The Broadcast Quality Question

[obi1jacobi]

Hey all,

I'd like your opinions on a few things if you don't mind. My boss has me shooting a "reality tv" style promotional show for the company and has a producer friend at NBC who he thinks can get it on a cable network (considering the not so mass-appeal content, why we'd want to is a complete other discussion...).

Anyway, the company has an HMC40 and I will use my personal HMC40 as well for the shoot. I'm thinking my recommendation to him will be that based on my limited industry tv post production experience, we cant simply shoot our show, edit it, and hand off a hardrive to a cable network. We'd have to have their specifications first. Secondly, a lot of networks, as far as I know, don't look kindly on material shot on a 1/4 chip camera.

With that in mind, I'm thinking it would be best to shoot a bunch of webisodes that can be used as a pitch for whatever executive my boss knows. From that they can either give us their requirements, or hire their own crew.

Does this recommendation seem right to you? If you were in my shoes, would you try shooting with the hmc40, hoping to have that footage broadcast? Would you shoot 720p or 1080i? Is the idea of "broadcast quality" becoming less of an issue recently?

Thanks for any insights you may have

 

[Barry_Green]

The question of "broadcast quality" is set by the technical department at each network. You may find some networks who are perfectly content with HDV footage, and others who won't allow any more than maybe 15% of their program to be originated on HDV.

If your show passes technical muster (i.e., they review it and think it looks good and will transmit well) then they may never even ask what it was shot on. On the other hand, if you're asking the network to fund the program, they will most definitely have a list of requirements that you would have to comply with, and for broadcasters like Discovery HD and The BBC, no, a 1/4" camera isn't going to meet those requirements.

For special purpose footage, the requirements can be relaxed quite a bit; obviously if you're talking about unique coverage of a breaking news story, they'll broadcast that. Or if it's a situation like the Iditarod documentary, where it's simply impractical to take big cameras, Discovery commissioned and allowed 1/3" HVX200s for the entire shoot, even though normally they're restricted to no more than 15%.

And, the question of "broadcast quality" is constantly evolving. You said your producer friend is at NBC... most of the major standards-setting groups like BBC and Discovery HD don't allow 1/3" camcorders as main cameras, but with NBC, they're using HPX300s and HPX170s as their main news cameras at all their Owned & Operated stations -- and those are all 1/3" camcorders.

So - if you have a specific cable network in mind, definitely ask them for their opinion.