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EASIT.
Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.

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This is unit 3C, easy-to-understand
and audiovisual journalism.

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Element 3.

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Technical aspects. Basic principles.

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I am Andrej Tomažin, from RTV Slovenija,
and in this video lecture I will focus on

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the technical principles of audiovisual
 journalism with regards to three kinds of medium:

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television, radio and online content.

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In this short lecture you will become familiar
with a range of tools used for audiovisual

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production and the technical specifications
for the production and publishing of 

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audiovisual content.

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In accordance with the ideas of universal
design, technical aspects play an important

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role in conveying the information to the user,
regardless of the user’s abilities.

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Thus, the technical aspects of easy to
understand audiovisual journalism need

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to make the content useful
and easily understandable.

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Which means that we need to pay special attention
to the importance of high sound and video

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quality, clarity of the message and the adequacy
of visual elements.

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The three kinds of audiovisual journalism
also differ in the sense of 

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technical specifications and the needs 
that each of the three different mediums bring.

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The basic production equipment consists of
a video camera, microphone and a workstation,

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in most cases a computer with editing software.

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The processes employed are firstly recording,
then editing, and lastly exporting the video

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in the adequate format.

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With the arrival of new technologies, the
production of audiovisual content has become

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more accessible to a wider range of individuals.

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Nowadays, both hardware and software are more
available to the producer, both in financial

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terms as well as in terms of the user experience.

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“The camera is only a clumsy impersonator of 
 the human eye, but with one important advantage

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– it can zoom in and out of a scene,” claims 
 Andrew Boyd in the book Broadcast Journalism.

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Any journalist, even without having 
 no aspirations to shoot their own stories,  

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needs to know the kinds of shots 
the cameraman will have to capture.

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Only then will you be able to assemble your
report in the editing process in a proper

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fashion.

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Six shots constitute the foundation of any
video content.

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These are: long shot, which takes in the whole
person from head to feet.

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The medium long shot cuts in closer, revealing
the head to just below the knees.

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The medium shot reveals the head to the hips.

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The medium close-up gives the head and shoulders.

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The close-up shows the head only.

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The big close-up fills the screen with the
features of the face.

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All these shots are later combined in the
editing process in a creative and dynamic

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way.

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According to The Electronic Reporter by 
 Barbara Alysen “the very tight deadlines in 

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television news mean editors use 
 specific techniques to assemble stories

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as quickly as possible.”

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The editors usually lay down 
 the main audio track, 

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putting together narration 
and synchronized sound segments.

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These form the ‘story bed’ and once all
of it is meshed together, the journalist knows

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the length and cuts or adds additional material
according to the slot length

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 in the news bulletin, 
given by the editorial staff.

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The editor then enhances the rest of the story,
adding overlay to the narration, consisting

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of various shots.

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As Alysen argues, “editing by first building
a story bed is the fastest way of assembling

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a story, though digital, nonlinear systems
allow the editor to change any part of the

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story at any point in its construction.”

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These techniques are used both in video content
prepared for web use or broadcast use.

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Since the arrival of more affordable hardware,
such as digital cameras and microphones,

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editing software 
quickly followed suit.

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There are plenty of editing software 
 possibilities, from professional standards 

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such as Adobe Premiere Pro and others to several
 open-source,free or proprietary alternatives,

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which also provide a fair amount of editing, 
post-productionand exporting options.

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The choice of the software depends on the
needs of the producer.

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Archiving media is an important aspect of
video production, especially with broadcast

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content.

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Most of the prepared content must exist in
either uncompressed or lossless archival copy,

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although, as John Zubrzycki from the BBC argues,
“video production formats often use compression

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(video encoding) to save space in the camera
memory.”

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This is the reason compression plays an
 important part in the final process of editing,

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 since it needs to comply 
with the demands of the broadcaster.

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There are certain guidelines regarding video
quality and we have to distinguish between

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different recommendations 
for TV and internet video production.

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The technological advances
 in digital telecommunications allowed 

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the use of high-definition television 
 besides the already established 

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standard-definition television.

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Recommendations regarding 
technical specifications for broadcast media 

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were established on the level of the European 
Broadcast Union in the document EBU R 132, 

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titled Signal quality in HDTV production 
 and broadcast services in April 2011.

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Chapter 1.5 in the document emphasises that
“all modern digital studio and broadcast

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systems now use compression” and that 
“compression technology continues to evolve.”

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HDTV offers significantly improved images
than SDTV and does that at a higher resolution

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of 1,280 pixels by 720 pixels
or even 1,920 pixels

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by 1,080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:9,
in contrast to SDTV’s aspect ratio of 4:3

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and resolution of 720 pixels by 576 pixels.

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This, for example, gives HDTV more detailed
and vibrant colours than SDTV.

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One of the attributes of digital video is
bitrate.

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In general, a higher bitrate will accommodate
a higher image quality in the video output.

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Bitrate also depends on the aspect ratio.

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The EBU R 132 document states that “a sufficient
bitrate must be employed for material exchange,

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recording/storage, and Non Linear Editing,”
recommending a bitrate of no less than

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100 Mbit/s for production/archiving format 
based on I-frames only, and not be less than

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50 Mbit/s, if the production/archiving format
is based on long-GOP MPEG-2 format.

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Standards for web video production differ
slightly, mostly for those used in streaming

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with online video-sharing platforms.

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YouTube as one of the biggest 
online video-sharing platforms recommends 

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upload encoding settings 
in a special article on their site.

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This information was gathered 
in August 2020.

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For an aspect ratio of 1,920 pixels by 1,080
pixels, YouTube recommends 8 to 10 Mbit/s,

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with a video codec of H.264.

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As we can see, the difference between
 recommendations for online video-sharing media 

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and broadcast media is almost 
tenfold in the case of bitrate.

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The files with larger bitrates are also larger
in size, which reminds us of the need to save

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space in mostly video-mediated environments
with the use of compression.

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Along with video quality recommendations,
audio quality is also important in any

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audiovisual journalistic content, 
but especially in easy-to-understand 

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audiovisual journalistic content, where the 
message needs to be as unambiguous as possible.

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The European Broadcast Union issued a set
of recommendations in a document EBU R 128,

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titled Loudness normalisation and permitted
maximum level of audio signals, 

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which is primarily followed during the audio 
mixing of television and radio programmes 

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and adopted by broadcasters
to measure and control programme loudness.

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First issued in 2010, it was recently revised
in August 2020.

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EBU recommendations were implemented 
by several software developers 

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and audio technology companies, 
 making it easy for editors as yourself

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to adapt the audio levels 
according to EBU R 128 recommendations 

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while editing 
audiovisual journalistic content.

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I hope this information was useful.

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There are many possibilities with respect
to technical settings and editing strategies.

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This video lecture was prepared by Andrej
Tomažin, from RTV Slovenija.

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You can reach me at andrej.tomazin@rtvslo.si.

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This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons

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Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.

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Partners of the EASIT project:
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona,

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Universita degli studi di Trieste,
Universida de Vigo,

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Stiftung Universität Hildesheim,
SDI München,

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Dyslexiförbundet, RTV Slovenija,
Zavod Risa.

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EASIT.
Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.