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| As
broadcast television and computer technologies converge, broadcast
engineers and television editors are faced with a new set of choices and
challenges - computer technology brings new creative possibilities, but
also new values to an industry in which close working relationships between
the manufacturing and service industry and its professional customers had
grown over many decades. |
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| In the race
for creative solutions at a competitive price, many newcomers to the broadcast
engineering marketplace have taken short-cuts which ultimately leave the
end-user caught in the void between several systems component suppliers.
Today's editor needs an understanding of the many compliance and compatibility
issues related to specifying and purchasing a non-linear editing system,
which in many cases far exceed the available know-how at the time of embarking
on such an endeavour. |
| Like many broadcast
professionals faced with the migration from traditional videotape editing
to digital post-production, we approached the challenge with the assumption,
that the state-of-the-art technology was immediately capable of tackling
the production assignments which we intended to employ this technology
to serve. Like most television editors, we first focussed our attention
on the editing hardware and user interface, leaving the issues of the workstation
platform, operating system and storage strategy as secondary issues which
would primarily be dictated by the choice of non-linear editing system. |
| Within a few
months of installing our first combination of equipment, we discovered
that the issues facing us were a great deal more complicated than we had
originally envisaged. Whilst the non-linear editing hardware and software
which we had chosen was satisfactory, the limitations posed by a poorly
specified and under-dimensioned computer platform were becoming evident
and rendering a major investment almost inoperative. The problems which
we encountered, and the solutions which we finally arrived at, are a vital
lesson for any television facility considering a similar investment. |
| For a small
production house, the cost of taking a digital edit suite back to the drawing
board implies an economic risk which could have serious implications for
the business. We were faced with a system, the primary components of which
we were satisfied with, but the computer platform of which required replacement
and a degree of support, for which we had not prepared ourselves. We put
our faith in a new computer supplier - Dell Computer Corporation. In the
course of the next 12 months development, most of which had to be undertaken
on a system which was heavily committed to our production assignments,
we would not be dissappointed in our choice of computer manufacturer. |
| This website
is our attempt at documenting the many issues involved in choosing a workstation
for broadcast television post-production applications, and demonstrating
some of the solutions which Channel 6 Television, in a close co-operation
with Dell, have implemented in our digital edit suite - EDIT2. We hope
that our experience on this project will be of benefit to others, including
Dell staff, who in the future may be involved in specifying similar systems. |
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