Venera Technologies
Pulsar Basic
BS Shochiku Tokyu Corporation
BS Shochiku Tokyu (BS260ch) was launched in March 2022 with the aim of inheriting tradition and taking on the challenge of new things. With the station motto “Feel like a theatre at home every day!”, movies, stages, and original programs are the pillars of the organization. It broadcasts more than 300 Japanese and Western films a year, stage productions such as kabuki, theatre, Shochiku new comedy, and Rakugo, as well as original dramas and original variety programs since its inception.
We spoke with Mr. Sato, Manager of the ICT Strategy Department of the ICT Bureau, who is in charge of the selection of QC tools and the actual introduction and operation of the QC tool. The company has adopted two sets of Pulsar Basic for content QC delivered by various production companies, mainly for commercial material and main story material, MXF format check, CM regulation check, loudness measurement, etc.
In 2023, the company expanded its sports broadcasts, including official professional baseball games of the Orix Buffaloes and the U.S. Major PGA Championship. It is a comprehensive programming channel that can be watched at any time on national free broadcasting.
Following is the interview questions conducted by our partner Itochu cable systems with Mr. Sato.
A – We mainly check the delivered commercial materials, and perform QC on some of the main story materials. When we were looking for a QC tool, it was important to consider whether commercials were created in a format that conformed to the regulations of the Federation of Commercial Broadcasters, and if it was possible to measure loudness per ARIB standards. Some QC system’s loudness was not compatible with ARIB standards. Another reason is that Pulsar is equipped with Cambridge Research Systems’ Harding FPA, which is a photosensitive epilepsy checker, as an option. In Japan, the scheme of Harding is widely used, and since it is a measurement system that is the industry standard, it was a very important point from the perspective of fulfilling the scope of responsibility as a bureau.
A – As I mentioned earlier, we have multiple type of content, including commercial material and full-length material, but as I mentioned at the beginning, commercials need to be created in a format that conforms to the standards of the Federation of Commercial Broadcasters, and Pulsar’s Track Layout function can be used very effectively for this.
With Track Layout, it is possible to inspect whether the layout is configured according to the provisional criteria for the delivery of commercials based on NAB standards.
<Excerpt from the website of the Federation of Commercial Broadcasters (NAB) TV Commercial Material Delivery Standards>
Also, sometimes the material that is brought in is originally a progressive material that has been converted to interlaced format. Sometimes when the conversion is performed, only one field of the interlaced material remains in the previous frame, and “Flash frames” are included, which can be detected by Pulsar.
When it comes to the sound, I always use the loudness measurement and “Channel Configuration” features I mentioned at the beginning. According to the specifications of the broadcasting system adopted by our company, in case of stereo material, the audio only needs to be L and R, but the track itself needs to be delivered with 8 tracks, so this “Channel Configuration” is used to check whether the delivered material is created according to the specifications.
In addition, Pulsar’s Watch Folder feature is very useful for our workflow. If you put the material you want to check into the Watch Folder, Pulsar will automatically sort the OK material into the OK folder, and the NG material into the NG folder. In fact, in our flow, the material moved to the OK folder is delivered to the uploader source folder for file transmission to the delivery destination as it is.
Therefore, we can deliver all files that have no problems automatically.
A – Recently, we have been handling a lot of sports content, such as major baseball and golf tournaments, and last year’s 8 Hours Endurance Race at Suzuka, which are mainly live content, but it is conceivable that we will rebroadcast the material recorded in them in the future. So, we would like to make sure that Pulsar meets certain standards in that case.”
A – It would be useful to have a function that allows you to check closed captions. However, there already are some industry-standard products for closed captioning, so I think it would be good if Pulsar can be integrated with such products that can cover features which Pulsar is not supporting. However, in this case of API integration, both Pulsar and other products need to perform an API integration, so I guess it would be not so easy to do that. Also, Pulsar has an optional player option that plays back the detected part, and it would be very helpful if the player could preview files with closed captions when they arrived.
We also shared information on Pulsar’s future roadmap with Mr. Sato.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Sato for sharing his use of Pulsar in his daily work despite his busy schedule. We will continue to work hard to make our products more user-friendly.