What is “Broadcast Quality“?
This is a term that almost always had an ambiguous meaning but seems completely irrelevant today.
At one time KQED (and other PBS ststions) could easily turn away indie documentary producers by demanding that all work be “Broadcast Quality” – In the mid 1980’s they’d tell producers that they had to deliver on 1″ Type-C reel-to-reel videotape. Even while they broadcast nearly all of their afternoon programming off tape-delayed playback from 3/4″ U-Matic Cassettes (the format of choice for indie producers). As new technology developed, the bar was raised as a barrier to entry.
At the time there existed a few valid technical specifications that could all be overcome by copying even the worst quality video to a “Broadcast” format. Don’t forget, the ’80s brought us “America’s Funniest Home Videos” so obviously even VHS could be “Broadcast Quality” if the desire to show it existed.
In my opinion it was simply a barrier to entry. But one that allowed me to work in an edit suite that looked like the helm of a spaceship. In fact, the video switcher that I often used – the Grass Valley 300 – was used in Star Wars as the controls of the Death Star (as far as I can tell, the operator was performing a fade-to-black).
I was a freelance editor and engineer in some of San Francisco’s most prestigious post-houses. Back when it took about a million dollars of equipment to do basic broadcast quality editing.
Occasionally someone asks about my broadcast work. Much of that work is lost but here are a few excerpts from some projects we still have. Some are still on 1″ tapes in my garage.
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