The following standards are subject to change over time.

Delivery Format:

For High Definition material, the content shall be supplied on a 1125 line 25 frame per second 2:1 interlace component digital videotape system produced in accordance with ITU-R BT.709-5. M-Net will accept: HDCam (HDCAMSR and HDD5 are not acceptable).

All delivered High Definition master tapes must be 1920 x 1080 active lines interlaced at 25 frames per second, 50 fields.

Programmes must be acquired, post produced and delivered in High Defnition.

The aspect ratio shall be a full height 16:9 image.

For High Definition, the vertical interval time code (VITC) shall be to a standard yet to be defined.

HDV, DVCam, MiniDV as well as up conversions from SD are not considered High Definition.

Due to the immature state of High Definition systems this documentation will evolve and will be added to and modified as required in the future.

Dolby Surround / Dolby E:

HD content delivery must include as standard, a PCM stereo audio track on channels 1 & 2 (AES pair 1) of the tape. Dolby Surround (Pro Logic III or Lt/Rt) is also acceptable.

Audio tracks 3 & 4 (AES pair 2) must carry a Dolby E soundtrack encompassing 5.1 multichannel audio. This is in addition to the basic track 1 & 2 (as mentioned above).

Any variation from the above requirements must be agreed to and contracted as such with M-Net's Traffic Co-ordinator or Commissioning Editors in advance of the content being delivered.

Both Stereo and Dolby E soundtracks must be delivered in sync with Video. No frame delays must be induced on any of the tracks.

The Dolby E bit stream must be in 16 bit, 5.1 format.

The audio should consist of 6 discrete channels in the following configuration - L, R, C, LFE, Ls, and Rs.

If the requirement exists to deliver more than the above mentioned audio tracks, the additional maximum of two tracks will be carried within a 20 bit 5.1 + 2 Dolby E configuration.

The Sample rate used for Dolby E must be 48 Kb/s

The metadata for Dolby E specified as the audio multiplex be as follows:

- Bits Mode: Main Audio Service: Complete Main
- AC Mode: 3/2
- Dolby Surround Mode: Not Indicated
- LFE Channel: Enabled
- Dialogue Normalization: -27
- Audio Production Info: Yes
- Mix Level: 85 dB
- Room Type: Small
- Copyright Bit: No
- Original Bitstream: Yes
- Preferred Sterio Downmix: Lt/Rt Preferred
- Lt/Rt Center Mix Level: 0.707 (-3.0 dB)
- Lt/Rt Surround Mix Level: 0.707 (-3.0 dB)
- Lo/Ro Center Mix Level: 0.707 (-3.0 dB)
- Lo/Ro Surround Mix Level: 0.707 (-3.0 dB)
- Dolby Surround EX Mode: Not Surround EX
- A/D Converter Type: Standard
- DC Filter: Disabled
- Lowpass Filter: Disabled
- LFE lowpass Filter: Enabled
- Surround Phase Shift: Enabled
- Surround 3dB Attenuation: Enabled
- RF Mode Compression: Film Standard
- Line Mode Compression: Film Standard

Emerging Technologies:

At time of writing, a number of options for asynchronous streaming are available, such as the internet, store and forward systems and file formats such as MXF. These include streaming via IP, including the use of interim storage or caching. This document does not prohibit the use of these technologies, but they must be considered as special cases requiring particular attention and planning.

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