24p HDTV Mastering At LaserPacific Media

A number of different HDTV formats exist, and broadcasters seem intent on trying them all. In an effort to help its clients ensure shelf life for their product no matter what digital standard takes hold, LaserPacific Media Corp. has teamed with Sony and other manufacturers to develop a ""universal mastering"" system that provides high-quality conversion to today's formats and those that may evolve in the future. Hollywood-based LaserPacific has finished 100 episodes of series programming using its 24 fps/1080 progressive line system, known as 24p. ""The question is not when will HDTV arrive. It's here. It's now. We're doing it today. And if you're shooting in film this is the only master to put on the shelf for future distribution,"" LaserPacific Executive Vice President Leon Silverman said.The 24fps system is considered by most professionals to be the HD format most compatible with film. The compatible frame rate and high resolution of the 1920x1080 line system result in a master that easily converts to any of the HDTV formats being used by networks at 30fps or at 25fps overseas. Domestically, Fox plans to be broadcasting in the 480p format, while ABC is using 720p and CBS and NBC have embraced 1080 interlaced.At a time when the industry trend is toward non-linear editing, LaserPacific has found that when it comes to long-form programming of a half-hour or more, a linear, tape-based editing system is the most efficient and economic way to work in HD. ""For HDTV and the huge quantity of data involved, you need a medium with high resolution, a massive bandwidth capacity and tremendous near-line storage. What is the medium that best satisfies those needs? Tape - high definition tape,"" LaserPacific President Emory Cohen said. ""No question non-linear is where it's heading,"" Silverman said. ""But until there are massive amounts of cheap storage available, linear tape editing will have a place in the HD world.""LaserPacific is developing a super-computer-based HD editing system it plans to have online sometime next year, and will use for episodic series and longform. The HD super-computer assembly system is a further development of LaserPacific's Emmy Award-winning standard definition technology.LaserPacific has long been at the forefront of HD technology. Two years ago it opened a high-definition laboratory to develop seamless systems for posting HD projects. By June 1998 the company had entered into a technology agreement with Sony to develop a 24p post-production system. That system made practical the production technology later developed by Sony and Panavision at the behest of George Lucas, who wanted a film-compatible digital camera system on which to shoot his upcoming ""Star Wars: Episode II."" By the fall of 1998, the high-definition laboratory was fully operational, posting an episode of ""Chicago Hope"" that will go down in broadcast history as the first episode of a regularly scheduled primetime network series to be finished in HD.Then in July, the 24p system was fully operational at LaserPacific, extending from telecine transfer to final delivery in any HDTV or standard definition television (SDTV) format. The concept caught on, and now nine of the 15 film-origination shows that CBS has scheduled for the fall season are being finished at LaserPacific.LaserPacific has two high-def on-line edit bays, three HD telecine rooms and two tape-to-tape digital HD color-correction suites. Silverman said LaserPacific's goal is to make HD mastering and editing as easy to work with as standard definition is today.With the entire broadcast industry in the midst of transition, it is LaserPacific's intent to offer solutions that prevent technology considerations from being an obstacle to creativity. ""We have integrated all of our internal equipment to provide an end-to-end finishing process that is transparent to our clients,"" Silverman said.That means ""you can get dailies struck from your film negatives with either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, just as you are accustomed to. Then you edit your projects in an offline mode using systems such as an Avid Media Composer, and let us convert your edit decision list to facilitate 24p mastering internally at LaserPacific,"" Silverman said.Regardless of the speed with which HDTV broadcasting will be accepted by the viewing public, LaserPacific believes its universal 24p masters will be the gold standard for all productions. ""We are moving into an era where there will be an international common image format,"" Silverman said, ""which the ITU has specified as 1920x1080 at the various frame rates. No producer can avoid the fact that any show designed to have an extended shelf life will have to be mastered in the highest-quality format. Commercials may be perishable, but episodic television has to look to the future. Since finishing in HDTV actually adds only 1% to the overall production costs, selecting this format to create your masters becomes a no-brainer.""

Source: Editing Technology