Timecode for Live Events
If you’re an animator, editor, or work in post production in any capacity you’re probably familiar with the timecode notation.
Quicktime will hold some aspects of timecode in a .mov file as meta-data. And with certain options, you can include what it calls a “timecode track.” I think this track is read by other non-linear editing software.
But, if you’re outputting files for a live event media server, that is almost certainly not what’s being asked for. It can be a source of confusion if you don’t know what you need to include here.
Playback Efficiency
Many motion designers and editors are used to building files for post-production and non-linear editors. Non-linear editing is so ubiquitous that I wonder if the term even means anything anymore. Efficiency is usually thought of in terms of render time. This is certainly important for the process.
The final encode is probably out of your hands unless you’re uploading directly to a web platform. And even then the actual encoded file(s) played online is handled automatically by the platform’s server.
Those extra steps don’t exist with live event media servers. In most cases, the file you deliver contains the actual data that will be played on screen when it is cued.
Why does that matter?
Naming for Legacy
File naming is one of the least fascinating, but ubiquitous aspects of any tech system.
When onsite for a live event, I never know how many different file systems my files might need to pass through. Add to that any amount of legacy hardware being used simply because it’s the only one that does that one thing that’s needed for that one thing.