Rec. 709
Rec. 709 is the ITU standard that defines colour and contrast for HD video.
What this is about
Almost everything a client watches — broadcast, streaming platforms, a laptop in a meeting room — assumes Rec. 709. That makes it the safe finishing target for corporate work, commercials and documentary, and the reference against which a colourist judges skin tones and whites. Log or raw material is converted into Rec. 709 for viewing, either through a display transform or a conversion LUT. Projects finishing in HDR still produce a Rec. 709 version, because the majority of viewers will never see the wider one.
A term only helps when everyone on set means the same thing by it — so what follows is how it is used, not a dictionary definition.
What runs differently here
In planning terms, that means:
- Rec. 709 remains the default deliverable for broadcast, streaming and corporate video
- Log and raw footage need a conversion to Rec. 709 before anyone can judge the image
- An HDR finish still ships a Rec. 709 version for the majority of viewers
With TillyGen
TillyGen lists the agreed deliverables per project, so the version the client signs off is the one the delivery standard actually calls for.
Change one constraint and the consequences travel through the whole plan: affected shots are flagged, the call sheet is regenerated, and nobody keeps working from yesterday's version.
Frequently asked
Is Rec. 709 the same as sRGB?
They share the same primaries but differ in their tone response, so images can look slightly different. For video work, grade to Rec. 709 and check the web export separately.
How long does it take to get started with TillyGen?
A first project takes under an hour to set up. There is no configuration phase in which templates and fields have to be defined before the tool produces anything.
Can the results be exported?
Yes — as PDF for the crew, CSV for downstream systems and through the API for anything automated. The plan stays the source; the exports are views of it.