ITFC keep programmes legal with Courtyard's Sheriff

The Independent Television Facilities Company (ITFC) have purchased two Courtyard Sheriff legalisers to check and correct programme material.
As a part of their programme technical compliance business the Sheriffs are used to ensure that the colour gamut of video is kept within specified limits.
Compliance checking is a part of ITFC's varied work and they are responsible for verifying all ITV 1, ITV 2 and five's acquired material.
The work has recently expanded with a contract for Hallmark Entertainment that includes comprehensively checking the compliance of all their material destined for Europe, Middle East, southern Africa and Russia.
David Willis, ITFC's Director of Video Operations, said: "We looked at Sheriff a year ago and were very impressed but it was the contract with the Hallmark Channels that made us move forward."
Sheriff is supplied with SDI inputs and outputs to allow perfect signal transparency. When corrections are needed, the techniques applied alter the signal values in such a way that there is no obvious, or visible trace of the correction. The lack of hue shifts, or other artefacts produced during correction is a major feature of the product.
Steve Cranny, Courtyard's Director of Sales, said: "We are delighted that ITFC has chosen Sheriff. For many, they operate as a technical gatekeeper and so this is exactly where Sheriff should be."
ITFC have to take a cautious approach with client’s material. They first use Sheriff just to detect and log any out-of-gamut errors, or illegal colours, that are produced by certain combinations of the components in SDI signals. The errors are clearly displayed as distinct colours overlaid on the preview output with their hue indicating the degree of error. Then, if the client agrees, the problems are fixed.
(GB)