broadcasting Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...

, a slate is a title card listing important

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

of a television program, included before the first frame of the program. The broadcasting equivalent of a

film leader A film leader is a length of film attached to the head or tail of a film to assist in threading a Movie projector, projector or telecine. A leader attached to the beginning of a reel is sometimes known as a head leader, or simply head, and a lead ...

, the slate is usually accompanied with color bars and tone, a countdown, and a 2-pop. In

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually Sound recording and reproduction, sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog signal, analog or Digital signal (signal processing), digital signal. V ...

workflows, slates help ensure that the tape received is the right one to broadcast (or to project, in the case of

digital cinema Digital cinema is the digital technology used within the film industry to distribute or project motion pictures as opposed to the historical use of reels of motion picture film, such as 35 mm film. Whereas film reels have to be shipped to mo ...

) or to ingest into a digital playout system. It also provides helpful context for consideration in the re-editing of the material into a larger package. A convention from the videotape era of television broadcasting, the need for slates in a tapeless workflow has largely been usurped by the

Material Exchange Format Material Exchange Format (MXF) is a container format for professional digital video and audio media defined by a set of SMPTE standards. A typical example of its use is for delivering advertisements to TV stations and tapeless archiving of broad ...

. However, the slate is still a regular and often-required fixture of television stations and other media companies .

Common information

Common information to include in a slate includes, but is not limited to: * Title of the program * Name of the production company and contact info * Total run time (TRT) *

Production code number A production code number, also known as the production code (PC) or episode code, is an alphanumeric designation used to uniquely identify episodes within a television series. As each studio can freely generate its own PC format, it cannot be ...

* Date of edited master * Type of master (e.g. broadcast master, duplication master, projection master) * Timecode of start of first frame (typically 01:00:00.00, with the slate and associated leader material occurring before this) *

Frame rate Frame rate, most commonly expressed in frame/s, or FPS, is typically the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (Film frame, frames) are captured or displayed. This definition applies to film and video cameras, computer animation, and moti ...

Audio channel An audio signal is a representation of sound, typically using either a changing level of electrical voltage for analog signals or a series of binary numbers for digital signals. Audio signals have frequencies in the audio frequency range of ro ...

configuration * Presence of textless elements (typically labelled as textless at/@ tail)

References

Television terminology Film and video technology {{broadcasting-stub

Common information

See also

References