The Digital Production Partnership (DPP) is an initiative formed jointly by the UK's

public service broadcasters Public broadcasting (or public service broadcasting) is radio, television, and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service with a commitment to avoiding political and commercial influence. Public broadcasters receive f ...

to help producers and broadcasters maximise the potential benefits of digital television production. In 2009 representatives from across the TV industry identified key areas where they felt the broadcasters could undertake work that would make a real difference in the transition to digital production, ideally helping

TV producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acceptance they focus ...

s and

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

houses overcome the complexities and get to the benefits of digital working more quickly. The areas identified formed the basis for the DPP's working groups, drawing on industry experts from all areas of TV production and technology. This included work on common technical and metadata standards for digital TV production and sharing best practice in digital production across the industry. From 1 April 2015 the DPP became a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee: Digital Production Partnership Ltd. To date, the DPP has been funded by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. These broadcasters continue to provide lead funding, but becoming a Membership organisation means the DPP is now more directly accountable to all those it works on behalf of, from across the whole industry. It continues to be core to the purpose of the DPP to reduce complexity and increase interoperability across the industry – everywhere. The DPP works closely with trade bodies such as AMWA (Advanced Media Workflow Association) in the US, EBU (

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

), UK Screen (Post Production representatives) and the PMA (Production Managers Association) to articulate the needs of the UK TV production industry. The DPP has also shared their portfolio of industry standards and guidelines with the

BBC Academy The BBC Academy is an educational arm of the British Broadcasting Corporation which trains current and prospective broadcasting employees in the skills of the Broadcasting industry, in addition to training the corporation's own staff and prospect ...

College of Technology and Creative Skillset's media academies in order to help train digital television programme makers.

Technical & Metadata Standards

In March 2011 the DPP created common technical standards for tape delivery of

HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

and

SDTV Standard-definition television (SDTV; also standard definition or SD) is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. ''Standard'' refers to offering a similar resolution to the ...

programmes to all major UK broadcasters at the time. UK TV producers now have one set of guidelines that cover technical specifications, picture and sound quality for delivery to

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: Television TV stations/networks/channels ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network and company, including: **ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network in the United Kingd ...

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

, Channel 5,

BT Sport TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, Warner Bros. Discovery and BT Group, they first launched as B ...

and

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

. In January 2012 the DPP announced that these broadcasters had also agreed the UK's first common file format, structure and wrapper to enable TV programme delivery by digital file. The guidelines complement the common standards for tape delivery of HD and SD TV programmes and endeavour to avoid a situation where a number of different file types and specifications proliferate. The inclusion of editorial and technical metadata creates a consistent set of information for the processing, review, and

scheduling A schedule (, ) or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things ...

of programmes, as well as their onward archiving, sale and distribution across the television industry. These standards do not prescribe the suitability of particular cameras, or post-production technologies, as these can vary from production to production and remain subject to discussion between producer and broadcaster. In October 2012 the DPP standards were updated to include guidelines for live programme delivery via satellite, fibre and microwave links. The use of

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 is a group of international standards for the compression of digital audio and visual data, multimedia systems, and file storage formats. It was originally introduced in late 1998 as a group of audio and video coding formats and related ...

is recommended in these standards due to its superior quality over

MPEG-2 MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods ...

for a given data rate. The Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) in the US worked with the DPP to create AS-11, a new international file format for HD Files. The DPP guidelines require files delivered to UK broadcasters to be compliant with a specified subset of this new, international standard. In September 2012 the DPP released a downloadable metadata application, developed in order to enable standardised editorial & technical metadata to be delivered with completed MXF programme files. This is intended to be an interim measure until equipment and system suppliers are able to offer this functionality within their systems. An update to the DPP Technical Standards (v4.0), the DPP Metadata Application (v1.2) & the AMWA specification in October 2013 includes audio production to the

EBU R128 EBU R 128 is a recommendation for loudness normalisation and maximum level of audio signals. It is primarily followed during audio mixing of television and radio programmes and adopted by broadcasters to measure and control programme loudness. ...

loudness specifications along with other changes such as guidance on use for UHD (4K) cameras and an addition for the carriage of multichannel audio metadata within a programme file. In Jan 2016 the DPP released Common Technical Delivery Standards for High Definition Commercials/Sponsorship and Promotions/Presentation material. and their first future-focused standard, a technical standard for the delivery of Ultra High Definition (UHD) programmes. However, the DPP "standards" are a misnomer; they are actually recommended practices. To be a standard they would have to be approved and certified by an organisation such as ISO or ANSI and follow the practices that other standards bodies in the industry such as IEEE, SMPTE and others adhere to.

Compliance Programme

The DPP launched a Compliance Programme in Mar 2014 to help the industry identify trusted products, such as Vidchecks software, which work with AS-11 DPP files and to speed the implementation of the file-based delivery process by ensuring products can correctly create, read and / or process files which meet the AS-11 DPP standard. The DPP worked closely with the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) to develop a testing and certification process. This focuses on testing product conformance to the UK DPP Shims of the AMWA AS-11 Specification (beginning with AS-11 DPP HD).

Progress of Digital TV Production in the UK

During 2012/13

, and

began to take delivery of programmes on file on a selective basis. In September 2013 the DPP announced that File based delivery would become the preferred delivery format for these broadcasters from 2014 and on 1 October 2014 end-to-end digital finally became a reality. The DPP continues to work on various subjects including connectivity; news exchange; a mastering format; Live IP Production; standards of trust and international exchange.

International Adoption

Although the DPP is formed of broadcasters from the UK, international interest in the work undertaken by the industry partnership is growing rapidly. For example, work is ongoing by the AMWA to create a standard called AS-11 NA (North America). Also, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

has based its latest Technical Standards document on the DPP standards.NRK Technical Standards
/ref> In 2015 the DPP starting working with the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) on a common standard for delivery across North America, for publication during 2016.

References

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External links

* http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/dq/contents/television.shtml Technical Standards for TV delivery to BBC * https://corporate.sky.com/about-sky/other-information/commissioning-and-ideas-submission/production Sky Production Information page, with links to Technical Delivery Specifications * http://www.itv.com/commissioning/guidelines/technical-guidelines Producer's Guidelines for delivery of TV programmes to ITV * http://www.channel4.com/info/commissioning/production-information/programme-management Channel 4 Technical and Procedural Requirements * https://web.archive.org/web/20120506175648/http://about.channel5.com/programme-production/programme-management Channel 5 Technical Requirements Documents * http://www.amwa.tv Advanced Media Workflow Association website * http://www.amwa.tv/projects/AS-11.shtml AS-11 Project Information * http://www.amwa.tv/certification/AS-11_DPP/ AMWA Certification Authority - AS-11 DPP * http://www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk DPP website Organizations established in the 2000s 2000s establishments in the United Kingdom Television organisations in the United Kingdom Digital television in the United Kingdom