INTRODUCTION

From concept tot DVD, Blu-Ray and Webstream

ELVIC was founded in september 1982. During that time obviously a lot has changed in the videoworld. From tube-camera's thru CCD camera's we're now landed at CMOS camera's. From various tapeformats thru discs, we're now at the stage of recording on Solid State Memorycards with all it's specific advantages. From standard 4:3 TV format, thru widescreen 16:9 format up to the now current HDTV format.

 

We've always followed these developments up close and invested in equipment which allowed us to elevate our productionstandard to the high qualitylevel our customers have come to expect from us. Even though the temptation sometimes was high to cut some corners and go with a lesser qualitylevel because a lot of other videocompanies choose to do so.

Fortunately we've never succumbed to this and we never will. An ELVIC prodcution stands for high quality throughout te comlete production process.

 

XDCAM EX HD

Therefore we invested end of October 2010 in the latest highend camera: the Sony PMW350 XDCAM EX

This camera features 3 2/3inch CMOS chips in full-raster 1920x1080 HD with the highest sensitivity and the lowest noiselevel of all broadcast cameras at this moment. Recording takes place on solid state memory by means of 2 64GB SDXC cards in adapters.

 

In this configuration a recordingtime of 7,5 hours is possible in the maximum quality. And since there are no moving parts in the camera anymore, powerconsumption has gone down so far that those 7,5 hours can even be reached on one battery. Enough capacity for even the most demanding job!

 

Recording on Solid State Memory has even more advantages:

  • faulty takes can be erased immediately and re-shot. This saves time in not having to go through unnecessary shots during editing.
  •  Files can be copied directly to an editcomputer and this goes faster then the realtime digitizing process of videotapes.
  •  Editing can start as soon as the first take is in the computer, no need to wait until the complete card is copied.

 

WORLDWIDE

The most important fact is of course that all HD images contain 5x more detail compared to the PAL system. Technically HDTV offers quite a lot of different choices: 24P, 25P, 30P, 50i, 60i to just name the current most popular ones. Depending on either “look and feel” of the production and/or it's distribution area, the appropriate standard is chosen for recording and editing. The XDCAM EX camera can be set to various international HD standards.

 

NANOFLASH

Although the camera itself records in a beautiful quality, one restriction remains, courtesy of Sony: the codec

A videoregistration needs to be compressed before it can be recorded on either tape, disc or solid state memory.

 

To achieve this various methods exist and to cut a very long story down to a few simple figures: the build in codec is of the 4:2:0 MPEG LongGop at 35Mb/sec type. That's the same as with our former disc-based HD camera and is one of the most used codecs. For certain applications however, we're talking high end productions and greens screen shots, a higher level codec is neededen. That's why the Nanoflash was developed. This little recording device takes the HD-SDI output directly from the camera and compresses that to 4:2:2 at 50, 100 or 180 Mb/sec in MPEG LongGop (various codecs are possible).

 

Knowing that the official broadcast specifications as used by the BBC and followed by most other big TV stations need to be 4:2:2 50Mb/sec and voila! the PWM 350/Nanoflash combination suddenly surpasses that with ease.

 

ACCESSOIRES:

Ofcourse we also have all necessary accessoires like batteries, chargers, tripods and the likes. For you as our customer that's the not so very interesting part, but the right choices for this kind of accessoires is nevertheless very important. The recording process must not come to a halt very often by using low capacity batteries, so we use the highest capacity batteries currently available. The following extra's are important to know about. Some come standard with the set, others can be rented seperately, depending on the productions needs.

 

Audio:

Standard available are various microphones, varying from wireless handheld, wireles revers, boompole directional microphone and the stereo microphone on the camera.

During shows or events we usually run a mono or stereo line signal from the audiomixer. With a total of 4 uncompresseed 16 or 24  bits audiochannels on the camera, there are enough possibilities.


GreenScreen:

A green background for which a presentor does his/her announcing. The green background is replaced in editing by other images. They can be video, foto's or graphics. Also various interview situations apply for a greenscreen recording. This can be done either in the studio or on location. To maximise the key-quality we advise the use of the Nanoflash recorder, set to 4:2:2 / 100Mb/sec.


Teleprompter:

A device, also known as “Autocue”, thru which the presentor is able to read his/her lines directly from the front of the camera, while watching in the lens. Thereby looking the viewers in their eyes without the need of memorizing long texts.


Daylightlamps:

Standard videolighting is usually artificiallight and can be used perfectly in all situations where there is no daylight coming onto the set. If that does happen you'll notice that the light coming thru windows is far too blue. To prevent this the use of daylightlamps is needed. Their color temperature is balanced to that of outside daylight, so there is no color difference. These lights also come in handy when an outdoor scene, in daylight, needs to be lighted for a bigger production.

Note: the latest LED cameralight which we use on-camera is a dimmable daylight balanced one with a collapsible filter to change to indoor colortemperature. For all situations the right colortemperature!


Dolly and track:

Simply said: wheels under a camera tripod. Depending on the surface it may be sufficient to use a wheel only system (smooth studio floor). Otherwise a dollytrack needs to be laid out. This looks somewhat like a railroad upon which the tripod with wheels is placed. By using a track you can get very smooth glide shots, even  on the most uneven surfaces. .


Jib/Crane:

A construction by which the camera can be moved up and down from a low angle view to a birds-eye view. This can be combined with a dolly/track if needed. Various types of Jib/Cranes exist. The smaller ones (up to 3-4 meter) are most used to create a more dynamic picture for the viewer. The larger ones are used for shots from extremere heights (up to 20 meter if needed)

 

 

Smaller cameras:

At the chance of making things more confused: we also use smaller HDcameras from the consumerrange or a Canon 5DmkII for certain shots in a production. Yes, we've talked about the big top-of-the-bill camera already, but some shots simply cannot be done with such a camera. Take for instance the famous dashboardshots in any car program. Not really an option to shoot with a big shoulder camera. Or what to think of the unique perspective of a productionproces by installing a small camera inside a machine.

Even these little cameras shoot in High Definition, albeit not as good as the big one, but in editing it at least maches up to the HD details. And having a unique perspective counts for something in itself. 

 

EDITING

In editing all takes are sorted out for final use in the production and titles, graphics and/or effects will be added. Obviously this all happens in full High Definition so we're still on the maximum level of quality. For editing we use a the latest editingcomputer (aug.2010) build around a hexacore processor with 24GB internal memory and optimised for use with Adobe CS5.5 Production Suite. A Matrox MXO2 is added, as are various plug-ins to give the production exactly the right look and feel.

 

 

FINAL PRODUCT

Then we come to the final stage of production: what will happen with the film we've just edited? Will it be projected for an audience? In that case we'd advise to stay in High Definition. Or is the film going to be distributed to prospects (on a fair, or thru Direct Mail). If that's the case than making a DVD in standard definition is still the way to go. Since the conversion from HD to SD is only now done in the last stage of production, the final DVD will look it's best!

 

 

The High Definition version of the DVD is called Blu-Ray disc and offers a capacity of 25 Gb (compared to 4,7 Gb for DVD).  Obviously we can deliver our productions on Blu-Ray disc, playable on all currenct BD-machines, including Sony's PlayStation3.

Because a Blu-Ray/DVD/CD player is available nowadays for less then 100 Euro and plays back DVD's thru HDMI in a better quality than a regular DVD player, lots of consumers already turned to this HD system.

 

Streaming video:

Next to projection and fysical distribution it is also possible to show the production, or parts thereof,  on your website or your narrow casting/digital signage system. In those cases we'll transcode the High Definition master to the streaming format of your choice. This can be H.264, WMV, Flash or specific streams for I-Pod or PlayStationPortable. All these streams use different screen sizes, bitrates and codecs. We'll be happy to advise you in using the right one(s) for your purpose.

 

 

Last update: Febrar 2, 2012