Today marks the one-year anniversary of the implementation by all UK broadcasters of a common standard for the delivery of television programmes in file format. The common standard – known as AS-11 DPP – was established by the Digital Production Partnership (DPP), working closely with the Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA).
Until File Delivery day or ‘FD Day’, TV programmes were still being delivered on videotape – making fully digital working in broadcasting impossible. Since 1 October 2014 over 10,000 programmes have been successfully delivered to the UK’s broadcasters in the AS-11 DPP format.
The introduction of universal and standardised file delivery for UK broadcasting required business and technology change from all parts of the supply chain – production, post production, vendors, service providers and broadcasters.
“The UK’s broadcasters may have collaborated to define a common standard,” said DPP managing director, Mark Harrison. “But it was the commitment from the rest of the broadcast industry that made file delivery become a reality. This has been a change initiative of unprecedented scale and cohesion – and it demonstrates just what can be achieved when the whole supply chain works to a common goal.”
The success of the initiative has led the North American networks – through the North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) – to work with the DPP to emulate the UK initiative in USA.
Rex Jenkins, MD of DPP member VizRT said: “The DPP has done a remarkable job. To persuade so many UK broadcasters, each with their own agendas, to adopt such a simple standard, is a superb achievement. We are hoping that this standard will be adopted by like- minded broadcasters throughout the world.”
All new programmes commissioned in the UK now have AS-11 DPP as their default delivery format. Specifications for the delivery of programmes in Ultra High Definition and commercials in HD will be announced before the end of 2015.
