What’s Wrong With This Picture? (and sound) Common Problems with Program Masters

What’s Wrong With This Picture?(and sound)Common Problems with Program Masters Tim Mangini - FRONTLINE Jim Kutzner - PBS WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Tech Eval as Fundraiser Focused on minutiae They’re out to get me I don’t have time or money for this Perception WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Reality Same goals - Optimum viewer experience Collaborative not Punitive Good investment of resources WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Macro-Blocking/Pixilation Gamut Aspect Ratio Drop Frame Time-Code Audio Phase Synthesized/Fake Stereo Loudness Audio Dropouts/Hits Adjacent Audio Track Sync Lip Sync PBS Most Busted: WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Macro-Blocking & Pixelation WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Gamut Uncorrected image WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Gamut Hard limited image Color corrected image WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Aspect Ratio WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

NDF program is 3;12 too long You or PBS will need to make a cut Always Master in Drop Frame Doesn’t matter whether you shoot on DF or NDF Non-Drop Frame Time-Code WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Audio Phase Normal Stereo Phase WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Audio Phase 180° Out of Phase WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Synthesized/Fake Stereo 6 ms left/right offset WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Synthesized/Fake Stereo Synth Stereo Folded to Mono WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Loudness/Dial Norm Audio starts low WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Loudness/Dial Norm Audio gets progressively louder to meet spec WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Loudness/Adjacent Containers Program clip meets Dial-Norm spec WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Loudness/Adjacent Containers Adjacent promo is too loud WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Momentary dropouts can easily be missed without good monitoring Clicks and pops can be caused by word clock errors or cut points on NLE’s Audio Dropouts and Hits WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

DVS/SAP/Mono tracks 5.1 should have only Narration and dialogue in the center channel Adjacent Audio Track Sync WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

 2 Frames variance is tolerable Broadcast distribution chain may induce sync errors (MPEG2) Lip Sync WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Ingest via Firewire unreliable Use RS422 Longer clips susceptible Break up on ingest if possible Some cameras are culprits Incompatibility with mix Add head and tail pops before splitting sequence Sync Drift WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Loudness management Program has -21.4 LKFS Long-term Loudness WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Loudness management Segment has -18.8 LKFS Long-term Loudness WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Sync Tool www.syncheck.com WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Analysis tools Tektronix WVR series Videotek VTM series www.tek.com www.broadcast.harris.com WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Audio analysis tools WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Audio analysis tools Dolby LM100 www.dolby.com WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Audio analysis tools WWW.QUALISAUDIO.COM WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Takeaways Plan $$$ and time for tech eval Tools - tailor your plant to be able to meet spec Know the specs yourself Don’t just put it through a legalizer Our responsibility to get it right Pay me now or pay me later Keep your project alive WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

Discussion QG@pbs.org pbsconnect.org/qualitygroup WGBH Public Television Quality Workshop

What’s Wrong With This Picture? (and sound) Common Problems with Program Masters