UHD HDR DPP and IMF
Technology is increasingly getting mentioned at this type of event. That is a bit of a surprise because TV Commissioners are much more concerned about getting the right programs but it is obvious that is now on their agenda. The BBC NHU delivered their series in IMF, from that perspective they are a little ahead of the audience. I will add a short description of these terms just for educational purposes (they did not do that at the show). Shows have been delivered to the commissioning organizations largely on TAPE with bunch of paperwork (that is easy to lose track of). Technology offers a better choice to use a FILE and on that file you can embed the paperwork so it is always available. The additional Metadata required was specified by the DPP. They do a lot more than just the file specification. This standard has been adopted by most of the UK Public Broadcasters and and when you deliver programs you should have to conform to it. Their next big project was IMF. When a producer delivers a program with Global reach they often have to deliver dozens of variants, all required to meet local requirements. For example some markets prefer subtitles where others prefer dubbing. Yet the great bulk of the media is common, so the big idea is that you centrally hold the main object and only distribute a “differences” file of metadata. The idea sounds great in principle but this author was always a bit sceptical due to security issues. It turns out the BBC has adopted IMF, I imagine everyone will be watching them to monitor their experience. The budgets for Dynasties is so large, even for the BBC, that there are about 10 co-production deals so IMF becomes a necessity.
Al submissions to UK broadcasters are now supposed to be in DPP File format but at a BVE session, a few years back, it became obvious that Playout systems offered a little bit of wiggle room by supporting tape submissions that were very close to broadcast date.