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.^[1][2] In videotape workflows, slates help ensure that the tape received is the right one to broadcast (or to project, in the case of digital cinema) 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.^[3] 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.^[4] However, the slate is still a regular and often-required fixture of television stations and other media companies as of 2023^[update].^[5]

Example of a slate

Common information

Common information to include in a slate includes, but is not limited to:^[1][2][3]

• Title of the program
• Name of the production company and contact info
• Total run time (TRT)
• Production code number
• Date of edited master
• Type of master (e.g. broadcast master, duplication master, projection master)
• Timecode of start of first frame (typically 01:00:00.00, with the slate and associated leader material occurring before this)
• Frame rate
• Audio channel configuration
• Presence of textless elements (typically labelled as textless at/@ tail)

See also

• Clapperboard