BROADCAST EXPORT in Premiere/After Effects

[northerns74r]

Hi all,
not sure even it's the right subforum... forgive in case I'm wrong...
I have been asked to delive video for a local tv. They provided me a list of specs to be followed during the export process.
I use Premiere Pro 2 (or CS4, doesn't matter) but I never cared about that stuff...
Here's what they want me to do:

1) COLOR BARS 75% @ -18dBFS / 0dbu (Vu meter) at the head of the video
-> Premiere standard color bars are by default 75%?
-> Premiere standard color bars say -12 in the meter on the right...
2) Level peak not over -12dBFS (Bal. QPPM)
3) Max. Electric level (Vu) allowed not over 0-reference (-18dBFS / 0dbu, Vu meter)

Are they common values? How do I set levels in Premiere?
I'm here if anything is not complete or not clear....

Please help me...

Thank you in advance

[Emulgator]

The most of these are audio restrictions.

Just follow these and don't forget the video restrictions,
deliver something more lukewarm than you had in mind.

For the clip with the colour bars plus 1kHz audio you may set volume to -6dB.
don't get too hot with anything, don't use up headroom audio- and video-wise.

Leave something to compress for the final deliverer (psychological wiser),
they want to be involved.

Use peak preview and adjust for -12dB (safer: -16 dB) at the loudest spot.

After all it looks like thay fear audio distortion more than video distortions...

Here in Berlin there was an Open Channel where anybody could deliver anything:
Y never exceeded 127 i guess and the thing died, it was just too dim.
And the ones who tried to get through by pushing contrast died with it...

[Ghitulescu]

The -18dBfs is for calibration (you forgot to say that it's 1kHz@-18dBfs). The same goes for ColourBars, you can send a BW clip, or in sepia etc. it doesn't matter.

The rest is not to force them changing their setups (you are not the only provider). Broadcasting is more than pressing PLAY, they have norm restrictions, legal restrictions and equipment restrictions.

Nevertheless, even if you place both reference items for calibration that doesn't mean your video/audio is also calibrated, that is your responsibility. -12sBfs means for you the maximum maximorum, otherwise the tower will be overmodulated. If the audio source allows it, you can use a lil'bit of compression (to raise the volume perception while maintaining the electrical level - ie the -12 dBfs). I would use however a dedicated audio processor for the audio part (after cutting and assembling in Premiere).

How do you deliver the clips? Probably on a tape ...

[Mug Funky]

these look to be EBU levels.

it's a PITA that digibeta decks don't come with -18dB tones as an internal signal generator (they do -20...), but you can generate 75% and 100% EBU bars with one.

if you're mastering to tape at a post house or dub facility, they can take care of that stuff for you - best case scenario is you just provide them with a rendered media file (quicktime uncompressed 10-bit 422 most likely) with slates, countdown, and whatever else the specs require and they can play it out to a tape for you. they could even fix some nitpicky stuff free of charge if they're nice enough... i used to do this crap all the time. still do occasionally.

if you're doing it yourself, and you have a digibeta deck (or other decent broadcast deck), you can generate the bars on that, and possibly route in the tones from your edit machine (which you can leave looping on -18dB 1k sine while you crash record on the deck).

you might want to consider putting a "broadcast legaliser" filter on your output - this will prevent illegal luma and chroma levels that you may not be able to see without a waveform monitor. if levels go awry, your master will be rejected without a doubt. again, some post facilities will have legaliser boxes in their chains that you might be able to go through on the way out to tape. this may or may not cost you extra.

[Gser]

IS this for analog broadcasting?