobile, podcasts, IPTV, digital cinema and more. Multi-screen is the future of content distribution. Technical staff of post houses should know the specifications these new channels require and provide services to create and publish to them.
It will be important to understand the compression formats, data rates, screen sizes, metadata use models and file formats required by the end user. Gone are the days of handing off a videotape and feeling the job is done. Provide quality control with in-house test screens for the target device–iPod and other portables, select mobile phones (iPhone), Web viewers (Flash, Silverlight). For digital TV target screens, it’s a good practice to test finished materials on both 4×3 and 16×9 displays. Learn about the Active Format Description and how you can provide value to your client by adding it to your deliverables. We’d suggest that our customers become familiar with products that assist in format conversion such as those from AnyStream, Digital Rapids, Harmonic/Rhozet, TeleStream, and others as well as Avid’s Interplay workflow system for content management across target domains.
Dean Lyon,
director of marketing,
da Vinci Systems
The transition of consumer TV to DTV is a non-event to the production and postproduction world. We had already begun a transition to digital by the late 1980’s and da Vinci was at the forefront of providing the tools necessary for filmmakers to transfer and post their programs and television commercials in digital. Obviously, over the years, the digital path and processes have improved, and by the late 1990’s, da Vinci, once again, led the transition of production and postproduction companies to digital HDTV, largely fuelled by the insinuation that “digital” TV would ultimately pave the way for high-definition television in less than 10 years.
The basic filmmaking tenet has not changed, always produce your asset (feature film, TV show or ad) in the highest resolution possible, thereby insuring best quality, flexibility and durability throughout these standards and format transitions. The resolution advantages that we had in motion picture film were that we could scale, aspect ratio adjust and otherwise format the images to any desired television broadcast standard. With this in mind, da Vinci developed their latest generation offering, Resolve, with the capability to pan, tilt, zoom and even rotate digital (like Genesis, Viper and Red) or film (16/35/70mm) acquired images in real-time to any resolution output with exceptional results.
Michael Morelli, VP and worldwide general manager, strategic accounts & regional business general manager, Americas,
Entertainment Imaging Division, Eastman Kodak Company
The transition to digital television coupled with the rapidly growing number of high-definition screens in homes represents a unique opportunity for commercial producers and directors. The prospects for heightening the emotional content of 30- and 60-second stories by using nuances in colors, tones, contrast, textures, and light that speak to audiences will increase. Film is inherently a high-definition medium. We recently developed a new generation of KODAK VISION3 films with distinct imaging characteristics and unsurpassed latitude, which provide directors, producers, cinematographers and colorists at postproduction facilities with unlimited flexibility. Audiences will sense things that weren’t apparent before. It may be a subtle gleam on the silver tone of a new car, a sparkle in a character’s eyes, or a barely noticeable shine that catches the viewers’ eye. Creative freedom has no boundaries in the film format, maximizing the impact of the client’s product, services or brand on the viewing audience. DTV makes that truism more important than ever. Choosing anything else is a compromise.
David Sampson,
Western Region & Latin American sales manager,
Autodesk
To take advantage of DTV, producers and facilities need to prepare for three basic things.
More Channels–which implies more need for many thousands of hours of airtime to fill with new, and repurposed content.
More resolution–Uncompressed NTSC 601 is no longer good enough for long term content. 4:4:4 RGB HD is a superb choice. If producers want to remain competitive, they must be acquiring/creating the imagery in a very high resolution. This higher resolution then creates a throughput and image quality preservation problem for post facilities.
New Equipment–post facilities need to retool with newer software capable of handling everything from 601 to 4K seamlessly, faster platforms capable of handling large images, and upgraded networking, storage, tape deck and archiving solutions.
All of the above are extremely complex challenges that Autodesk is uniquely positioned to solve. Flame, Smoke and Lustre are engineered to deliver the security that the producers demand for their images while sustaining incredible throughput. This speed allows for artistic experimentation during the post process while still making the deadline. These solutions are ideal for post facilities that need maximum flexibility and scalability.
Richard Townhill,
director of video applications product marketing,
Apple Inc.
It’s impressive just how many postproduction centers around the world have become Final Cut towns. This transition has occurred because our industry is moving away from proprietary, monolithic environments and adopting a more IT-centric strategy: systems need to be built on open standards and need to talk to each other.
With all the digital acquisition options available today, Final Cut Studio 2 connects the dots for digital file-based postproduction. It starts with Final Cut’s log and transfer tool which is designed to work with file-based digital acquisition devices from Panasonic cameras recording onto P2 cards to Sony XDCAM HD discs and XDCAM EX solid-state devices to high resolution images captured on the Red cameras and finally to consumer AVC HD cameras.
No matter what your source material, the process of copying the media onto local or SAN storage goes quickly and happens in the background. You can begin editing as soon as the first clip appears. When done, you’ll use Compressor to encode and distribute media. Compressor can output in just about any format you need, from broadcast standard MPEG2, to H.264 for web or mobile delivery.
Rob Willox,
director of marketing,
content creation division,
Sony Electronics, Inc.
The promise of DTV was up to six times the resolution of Standard Definition and the option of the 16:9 aspect ratio. The reality of the marketplace is that even though the HD infrastructure is growing quickly (there are over 100 HD “Channels” on some cable providers), the commercial playout infrastructure in many cases is 4:3. What should you do?
Field record digitally in 1080/24P CineAlta. With cameras like the Genesis, F23 and F35 you can make a spot that is as artistically beautiful as any other medium. Shoot safe for 4:3 or shoot for both 16:9 and 4:3 on separate takes. From that 24P master make all your cross and down-conversions. Do a low res (SD) off line in letterbox and 4:3. Then go back and master your hi def.
The F23/35 and Genesis all have under/over crank, a huge color palette and are well know by the d.o.p. community. There are no longer “compromises” or giving up creative freedom to shoot it digital. These cameras offer all the on sets benefits of digital while providing an image that is world class. DP’s can use 35mm or 2/3″ lenses as the scene dictates and the cameras are available to rent from the usual suspects. Record on tape or on flash, whatever you’re more comfortable with. But don’t be afraid to shoot digital.
