pt.1 of 2
The goal of this 2 part article is to hopeful illustrate a few things you can do to work through some of the common issues we face as promotions editors & designers. While not all of it is presented in a step by step fashion, useful links are provided to fill in the holes where necessary. This information is not without fault. It comes from years of trial and error and error and error. I know people like to call that experience, but I don't. So with that said, I hope you find it useful and entertaining. Enjoy.

As tape goes the way of the dinosaur more and more news content is going digital. With that comes a slew of different codecs to over complicate the process. Getting it all to work... is an art form on its own. If you're an editor or a designer in a news environment, you've no doubt run across your share of problems embracing this change. Sometimes it's as simple as the wrong codec for the hardware, or the wrong dimensions, field order or something completely different. But how can you tell without having to become an expert?

Below are a few easy steps you can take. Not only to trouble shoot those situations, but also save you some much needed time along the way.

Step 1: Quicktime Player is your friend

If your station does not have Quicktime Player Pro (QT Pro) get it. There is no reason not to have it, if you're FCP based it will already be installed. If you're Avid based you should already have it, if not... upgrade. There are quite a few benefits over the basic version of Quicktime Player that you can read about here. Aside from its editing capabilities, the biggest ones are its export features and the kind of data you can derive from it.



If you already have it installed, open a file you'd like to learn more about. Hit Command-J on a mac (Control-J on a PC). This brings up the "Show Movie Properties" window. If you click on the video track you'll get the same info as the image above.

From this window we can now tell what codec the clip was compressed with, the compression used for the audio, and dimensions of the file. Now, a lot of this info can be found by simply getting info or property settings on the file from your desktop, but that won't allow you to toggle quality flags or interlace settings, or a plethora of other things QT Pro can enable you to do. In the example above you can see that the clip was rendered with the Avid Meridien codec. If this file was loaded on a machine without that codec you would get a warning when you opened the file, the screen would be white and the audio would play back like normal. I've seen a lot of people run across this and go back to request a replacement, for a "non working file". When in fact the file was just fine. The only problem was a missing codec.



QT Pro comes with a bunch of codecs by default. But when you get into proprietary hardware most of those systems use their own codecs for playback. If you want to view/edit/use footage from one of these systems you have to install the codecs as well. Which leads to another common problem. Since most systems are missing these codecs the majority of your requests... from say, the Art Department are built with Animation compression (After Effects default settings) or a series of targas that you have to fight through. Both being inefficient ways to deliver time sensitive media. This results in additional renders when it's imported into the editing system. There's a way to avoid that by building or rendering for the target hardware.



Step 2: Compressing for Target Hardware

Make a list of the hardware you load/export content to. In most cases you will find additional codecs to install on your non-editing machines. Now you might ask why you'd want to do that? Well... "time" my friends. If you're rendering or building at a compression other than the one running on your editing systems (non-native), your editors are taking an unneeded hit in their workflow. They have to "import" those clips. What import really means is "re-compress". So the time you spent rendering and compressing a clip, they have to add time to "re-compress" the non-native footage.

If you load and render to the proper codecs you can make the import process rather instant. What that also means, is editors can export clips with the native codec (faster). Cutting down on needless and time consuming conversions. Some stations have the luxury of Digital Content Managers, and Unity Drives, so it's only a matter of checking those clips out of the system. Some of them even handle the conversion for you, making it a non issue. But other stations still need to sneaker-net their stuff around. Maybe upgrades are not as fast coming as they are in larger markets. For those stations, this kind of "time" gain is what can mean the difference between a spot airing or not. Building smart and knowing what content you are pushing can be beneficial for everyone in the pipeline, all it takes is a little streamlining of the process.

Tune in tomorrow for part 2 of "Codecs & Compressions in the News Environment" Until then check out the links below.



Quicktime

Invest in Quicktime Pro. Just do it. The benefits outweigh the cost. Aside from access to high-end compressing options. QT player allows you to get details on content you have been supplied. If you've ever received a clip that doesn't play, has a white screen and you hear audio. This is where you can start for answers.

Avid Meridien

Rendering native from your Art Department will save your editors a lot of time. It means quick imports and no re-rendering on their end. So you'll both get the job done that much faster.

Final Cut Studio

Most FCP suites use extra hardware like a dedicated video card, and raid to facilitate realtime playback. Below you'll find links to the codecs for two of the most popular choices.

AJA KONA codecs

The KONA 3 is a great card. It's what we use, solid & dependable. Can't go wrong here.

Blackmagic Codecs

While I have not had direct experience with their products, I do know a few unnamed design houses that use em.

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:: Author: N. Santiago | Do not republish without authorization please ::

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