Meta-data handling
Since the early days of film and television, meta-data such as shot number, slate information and other production notes has been used increasingly during the production process. While much of this data has been generated and stored on paper, the use of computers for storage and management of meta-data has grown significantly.
However the lack of a unique identifier for each segment of material recorded on the filed tape has made it difficult to link this meta-data to the actual material.
The MSW-900 camcorder now solves this problem by providing the capability to generate and record a globally unique identifier relating directly with the video material.
This process is made possible by recording UMID (Unique Material Identifier) information.
UMID* recording
The UMID is a unique identifier for picture, audio and data material that is created and globally unique. The MSW-900 automatically generates and records UMID on tape at every scene change. By adding UMID information during the acquisition process, future benefits such as easy search of material during editing, and archive will be realized. Sony supports UMID as well as Extended UMID** for further operational convenience.
**UMID is standardized as SMPTE 330M.
**Extended UMID adds Signature meta-data, time, positioning, and **user information to the Basic UMID.
Extended UMID (64 bytes)
| | Basic UMID (32 bytes) | | | Signature Metadata (32 bytes) | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Universal | | L | Inst | Material | Time/Date | | Spatial Co-ordinates | Country | Org | User |
| Label | | | No. | Number | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 12 bytes | | 1 | 3 | 16 bytes | | 8 bytes | | 12 bytes | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| | | | bytes | | | | | | bytes | bytes | bytes |
GPS Unit — HKDW-704
Utilizing the meta-data capability of the MSW-900 camcorder, the HKDW-704 GPS unit has been introduced to enhance the ability to store Global Position information in association with the field recorded material.
The HKDW-704 offers real-time recording of global positioning information on tape as well as the Memory Stick storage medium. When the camcorder playbacks a tape that has recorded GPS information, the positioning information of the shooting site can be indicated on a PC running map illustration software*. The position data is also recorded as Extended UMID on the tape keeping the link between video/audio and positioning data.
*Output format from the REMOTE connector is NMEA and software.
