Transcript
1. VIDEO SPECIFICATIONS Video program material shall be produced using current industry standards and accepted norms. 1.1 Production Formats Video shall be produced with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and must comply with one of the 1920 x 1080 standards or with one of the 1280 x 720 standards. 1.2 Program Delivery Format Files delivered to MTS Stories From Home must have a frame rate of 59.94 interlaced fields per second, 23.973 progressive frames per second or 29.97 progressive frames per second, but never 24fps, 30fps or 60fps. Note: Many people round 29.97 fps to 30 fps, but this can lead to confusion during postproduction. Today, it is still very rare to use a frame rate of 30 fps, but very common to use 29.97 fps. When in doubt, ask people to clarify whether they really mean 30 fps, or if they are simply rounding 29.97 fps for convenience. Note: 23.976 is simply a television-friendly version of 24 fps that is traditionally used in film. While most people think television is broadcast at 30 frames per second, it's actually 29.976 frames per second (or 59.94 interlaced fields per second). 23.976 converts more easily to broadcast television formats and is commonly used for HD origination. The conversion from 23.976 > 29.97 involves a 3:2 pulldown. 3:2 pulldown basically takes (4) 23.976 frames and maps them to (5) 29.97 frames, taking advantage of the fact that a video frame is made of 2 fields (29.97 frames per second x 2 = 59.94 fields per second) to get the math to work out, frames are placed alternately on 2 and 3 fields of the image, resulting in 3 "full" frames and 2 "pulldown" frames which is why it's called 3:2 pulldown.
1.3 Video Levels Luminance and color signals must not exceed the bounds of legal gamut. On the left SMPTE Color Bars altered so you can see the pluge better. The pluge are the 3 vertical bars in the lower right corner of the left image. Blacker-than-black, Black, and lighter than black. On the right is the test pattern signal’s luma values on a waveform monitor. The middle bar on the pluge should represent black, and the bar to the left of the middle bar (blacker-than-black) should not be seen visually on any television monitor as this is blackerthan-black. Only on a waveform monitor should you see this bar.
When monitor brightness and contrast is properly adjusted, this strip should be barely visible (3.5%) above black.
FCP maps 601 levels (broadcast video levels) to RGB (computer screen levels) for the computer display while Avid does not. The signal going out (via SDI or HDMI) to a video device (broadcast television monitor or video recorder) will be the same on either platform. If you want to see accurate levels on the computer display in the Avid, turn the brightness down so the pluge line in SMPTE bars is barely visible.
If using Final Cut Pro 7: When looking at our video in the Canvas window, it is impossible to determine the brightness values of our footage by eye. There could be hot spots that we cannot discern and Blacks may look black, but are not really full black. The only way to know and accurately correct these issues is with the help of the Waveform monitor.
Click on the adjustment slider beneath the 'Whites' color wheel and drag to the left, lowering the brightness, Continue to drag until the waveforms are sitting below the 'White 100%' line. With the waveforms below the 'White 100%' line, this video is now 'Broadcast Safe'.
In order to get as close to black a possible we need to pull down or 'crush' the blacks in our video (those parts of the video image that are supposed to be pure black). Click on the adjustment slider beneath the 'Blacks' color wheel and drag to the left, lowering the luminosity of the waveforms that represent the black parts of the image, so that it sits just above Black or 0%. The bottom end of the waveform monitor can be used to see just how deep the blacks are, and how much of the shadows are getting crushed (intentionally or not).
1.4 Reference Signals It is preferable that program content shall be preceded with 40 seconds of color bars (75% or 100% chroma amplitude) and audio tone of 1000 Hz, followed by 10 seconds of slate and 10 seconds of black before start of program. Program material must be representative of bars and tone. The colour bars should be generated from a test generator in the edit suite that produced the final edit, and to which the edit suite has been calibrated. 1.5 Time Code Programs must be recorded with time code. Program content start time code must read either 01:00:00:00 or 10:00:00:00. Time code must be continuous. If Bars and Tone are present timecode should start 1minute before (00:59:00:00) or (09:59:00:00) so that Program content start begins at 01:00:00:00 or 10:00:00:00. E.g. Bars & Tone = 09:59:00:00 to 09:59:40:00 Visual Slate = 09:59:40:00 to 09:59:50:00 Black = 09:59:50:00 to 10:00:00:00 1.6 Slate All programs will be identified on tape with a 10 second visual slate, indicating;
- Series title - Program title - Program start time code & duration - Language of the Program - Video Format and Frame Rate - Audio is Stereo or Surround sound (Lo/Ro or Lt/Rt) - Date 1.7 Transcriptions Program content shall be transcribed, and be provided as a plain text file. Transcriptions must only contain the dialogue and non-verbal cues (all the text that will appear as captions). Your transcription will be used verbatim, so it must exactly match the program to be captioned. In the case of a music program, lyrics must also be transcribed. 1.8 Production Video footage should be acquired using a Professional recording format with a resolution equal or greater to 1920x1080. Examples of this include but are not restricted to: Sony HDCAM Sony HDCAM SR Sony XDCAM HD422 (50 mbps) Sony MPEG IMX 50 mb (tape) Panasonic P2 HD (AVC Intra 100) Sony MPEG IMX 50 mb (XDCAM) Panasonic DVC PRO 100 mb (HD) Panasonic DVC PRO 50 (tape) Canon / Panasonic / Sony DSLR (recorded at 23.976p, 29.97p) not 59.94p Canon Professional HD Camcorders (C300 etc) Sony NEX-FS700 Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera Material not acquired in one of the “Professional” formats must be approved by the MTS SFH producers prior to the commencement of production. HDV is not considered a professional format.
1.9 Editing Codecs Video program material shall be produced using industry standards and professional workmanship. MTS SFH requires that its production partners use only approved codecs and media types when working in nonlinear editing systems. Acceptable Editing Codecs Uncompressed SMPTE 292 1200 mbps AVID DNxHD 8 and 10 bit (greater than115mbps) Sony HDCAM codec 140 mbps DVCPRO HD 100 mbps XDCam HD422 50 mbps Apple Pro Res HQ
1.10 Mixing of Frame Rates Converting video formats from one frame rate to another is technically challenging, and there are often unwanted visual side effects. This is especially true when the frame rates do not evenly divide. For example, converting 30 fps to 60 fps is fairly easy to do, but converting 29.97 fps to 23.976 fps is much more difficult. Making sure audio stays in sync throughout the conversion is yet another challenge. As discussed in section 1.2 we can see that 23.976 can be converted to 59.94 by use of a pulldown. But this does not work in reverse. Video cannot be converted from 29.97 to 23.976 without removing frames (causing an undesirable stuttering effect) or without slowing down the footage. Because of this challenge, if a production intends to use mixed frame rates within a program, the correct conversion process must be applied before the program is delivered, and must be approved by the MTS SFH producers before this material can be used. 1.11 Use of SD Material in HD Programs Use of native SD visual sequences, including NTSC, PAL or SECAM, or ITU-BT R.601 digital video, is accepted only in special cases; for example, insertion of archival material. The producer shall inform MTS SFH of, among other things, the total anticipated length of up-converted SD video material to be inserted into the HD program, and clearly justify its use. When the use of 4:3 SD materials is essential and has been approved by MTS SFH, two basic modes of aspect ratio conversion may be used: pillar-box and top-bottom crop. In all cases of SD to HD up-conversion: - No alteration of horizontal versus vertical proportions (geometric distortion) will be tolerated. Conversion by horizontal stretching is therefore prohibited. - Care must be taken to ensure that the main elements of the original 4:3 composition (e.g., principal action, graphic) are preserved.
2. AUDIO SPECIFICATIONS Audio program material shall be produced using current industry standards and accepted norms. The audio portion of the master and source audio and videotapes must be produced so that no noise, static, dropouts or extraneous distortion is recorded in the audio. Program audio must reflect reference tone level. Audio levels must be consistent throughout the program. The audio program shall be produced with reproduction in a domestic environment in mind. The stereo audio program must be consistent throughout (with the exception of leaders and black segment delimiters). 2.1 Phasing Stereo audio must be fully mono compatible, i.e. the audio channels must be in the proper phase. NOTE: Full Mono compatibility means that when the left and right stereo channels are actively combined to mono there is no discernible change in audio level or fidelity. Producers should perform a monaural check of their stereo mix. Dialogue should most always be present in both the Left and Right channels equally, unless character position either on or off screen dictates dialogue position, although this is rarely used and should be avoided. Stereo Master Channel Allocations Channel 1 - Program left (Lt or Lo) Channel 2 - Program right (Rt or Ro) 2.2 Sound to Video Synchronization (Lip-synchronization) The relative timing of sound to video should not exhibit any perceptible error. Sound should not
lead or lag the vision by more than 10ms. This synchronization must be achieved at the last point at which the program supplier, or their facility provider, has control of the signal. 2.3 Headroom When mastering to a digital format and/or using an Absolute Scale or Peak meter, where "0" is at the top of the scale and reference tone is at -20 dBfs, broadcast stereo tracks should peak at no more than -8 dBfs. 2.4 Audio compression: Program audio should have good dynamic range, within the parameters listed above, but not be overly dynamic. While some compression may be needed to control the dynamic range of the program audio, excessive audio compression of the final mix should be avoided as this reduces the perception of audio quality by the listener. 2.5 Target Loudness Loudness is a perceptual quality rather than actual level measurement. To come with a standard, repeatable method of measuring, the ITU came up with a standard set of measuring tools, known as ITU-R BS 1770. Besides giving a value to the loudness of the content, these tools also provide a true peak reading of the audio level. We recommend that program producers use an ITU BS 1770 compliant measuring tool to ensure their programs audio content achieves a target loudness level of -24 LKFS +/-2 LU, (Loudness units, K weighted below Full Scale) and that true peak levels (measured by the same BS-1770 compliant tool) do not exceed -8 DBFS. It is especially important to monitor levels for all program elements. Please note this applies to both surround sound and stereo audio masters. Stereo will simply perform the measurement over only two channels. Following this measurement and immediately prior to ingesting the material into our on-air servers, linear gain scaling will be applied (no compression/limiting or expansion) so that the measured LKFS of the program segment now agrees with -24LKFS. During Transmission, program material is subject to the handling of an automatic loudness control device which will attempt to ensure that all program material falls within the acceptable loudness limits set forth by ATSC A/85 (-24LKFS +/-2dB) 2.2 Sample Rates and Resolution Sampling rate shall be 48kHz using a bit depth of 16bit, 20bit or 24bit word length.
3. NON-COMPLIANCE Submitted programs that do NOT comply with the standards listed above may be rejected and producers will need to deliver corrected masters, at no further expense to MTS SFH.
4. MTS SFH RIGHT OF REFUSAL Notwithstanding the technical specifications contained above, MTS SFH reserves the right to reject any submitted program whose perceived or subjective technical quality is judged to be unacceptable. 5. Delivery All programs will be delivered in person, via ftp or shipped to MTS SFH Winnipeg facility, in compliance with the delivery dates as defined in Term Sheet of the Program Production and License Agreement. Address and ftp coordinates.
