Real-time closed captioning gives viewers who need it instantaneous access to live news, sports and entertainment broadcasts. For viewers to see captions within two to three seconds of the words being spoken on air, the process has historically relied on operators trained to write at speeds of over 225 words per minute. Since it was originally developed in 1982 however, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) never directly addressed quality issues in captioning.
Part 1 of this article covered multiple aspects of compression technology: macroblocks, DCT, quantization, and lossless compression. Part 2 will focus on motion estimation for P- and B-frames—after a review of lossless data compacting. Part 3 (next month) will detail the critical role of Predicted frames and Difference frames in maintaining image quality.
Headphones continue to be an important tool for accurate audio monitoring.
The Sennheiser Esfera microphone provides 5.1 surround sound from just two channels, making complicated surround microphone installations a thing of the past. The system consists of a high-quality stereo microphone, and uses Sennheiser’s RF condenser technology. An associated 19 in rack-mount processing unit converts the stereo signal into a complete 5.1 signal – anywhere in the production workflow, whether in real time or during post production. The compact size of the microphone unit and the versatile connectivity of the processing unit ensure that Esfera can easily be integrated into existing workflows.
As graphics’ technology gets better, it becomes more difficult to tell the difference between real and software-generated imagery.
The manufacturing of high-end monitor systems is a complex and highly competitive field. Image courtesy simplyspeakers.com
The new normal for producing stories outside of the newsroom walls.
Over the past few years, advancements in technology and Internet connectivity have impacted nearly every facet of our lives—from how we gather and store information to how we communicate with others. And the news industry is no exception. In fact, not since TV displaced radio has the news industry faced a period of such tumultuous change (and the TV to radio evolution happened much slower).
Most people with memories of analogue tape-based broadcast programme-making will acknowledge the tremendous efficiencies brought about by the advent of production servers, especially within the fields of news, sport and special events.
