noggin's posts, page 179

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NG
noggin Founding member

NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC affiliates and TODAY

Rkolsen posted:
The affiliates all are automated on Ross OverDrive and have Kayenne (I think that’s the top of the line switcher) switching with minimal panels (the panel has significantly less M/E rows than they actually have M/Es). I think they run Grass Valley servers (or did) and in until recently used Edius in the field but have switched to Premier.

As for spares every station has one or two cameras for the newsroom or as a flash cam. I imagine they could easily disconnect one of the LDX’s from them to the studio.


If they've gone for GVG switchers and servers then going for GVG cameras allows them to increase their potential for discounting.

In many Mosart studios you don't have a mixer control surface at all now (though most facilities will have one to allow for programming as it is still nicer to do that on a panel than a PC screen)

I suspect the cameras have a very easy life in affiliate news studios - so won't suffer as much as those rigged and de-rigged daily on studios and OBs. GVGs DO have a lousy reputation for reliability in that regard...
NG
noggin Founding member

Winter Olympics 2018

Rkolsen posted:
dosxuk posted:
Bit of a late post on this topic, but stumbled upon this video about how they did the Netherland's Eurosport studio. Was quite surprised at exactly how small the space they were using was!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eod3ikNUasY


What is the keying effect they’re using to make it look larger when the camera pans out of the green screen? Dirty, Trash or Garbage?


They're probably all names for the same thing. Masking and Garbage matteing are the two phrases I hear most often when you are creating a scene wider than you can shoot cleanly against green. Most VR systems include motion tracked garbage mattes to allow for this.
NG
noggin Founding member

NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC affiliates and TODAY

I hope they have bought one more LDX than they had Sony... Most people I know using LDKs report that they are less reliable (so you need more spares) in a busy studio or OB environment, so you should always plan for at least one LDK/LDX to be out of action and in maintenance being repaired.

The ergonomics of the LDK/LDX series when operating handheld are also less well regarded by all the operators I know. They universally appear to prefer the HSC/HDC Sony design. Similarly the camera control (aka Racks) functionality on Sony appears to be more responsive, with less switching latency on the MCP/MSU.

I can understand replacing HDC1500s - they are definitely probably out of their expected life now (though if their chips haven't run out of stuck-pixel storage and they've had an easy life then there is no real need to replace them I guess?) - 2500s though are pretty current and a great camera. However it makes sense to be all-Sony or all-GVG. Mixing the two is not a good idea.

Grass Valley will often do turnkey deals where you get a good deal on LDK/LDX cameras if you also buy their switchers and things like their K2 Dyno servers - and this can be significant if you are going for an IP install as GVG have good, but slightly bespoke, IP solutions...

Sony will also do deals - but their server offering isn't as compelling(*), and their IP integration took longer.

You can also often do large-scale procurement deals - which will get you very hefty discounts - if you place a very large order for multiple studios with a unified, standard, camera spec. NEP Visions did this globally with the Sony HDC 4300 I believe, buying hundreds.

(*) Though to be fair K2 doesn't have a solid reputation either (EVS still rules the roost in that regard)
Last edited by noggin on 26 April 2018 2:16pm - 3 times in total
NG
noggin Founding member

The Sport Thread

Rkolsen posted:
The Olympic Channel (produced by NBC Sports) in US aired The London Marathon. It appears they mainly used the World feed with the BBC Sport insert graphics. However the BBC Sport graphics were in miles and had the tagheur time logo pop up. Were the BBC graphics in miles or this an alternate feed? NBC Sports used full screen graphics when I guess the BBC feed went full screen or when the radio bikes (I never seen a camera man stand up on the back of the bike in the US) lost signal.

The broadcast was aired at 7PM ET so 12AM UK time and they curated the different races down to 3 hours.


BBC Sport would use miles not km for a marathon. We always talk about 26 miles (plus a bit) for a marathon - never the equivalent in km.

The Tag Heuer logo is almost certainly because they sponsored the event timing element of the race (either by providing the equipment or funding it). Most athletics events for many years have had Longines, Rolex, Omega etc. sponsorship - and often the chose to associate with the timing element (as they are 'timing' brands)

The BBC won't have done this deal - and won't have been responsible for the sponsorship or received any funding or subsidy from Tag Heuer in return for their logo appearing - so it's usually acceptable under UK broadcast law. It's quite complex though - and Ofcom are now the regulators for this rather than the BBC self-regulating...
NG
noggin Founding member

What's the name for this picture processing effect?

james-2001 posted:
Funnily enough, the clip posted further up this page is from a 16:9 episode, it just seems to have been cropped to 4:3 for some reason.


Back in the late 90s and early 00s lots of people had 4:3 CRTs and the default setting for digital set-top boxes was for 4:3 centre-cut (not letterbox).

If you recorded your set-top box output to VHS or DVD then it would be in the same format that you were watching in, which is why a lot of 4:3 centre-cut clips pop up on YouTube from early 16:9 shows I suspect.
NG
noggin Founding member

26th Anniversary of the biggest shake up in ITV

Markymark posted:
Mr Kite posted:
Brekkie posted:
Back to Granada and the perceived Manchester bias was the idea of a dual region ever considered with one half centred in Liverpool. Obviously they're off the same transmitter generally but we've seen with local TV the signal could be split.


Nothing ever serious, I don't think. You could have separate directionally beamed PBS muxes from Winter Hill with relays merely repeating the appropriate version, if the frequencies could be found. Indeed, Storeton carries the Wales PBS muxes as well as the Granada ones. It'd cost money, of course but probably more useful to Liverpool than the local TV experiment has been.

I doubt ITV would care for it these days. The BBC might set up a sub-opt within the existing North West region but probably only if politically bounced into it.


It won't happen, it's tight enough now with 700 MHz clearance removing even more spectrum.

Ironically, the best and most effective way to regionally target the right viewers is postcode mapping on D-Sat.


Or via IP...
Ne1L C, UKnews and Markymark gave kudos
NG
noggin Founding member

How to watch freesat - viewing card or Humax?

UKnews posted:
Inspector Sands posted:
What's different about the Sky Q LNB?

It’s wideband rather than the old high/low band switched LNB and so incompatible with most other receivers- including Freesat ones. If there are other types of boxes installed in a household (or you ask the engineer very nicely) Sky can fit a ‘hybrid’ LNB that will work with both.


Sky Q can also use Unicable LNBs (not to be confused with the Sky SCR stuff used previously). Most Sky Q installs use the 2 x LNB feed Wideband horizontal and vertical LNBs - but you can also use Unicable or Unicable II I believe.
NG
noggin Founding member

What's the name for this picture processing effect?

VMPhil posted:
noggin posted:

Some of Dibley was - I believe - shot in the BBC COM^3 modified truck that had 16:9 switchable LDKs for a while (which was able to shoot 16:9 component quality pictures using modified PAL analogue equipment). However I don't think Dibley took advantage of this and ISTR it was shot 4:3 using conventional PAL.

It would depend how late they were using it - I think the first widescreen episodes were the seasonal specials broadcast over Christmas 1999 (and New Year's Day 2000).


It was entirely possible to use the COM^3 truck in 4:3 mode - you just switched the 16:9 cameras in to 4:3, or booked 4:3 cameras for the truck for that show.
NG
noggin Founding member

What's the name for this picture processing effect?

VMPhil posted:
noggin posted:
Closedown posted:
Just stumbled on Young Musician of the Year on BBC4. The performance clips use a technique that gives a slight softening of the picture, for want of a better expression. Saw it used on event footage in Today at the (Commonwealth) Games recently too. Feel I should know the name for it... it's not quite filmised, or is it?


There are three real options for doing this :

1. DVE - there are some quite nice soft-blur effects that are subtle enough to get away with - but they don't all 'kick off' on highlights like physical filters do.
2. Some cameras have a 'soft' filter along with a star filter in one of their filter wheels (Philips cameras do, not sure about Sony)
3. Put a Lee 1 or Lee 2 in the camera between the lens and the camera block.

1. is easiest if you need it as an effect 'mid song'. 2 is better if you want it for all cameras but not all the time. 3 is often used if the entire show has the effect (or you can dedicate cameras to have the effect and those not to have the effect)

Do you know which effect the Vicar of Dibley used? That programme always looked like someone had put Vaseline on the lens - and it differed in intensity from episode to episode. Particularly noticeable when you looked at the edges of clothes or any lighting.

Quite noticeable in this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXgSg2Oq36w


That was probably either 3. or a Pro-mist or Super-mist filter. I think - though may be wrong - that they went in front of the lens (and were only practical on smaller non-box lenses used on light-weight cameras - which were used on Dibley which was shot by BBC OBs ISTR using lightweight cameras.)

This technique was used widely by BBC OBs when they shot drama as their drama vehicles were almost universally based around Sony or Ikegami lightweight tubed cameras, then Sony CCD cameras (with a small amount of LDK CCDs used briefly for a trial - see below). The technique was used a lot on Children's drama, which continue to be shot by BBC OBs well into the 90s. Whilst adult drama had the budget for film shoots, children's drama didn't. They eventually moved to camcorder working - but running with an OB truck allowed for multi-camera shoots (which are quicker in some cases, and reduce the time a young cast has to spend working (which is a legal issue), and also allows for consistency of shot-matching reducing the time spent grading (or TARIF-ing as it was called) in the edit. OB trucks could watch previous takes back to colour-match (or recall stills on a still store like Aston Wallet)


Some of Dibley was - I believe - shot in the BBC COM^3 modified truck that had 16:9 switchable LDKs for a while (which was able to shoot 16:9 component quality pictures using modified PAL analogue equipment). However I don't think Dibley took advantage of this and ISTR it was shot 4:3 using conventional PAL.

COM^3 = COMposite-COMpatible COMponent http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/publications/rdreport_1994_17

(COM^3 was an approach considered for extending the life of PAL analogue studios and OB trucks whilst allowing component quality to be delivered, avoiding the need for analogue component working - which was a lot trickier as it relied triple cabling. However SDI offered far more advantages than analogue component and was the obvious direction of travel)
Last edited by noggin on 21 April 2018 2:00pm
NG
noggin Founding member

International News Presentation: Past and Present

all new Phil posted:
Just when you think US news pres is moving forward, along comes this.


Just because you can, doesn't mean you should...
NG
noggin Founding member

What's the name for this picture processing effect?

Adding a 25p film-effect, which Sport do to a lot of their montages, along with a heavy grade, shouldn't make them look much softer (though you can add a softening effect should you wish), but will make the sport more juddery.

If you are shooting a show 25p - like Young Musician may have been - then you will be running your cameras in 25psf almost certainly (so not film-effecting in post, but shooting in a film-like manner) Again no reason for those to look softer (technically - if you ignore interlace compatibility - you can shoot sharper in 25p than in 50i)
NG
noggin Founding member

Cliff Richard High Court Case

Yep - in my experience most US TV operations have connectivity that can land you - eventually - on a fibre operator like The Switch. Most stations have the ability to either fibre or satellite contribute to their affiliate network news operation AIUI, though 'public internet' IP connectivity has been used for pre-recorded material for a long time now, and no doubt will increasingly be used for live feeds.

It's not usually that difficult to get a local US station newsroom camera fed back to the UK if you need to interview someone in the US.