TV Guide

There are a few basics facts that most communicators might find helpful when either dealing with production companies or organising TV coverage. This is a basic guide aimed at demystifying some of the jargon commonly used!

   VHS
Video cassette format - usually all the tapes you watch in your home video player/recorder. Even if it looks fine on your TV at home, broadcasters can't use it, and we cannot edit from it either!

S-VHS yields better resolution and less noise than standard VHS.
But, we still cannot edit from it!

BETA ,as it is commonly known, is actually called BETACAM. These are professional video tapes used to edit and to keep as master (ie original) copies of programmes or footage. Usually analogue but can be digital (called DIGI BETA)- see later for information on analogue and digital.

DV and Mini DV Digital Video/Domestic Video. Originated as a consumer product, but being used professionally as exemplified by Panasonic's DVC-Pro, and Sony's DV, and DV Cam. We can edit from all these formats. They are used more and more as cameras are lightweight and smaller than traditional news/film cameras.

  DVCAM - See above

All of these types of tapes can be found in regional variations......

  NTSC
National Television System Committee: The Colour TV system in North America, South America and in many parts of Europe.
Purists deride it and call it Never The Same Colour if they want to be particularly scathing!

  PAL
Phase Alternate Line.
The television and video standard in use in the UK, Ireland, Western
Europe, Scandinavia, South Africa and Australia. It is relatively immune to certain distortions compared to NTSC.
Ie. See above - generally accepted as better quality.

  SECAM
SECAM (Systèm Electronique pour Couleur avec Mémoire) Video Format at 625 scan lines, tape runs at 25 frames per second. Used in France Russia and eastern parts of Europe.

What do I do if I have a tape from one area of the world that I need to show elsewhere in the world?

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this. You will need to find the original BETA tape and get it converted at a production facility to the format you need. Many simple VHS players are multi system and will play PAL, NTSC AND SECAM. You should find out what the VHS player can do wherever you wish to present a tape, before going to the trouble and expense of converting formats.

Analogue

Pretend you give someone a message, then they pass it on, then they pass that message on again.After a while, I guarantee it will have changed. Chinese whispers. That's the same as analogue. (In technie speak it is a signal that varies continuously over a range of amplitudes.) So, if you give someone an analogue tape to copy, they make a copy, then someone makes a copy of that...it detoriates beyond recognition. After 7 copies, it cannot be used at all.
In contrast.....

Digital

You email someone a message and he/she forwards it to a hundred people. It doesn't change. A digital signal contrast has only two values, representing 1 or 0. It stays the same however many times you copy it, ie pass it on. It records in digits. Can be copied time and time again.

EDITING "SPEAK"

Digitising Taking digital rushes (the raw footage) off a tape and storing onto disk for editing later.
Dissolve The gradual change from one picture to another, allowing the pictures to be superimposed during the transition.
Distortion Any undesirable alteration in an audio or video signal.
Dub, Dubbing To copy by playing back on one machine and recording on another.
Sound Dub Mixing the commentary with the FX (sound effects) and music.
Edit To link one piece of audio or videotape to another, or to create a master tape of a audio or video programme, usually from a variety of source media.
Edit decision list EDL, A computer programme that allows the user to re-create or modify a audio or video programme
Generation loss The reduction in picture quality resulting from the copying of video signals for editing and distribution
Non-Linear Editor An editing system based on storage of video and audio on computer disk, where the order or lengths of scenes can be changed without the necessity of re-assembling or copying the programme, as in older linear tape editing.
RGB Red, Green, Blue. The primary colours of light. Computers and digital component devices use separate red, green, and blue colour channels to keep the full bandwidth and therefore the highest quality picture. An editor will look at the RGB to see the quality of the footage.

Documentary Filmed or videotaped stories that are based on actual facts, people or events. The genre is based on the French word "documentaire" first used in the January 1924 issue of Cineopse Dolly.

VNR - Video News Release. A TV story released, usually by a charity or private enterprise for public consumption. Given to broadcasters to edit and change at their will, can sometimes be considered negatively as "PR Puff Pieces" without strong news angle. Often considered as features or fillers. Usually voiced and scripted- but only on one track (channel) - so broadcasters can take the NATURAL SOUND track (ie sounds of traffic, wildlife, background noise and interviews) and add their own voice-over in their own language.

B-ROLL -
Collated of roughly edited, non voiced footage to be used a raw material to illustrate story. Sometimes nicknamed, "wallpaper" ie to wallpaper a story, fill in the gaps.

A-ROLL -
Script, interviews.

SOUNDBITES/GRABS -
Short excerpts from an interview lasting between 10 and 30 seconds in a news piece. Should convey strong message, give concise view point.

DOPESHEETS
Basic sheet with script, list of the shots used (known as a shotlist) and most importantly, copyright of the material. Is it WWF copyright, did we pay for the footage and/or filming? Can we sell it, give it away. These are all basic copyright questions. Commercial rate to buy wildlife footage, charity rate, is 1000USD/minute for 12 months usage. Varies greatly depending on the species.

  EBU
European Broadcasting Union. Founded in February 1950, the European Broadcasting Union is the largest professional association of national broadcasters in the world with 70 active members in 51 countries of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and 46 associate members in 29 countries further afield. The European Broadcasting Union, through its Eurovision Control Centre (EVC) in Geneva, operates and controls the digital Eurovision Network, a satellite and fiber network using the Eutelsat W3 satellite. The Eurovision Network covers the European Broadcasting Union Territory as well as North America and the Asia-Pacific region. It enables worldwide coverage. The Eurovision News Exchanges operates on a 24-hour basis.

  RTV
Reuters Television Satellite Feeds go out to approximately 500 broadcasters worldwide. Six satellite paths deliver the World News Service with main news feeds and specialist services, scheduled to meet programming deadlines in all time zones. In addition, Reuters provides multimedia news content to more than 900 web sites and portals.
Among its clients are Telemundo, Argentina; BBC, UK and International; AOL; NHK, Japan; CNN, US and International; Yahoo!; TVB, Brazil; Lycos; ITN, UK; MSNBC; ABC News, US; SkyTV, UK and International; SABC TV, South Africa; ABC, Australia.

  APTN
(Associated Press Television News.)
Like Reuters Television, APTN has its headquarters in London and is the only other international television newsagency. Similar to Reuters TV, APTN has 482 client stations in 52 countries.
Among these are Fox News, USA; CBS, USA; Nine Network, Australia; ORF, Austria; CBC, Canada; TV Globo, Brazil; Asia Television (ATV), Singapore; TV2, Denmark; France 2, France; ZDF, Germany; CCTV, China; Channel 2, Israel; RAI, Italy; NHK and NTV, Japan; Televisia, Mexico; RTR

Broadcast Quality
An accepted standard for broadcast television. In the U.K. it is 625 lines of video picture information at a rate of 50 Hz. When we ask if something is broadcast quality or not, it's not a random decision!

Broadband
Broadband provides high speed Internet access by delivering multiple channels of data over a single communication medium. It is able to carry much larger amounts of information than narrowband.

Compression
Compression is the process of reducing the size of computer files so that they can be passed around the internet more quickly.

HDTV High Definition Television.
One of the coming standards in the future of television technology. A TV format capable of displaying on a larger screen and at higher resolution

Interactive media: Media which involves the user as a source of input to determine the content and duration of programme material

Interactive video: A video programme and a computer programme running in tandem under the control of the User

Multimedia :The delivery of information, via personal computer or interactive player, that combines text, graphics, audio, still images, animation, motion video from a CD or DVD, magnetic disk, optical disc, video or audio tape.