Delivery to SVT NEWS AND SPORTS

Two documents, “Technical Specification for the Delivery of Television Programmes as Files to SVT” and “Technical Specification for the Delivery of Live Television Programmes to SVT”, sets the normative requirements regardless of programme genre. The requirements, regarding Files and Live, are primarily HD-based.

This document, “Technical Specification for the Delivery to SVT News and Sports”, extends the specifications with additional requirements regarding material in SD to SVT News and Sports, as well as additional requirements regarding material in HD.

Two Video Formats

SVT News and Sports uses two video formats for the, after editing, finalised programmes:

  • 576i/25 – Interlaced SD with 50 Hz motion portrayal;
  • 1080i/25 – Interlaced HD with 50 Hz motion portrayal.

Shooting/Recording

Exposure time should be 1/50 or 1/60 second depending on the frequency of the local power grid to avoid flickering of fluorescent lamps.

  • The image should be properly white balanced.
  • The use of auto iris and auto focus should be avoided.
  • The aspect ratio must be ‘full frame’ 16:9.

Motion Portrayal and Camera Codecs

Recordings must use 50 Hz motion portrayal:

  • Regarding the SD video format 576i/25 (i.e. 25 frames per second interlaced, thus 50 fields per second), the camera codec DVCPRO25 is recommended to avoid quality loss during editing due to codec conversion;
  • Regarding the HD video format 1080i/25 (i.e. 25 frames per second interlaced, thus 50 fields per second), the camera codecs AVC-Intra 100 or DVCPRO HD (a.k.a. DVCPRO100) are recommended for the time being.

SVT’s News Media Centre (“Mediehanteringen”) must be contacted prior shooting/recording regarding each production’s specific requirements. Contact details, see below.

Editing

Video

For best results, edit in the same codec and format that the material has been recorded in, e.g. DVCPRO25 regarding SD. Alternatively, regarding HD, edit in a high-quality I-frame based codec, such as DNxHD 120 (8-bit).

Aspect ratio must be ‘full frame’ 16:9, i.e. no ‘letterboxes’/’pillar-boxes’.

Stock/Archival footage with an aspect ratio of 4:3 should always be adapted to the aspect ratio of 16:9. This adjustment should be made by zooming and cropping the image to fill the entire 16:9 frame. However, "pillar box" (black or coloured edges on the sides of an intact 4:3 area) may be used when the 4:3 image shouldn’t be zoomed for aesthetic reasons.

The entire contrast range should be used for most images, i.e. from 0% (digital luma level 16) to 100% (digital luma level 235). Exceptions are accepted for night scenes, environments with bright lights, foggy environments etc.

The ending video-clip should continue for at least 2 seconds after closing words. Alternatively, the ending picture may be a twosecond freeze-frame after the closing words.

Audio

Audio must be mono via two audio channels with:

  • A complete programme-mix in mono on channel 1;
  • Environmental sound on channel 2.

Exceptions exist: a complete programme-mix in stereo on channel 1 and 2. SVT’s News Media Centre (“Mediehanteringen”) must be contacted prior editing regarding each production’s specific requirements. Contact details, see section 6.

When using the Nordic Scale PPM meter, normal speech should have a level between 0 dBu (TEST) to +6 dBu and any audio signal should not exceed +11 dBu.

Regarding production environments that unfortunately only have sample peak meters, normal speech should have a level between approximately -18 to -12 dBFS and any audio signal should not exceed -6 dBFS.

When production environments have EBU R 128 loudness metering, normal speech should be centred on 0 LU (-23 LUFS) using the Short-time (3 s) integration. In addition, the Programme Integrated Loudness must be 0 LU (-23 LUFS).

Audio (vs. video) must not contain lip-sync flaws.

Audio should fade-in from silence at the start and fade-out to silence at the end of the news report. Information-bearing audio content, such as speech, must start at least one second after the beginning, inside the news report.

File Requirements

Finalised SD

Wrappers: QuickTime (.mov) or MXF OP-1a (.mxf).

Video format: 576i/25 (interlaced SD, 50 Hz motion portrayal according to ITU-R BT.601). Codecs:

  • Preferred: DVCPRO25 with field order: lower field first.
  • Accepted codec and wrapper, but not recommended: AVC/H.264 (.mp4) at high bitrate with field order: upper field first.

Note: AVC/H.264 compression produces smaller files but at reduced quality. This might be an accepted compromise in situations when sending files from locations with a reduced bandwidth capacity.

Audio format: two audio channels, 48 kHz, 16-bit. 

Finalised HD

Wrappers: QuickTime (.mov) or MXF OP-1a (.mxf).

Video format: 1080i/25 (interlaced HD, 50 Hz motion portrayal according to ITU-R BT.709).

Codecs (anyone of the following):

  • DNxHD 120 (8-bit);
  • Panasonic AVC-Intra 100 (10-bit).

Note: The above with field order: Upper Field First.

Codec and wrapper accepted, but not recommended:

  • AVC/H.264 (.mp4) at high bitrate with field order: Upper Field First.

Note: AVC/H.264 compression produces smaller files but at reduced quality. This might be an accepted compromise in situations when sending files from locations with a reduced bandwidth capacity.

Audio format: two audio channels, 48 kHz, 24-bit.

File Naming

Files for delivery to the SVT News and Sports should be named containing the following information, separated by dashes (-):

  • Journalist (name or internal SVT ID);
  • Today’s date;
  • Name of the news report;
  • The “.mov”, “.mxf” or “.mp4” extension;
  • Only numbers (0-9), upper-case characters (A-Z), dashes (-) and underscores (_) are allowed.
  • Example: JOHAN_JOHANSSON-20180319-VINTERKYLA.mov

Delivery Methods

The file may be delivered to SVT’s News Media Centre (“Mediehanteringen”) by one of the following methods:

  • FTP: For login credentials to the FTP-server named Moses, contact the News Media Centre.
  • QuickLink: Can only be used by official SVT computers.
  • Dropbox: Send the download link to mediehanterare@svt.se

Contact Details

News Media Centre (“Mediehanteringen”):

  • Stockholm: +46 8 784 31 90 / mediehanterare@svt.se / Weekdays 6:00 to 23:15 / Weekends 11:00 to 23:15