Since the creation of HD the two main milestones for it have been the introduction of Freeview HD and HD versions of BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 (adding to the 37 HD channels that Sky already have). It is hoped by HD providers that the World Cup will also be another event in which to expose people to the advantages of the new format, and act as equivalent to the Queen’s Coronation which generated a huge peak in the purchasing of colour TVs.

However, as spectacular as the effects of HD are when viewing of a film or programme, the format itself is not without its downside. The production requirements for HD material are now pretty stringent and require the material to be shot on no less than 50mb/s recording format. If, therefore, businesses want to use HD for their own video productions then they will have to abide by these new guidelines, otherwise they won’t be able to access this new sector of entertainment.

The basis of this issue though really is just an ability to move with the times. At some point, of course, HD will be the standard viewing format and this problem will arise again with whatever the next stage of TV evolution is, but at the moment the lesson is that if you want to do any PR or training stuff in HD then you’ve got to be aware that it takes extra resources to make full use of the format.

David Lewis