<strong>TV</strong>BEU RO PE THE WORKFLOW Format choice: tapeless debate Although it <strong>is</strong> possible to buy a new tape-based camcorder, any models introduced recently have been tapeless — but how do you choose? David Fox talked to camera owners (members of Guild of Telev<strong>is</strong>ion Cameramen) on how they select the right camera and their experience with tapeless media production There are at least six types of tapeless media on offer: Compact Flash, d<strong>is</strong>c, Memory Stick, P2, SD and SxS, all capable of recording a variety of formats. For anyone buying a camera, the choice <strong>is</strong> daunting. No wonder so many still shoot on tape, even though there are many good reasons for going tapeless. “File-based video has huge advantages,” says Mike Thomas, sales director at UK dealer Top Teks. “The shots are logged for you; you can add metadata on any computer; there <strong>is</strong> instant access to each shot; and proxy versions for fast d<strong>is</strong>tribution over standard internet.” “Tapeless has been an amazing boon for me as a cameraman and editor,” adds DP and editor Michael Sanders. He loves the quality from h<strong>is</strong> Sony PDW-800 and, for the price, from the EX3. “As an editor, having the material come in already in clips <strong>is</strong> wonderful and being able to ingest in faster than realtime <strong>is</strong> great for news and some fast turnaround corporates I do (we recently did a 10 minute three camera shoot at 10am and uploaded a fully cut version two hours later). Reliability has been fine so far.” Sanders <strong>is</strong> a fan of XDCAM HD d<strong>is</strong>c. “I don’t have a problem with solid state at all — I love it, especially if I’m editing and ingesting.” But he does have a problem with adding to h<strong>is</strong> costs by buying extra cards so a production can keep shooting without stopping while he can’t charge extra for it. He also d<strong>is</strong>likes “recording to a media which <strong>is</strong> too expensive to be able to keep forever and needs archiving. I have three projects that have been ongoing for three years and regularly need me to go back to the rushes.” Using media that are so small they fit in a pocket and can easily get lost <strong>is</strong> a further problem. “That’s why I love XDCAM HD – and the pictures look lovely.” Sticking with tape: Chr<strong>is</strong>tiansen, Oas<strong>is</strong> Productions, on location in Turkey Broadcast Audio. Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> SSL. “One of the greatest features of these cameras <strong>is</strong> the buffer, which can record up to 10 seconds before the record button <strong>is</strong> even pressed. How useful when you have just m<strong>is</strong>sed a cabinet min<strong>is</strong>ter walking out of No10” – Darren Bramley, I<strong>TV</strong> Breakfast Party piece: Bramley at a UK party political conference, shooting on XDCAM Director David Hill of Acrobat Telev<strong>is</strong>ion shoots broadcast programmes, commercials, corporate and sell-thru DVDs and Blu-ray d<strong>is</strong>cs using XDCAM HD. “When the PDW-700 was new we had one failure with the laser which was apparently a problem with a particular batch and since then it has been faultless. The workflow <strong>is</strong> very efficient: we transfer rushes to 6TB drive arrays of which up to four can be connected to each edit suite at any time. These are cheap and fast enough to edit from directly, even at full HD. We keep the SX d<strong>is</strong>cs as our backup in the same way we did tape and we use Shotstore as our library system, which allows us to find clips instantly and load the proxy clips onto our server from remote locations.” Acrobat also has EX3 SxS cameras for some corporate jobs and extreme conditions, such as skiing or on boats. “We transfer the rushes in the same way to the hard drives and back up to Blu-ray d<strong>is</strong>cs. Not as elegant a solution but it works,” he says. “Tapeless has definitely speeded up our footage management and has also helped footage sales because it’s so easy to identify shots and find them.” Sydney-based freelance cameraman Peter Heap owns a Digital Betacam and a Sony PDW-700. He has been using XDCAM for a few years, mainly working on D<strong>is</strong>covery Channel’s Mythbusters. The show <strong>is</strong> based in San Franc<strong>is</strong>co but the production company (Beyond Productions) <strong>is</strong> based in Sydney. With tape, nothing could be done until the material was shipped back, but with d<strong>is</strong>c it <strong>is</strong> a lot quicker. “Because the camera records files it’s easy to copy them to a computer and then FTP them to Sydney. On a few occasions I’ve sent the 1920x1080 files back, but usually the proxy files are all that are required for the offline,” says Heap. Another Sydney-based cameraman, Mal Hamilton, runs the XDCAM Pro User Group website (www.XDCAM.com.au). He has been using XDCAM for more than six years. “In that time I had to resort to shooting on tape once, it felt slugg<strong>is</strong>h, unresponsive — never again. I shoot documentaries and also do stints in the studio — mainly as single camera. Most of my work involves a great deal of travel overseas, and to th<strong>is</strong> end I’ve used different types of camera. The Sony EX3 <strong>is</strong> ideal for light travel, and where budget permits I prefer the PMW 350 [which <strong>is</strong> currently h<strong>is</strong> main camera]. One of the greatest assets of using SxS cards, etc, <strong>is</strong> the fact you no longer have to cart around boxes of tapes.” I<strong>TV</strong>’s breakfast programmes GM<strong>TV</strong> and Daybreak have been using XDCAM for more than four years, and has Sony PDW-510 and PDW-530 cameras. “The d<strong>is</strong>cs have never failed, and the only time that a camera failed on a shoot (because the battery connector board failed mid-record), we still managed to keep the contents of the d<strong>is</strong>c by putting it in a player and running a special d<strong>is</strong>c salvage application,” says Darren Bramley, head of cameras, I<strong>TV</strong> Breakfast. “Our workflow generally <strong>is</strong> to ingest material back at The London Studios via an XD deck straight into our Avid server in realtime,” he explains. “On the road we have used the XD C10HD www.solidstatelogic.com Compact Broadcast Console Big console power in a compact, simple and affordable package. sales@solidstatelogic.com :: Tel +44 (0) 1865 842300 Continued on page 10 8 www.tvbeurope.com MARCH 2011
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