I have been asked to shoot a 5 minute presentation that wil be used as a marketing piece. I will be using the XHA1 to film. The client wants the final product on a tape thats standard for television use (commercials) I belive its called a Beta SP tape. Is there anything that I need to consider knowing that the final product will need to go onto this type of format? Also, as of now, I dont do my own editing and will farm out that portion. Whats the going rate for an editor that uses final cut?

Beta SP is an old format, at least around here stations accept all digital formats, preferring DVCAM (which is basically just standard DV at higher tape speed) or digiBeta.

What stations are strict about is the form of the tape: timecode must start at 1:00:00:00 at the program, there must be color bars and 1 kHz tone and a 10 sec counter before that with 10 sec black between them, audio levels must be exact and not go past certain limits.

If you have a pro do the editing, he/she should know the rquirements, or can ask the station.

Thanks Petri. Any idea what I should expect to pay for editing?