The Chief Engineers of Facilities Forum (ChEFF), the UK facilities trade body is to launch a unified broadcast delivery specification at this year's Production Show. Each UK broadcaster publishes its own delivery spec resulting in subtle but important differences between them. With the proliferation of broadcast channels, facility companies have to take extra care to deliver programmes that meet the broadcasters' individual requirements.

The ChEFF document will be the first result from a yearlong initiative to harmonise these various specifications. Initiative coordinator for ChEFF, Jeff Booth of Soho Images said, "Many of the existing specs hark back to some fairly arbitrary engineering decisions made long ago, in a time of open-reel tape formats and in-house post-production. These decisions have become enshrined in custom and practice and need a fresh look in the light of modern-day requirements such as widescreen and server based transmission systems".

Whilst many UK broadcasters have been going through the process of reviewing their own delivery specs, there has been broad support amongst them for a unified document.

Andy Lucas, Production Engineering Manager at Carlton said, "We are pleased to be cooperating with ChEFF to try and work towards achieving a common basic technical delivery specification for UK Broadcasters specifically aimed at editors and operators."

Wes Curtis, Principal Technologist at BBC TV, also supported ChEFF's approach in seeking a common reference. He added, "Anything that helps to converge technical standards is good for commissioners, programme makers, resource providers and broadcasters."

Deputy Chief Engineer at Channel 4, Dick Eagle welcomed the ChEFF initiative. He said, "If a unified delivery spec makes it easier for suppliers to get it right then that helps all broadcasters."

Chris Hearn, Head of Standards for the Granada group, commented "The ChEFF document is a welcome step forward and will help to make the post-production process more straightforward, to the benefit of both facility houses and broadcasters."

Whereas most broadcasters' documents run to several tens of pages, the ChEFF document is concise and to the point. Jeff Booth adds, "We've concentrated on post-production and stripped out all the stuff about acquisition, OBs and live studios, since by the time you get into editing all this is a fait-à-complit. Recommendations for acquisition practices will be the subject of a further document but for now we want the ChEFF spec to be an essential and workable source of daily reference for those in the front-line. What editors, telecine colourists and tape ops really need to know are line-up levels, clock details, safe areas and what tolerances are acceptable."

Equally as important as the technical delivery specification are the requirements for production compliance. Each channel quite understandably has different credit style and branding requirements. The ChEFF spec tackles this by providing a directory of Internet links to the broadcaster's own documents, however this information is often difficult to find. Press spokesperson for ChEFF, Neil Hatton said, "I would encourage all broadcasters and programme strand editors to publish up-to-date documents about credits and branding on the Internet. If they then inform us, we can link their web pages into a database on the ChEFF website. This will provide them with an easy and efficient way to disseminate the information to all our member facilities who have to implement it."

ChEFF has already started work on a companion document to the Broadcast Delivery Spec, which will deal with commercials. The EBU Production Technology Management Committee is to discuss the ChEFF Broadcast Delivery Standards document at their next meeting in June and there is a possibility that an EBU recommendation could result.

The ChEFF specification will be released at a special seminar about Broadcast Delivery Standards to be held in The Engineering Technology Centre at The Production Show in Olympia on Wednesday 22nd May at 11am and further details about it will be available from the ChEFF stand, number 679, on the ground floor of the main hall.

 

ABOUT ChEFF

The Chief Engineers of Facilities Forum represents the views of the UK TV facilities industry on engineering and operational matters. It provides a focal point for dialogue with the broadcasters, standards bodies, manufacturers, and equipment suppliers as well as between its own member companies.

ChEFF members are making a statement about their commitment to consistently deliver high quality and to enhance "best-practice". That commitment should be recognised and valued by producers and their commissioners.

Delegates to the ChEFF are usually the chief engineers or senior technical representatives of the member companies.

The members include;- Andrew Sumner Associates, Arena Digital, Capital Studios, Component, Dubbs, Evolutions, Editworks, Edit Video, Frontier Post, Frontline Television, Golden Square Post Production, Hillside, London Post, Lynx Digital, M2, Metro Broadcast, The Moving Picture Company, Nats, Oasis Television, P3 Post, Pearson Television, Picardy Television, Resolution, Rushes, Soho Images, Smoke and Mirrors, Sohonet SVC, The Television Set and TSI.

ChEFF's forerunner was the Engineering Committee of the Image Industry Alliance, or I2A (formerly the UK chapter of the ITS). After the demise of the I2A, the engineers vowed to continue meeting and so in May 2001, ChEFF was formed as a stand-alone organisation.

ChEFF has close ties with FEITIS, the European facilities organisation, and with the EBU.

Key Contacts

ChEFF Chairman: Chris Hillier, Hillside, +44 (0)20 8950 7919, chillier@cheff.org.uk

Press Liaison: Neil Hatton, Frontier Post, +44 (0)20 7291 9191, nhatton@cheff.org.uk

Broadcast Standards Initiative Co-ordinator; Jeff Booth, Soho Images, +44 (0)20 7437 0831, jbooth@cheff.org.uk

 

Website: http://www.cheff.org.uk