Winds of change are blowing in the universe of capturing, editing and reproducing moving images. These days, everyone is talking about HD.
But, unlike what has been happening in recent years, not only is hd being talked about but more and more often it is being implemented. "For us it was a surprise: we have sold nine HDTV systems in a year," says Domingo Simonetta, president of SVC, Avid's official distributor in Argentina. The Nitris composition and editing system has been the main star with eight implementations, while the Media Composer Adrenaline has also been successful.
This is why production companies and broadcasters, to a greater or lesser extent, began to ask themselves the key question: "How does the introduction of HD modify my workflow?". "It's a change of concept," says Simonetta. "It's a very different way of working," says Héctor Goldín, president of Maxim Software, Apple's distributor in Argentina, specialized in video solutions.
The first point to analyze to answer this question starts from the stage of the process in which the HD will be incorporated. And here we must differentiate two industries: broadcasting and cinema.
The first is somehow 'forced' to make the change. In fact, for TV stations, the migration to HD is, more than anything, a technological advance. This is why it is not surprising that they are working on putting together schemes in such a way that the workflow is HD "from end to end", that is, from capture to the finished product.
Although it is also true that, as a matter of initial investment in equipment, many have chosen to draw up a combined scheme. This consists of doing the offline editing in SD, through a conversion. Offline copies are made through the dubbing of a downconverter, which passes the material from an HD deck to an SD one.
The truth is that, in one way or another, TV channels have to start defining new workflows that incorporate HD. "In any case, the channels are more 'victims' than 'business owners' in this whole process," says Simonetta, for whom the profit will fall on cable operators (who will be able to add premium high-definition services to their offer for a small plus in the monthly subscription) and tv manufacturers (who will begin to renew their installed base with HD receivers). "In addition, as HD TVs fell below the US$500 barrier, they have already become products that can be purchased in Latin American markets, expanding the possibilities of these receivers starting to be broadcast," concludes the SVC executive.
They don't make the movie
The film industry, unlike broadcasting, shows more barriers to including HD in its workflows. "For television, HD is just a higher resolution system, while for cinema it means changes in all structures."
"In reality, film is still better than HD, although the latter is cheaper," says Simonetta, and then recalls that "in any case, resistance is not related so much to the quality of the products as to the historical customs of work."
And it's not just about customs. The world of cinema has a lot of investment placed in previous technologies, as well as people with a lot of career on their backs. In this segment, the most common for now is a film capture scheme, passage to HD for post-production and output also in film. "It cannot be said that it is perfect in terms of quality, but it is very good," says Goldín.
This method, however, can be an interesting gateway for film industry participants to break myths and try everything HD has to offer. "Definitely, the film-HD-film scheme is a good way to introduce HD among film production companies and, in fact, many Nitris customers are doing it," explains Simonetta.
An alternative by which the film industry can adopt HD in Latin America is money. The production cost ratio between one system and another is 10 to 1, Simonetta estimates. "Anyway, we are only in the first generation of HD, so there is going to be a strong struggle and great resistance. Then there will be a second generation in which the struggle will be weaker and a third generation that will adopt HD as if there had never been another alternative, "describes the president of SVC.
"It is true that you have to incorporate cameras, lenses, editors and even a new way of working, but all that will be done little by little, as the end user detects that they are lowering their costs while increasing quality," concludes the executive.
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