When I was entrusted with the mission to write this article on the occasion of TV's 10th anniversary & Video Latin America, I knew it was an occasion perfect for looking back and analyzing how far you've television technology has arrived in the last 10 years. No need to tell those who read this post from its beginnings, the transcendental changes of which we have been Witnesses.
Without a doubt, trying to compile on these pages a decade of advances – and also of setbacks is not an easy task, since the industry of the Television involves a number of sub-industries (if you can so called), each dedicated to a specific part of the broadcasting process: the production of the content, its transmission and reception by the end user (viewer). However, and fortunately for those who write this article, there is a factor that has determined the path of this unbridled technological race: digitalization. This language of zeros and ones has marked the coordinates towards which equipment manufacturers, content creators, broadcasters and receivers have routed their ships.
To understand the process towards digitalization is necessary to give us back a little in the history. In the mid-1990s, General Instruments proposed a HDTV high-definition terrestrial television system completely digital, thus marking the beginning of the era digital and the end of analog television. So, the U.S. government proposed to major manufacturers to unite their efforts to pursue a single system of digital high-definition television. The HDTV system proposed would have two main modalities: 1080 lines active with 1920 square pixels per line and 720 lines active, with 1280 pixels per line. Both formats would employ MPEG-2 compression, Dolby Digital audio (AC-3) and modulation 8-VSB. All compressed into a narrow television channel of 6 Mhz bandwidth. Five years later (1995), coinciding with the first edition of TV & Video Latin America, the prototype system was sent to the FCC for testing.
Today, the television industry is fully involved in HDTV digital broadcasting and SDTV, and we've only begun to see the signs of the vertiginous advances that DTV will facilitate in the future.
10 years of the DV format
Interestingly, 1995, in addition to marking the birth of this
publication, constituted a momentous year for the industry
of television on a global scale, since this year it was announced
the DV format as an alternative. Many producers, especially
those who due to costs had not been able to reach the Betacam,
they welcomed the format.
While Betacam users, Avids or Media 100 looked with contempt and disbelief at the DV pioneers, many of them started, with very low budgets, to carry out projects of a sufficient quality acceptable. And while it is true that digital video used range 4:1:1 color, with appropriate shots and editing, some of these projects became so good and even superior to those achieved with analog format.
But only a couple of years later the big production houses decided to accept the DV format as reliable. In the beginning, it represented a risk, since although it had demonstrated a high degree of efficiency, it had still some details to be corrected.
The era of the HDV format
And just when many of the producers were starting to
feel comfortable with the DV, a new one was introduced: HDV
(high definition video) with standards agreed between the
leading equipment manufacturers Sony, Canon, Sharp and JVC
(the absence of Panasonic is highlighted). Initially, it was
introduced to the market the semi-professional camera in HDV format
Single-chip JVC, GR-HD1, and last November Sony
surprised with its hdr-FX1 three-chip, which has received very
positive feedback.
This new video format digital, intended in principle for the home user and semi-professional, it is aimed at overcoming the limitations of the signal of conventional television and to be more in line with the latest imaging devices. A limitation that, thanks to the digital video compression algorithms (MPEG2), ceases to be technically critical because storage, playback and recording of images can be made more easily.
Thus, the HDV proposes a scheme of Practical and easily adaptable operation, both for the consumer as for manufacturers. Interestingly, it is based on the DV and use the same tape type and speed (MiniDV) for record high-quality MPEG2 video streams. A few sequences which can take two frame settings and two scan settings of image, but always with 16:9 aspect.
Another important factor to have in account is the evolution of computers since 1995. In that so, make a PC run uncompressed video in time Real required very careful optimizations and configuration of very expensive hard drives, considering that a SCSI disk 4 GB cost more than $1000, and not all were the same fast enough for video.
And as for post-production, the initial difficulties in editing the long format GO-MPEG-2 have been solved and the market is already beginning to be flooded of well-designed HDV programs and editing systems, such as the case of CineForm's Aspect HD for Premiere and Lumiere HD for Final Cut Pro. Pinnacle's Liquid Edition 6 Promises Fix color and real-time HDV dissolves for less than $500.
In the same way that the DV took a time to be digested by the industry, HDV is being analyzed with caution, especially for the compression that Implies. However, HDV will definitely bring with it a better image quality, superior to that achieved with the SDV, in addition of its compatibility with the already expanded HDTV.
Appearance in the past November semi-professional camera Sony HDR-FX1 convinced many skeptics, and most likely with their professional version HVR-Z1 scheduled to go on the market this February at a cost approximately US$ 7000, many more will be on board the HDV. But only time will be in charge of telling us if this new format will sweep away what the industry currently uses, transforming low-budget television production, from the same way the DV did. It will be worth waiting for to verify what the strategy of the manufacturers will be.
Looking for HD content
The challenge facing television producers across the world
The world is immeasurable, because television receivers
current have an image capacity much higher than that of the
content that broadcasters and studios can provide.
One of the best HD monitors currently available, the Sony (SNE) of the Qualia line, has an image reproduction capability that is compared to the highest exclusive quality yet for the industry of the cinema. But except for special images provided by the same Sony for demos, it is almost impossible to get content that takes full advantage of the capacity of such Monitors. The reality is that 99% of the current content of television, whether free-to-air, cable, satellite or pre-recorded, not is available in this format. Most HD broadcasters is streaming content below the 1080i standard or the 720p alternative, which offers a lower resolution but it is more fluid in action scenes, if compared to the 1080i.
Technological advances =
better programming?
If we had asked this question 10 years ago, very
surely the answer would have been: of course.
Unfortunately, this formula is no longer applicable, at least before
the eyes of many critics of current programming. There's none
to deny that you are still seeing great productions with a
impeccable quality, but a trend has been introduced that, of
in a way, it replaces the artist with a new generation of
producer/trader. Thus, artistic experimentation is
being surpassed by a tireless search for high rates of
harmony and substantial dividends.
Day by day we see how the equipment needed for a television production every time it is make them smaller and cheaper, which certainly made it easier to arrival of reality shows like Survivor, American Idol, and The Bachelor and its international versions. While these programs ensure a high income for its creators and represent a valid way of entertainment, no one can deny that most such productions are a far cry from what has been established as good television. There's nothing wrong with wanting to entertain, but these programs have succeeded in getting those who consecrated their lives to perfect the art of television creation, wonder if such productions shall not mean death for production TV.
Currently, almost any person can purchase a camera with broadcast quality and an editing system, and calling yourself a producer. This phenomenon began to be seen years ago in the Gulf War and more recently in Iraq, where journalists, in very good conditions adverse, they have practically become orchestra men, reporting, capturing the images, recording the sound, editing the notes and finally sending them to be Transmitted. All with your XL1 and your little laptop. Today a single person is expected to be an expert in these functions, that years ago would have involved a complete production team with years of training.
From DTV to IT: a new one
transition
Many claim that the expression digital transition
it is already obsolete and they prefer to concentrate on the advances of the
information technology (IT). There are good reasons for
that the largest equipment manufacturers in the world are
focusing on transferring to the broadcasters, of the
video-based infrastructures to those built on
internet protocols. And it is that having a structure of
Internet-connected broadcasting can be understood as a
logical extension of the culture of news and information.
Plus, unlimited access to video anywhere in the world
in a matter of seconds it is very attractive. The wonder of
Information technology is that no matter the type of
business you are in, a file is a file, either of
video for TV, audio for radio, text for a publication or
HTML for a web page.
It's no secret that sales of Emission equipment has dropped substantially. One of the Reasons, in addition to a weakened world economy, is the uncertainty of the owners of free-to-air television stations in the face of the indisputable rise of multichannel pay television. His Answer, investing in IT, allows them to get a better out of it to your programming and handle it not in HD video format, Betacam or DVCPRO, but as a data file. Every day the networks will be larger and bandwidth will allow the sending of information is faster, more efficient and, most importantly, more cheap. It is very common today to see strategic alliances of large television networks with each other and with local media, and combination of print, TV, radio and internet services. Many do not attribute to the big TV networks a leading role in this transition to IT. It may be that the owner of a newspaper with a television division to dictate the rules.
TV & Video Latin America has reviewed in these last 10 years a series of developments technological that, without a doubt, transformed the industry of the television in a transcendental way. And what will the future? Predicting it is difficult, but it is sure to be the same. that the television panorama will give us in the next 10 years, we will be reading about it through this publication.
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