ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION From acquisition through transmission, technical facilities in television plants are changing at a rapid rate. One of the greatest areas of change is in the use of computers and computer infrastructures. Over the years, computers have replaced purpose-built systems for the storage and manipulation of images and sound. At first, only audio and still images were involved because the sheer volume of data created by moving images overwhelmed early computer systems. Today, computers are employed in almost every aspect of the broadcast industry. This chapter discusses some of the latest developments in program workflow and the use of metadata (data about datain this case, information about the program video and audio content), and in particular, it:
• Describes how the change to computer-based technologies has impacted the program production and distribution workflow;
• Provides an example of a computer-based workflow from the Public Broadcasting Service;
• Describes how metadata can be associated with video and audio;
• Introduces the Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) and Material eXchange Format (MXF), file wrappers that carry video, audio, and metadata;
• Lists some of the standards that enable this new workflow process.
