Freeview HD is an exciting new platform - enabling BBC HD and other HD services to join the Freeview portfolio.
This session will cover:
Why Freeview's important to the BBC
Why HD's important to the BBC - in terms of programme-making and viewing
How Freeview HD's being delivered - technical and practical factors
How Freeview's being rolled out across the UK
Freeview HD services and products (including the chance to see / try a Freeview HD receiver)
How to find out more.
Click here to download further details of this event
'Things we forgot we knew' was one of the themes of Alan Roberts' recent talk to the Bristol Centre. Familiar to many from his talks at IBC, Alan is one of the pioneer workers on HD cameras, the expert behind the 'BBC settings' for HD photography, and is the recipient of the 2009 Guild of TV Cameramen Award for contributions to the art and science of TV camerawork.
The first 'thing we forgot' was the picture distortion that arises between fast-moving subjects, panning cameras, and rolling shutters. It's as relevant today with HD cameras as it was in 1912, when a certain Jacques-Henri Lartigue photographed a Delage racing car at the ACF grand prix and, according to received wisdom, was the first to pan the camera during the exposure. The picture recently featured in the Guardian's 100 years of Great Press Photographs, and had intrigued Alan Roberts. With an impressive use of 'forensic geometry' on the still he was able to tell us the type of camera shutter (a vertical guillotine), the fact that the plate (and optical viewfinder) received an upside-down image, and make a reasonable guesstimate of the photograph's exposure and the speed of the car.
To help make some sense of how we got where we are today, Alan took us back through some of the historical development of TV picture standards: how the numbers of lines in a frame, and horizontal resolution were initially based on principles of human acuity, and the tangled history of how we have ended up with the number of 1080 lines in the digital age. He also gave us a daunting glimpse into the design complexities of the digital HD camera, and how different manufacturers have approached the challenge of matching digital sampling to picture capture.
Equipped with his own travelling museum of curiosities, ranging from an optician's eye-testing chart, a set of video clips of what can go wrong, to a collection of dissected camera optics, Alan entertained and informed an appreciative audience through a lively Q&A session that followed. His new book 'Circles of Confusion' is available through the EBU website.
Behind the scenes at this BBC programme
Contributors or Collaborators - docs in the age of web 2.0
Lisa Holdsworth is originally from Leeds and has worked in television in the city since she graduated. Lisa's first commission was an episode of "Fat Friends" which she devised herself. She was subsequently shortlisted for a Best New Writer award at BAFTA. Since then, she has written an original play for Radio 4 and spent three years on the Emmerdale writing team. She left to write for the BBC's police drama "New Tricks" and has recently completed her seventh episode for series 6 and is about to embark on her eighth for series seven. She has also written on the last two series of Waterloo Road including this year's feature length series opener - she has written two of the new series of Robin Hood; including the much-anticipated "origins" episode
Student Television Awards 2008
The Bristol Centre Student Television Awards will be presented on 27th January 2009.