Premiere Pro and Broadcast TV requirements

[_Paz_]

Premiere Pro and Broadcast requirements:

Almost immediately after I bought PrePro CS6 Mom posted a link to a webinar about using the program. I watched, tried to take notes for 3 days running, and blew a couple of brain fuses. There are many things I remember can be done – but I need to do some searching to figure out how. For now, just the fact that they are required for broadcast TV in USA, and with Premiere Pro CS6 can be done: (Not sure how many of these features existed before CS6.)

Volume Limiter: There are vertical volume bars that indicate how loud the audio is. The tops are capped by a box. If at any time during playback the box at top is filled with red (it will remain red) the volume is too high. Somehow, somewhere is a way to limit the volume by setting a percentage level.

Saturation Limiter: Saturation that is too high will not pass specs and won’t be broadcast. One of the color adjustment manipulators can be used to correct this problem, if your footage is oversaturated. The parameters are different for regular vs high definition TV. Both correction fields are in the same correction screen. It is a matter of adjusting for the level of definition you have.

Black screen: No totally black screen is allowed, even for a fraction of a second. Somehow it is possible to check to see if you have any, which of course, if you do, you should then remove.

Subtitles: Broadcast TV in the USA is legally required to have subtitles - or maybe that's closed captions. I'm afraid I've already forgotten the distinction between them. Anyway, Premiere Pro CS6 does not create them, but does have a way to add them to a video. (I believe Premiere Pro Creative Cloud is working towards creating them, but I’m not buying into that.)

There are companies that create subtitles - closed captions. It is expensive.

I bought a $100 program called MovieCaptioner, available for Mac and Windows. I have to first downgrade my video quality, not once but twice, to get it to run. The creator of the program was very helpful by personally figuring out why the program wouldn’t work for me. Then the process is: Your video will play for a short amount of time. You listen and type in a few lines of dialog. Once done, you move on to the next few lines of dialog. Spelling check, ability to move text from one line to another for appearance and readability, and appearance of the subtitles are available features. The program offers many file formats to save the closed captions, including one that works for YouTube. Unfortunately, at this time, Vimeo does not support closed captions.

http://www.synchrimedia.com/

I’ve planned on going through my notes and writing myself detailed instructions on how to do these things for some time. As I work them out I’ll post them here. Anyone who already has any of these down pat is welcome to fill in my blanks! Also, there may be additional Broadcast Requirements the instructor did not mention. If anyone is aware of any of these, please post here.

[momoffduty]

Maybe someone here can fill in your blanks on the requirements. You may have better luck asking in the Creative Cow forum since that is mostly professionals. I have seen posts there and the stock answer is something along the lines of "it depends", that the TV station will give you the specifics on format.

[_Paz_]

Thanks for your suggestions, Mom.

I just looked through my notes. I tried to type everything the instructor said...

EDITED


which was waaaaaaay too much information!

Sorry if my joke wasn't funny.

[sidd finch]

The really fast answer is that anything from a $200K camera to a cell phone video can and is broadcast on TV. The "it depends" answer that mom quoted is relevant because the delivery of the final product is what needs to be conformed. So really where are you planning to put your creation will drive the necessary requirements. If you think of an analogy to the infamous...."what camera should I buy" and the answer is always...."it depends"

I would say that audio is the most important to the overall project.

Sidd

[_Paz_]

I didn't mean to suggest that quality of video, or quality of audio, for that matter, determined whether something would be allowed on broadcast TV. I'm sure we've all seen plenty of old footage from 16mm cameras and heard the first "Mary had a little lamb" recording Edison made.

I only meant to say that the Program, Premiere Pro CS6 is capable to taking care of a few potential problems that any video (and accompanying audio) might have - that might prevent it from being broadcast in the USA - since programs for broadcast must conform to specific rules and regulations, Federal broadcasting laws. Among them, audio that is too loud and video that exceeds allowed saturation levels. And the fact that closed captions and/or subtitles (not sure which and there is a distinction between them, something about a line 21 or something) are required by law these days.

That said, it does seem like sometimes when going from a program to a commercial, the decibel increase is almost enough to blast the paintings right off the walls. I can only assume they must be just squeaking by or else they couldn't be put on the air!

[Peru]

That said, it does seem like sometimes when going from a program to a commercial, the decibel increase is almost enough to blast the paintings right off the walls. I can only assume they must be just squeaking by or else they couldn't be put on the air!

That's because the FCC rules require that the average volume of the commercial does not exceed the average volume level of the program on that station during which it is broadcasting. So if the commercial has some low volume portions, they can still be within the specs if they blast it during other parts of the commercial.

They are not actively enforcing the law, however, and will only investigate if there are formal complaints filed by consumers about a specific violation.

If I remember correctly, many years ago there used to be an FCC regulation that governed the maximum volume allowable, not the average volume allowable for commercials. The law was at some point in time removed from the FCC regulations and there were no restrictions on the commercial volume level until the recent CALM Act, the one now in effect.