Use of Computer Generated Imagery

I was watching television the other day and I realised a startling fact, that most of the commercial content and an increasing quantity of program content is generated on a computer somewhere. In the past any titles were basic. Just a plain clear font maybe with a background. But now the title whirl in from the side with a dynamic background that looks like it took some multimedia person the better part of a week to generate.

It is pretty obvious that the massive increase in computer power coupled with the drop in price for high end computer hardware and software is the catalyst for the shift into computer generated imagery. I think one of the best examples of computer generated imagery use in television today would have to be the cricket. It was only a few years ago that the use of cricket in graphics consisted of the running score in the corner in white Arial font, basic layouts for team stats and slow motion replays. Now with computer help there is a virtual myriad of different generated imagery that can be used.

This imagery includes a generated 3D view of the ball bowled and its intended course, the ability to perform a very slow motion replay, a 3D view of where each ball has been hit and the many 3D effects with motion textures used on the titling. The titling itself is a marvel of technology as any number of statistics relating to anything can be displayed in seconds of it being requested. The use of computers to create imagery has also allowed the use of countless hours of archive footage to be used at the touch of a button, cross referenced and played back off digital storage.

A byproduct of the use of computer imagery is the demand for people with the necessary computer and broadcast skills. This has created jobs that are not able to be filled by many of the people with the traditional broadcast skills. The average viewer demands that as the technology advances so too must the television experience. With rising competition from the internet, television must offer a better viewing experience and the use of computer generated imagery plays a large part in this.

I have come to the conclusion that the use of digital imagery will not lessen over time but become more integrated into the processes that put television to air. People with strong computer skills and the ability the create multimedia content will be in more demand as this happens. Personally I believe the young people entering the broadcast market are placed well in this regard as most are very computer literate and are use to rapid changes in technology.

Tape and New Video Storage

Television has always had some capacity to record images and sound for later playback. Very early on film was the best available method to achieve recording and playback of material. However it was quickly identified that there needs to be some other sort of recording medium more suited to a television environment. In the 1950's magnetic tapes began to be used to record and playback program material, Ampex demonstrated the first viable VTR in 1956. Video tape technology continued to develop and in 1986 Sony introduced the first commercial digital tape machine using. In 1995 the KOLD 13 became the first television station to use a networked digital server to broadcast program content. Since then digital technology used to send images and sound to the consumer has become prevalent in all parts of television production.
www.tvhandbook.com History

Tape technologies are linear. They have to be seen in sequence and only the images at one point if the tape at a time can be seen. In the past this technology was adequate as editing was linear and playback was linear. For each playback and recording line there had to be a separate machine. This meant the operation of these machine could become very complex and for large productions many VTR's were needed to meet the playback, slow motion and recording needs.

With the advent of digital technologies the encoding of the tapes changed but apart from advances to the accuracy of the time-code the operation of these machines was virtually the same. This can be seen when using a DVCam machine and a VHS machine.

With the advent of Non-lenear video editing in the 70's people began to see the benefits of this new idea in editing. It also lead to a revolution in the way video could be stored that today is leading to developments in the broadcast market like the P2 technology from Panasonic. This revolution has also effected consumers with the explosion of TiVo in America meaning the viewer can record and playback program material as they wish and record and playback at the same time. However I don't think that such developments had the major effect that so many people have expected on the television market.
Non-Linear Editing History
www.tivo.com

I think that advances relating to the internet will be the things that radically change the television market from the idea of watching what you are given that had been prevalent from the advent of television. Apple who revolutionized the sale of music has announced the iTunes music store will now sell television shows that can be downloaded and watched on the new iPod. Television stations will need to become internet content providers with the playback not coming from VTR machines but hard drives through the internet. In the next few years people will stop buying VCR's and DVD players but instead the home computer will become the television access point with a watch what you want attitude.
ITunes Video Store

Multicam Sound

The program I have selected to research the sound set-up on is Seven's 'Dancing with the Stars'. This program encompasses many interesting and complex problems that the audio team must overcome each week. The show has a large live band, four judges, VT playback a live audience, a dance floor, a green room and two mobile hosts. Each of these factors must be taken into account with each having special requirements and difficulties.

The shows hosts make use of radio hand held microphones. These are used to speak to the audience and interview the contestants after each dance. These microphones must be monitored continuously during use as the level of sound varies dramatically between people. The hosts are often saying things in the moment and so these microphones would have to be on the top of the sound mixers mind.

The band that plays each week is a major complication to the multi-camera setup as each week the band would be playing a different mix of music with the band being expanded for special nights where extra instruments are required. The hardest part of the band setup would be the drums as they can easily overwhelm the other instruments. The band would be mixed separately on a bus or on another console as a mixing a large band for broadcast is very hard as the sound operators on Live8 demonstrated with their terrible broadcast mixes.

The other microphones for the judges would be fairly straight forward and wouldn't be wireless. There is no boom used and the VT playback and pre-break music would be very easy to accommodate.

Another part of the sound setup that is often overlooked is the fold-back or monitoring that is necessary in all parts of the studio. The dance floor, greenroom and live audience all require sound to be sent to them so that they know what is going on and dance to it. This would be accommodated by using auxiliary buses from the main sound mixer. Each area would receive a different mix depending on it's requirements. The band would require many such mini-mixes so all the band can play in sync and in tune.

I saw an interesting thing on Seven news a few weeks ago. Nula the weather person gave her report from an acrobats tower however the audio kept dropping out as she was using a radio mic and I must have been on the edge of its range. I thought it was pretty sloppy.