Can I shoot “Broadcast Quality” with Prosumer Camcorder?

[Anonymous]

I've been shooting web videos for a couple of years with a Canon Vixia G10 camcorder.

I have a possible project lined up, but they client wants to know if they can use the b-roll for other purposes, including 'television'. (I'm not certain what they plan on; I'm guessing neither do they… but possibly commercial spots, which would likely be national, as they're a major company.)

The G10 has onboard scopes so I can keep peaks, etc. in line to be FCC legal… but is that really 'broadcast quality'? It's only 28mbps.  

 

If I shot with a borrowed Canon 5D with good lenses, would that be a much better upgrade?

[Len]

Broadcast quality is a relative term. You could say that anything that's broadcast on TV is broadcast quality. Therefore America's Funniest Home Videos could be considered broadcast quality. The crappy camerawork of The Office is considered broadcast quality.

[rs170a]

As Len says, broadcast quality is a relative term. All networks have technical standards that a content provider has to meet. The Canon 5D would give you much better picture quality than your Canon Vixia.

Don't sell yourself short either. If the client is willing to "use the b-roll for other purposes", then you need to revise your rate for that footage.

 

Mike

[Trevor]

Although for most networks, 28 Mbps 1920×1080 material would be considered non-HD, especially for inter-frame sources (such as H.264/MP4/MPEG-2) where the broadcast standard calls for 50Mbps as a minimum, or for intra-frame compressions (DVCPROHD/AVC-Intra/HDCAM) where the minimum is 100Mbps.

[Space Racer]

From what I've been able to ascertain, it depends on the TV station so you're better off finding out exactly where he plans to use the footage and asking them. The big concern is whether the video will fall apart under all the harsh signal processing that happens in the broadcast chain from your camera, through the TV station, the transmitter or cable system, the air, and down into the actual television where there's a whole other level of processing.

 

 

[Author]

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