Managing the Content Explosion with 24P Universal Editing + Mastering

Executive Summary — Content distribution channels are expanding at an ever-increasing pace. Today, hundreds of channels of narrowcast programming are available from traditional broadcasters, cable content providers and multiple satellite delivery systems, creating a huge appetite for content. This wider choice of content creates greater competition for viewers. How do you break through the clutter? And, how do you create content that is more compelling and relevant to more viewers across many geographic and demographic boundaries? This is the new challenge for post-production. — In this paper, we look at the four basic dimensions of a broadcast format: resolution, scan formats, frame rate and aspect ratio, within the context of the new challenges for post-production. This identifies 24P as the ideal mastering format. We introduce Avid's 24P Universal Editing and Mastering technology—a revolutionary set of capabilities that will help you meet the new challenges and take advantage of the considerable opportunities in a multi-format, multi-version world. These capabilities are included in the Avid Symphony Universal system, a new model in the Avid Symphony product family. An offline version of this technology was introduced with Media Composer 9.0 XL for Windows NT. 24P Universal Editing and Mastering will provide enormous benefits to three types of projects: | Projects with multi-format delivery requirements | Film-originated projects | HDTV projects — Universal Mastering includes tools to digitize 24P content using standard NTSC and PAL decks, edit and finish in native uncompressed 24P, and then to output multi-format masters, including NTSC and PAL. Other important tools include Pan and Scan, timecode management and new film-tape-film-tape (FTFT) capabilities, all of which are discussed in detail in this paper. All of these capabilities, together with Total Conform and a collaborative environment of editing, finishing, audio, graphics and effects tools, have made an end-to-end nonlinear high-end post-production environment not only possible, but more powerful than linear alternatives. Now, all editorial, graphical and effects decisions are carried seamlessly between the offline and finishing stages, allowing you to spend time on creative finishing work rather than mechanical conforming chores. Once the online is finished, you can quickly produce NTSC and PAL masters in 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios, as well as an EDL for HD conform and frame-accurate film cut lists. — Finally, we present Avid's integrated family of solutions for editing and finishing in a collaborative, multi-version, multi-format environment. These products are the building blocks in a scaleable, flexible and economical approach to handling the content creation challenges of today and tomorrow.

Published

1999-11

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00308

ISBN

978-1-61482-931-7