#PAR in Broadcast
27 messages in this thread
I just spoke to an animator who has been using the DPS PAR on a Toaster and
outputs to a BVW-75. He is so pleased with his PAR that he stopped doing frame
by frame since he acquired the PAR. None of his broadcast clients have noticed
the change in recording methods. In fact, he has won an EMMY for animation in
the "FRESH to YOU" TV commercial – a 30 second spot which was done for the
Dept. of Agriculture and aired for a month on FOX Network.. As some would say:
I guess this settles the debate as to whether the PAR will satisfy broadcasters
using Betacam SP. That's all this company does is broadcast level animation.
Wow. Sounds *very* promising, eh, Don?
Can't _wait_ to "beat" on this thing…
-Alan
Don:
An Emmy for a broadcast animation using the PAR! I think that says it all!
Greg Pyros
Greg,
What? Emmy/Par?
Paul
Paul:
DonL relayed a story of a house that uses the PAR direct to BetaSP and won an
Emmy with the output. I forwarded the original message to your e-mail.
Greg Pyros
Tell me it wasn't in the PSA category and I'll be impressed. <g>
-JE
I didn't ask about whether it was but figure it probably was because
it was done by the Florida government. So, I guess you can sleep at
nights. Frankly, I don't see what all the hype is about winning
these trophies. Mostly, it seems to me these winners are all
political anyway. The real trophy is getting paid well to do
something that is fun.
Hey, I learned that we're getting two DDR's in two of our larger post
houses here. I heard the rates will be $275 per hour, min 1 hour.
Then you add the cost per hr. for the VCR out. Kind of expensive,
don't you think?
Ditto on the paid well to do fun stuff thingy =-) !
$275 is about $75 more per hour than our local post houses (PVR,
etc…). And I don't know of a minimum. Maybe there's less
competition where you are so they figure they can squeeze more $$$
for a little while. With the prices coming down on Abekas' DDRs as
they are I'll bet they won't be the only game for long.
Don – you're very entertaining. <g> If buying a DPS would help me
sleep at night, I would! I don't care anymore than you do if people
win awards with it. All the power to them. I do care that when I go
to a post house, I'm not embarrassed because some dweeby editor see's
an arifact that he's just dying to point out to the AD exec. I'm just
trying to keep my life as uncomplicated as possible, because I can't
afford to go back and redo it. So case closed on the PAR, at least
for the time being. I'd like to see how its recieved and I've made
the points that I thought were relevant. And I will be very
interested to hear your assessment. I'm not close minded. <g>
The Post houses must think they have a market for those rates, which
means there must be some money around there somewhere. Is this
on-line or off-line rates? If the DDR's are on-line only then of
course they're probably tying up the whole suite to use it. That's
what it sounds like, pretty outrageous if true. But then its their
new baby. Just think in another year or so we'll be able to afford
one or something like it.
At this point in time I've concluded that those who are using Betacam will mesh
with the PAR just fine but those using D1 for everything and because of the
dweeby editors then they'll probably have to wait for the next generation of
PAR devices that use less than 8:1 compression to satisfy.
Don – I really don't fit into either category, I don't use Beta and I don't use
D1. I use Beta SP mostly, occasionally I still use 1" and dub to Beta SP. And
half the time this through an LVR, and mostly its quick and fast and nothing to
write home about. It pays and does the job.
You're the pioneering spirit on this and will reap the rewards if it proves to
be what you expect. And I have no reason to think it won't, given your
situation and clientele.
Unfortuneatley, I can't reach through the monitor and shake your hand
or I would. My cyberspace module clunked out again, and I've got a
pool of liquid gallium dripping off my console. But imagine that
we've agreed with a handshake, and we've agreed to disagree in the
future. And maybe just for fun we'll find a few things to agree on as
well. <G> Quite frankly the only time we get into it, is when we
don't agree and that's less than 2% of the time but takes up 90% or
our conversations. But then I guess life would be a little dull
without some jousting, and you're definitely a good jousting partner.
🙂
Greg,
Thanks for the info….. I'd love to see the piece. I never knew they gave out
Emmy's for commercials, I thought commercials were in a different award
category.
As you already know we did a test before we purchased the A65 with a group of
local producers and PA's. Every single one of them easily spotted the PAR stuff
and felt that it was below what we currently provide, so we decided to utilize
it solely as a preview device. That being said, we have people locally who
provide material for broadcast on Hi-8 as well as S-VHS, and the stuff is
aired, so there is obviously a tremendous field of quality out there.
One of the producers that we work with said it best when he told us that if we
wanted to give the stuff to them cheap enough he could probably find a spot for
my daughter's artwork, but when we're working on 6-8 figure budgets, then there
is a certain level of quality that they are looking for.
Paul
Yeah, I think you're right, maybe he meant ADDY.
-JE
From what you tell me, your daughter is quite an artist!
Yeah 🙂 Well 🙂 O.K. 🙂 So maybe it's in the genes! 🙂
Speaking of which… where's those .pfb cd's (don't mean to rush you
or anything… <evil g>.
>> we're working on 6-8 figure budgets, then there is a certain level of
quality that they are looking for.
Wow, that's 10,000,000 d -d-d -ddollars! Maybe I should have majored
in economics with a minor in math rather than chemical engineering.
and you said you considered yourself not in the big leagues. <G> Or
did you mean women rather than budgets? <GR&D>
Actually the context of the quote was their budgets not mine.
The highest we've been able to go so far is 7 figures, the 8 figure
mark is my desire and hope for the future. One of the projects we've
bid on is a 5 year project and would be an eight figure job.
I don't consider us in the "Big" leagues. We are extremely small
compared to the industry leaders. We are often in situations where we
purchase large amounts of equipment, and a single Challenge server
can easily run over a quarter mil., plus another hundred grand for
software. So we do work off of nice budgets, but when you consider
that some of the "Big" houses have 75+ Onyx servers on line, it
dwarfs us extremely quickly.
As to the "women" remark, I've been retired for quite a while. A
beautiful woman bought my contract years ago.
Here's the history on the Emmy award thing. About a month ago I was
discussing the skepticism most of you big video high end boys were
having about the PAR and that it would "never be acceptable for
broadcast" and my video sales engineer told me about this client that
does work for the FL Dept of Agriculture. He told me he won an Emmy
last year for the piece he did that was a spot aired on FOX for a
month. The piece included layered video, rotoscoping and animation.
He uses a Toaster and outputs with the Amiga version of the PAR to a
BVW 75. Curious, I got his phone number and called him this week.
Paul, I told him about the test you did for your clients and that
they all said they thought the PAR was below their acceptance quality
standards. The FDA guy told me the PAR has been used for all his
broadcast work and none of his clients have ever mentioned seeing any
difference. He said it might be noticed on D1 but not on the BVW-75.
For me the issue of the Emmy was of minor importance, but I know some
of you have this thing about fame, credits, and awards so I thought
I'd mention it to Greg because I thought it would be good sales info
for him. I was more interested in the quantity and market this guy
was hitting with the PAR. The EMMY, as I understand, was issued for
the whole piece titled "Fresh to You". I didn't see it when it was
on but then I don't watch more than about 30 minutes of TV a week so
I do miss alot of stuff like this. The PAR was only used to help
produce this piece. So if any are looking for excuses to disqualify
this then let me be the first to say it was not done by any big
production house nor aired on the biggest networks nor done for big
clients like Pepsi, Exxon, or Ford nor was it output to D1 so I guess
it really does not qualify as "broadcast." In my opinion, Paul, this
technology is going to keep me competitive in the industrial video
business and I am looking more and more forward to its implementation
here. BTW the first of my PAR system, the TBC IV, arrived today. Was
shipped direct from Canada.
I'm impressed! I'd love to see the piece. As you already know I'm
getting a few Pars and if I find a client that says it's acceptable,
I wouldn't hesitate to use it. The tests that we ran were all done on
a BVW-75, and everyone picked the work. But technology is changing
fast.
No question whatsoever on the quality differences between the $19,000
Abekas and the $1,995 PAR! Didn't mean to imply that there was a
comparison!
But with the largest percentage of forumites doing SVHS/Hi-8/3/4"
output and dubbing down to VHS for final viewing, the PAR is
definitely something to look at!
Greg
>> But with the largest percentage of forumites doing SVHS/Hi-8/3/3" output…
the PAR is definitely something to look at! <<
Now you're talking! <g>
-JE
John:
>> Now you're talking!
That's all I've ever said! I believe strongly that it deserves a look
by anyone doing work in this business, no matter what the level. You
can't beat the price!
We just sold some PARs into a high-end graphics house who uses SGIs
and expensive workstation software exclusively. They bought PCs and
PC-NFS network software to connect them to their SGI network, just to
be able to dump previews off quickly!! Will wonders never cease! <g>
Greg:
>> We just sold some PARs into a high-end graphics house… <<
I'm sure you're pleased, you're obviously the man for the job what with your
knowledge of UNIX and the PAR.
>> Will wonders never cease? <<
I certainly hope not. <G>
-JE
Where can I get product info and tel # for this PAR/DPS?
Regards Steve
Steve:
Check your e-mail for PAR info!
Greg Pyros