Report on the Television Show

Business Design Centre, Islington, London, UK, 14 March 1997

The Television Show was held at Business Design Centre, Islington, London, UK on 14 March 1997 it is a main annual event for producers in the TV industry, with approximately 250 stands and is staged over three days. Most of the major facilities companies, suppliers and associated service companies were represented.

The types of products and services cover all areas of pre-production, production, post-production, finance and insurance. Filming and editing equipment suppliers have a particularly strong presence, because producers are generally keen to keep up-to-date with all of the latest developments and the associated cost implications.

The following were some of the companies exhibiting:

• SKILLSET: a main body for the registration of freelance technical staff. Skillset also oversees Industry- funded training (for people already working in the Industry), provides information on careers and NVQ accreditation
• MEDIASKILL: An industry counterpart of Skillset, based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, which runs commercial courses with emphasis on "people and technology". These cover a very wide range of subjects e.g. starting your own business, presenting for business, computer animation and more specific technical roles
• TYRELL CORPORATION: Producers of bespoke digital video storage systems and supplier of Media 100 non-linear editing systems
• UK FILM COMMISSION NETWORK: Information and contact details for all of the UK's Commissions, including the Yorkshire Film Commission and the London Film Commission
• DIRECTORS' GUILD OF GREAT BRITAIN: The main guild for directors working in both live (Theatre) and recorded media (Film, TV & Video).

Industry News

There was an increased presence from Avid non-linear editing systems with a large, live demonstration of TV post-production, including multi-layered editing and video FX in real time, together with Avid's new audio non-linear editing system and 'bespoke' LAN file compression/transfer system which is about 3 times faster than a standard Ethernet link. This enables operators in editing, graphics and audio post-production departments to pass a project around with ease. Avid were also running a series of 'hands on' non-linear workshops, which were in high demand. Media 100, a lower-budget form of non-linear video editing system, were also strongly represented, demonstrating Media 100's new product range.

Demonstrations of Sony's latest two Betacam video formats and equipment (BetaSX and Digital Betacam), including a lecture on digital cinematography.

Amongst the many other companies represented were The Royal Television Society and the BBC (training and resources).

Michael A. Ozanne
M.Ozanne@bradford.ac.uk