Australian Broadcast Specs "Crackdown"

[Matt82au]

Hi all, i have just received an email i thought could be worth sharing. (sorry if it is a bit OT...)

The following is an email received from a Channel 7 (more accurately, Prime TV, Canberra) Media Co-Ordinator regarding OP-29. As anyone who mixes for Australian TV knows, OP-29 requests 12 Frames of silence at the head and tail of any TVC. From my understanding, this is a bit of a redundant rule that was originally formed before TVC's were digitally logged (?). As a result, the 12 frame rule has been a bit relaxed and pretty much everyone i know starts their mixes from around 5-6 frames in and out...

The email is as follows...


Good Morning,

Could the following excerpt from Free TV's Operation Practise OP29 document
please be urgently distributed to all media producers, agencies, production
houses and creative houses that you are in contact with.

It has been sourced from the following link, which is downloadable if
required:
http://intranet1/primeweb/code_of_pr...ber%202004.pdf

10. COMMERCIAL TIMING
10.1 The duration of commercial or promotional material should
be measured from
the start of active video to the end of active video.

10.2 Sound should commence 0.5 seconds after the commencement
of active
video. This provides time for the sound channel to be opened
after the start
of video without risk of sound clipping and provides aural
separation between
adjacent commercials and program material.

10.3 The end of the commercial sound including any sound tag
shall occur 0.5
seconds before the end of active video.

10.4 Accurate identification of first frame of active video on
commercials should be
provided. This shall be by the inclusion of a white marker on
the color black
in the 2 second interval following the visual count down
signal, top right of
picture, outside picture safe on the frame immediately before
first frame of
active video. The white marker should be a minimum picture
height for SD of
12 lines and minimum width of 18 pixels. For HD, the white
marker should be
a minimum picture height of 24 lines and a minimum width of 36
pixels.
Timing of the commercial is referenced from the first frame of
active video.

What I would like to refer to particularly is items 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3.

Many commercials have been arriving on station with audio beginning on the
first active video frame.
Commercials that have audio that begins on frame 11 or less of the active
video should not be broadcast as per reason stated in item 10.2 of the
above.
So simply put, there should be 12 frames of silence at the beginning of the
commercial and then 12 frames of silence at the end of the commercial.
For reference 0.5 seconds equals 12.5 frames (video broadcasts at 25 frames
per second).

Unfortunately this has also been missed by our own ingest teams until
recent times.

Therefore we must bring things back into equilibrium:

Any commercial that we receive from now onward with audio that begins on
frame 6 or less of the active video will instantly be rejected and will
need to be resent as a revised commercial.

Commercials with audio that begins on frame 7 or more (up until and
including frame 11) will be dubbed in and allowed to air momentarily, on
the prevision that a revision is sent within a couple of days. Sales
Teams will be required to organise this.

Then as of Monday 4th of February, any commercial that requires
ingesting that has audio beginning frame 11 or less of the active video,
will be refused entirely.

Please note that getting a CAD number does not cover this - this
operational practise is the sole responsibility of the commercial producer.
Please also take note, this will be enforced regardless of what other
stations are doing.

I thank you for your cooperation and understanding in this matter.

Best Regards
Daniel Sanguineti


(Embedded image moved to file: pic04667.jpg)
Media Co-ordinator
Traffic Department, Canberra



int: 46 27 51
direct: (02) 62 423 751
mobile: (04) 09 072 549
[email protected]


So anyone who's spots may be heading to Prime TV, Canberra, and who doesn't leave the exact 12 frames, will potentially have their spots rejected.

[Stylin' Audio]

Yikes! I can't imagine any of my ad clients giving up that second of real estate. It is hard enough to squeeze 45sec of copy into a 30sec spot, forget about 29!

[manis]

many thanks.., important news for us ozzys

M:)

[tomlowd]

the first thing i do on an ad is wack in a marker and 12 frms after the in and before out point....

[smasyd]

It will be interesting to see if they reject all the foreign made TVCs that start audio on first frame.

DW

[Matt82au]

Personally i think it is pretty silly one station in canberra are trying to enforce this obsolete rule, when no one else does. i think i have ever seen one spot rejected after a freelancer had audio coming in at 2 frames. it was adjusted to 6 and life was peachy.

it will be interesting to see what happens as well if this guy tries to reject a BIG BIG advertisers spot (such as sony, coca cola etc)...

[tj_davies]

It will be interesting to see if they reject all the foreign made TVCs that start audio on first frame.

DW

We've had mixes refused in UK because of audio starting on first frame. Even though their specs said, that just the off wasn't allowed to appear within the first and last 12 frames (which wasn't the case in our spot), the tapes came back, as there was traffic atmo at the begining of the spot.

Rather stupid specs, considering we've moved on to the digital world - but good to know, if you're creating and mixing a spot, that will also air in Australia and UK.


Timothy