HDCAM SR & HDCAM Layoff & QC
The television and movie video tape industry standard has been and continues to be HDCAM SR & HDCAM. We perform Television Quality Control reports on these formats all the time.
The Quality Control process that is performed on both HDCAM SR & HDCAM is similar, both machines are made by Sony and are very much alike in many ways except: HDCAM SR is a non-compressed format with all hi-def digital information that comes from a source file on the tape. HDCAM by comparison uses MPEG-4 compression. Another difference between the 2 Hi-def formats is that HDCAM SR is can have up to 12 channels of audio, where HDCAM can have only 4 channels. If you want to have a surround sound program you would have to go with HDCAM SR, as the 5.1 system contains 6 channels of audio.
Often an HDCAM SR tape will contain a 2 channel stereo left/right mix, a 2 channel M&E (music and effects) mix, and the 6 channel 5.1 surround sound mix; this would add up to 10 channels so there would be 2 additional channels available for split track audio such as dialogue or music only tracks.
If a distributor is asking for a hi-def video tape, on a deliverable list, the best format will be one of the two listed above. If you have edited your project in a system such as Final Cut Pro, Avid, or Adobe Premiere, you will have to convert the file to tape, a process known as layoff, you will need to have the project laid out on a timeline with the correct head format of bars, tones, & slate, and the correct time code 23.98fps, 29.97 etc.)
Once the tape is ready for QC we will go perform a full check of the tape for all possible audio & video errors, we run checks on the technical specs such as luminance, chroma, & gamut using testing equipment such as waveform monitor & vector scopes. The show is then viewed in its entirety, with one pass for each set of separate audio sets that the report is covering. A list is generated with all possible problems listed with a rating system that explains which issues are minor, and which must be addressed.
You can learn more about the hi-def QC process by contacting us anytime with questions you may have.
