Media 100 in a TV Station

[Michael Todd thorpe]

We’re long-time users and have three M100’s… All being used daily for building spots and tagging promos. As of this writing we’re still laying off to tape but we’ll be installing a Harris Nexio server for on-air playback sometime this week. We tried some file exports of spots to import as a test of the system in another market but I didn’t get to see the results. My understanding of the problems they ran into in the other market was finding a compatible codec that didn’t make things look worse… I wasn’t present for the tests, so I don’t know how things looked but I’ll be intimately involved once the server is installed here. The plan I’m leaning towards right now is to try a few file exports/transfers to the server and see how that goes. If I’m happy with the quality, I’m thinking of moving to tapeless. If not, we’ll lay off to tape and redigitize on the server. I see a lot of bad video in our market do to servers and delivery over IP and I’d like to avoid that if possible.

Michael Todd Thorpe
Producer/Director
KUVI TV45

2 M100i’s, 1 M100HDe, 1 M100HDx,

[Chris Clephane]

I will preclude this post with the fact that I no longer spend other people’s money to build facilities–having made the permanent transition (finally) from engineering (for others) to post (under my own roof). So the prerspective is different as I now spend my own $$ to equip our facility—therefore I am not as “up” on the latest and greatest gear at the upper end of the market anymore. ( I used to buy digibeta decks with the same energy/importance/concern people apply to a trip to the grocery store…now I wonder if I really need two….so the perspective has really changed…)

Original point being…my answer may be a little dated…

I have used the Media100 in several TV stations/production facilities. Production of bumpers/spots/promos, etc. Typically the air playback systems used a Tektronix Profile or similar for air playback of non-program length elements. Early on (1998) we would transfer analog component and then later (2000+) using SDI.

I have not used the Media100 in any situation where the transfers were file based for air playback, but that is typically due to the propretary nature of Hard Disk based playback systems. There are often limited codecs to choose from.

That’s all I got.

TRANSFERS:
Video based…no problem.
File based…still seems to be a can of worms…

[Chris Clephane]

Ok, the coffee just kicked in…here’s a little additional drivel on this subject.

Originally the Media100 would be patched (component Analog or SDI) to the HardDisk recorder and transferred directly.

As the Hard Disk playback systems evolved, many of them began to require TC to be attached to the incoming video. That is when we switched to SDI with embedded TC or simply used Beta/Digibeta tapes for the transfer.

For the transfer — 4:2:2 formats always seemed to work the best, especially because most of what we were producing was graphics heavy. In an attempt to cut costs, we tried DV/DVCPRo in the production line for a while. DV/DVCAM were sketchy at best, and while even DVCPro looked great on tape, —when re-digitized into the HD playback systems at low bitrates (typically long GOP MPEG-2) we would start to see prominent artifacting in the graphics heavy work. Upping the digitize data rates usually corrected this at the expense of valuable disk space (Remember…hard drives were still exceedingly expensive even as little as a few years ago…)….so we kept all in -house production formats 4:2:2 (which is just a good idea anyways…) & transferred via tape.

4:2:2 transfers, digitize at high bitrates…you should be fine.

—-

Ok everybody don’t get offended when I say this…this is not an attack….but…Personally I abhor the IT based workflow for video production.
Oh, I love nonlinear editing, Photoshop,…the whole processs. (This is not an appeal to bring back the linear suite…no!)
I DO ESPECIALLY love our Panasonic P2 cameras..however…..

I have quickly grown to HATE all the DATA that we now have to archive.

———-
I constantly find myself yearning for the simplicity of putting the tape on the shelf an knowing it will be there (and still work with no issues) 3-5-7 years from now.
—-
POINT BEING:
As many of have experienced…the Hard Disk playback systems DO crash from time to time…..and have to be re-loaded.
Tapes DO provide a certain amount of confidence when you re-load.
You load the tape, you hit play…you read the slate…you know immediately if it is the spot you are looking for.

IT based workflow—-even with metadata (which is still in its infancy as far as I am concerned) ….unless you embed your slate into the head of the spot (file), or intimately know all of the material…or have one HECK of a bulletproof file naming system…there will be questions….(Is this the right spot,etc?) Often times we clear out our projects as soon as the elements are produced. In a tv station…if you do the same…with no tape, there might not be a backup… If the HD system crashes…what woudl you re-load it from? (Would you have to re-create elements?)

Not to get all Oliver Stone on ya’, but its just meant to be some (hard learned experience) fodder for thought.

The older I get, the more I appreciate tapes.

[Mark Frazier]

I’ve got to agree with Seattle. I’m looking at a closet full of tape, but every one of them still plays in the Beta deck even after my computer craps out.

As far as distribution, I send out lots of spots to all different markets, and it’s all still on tape. So far, we haven’t found anyone who can’t play a BetaSP tape.

[Jeremy Rowell]

Ya, I hear you guys. My GM asked me to look into it, but I can’t find a faster way to get the spots to my Master Control Room. If my producer has 30 :30 “Bag & Tags” on his time line, they take 30 seconds each to lay off on a tape. To render them out in a QT H264 would take about 3 minutes each. I would be increasing the amount of time it takes him 6 fold. There would be no increase in quality.

I’m just wondering how stations that are tapeless make it work.

Jeremy
Production Manager
KBAK-TV KBFX-CA

[Michael Todd thorpe]

Hey, Jeremy, we should talk. I’m over at KUVI/KABE…

Michael Todd Thorpe
Producer/Director
KUVI TV45

2 M100i’s, 1 M100HDe, 1 M100HDx,

[Jeremy Rowell]

Hey Michael,

Nice to see there are more Media 100’s in Bako!

How do you move around spots in your facility?

Jeremy Rowell
Production Manager
KBAK-TV KBFX-CA

[Michael Todd thorpe]

We’ve done the same, send out BetaSP’s… We used to be an all Beta house but we’ve moved to DVCPro50 and now only have two Beta decks up and running. When those die we won’t be replacing them. And I just heard this morning from my chief that Panasonic is phasing out the 25 and 50 decks in favor of 100… and those won’t be backward compatible to 25mb… What are we all going to use for interchange?

Michael Todd Thorpe
Producer/Director
KUVI TV45

2 M100i’s, 1 M100HDe, 1 M100HDx,

[Michael Todd thorpe]

Good points all… There is something to be said about walking up to that shelf with your tapes sitting on it. We’re just starting to migrate to P2, camera on order, and I’m wondering what I’ll do for archive of raw footage. On the M100 side of things, I archive the project files to DVD-R, but that can span several DVDs… raw footage is a whole other matter… If I may ask, what is your archive workflow?

Michael Todd Thorpe
Producer/Director
KUVI TV45

2 M100i’s, 1 M100HDe, 1 M100HDx,

[Michael Todd thorpe]

Oh, there are more of us here in town!

We lay off to tape and redigitize to the server… As I mentioned before, though, we’re looking at moving to a tapeless workflow with our new server. Worst case scenario we’ll stay with tape, or perhaps dub via SDI to the new server. IT is still an option, though, but I won’t be able to test that out until the install is done. If I’m not happy with that we’ll stay with one of the other alternatives…

Michael Todd Thorpe
Producer/Director
KUVI TV45

2 M100i’s, 1 M100HDe, 1 M100HDx,