Dance Recital Videos – in High Definition
As of the 2015-2016 season, Shawn Lam Video only delivers dance recital services to schools on an entire studio order basis, where the entire dance school shares equally in the dance recital video production costs, and every dancer gets unlimited access to view online and download all of the current studio dance recital videos in high definition. The result is that the average cost per dancer is about $20 to access every show, whereas in the past the cost was $40-45 per dance recital, with many dancers dancing in 2-4 recitals. The exact cost per dancer of a studio order depends on the number criteria, including number of dancers in the studio, number and length of the recitals, and studio order processing costs.
New for 2015
Shawn Lam Video is pleased to announce that starting in 2015, all dance recital video productions will be available to download in 1920×1080 30P high definition video, and upgrade from the previous 1280×720 30P video resolution that has been offered since 2011.
New for 2013
Shawn Lam Video is pleased to announce that starting in 2013, all dance recital video productions will be filmed, edited, and DELIVERED in high definition. Although we have been filming with high definition video cameras since 2007, the majority of our dance recital videos were being delivered on DVD. In 2011 we started to offer optional HD downloads but this year is the first where DVDs will no longer be offered.
Benefits of High Definition Video Downloads
Our cameras film in 1920×1080 60P high definition video, we edited in 1920×1080 60P high definition video, and now we deliver in 1920×1080 30P high definition video. By using the same image size and progressive frame-rate through-out the entire video production process you get the best looking video possible.
The old workflow involved some form of conversion and this process wasn’t as simple as simply resizing a photograph. Our videos are designed to be viewed on HD playback devices like HDTVs, computer screens, laptops, tablets, and even smart phones, and these devices, along with our entire video production process, uses square pixels and progressive frames.
The DVD workflow was an interlaced field workflow and the pixels were not even square. You don’t need to understand all the technical details but this field and pixel aspect ratio difference meant that DVD video would never look as good as an HD video file, especially when viewed on a modern high definition video screen – from a mobile device right up to the largest screen HDTV.
Higher resolution = more details
Standard Definition DVDs
The old standard definition DVDs have a resolution of about 0.3 mega-pixels.
Widescreen DVDs had the same resolution but stretched it to fit a 0.4 mega-pixels screen.
High Definition Downloads
720P HD (1280×720) has a resolution of 1 mega-pixel.
1080P HD (1920×1080) has a resolution of 2.1 mega-pixels
What this all means is that the videos we produce have a 7x higher resolution than the best native resolution on a DVD.
And this extra resolution lets you see more detail on your dancers faces, whereas before you really couldn’t see much on a wide angle shot.
High Definition = Lower Cost
By not having to produce two different video formats (DVD & HD downloads), the production and delivery costs are much lower. Simply put, it takes more time to produce two different formats and DVDs take longer to assemble. The physical cost of a DVD and packaging is similar to the online bandwidth that HD video requires but by not having to burn, label, package, and mail DVDs the overall production costs are lower. What all this means is that while our productions costs increase every year with inflation and purchasing and maintaining the latest and best video production equipment, we have been able to dramatically reduce the average cost per dancer over the years.
