Audio Reference level for music video

[Oz Nimbus]

Hey gang,

Ok, I feel like a complete idiot for asking this, but honestly, it's the first time it's ever come up. I'm submitting a music video for broadcast & I can't quite figure out where to set my audio levels for the bars & tone.

Here's the requirement on the submission sheet:
SMPTE standard Colour Bars and 1kHz Tone (-20dBFS / 0 VU)

And here's the Bars & tone Default:
The default level of the 1-kHz tone is 012 dB referenced to 0 dBFS.

So I'm not sure where I should adjust that bars & tone 1kz tone... to digital zero? Leave it alone?

Seriously, that's all the information I have. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
-0z-

[Audioman]

Hi Oz.


We have been dealing with the differences between CD, radio and broadcast TV for a while, so we set the maximum peak level to -10 db in SAW's master fader.

A few days ago I received this screenshot from a client regarding some technical specs for Turner that applies to its international traffic (maybe US is quite different due to last year's transition to digital TV). The strangest part is where they ask for MONO audio for deliveries in video tape! Anyway, we sent a QuickTime file containing audio in stereo:

http://audiomania.mx/News/Turnerspecs.jpg

Hope this can help.

All the best!

[Oz Nimbus]

Thanks! Much appreciated!

I figure I'll set my 1k to -.1 db & let the analog transfer house deal with it. Canadian broadcast is literally in the stone age these days.

[Audioman]

Good idea! Just be care of send them a 16 bit / 48 Khz stereo file, to avoid they resample it on its video app. And stereo because some versions of Final Cut (and Adobe Premier I guess), can't deal with mono files and plays only in one channel.

Cheers!