TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR PROGRAM DELIVERY                                                               

Revised Jan 24, 2008

All final materials are to be delivered to:

Esther Fairbairn
Business Affairs Coordinator
VISIONTV
Liberty Market Building
171 East Liberty Street
Suite 230
Toronto, Ont.
M6K 3P3
416-368-3194 x603

A. 1. Betacam SX Format Digital master video transfer of the PICTURE. The negative from which the videotape master was manufactured must be free from splices and scratches, and fully panned and scanned if the PICTURE was produced in Cinemascope. See videotape requirements.

A. Type of recording stock

1. Vision TV will accept programs on Betacam SX, DVC PRO or Beta SP.

2. HDTV will be accepted on HD-CAM only. 

B. Tape condition

1. All tape shall be bulk-erased before recording to ensure that all residual signals are 70 dB below the recorded level.

2. The maximum average of drop-outs (with a depth greater than 16 dB, and a width greater than 5 micro-sec.) acceptable is 10 per minute. No one-minute tape segment shall contain more than 20 drop-outs.

3. The tape shall not contain any physical splices.

4. The tape shall not contain any scratches that cause visible picture degradation.

5. The tape shall not exhibit any binder breakdown (shedding).

6. The tape shall not exhibit any cinches or windows.

7. The tape shall not exhibit any edge damage or ripple.

8. To prevent a stepped pack, the tape shall be rewound in one continuous pass, from the end of the tape (not the end of the program) to the beginning.

Please Note:
Any of the above problems may/will cause tapes to be not playable to air. If these tapes are supplied to Vision TV they are supplied at the full risk of the supplier. No refunds for unplayable tapes will be entertained.


B. Video Specifications

1. All material on tape must conform to either SMPTE Specification 259M in the case of Digital or SMPTE Specification RS170A for Analogue. The exact specification can be obtained from the SMPTE web site - WWW.SMPTE.ORG

2. Reference colour bars shall be a true indication of the program's chroma, video, pedestal and phase. At least :40 seconds of bars & tone is required.

3. HDTV is preferred to be 1080i/59.94 for NTSC down-conversion.

C. Aspect Ratio

1. Picture produced in 16:9 or 14:9 must be fully panned and scanned or letter boxed to fit 4:3.

2. HD-CAM submission may be 16:9 anamorphic, but must accompany a letterboxed SD primary format.

D. Blanking

1. Horizontal blanking shall be 10.9 micro-sec., plus or minus 0.2 micro-sec.

2. Vertical blanking shall be 20 lines where possible. 

E. Closed Captioning

1. Closed captions must meet technical standards. The base of the captioning signal must rest between 0 and 2 IRE (digital or analog), and reach a level of 350 mV. In addition, the captions must decode correctly when using any of our benchmark decoders: EEG EN270-600 (or higher), EEG EN470, Evertz 8074, Evertz 8084. Failure to decode correctly on any of these decoders will delay program acceptance.

2. Closed captions must be encoded on line 21 of the vertical blanking interval, and displayed on the bottom of the screen.

F. Video Performance

1. Signal-to-noise shall not be less than 40 dB (CCIR WTG) for multi-generational.

2. Moire and micro phonics shall not be visible in the picture.

1. Excessive lag and bloom are un-acceptable (except for special effects purposes).

G. Monochrome programs

1. Recordings which are entirely monochrome shall contain colour burst signal during horizontal blanking and there shall be chroma (colour) information (sub-carrier) in the program signal.

2. Recordings that are predominantly monochrome in content shall have the colour burst during the monochrome portion.

3. Due to the “flash” apparent on many receivers upon burst/noburst/burst transitions, the burst must be turned “on”.

H. Recorded-in impairments

1. Head switching (swapping) in active video shall not be permitted (un-acceptable source material).

A. 1. Vision TV's standard for digital audio level is -20 dBfs (full scale). The equivalent analog level is 0 VU, 1000 Hz in the NTSC analog standard. The analog peak value is +16dB.

B. Cross-talk

1. Video crosstalk in program audio shall be inaudible.

2. Crosstalk from the control track into any audio track shall not be greater than 50 dB.

C. Distortion 

1. Distortion shall not be greater than 1.0% at operating level.

D. Dolby “C”

1. Dolby “C” encoded programs shall conform to standard Dolby procedures, and shall have box and cassette identified as Dolby “C” encoded, with a standard yellow Dolby label.

2. Dolby “C” encoded programs on Betacam SP format are preferred.

3. Vision TV will accept both mono and stereo Dolby C encoded programs.

E. Audio Track Assignments

1. Mono: put program audio for monaural programs on both audio tracks 1 & 2.

2. Track 1: left channel for stereo programs or program audio for monaural programs.

3. Track 2: right channel for stereo programs, or duplicate mono channel for monaural programs.

4. Tracks 3 and 4 should be blank in both cases.

A. The tape container labels shall contain the following information:

1. Master, Protection Master, or Dub.

2. Production company.

3. Program title/episode.

4. Program length (hrs., min., sec)

5. Recordings/Passes on tape.

6. Type of audio (stereo/mono) and Dolby encoding (if relevant).

7. Close Captioned (if relevant).

8. Descriptive Video audio track (if relevant).

9. HDTV resolution/frame rate (if relevant).