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Testing times of a 4K world

The term '4K' applies to some five slightly different picture formats with around 4,000 pixel horizontal resolution: all much bigger than HD. In fact roughly four times the total pixels required for 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition. 4K has been around for some years but was until recently only affordable by producers with mega budgets. Advances in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

Handheld T and M the broadcast emergency service

“Test and Measurement”. Shudder. Like “Health and Safety”, “Bus” and “Replacement Service” or “Keith and Orville” it’s a collocation of words that fills me with dread. Seriously, who wants to read about “Test and Measurement”? Well, as it turns out, the answer is: quite a lot of people. Because, despite its lack of glamour, it is hugely important....

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

4KTV The next bigger thing?

4KTV – The next bigger thing?The history of 4K digital moving images goes way back to the mid 1990s. That was when film effects started to be processed digitally and produced amazing results – maybe a bit too amazing for some. Of course the effects had to be seamless and so the digitised effects images had to carry all the required detail of the 35...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

Big Fish, Little Fish, Camera-Top-Box

Big Fish, Little Fish, Camera-Top-BoxFor whole swathes of people within the television industry the concept of digital production - and what we generally refer to as ‘going tapeless’ – is probably now considered slightly old hat. Broadcasters, engineers, camera people and other early adopters of technology are so au fait with digital production the...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 July 2012

SOCIAL FINANCE AND LAS VEGAS : A WORLD APART OR ARE THEY...

Peter Savage draws parallels between funding for social benefit and the razzamatazz of NAB in Las Vegas. Last month we discussed crowdfunding in the context of TV and film production. It’s funding again this month because, during our ‘Look, Listen, Experience’ speaking tour, several people asked me whether social and/or community funding are potent...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

BVE 2012 in no particular order.......

The big story at BVE 2012 was BVE 2013. With the Earls Court exhibition site scheduled for redevelopment, BVE relocates next year to the ExCel exhibition site in London’s Docklands. The distance is only about 10 miles but, in the minds of many BVE exhibitors, the move is comparable with moving the NAB Convention to the Mississippi Delta. If you rea...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

Ask the experts......Intercoms for outside broadcasts

Ask the experts – intercoms for outside broadcastsBarry Spencer, Trilogy CommunicationsI just assume outside broadcast trucks come with an intercom. Why do I need to even think about it?The first big point is that an outside broadcast is not just a control room on wheels. It is an event. And that means communications beyond the truck. Within the pr...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2012

2011: 3D Make or break?

Last year was predicted to be the year when 3D would leap forward or flop. History is littered with short periods of interest and development only for 3D to drop off the scene again. 3D Diaries has maintained that this time it’s different as now nearly all the right technologies are available – the only missing link being a practical autostereoscop...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

This column’s previous excursion into video post-production was just before the 2011 NAB Spring Convention, always a dangerous time to talk about new hardware or software when a deluge of upgrades, lookalikes and lite-editions are about to hit the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Quite a lot has happened in this category over the past 12...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Eye-to-eye: 2011 highlights

“Broadcasters must climb up the ladder into high definition or they’ll get their ankles chewed by the computer industry”. Memorable quote from a manufacturer of video standards converters nearly 30 years ago when NHK was trying to establish its original 1125-line (1080-active) 5:3 aspect-ratio ‘Hi-Vision’. Well it happened. 2011 was the year ‘high-...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

SETTING UP A COMPANY ABROAD

I’ve been busy setting up a business in Germany (replicating our UK operation) and thought it might make an interesting read for those of you who are thinking of establishing an office abroad – or even setting up a business in the UK. It all starts with a planYes, I’ve said it before but it’s a fact. The first and most important step is to form a p...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

Storage and archiving

Anyone looking closely at a helical scan video tape mechanism, particularly the miniature variety, might be forgiven for wondering how such an elaborate technology ever came to be invented. The first experimental video tape recorders were essentially audio recorders running at very high speed to achieve the bandwidth needed for television signals....

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

The Red Epic has landed

Finally the Red Epic has started to appear in facilities companies around the world, S+O Media is one of the first in the UK to receive a handmade Epic-M. I’ve taken the camera out on a couple of shoots and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. I’m sure everyone is aware of the Red One, the first camera from Red. Billionaire Jim Jannard decided he co...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

IBC2011 must sees

Over 1,300 exhibitors will be supporting IBC2011, each bringing perhaps one, two or three new or enhanced products. My task is to distill these down to the 20 devices likely to be of greatest interest to TV-Bay readers, so far as that is possible several weeks before the show opens. As a recent convert to OS X, I note with gloom that Apple remains...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

tv-bay questions

Who are you? (about yourself and who you work for)?I am a freelance colourist working mainly in London and LA. I am the founder of the UK’s first datalab MYTHERAPY. I am also working on behalf of several manufacturers in research and development of colour science for digital film cameras; I am a demo artist for Iridas and Master Colourist at ICA In...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2011