Technical goals are critical in the development of technical and production standards because they influence equipment budgets for the channel. The following are important issues to discuss:
What do you envision as
the final product ?
Is it professional looking programming with special features or a simple bulletin
board announcing community events?
What will be the channels
"look", brand identification?
Some channels have distinctive graphics, like C-SPAN or CNN, to
create a specific look. Underlying each channel is a technical standard that
determines its "look."
Will the channel
require a
lot of graphics or video to support?
To create professional looking graphics, the computer programs are costly and
takes a highly skilled person to create such graphics
The following are examples of real channels and their technical goals:
In Los Angeles, California,
the goal was to create
programming that was comparable to other cable channels. This was achieved by the promotion of "name-brand recognition" for the channel. The channel
invested in broadcast-quality equipment, professional resources, and on-air
promos to present the look of a broadcast TV station. The use of a corner logo
to identify the channel is another way to give the channel this look.
In Denver, Colorado the government channel is located between two local broadcast TV stations. They wanted the viewers to see no discernible difference in quality between the channels to the channel-surfing viewers. To accomplish this, the channel bought the necessary equipment to produce high quality programming.
With no technical goals, the channel will have no technical guidelines for the level of technical quality that is accepted. For example, is coverage of a panel discussion on child abuse recorded on an home VHS recorder acceptable for the channel? In most cases not. Regardless, you may have a request from the chair of the Status of Women Commission to air the videotape. You'll want to have written rules to protect the channel from programming that does not fit in the guidelines and goals of the channel.
Technical goals help create the look of the channel. Each channel gives a different impression. Some channels are easy to identify because of the corner logo or the familiarity of the programming. they might have distinctive graphics like C-SPAN or CNN, creating the "look".
Defining
a channel's
technical goals helps form realistic standards and policies. Technical
goals also help determine the type, quantity and quality of equipment to buy, based
on your budget and the desired technical look.