Slate (broadcasting)
In broadcasting, a slate is a title card listing important metadata of a television program, included before the first frame of the program. The broadcasting equivalent of a film leader, the slate is usually accompanied with color bars and tone, a countdown, and a 2-pop. In videotape workflows, slates help ensure that the tape received is the right one to broadcast or to ingest into a digital playout system. It also provides helpful context for consideration in the re-editing of the material into a larger package. A convention from the videotape era of television broadcasting, the need for slates in a tapeless workflow has largely been usurped by the Material Exchange Format. However, the slate is still a regular and often-required fixture of television stations and other media companies as of 2023.
Common information
Common information to include in a slate includes, but is not limited to:- Title of the program
- Name of the production company and contact info
- Total run time
- Production code number
- Date of edited master
- Type of master
- Timecode of start of first frame
- Frame rate
- Audio channel configuration
- Presence of textless elements