KitPlus | Articles

No more pizza for Dick Hobbs!

A couple of months ago I used this column to talk about geeks and nerds. Our industry depends upon them, whether we like it or not. Re-reading the article, I was struck by the fact that I quoted four people in the article (five if you count Christian Louboutin). All were male. According to a recent survey just 17% of the people in the technology se...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2013

Trends that could bring a much needed change to post-prod...

In my Christmas article I made the analogy that the post-production market was like high street shopping where the superpowers – Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrison’s – have become ever larger at the expense of the poor, independent, high street retailers. With American venture-vultures circling the likes of HMV and Dreams, shoppers inc...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2013

Review of Kinoflo Celeb 200

Good quality lighting is at the heart of all great photography, when we use the sun we are at the mercy of the weather and need to take into consideration all the variables from time of day to position of sun to name a few, importantly however we can trust the source to provide a complete spectrum. However when we are shooting with tungsten or with...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2012

Discussing asset management

Half the stands at IBC claim to have asset management products – do they all do what you do?Yes, it seems like everyone claims to do asset management or workflows. And it confuses the hell out of buyers. So we need to take a step back and think about what we actually mean. So let’s break it down. First: assets. What are your assets? Well, that depe...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Summer of 3D

Having put 3D to one side for a few months it was very interesting to jump back into the third dimension. With 3D not making the headlines much, if at all, you might be lulled into thinking it has faded away, but that’s not the case. Many events are being shot in 3D, including the Olympics and, although there has been nothing happening that could b...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Issues facing broadcasters of outdoor sporting events

Keeping Cool under PressureOne of the major issues facing Broadcasters using temporary structures for major sporting events is keeping the studios cool and quiet enough for presenters to work comfortably and effectively under the host of lights. Keeping cool often involved the use of air conditioning which historically would be turned off when film...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Will 2012 be remembered as the first year of complete dig...

The BBC claims that London 2012 will be the first truly digital games, as the public service broadcaster delivers unprecedented coverage across multiples platforms and allowing audiences to watch every single event live. Of course it wasn’t just the Olympics this year, the BBC and ITV succeeded in dusting off the country’s football aspirations once...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

What should I know about lithium-ion batteries

Ask The Experts: Martyn Sly-Jex, Regional Sales Manager, EMEA, Anton/Bauer What should I know about the chemistries behind lithium-ion batteries? When Li-ion cell chemistry was first introduced, it was hailed as a breakthrough, lightweight power solution for broadcast and video professionals. It incorporated high-energy density and low-self-disch...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 July 2012

Our third digital revolution?

Our third digital revolution?By Bob PankA little history – the first digital revolution for the TV production and post industries started somewhere about 1972 and then involved introducing digital islands into an analogue world. The introduction of much more affordable digital VTRs such as Sony’s DigiBeta in 1993 heralded the beginning of the end o...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2012

Cloudy NAB

Those who arrived a couple of days before the NAB show opened had the unusual experience of cool weather, heavy grey skies and rain. The clouds had arrived in Las Vegas. By the time the show opened they had gone but there was still a big one in the North Hall where I experienced my very first ‘Cloud Computing Pavilion’. It was not the structure I’d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Cloud Matter Part 1 - Fear of Fluff!

Although I’m writing this article in the usual way, by sitting at my desk and tapping on my keyboard, the only app running on my computer is the web browser. I can see the article on the screen but have no idea where it’s being stored. Still I have every confidence that it will be instantly recalled whenever I want it.... provided my modem and Inte...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 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

LED - A clean light at the end of the tunnel

We asked DoP & Lighting Specialist Jonathan Harrison to evaluate the current state of the industry. Jonathan has long been critical of LED products and the claims made by manufacturers in regards to their performance for high quality professional image capture, he has also been intimately involved in the development of some of the leading industry...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

Ask the expert exhibition travel

There are too many trade shows and they are all expensive. Why should I travel to them?You probably should not attempt to travel to every show on the calendar, even if it was possible. It would take all your time and blow the budget out of the water. But that does not mean you should turn your back on shows altogether. They are still the primary wa...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

Eye to Eye: Whats new in lighting

The majority of modern digital video cameras and D-SLRs are capable of delivering high-quality images provided the lighting conditions are good. Attempting to shoot in low light introduces the risk of noise and limited depth of field. Whatever the claimed camera sensitivity, good lighting is as essential today as ever. The following is a short over...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012