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PAL-compatible

I work as an engineer at Sun Television Network in India. For post-production, we are using an AVID NLE and Symphony. We were concerned about the colour gamut, so I used the legalizer that comes with the Symphony. After editing, the finished material is dumped into JVC Digital-S format VTRs. We use our own DVB uplink and Harmonic MV50 Divicom encoders. We would like the Luma and colour gamut of the finished material from our NLE to be within specification for PAL broadcast. Kindly suggest levels available in AVID NLE that we can fix in the legalizer.

The options available are:

Composite :

low ( ) mv high ( ) mv Luma :

low ( ) mv high ( ) mv

Colour gamut RGB :

8 bit/10 bit low ( )0 high( )255 bracket value indicates lower & higher values.
REGARDS,
ASHLEY SAMUEL
Lebanon, NH

Editor responds:

The default values for PAL projects in Symphony are:

Composite:

low (-140) mv high (770) mv

Luma:

low (0) mv high (700) mv

Colour gamut RGB :

8 bit/10 bit low (0) high (255)

The FIRST automation system

Brad,

John Luff has an error in his December article about automation on page 50. The first automation system installed in a TV station was WTMJ-TV in 1965. It was built by Sarkes Tarzian Company and was designed by Jim Moneyhun, who now heads his own company in Florida. It was a punched card system, and I remember the meeting with the IBM rep who told us after several hours of discussion that we could punch cards for all 24 hours and not make enough to make the system work. So we never had a connection to the traffic office. We just entered the next few events manually.

Our second system was from CDL, and I don't remember the date, but I believe it was before the 1974 date that WTCN-TV installed its CDL system.
Jim

Jim,

Thanks for the clarification and correction. Working from punch cards would certainly be a bit harder than from the GUIs today's systems employ! If anyone has other early implementation stories, it would be fun to hear them.
John

Limitations in Canada

A couple of articles in the October issue referred to HDTV transmissions in Canada. I've owned an HDTV set for four years and have yet to see any free-to-air HD programming. The article should refer to cable and satellite delivery as “limited.”
Neil Mousseau
Technical Manager
CTV Ottawa News Bureau

FCC vs. NASCAR

Brad :

After reading your October editorial regarding the new regulations for children's programming, let me get something straight: It's okay for the government to tell the consumers what's best for them (ie: cutting off analog TV), but it's not okay for the government to set standards for the broadcasters? The FCC is similar in a way to NASCAR: If you want to be a part of the race, you gotta accept their rules. However, unlike the government, NASCAR is not owned and operated by special interest groups.

Keep up the good work, and kindest regards,
Charlie farr
underemployed tech. worker
virginia beach, va

October Freezeframe:

Q. What is the name of the company and product of the first videodisk recorder for ENG applications?

A. NEC Diskcam

Winner:

Tom Alderson

November Freezeframe:

Q. Name the product shown above. What year was it introduced?

A. Ampex DCT 700s production switcher, November, 1992

Winner:

No correct entries were received.

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