Broadcast TV Production Terms

Betacam.
Widely used, high-quality family of video tape formats: professional equivalents of the familiar domestic VHS format. Digital Betacam - "DigiBeta" s currently the dominant format in broadcast TV production, at least in Europe. It is under challenge, though, from lower-cost, high quality systems (including XD CAM), and from the other end by the emergence of affordable high definition cameras and edit systems.

In the non-broadcast world, DigiBeta remains a force, though the excellent quality and lower costs of other formats including DVC Pro, DV CAM D9 (Digital S), domestic DV (and no doubt, anytime soon, HDV) have seen them take over large sections of the market.

HD, Hi Def, HDTV, HDV
The "next big thing" in production, and likely to replace the Betacam family in due course. Rapid growth in High Definition TV broadcasting in the USA and Japan as well as the great popularity of modern plasma and LCD screens has fuelled a surge in investment by broadcast technology manufacturers. High Definition TV makes use of much more picture information than current - Standard Definition - TV.

There are a number of competing Hi Def formats, of course. To date, the most widely used HDTV standards include frame sizes 1280 x 720 pixels, or 1920 x 1080 pixels. Either offers dramatic visual impact and great improvements on Standard Definition (SD - 720 x 576 for PAL) on a high-resolution screen. Different (incompatible) Hi Def recording formats include Sony's HD CAM and HD CAM SR, and the promising XD CAM HD, Panasonic's D5 HD and DVC PRO HD, and a lower-cost format agreed by a consortium of manufacturers - HDV.