Broadcast: What is needed?

This is a query for broadcast expertise. I was thinking there must be some broadcast people in this group.

We are trying to figure out what type of equipment is necessary to do a daily broadcast quality, 30 min show that will be presented to broadcasters.

We have been doing a daily, 30 min, streaming podcast for 2 years now, with a NewTek Tricaster 300; but the quality of the show has not been professional, and there seems to be some question about the limitations of the TriCaster (entry level equip.). Here is our site:
On The Box, Live and Archived

If this is making sense to anyone, please respond. It will be greatly appreciated.

I have not been involved to this point, so my familiarity with this is very low. I have been asked to make enquiries and so I thought of you folks first, this forum has always been a great resource.

Thank you in advance, Scotty

My 2 cents: Since your experience with Broadcast TV is naught, I recommend hiring a Professional Broadcast Consultant that can walk you through the necessary steps and guide you as needed. I would also contact target "Broadcasters" and ask them for spec sheets on what tyoe of format / files / tapes they accept.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks so much for the 2¢. I appreciate it.

I'll be looking, but do you know of any broadcast consultants I could contact?
I didn't know there was such a thing.

Contact Broadcasters in your market area and ask for consultancy rates.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks. Will do.

...you may get lucky and they will simply give you all specs / formats / procedures gratis. Broadcasters today really do want you to hand them the correct assets (they are too busy for revisions). Ah, I remember the good old days like it were yesterday... when an Engineer would throw a tape back in my face because the colors were just outside scope standards or the whites were slightly above 100 or the text was touching the titlesafe marker. I learned the hard way to ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS UP FRONT and spare myself the embarrassment of a snickering Engineer (not that all Engineers are "snickering Engineers" )

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

That's encouraging...!

So the text touching the title safe is an issue? I'd never thought of that one!

I do have some specs from two of the broadcasters, and I see what you mean.

So we want to deliver the right format. Does that also count for review? Do you have any insight to pitching it?

Some Engineers are hard cases because THEY CAN (I got an HDCAM tape back once from Showtime because the titles were not INSIDE 4:3 centercut titlesafe). Others are super-cool and will help you if you ask them. Don't expect help...but being nice and asking politely goes a long way. Most folks are grateful to have a job these days. ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL! I cannot stress this enough.

Same for the review...ask them what their preference is. This shows that you will do whatever it takes to please them. They may want a tape or they may just want an online H264...but either way, make it look GOOD (not overly compressed). Full size / 8 MBPS H264 is very clean.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks Joey. Great advise.

The suggested file profile is very helpful too. A good rule of thumb.