KitPlus | Articles

Changing the art of Chroma Key

ChromaKey technology has been used for decades in TV and film studios to composite images or footage into a shot using green and blue screen backdrops. Although used on multi-million dollar movies, such as AVATAR and used all around the world in News rooms, conventional ‘Fabric’ ChromaKey technology requires Kilowatts of lighting, hours of setup ti...

Submitted by Rod Aaron Gammons

Published 01 June 2013

Learning to love IT with Dick Hobbs

There are three clearly defined levels of activity at NAB. There is the buzz which someone is trying to get going, there is the stuff which people are actually trying to buy, and there is the latest collection of buzzwords and catchphrases which provide endless entertainment for those with a love of language. This year, for instance, we were all to...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2013

Back to basics: MPEG Dash

by David Springall, CTO & Founder, YospaceJust when you thought that you had got your head around the different flavours of MPEG, another one comes along. What on earth is MPEG-DASH, and why do we need to care about it?The DASH part stands for dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP. MPEG-DASH is an attempt to create a standardised approach to deliver...

Submitted by David Springall

Published 01 May 2013

Mobile news gathering with Will Strauss

by Will StraussSo, here’s a scenario. You’re a TV news editor and a story breaks. Your reporter and cameraman (or reporter/cameraman) can get to the scene no bother. But all your satellite trucks are someplace else. What do you do? Umm…. Thanks to developments in transmission technology the ENG scenario described above is pretty much redundant thes...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2013

NAB is for soothsayers, trendsetters and people with road...

Unlucky for some…by Will StraussPrototypes, alpha products, demos and proofs of concept: NAB in Las Vegas is all about future innovation. Will Strauss picks 13 stands that you must visit this year. With the dust from BVE barely settled, it’s already time to look towards NAB. I know, I know. Don’t shout at me. I didn’t arrange the broadcast industry...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 April 2013

Will Strauss gets a grip!

By Will StraussOf all the many areas of television technology that tv-bay Magazine covers, you might think that camera support is the one that appears, on the surface at least, to move the slowest. Take the tripod for example. Fundamentally, the design hasn’t changed for a hundred years. Or how about the dolly? The wheels and track device that Alfr...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 March 2013

Professional Video Editing Just Got Better

Endorsed by twenty five thousand Facebook fans, six industry awards and thousands of new users through the trial download and active forum communities, Autodesk, Inc.,announced that the new Autodesk Smoke 2013, professional video editing software is now shipping. “The anticipation for Smoke, since its thrilling announcement at the National Associat...

Submitted by KitPlus

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

Is it time to review your colour grading toolset?

One important step for all budget levels of post-production is the colour correction or grading tools you use to match the colour of different shots in your edit, to give a consistent look and feel. You may already be doing basic colour grading without really thinking of it as a separate process in your edit, or you may be sending off your edited t...

Submitted by Mark Brindle

Published 01 February 2013

The cushion quotient

I have just been to a conference organised by the Mobile Data Association. I was very grateful to the organisers for the invitation, as it is the sort of thing that appeals to me: some of the top analysts in the industry throwing out statistics and predictions. Of course, at this sort of conference you get a lot more about where we are than where w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2012

Streaming Part 2

I thought it was about time that I gave you all a little update on some of the kit I have been using and testing of the past few months. So here are a couple of updates for you starting with:Matrox MC100This little beauty has been in my procession for about a year now. If you don't know it’s a little box that allows you to do things such as HD-SDI...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Revolutionary Rotolight Anova Shoot at BBC Studios

The Worlds Most Advanced LED Floodlight the Rotolight Anova (www.rotolight.com) was recently the light of choice for a shoot at the home of British Television, with Philip Nash, Multi-Award Winning Photographer and Videographer(www.nash.net) shooting both Video and stills with one of the worlds leading models. The shoot was both indoors against pho...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2012

OTT Monitoring: keeping it simple and useful

IntroductionOTT is generally understood to mean a technique where the transmission of video to the subscriber is based on the same underlying methods as those currently being used to serve out web pages on the internet today. The Over-the-Top name refers to the potential of this technology for bypassing existing traditional television distribution...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

SPORT GB AND IBC 2012

Peter Savage has sobering thoughts about the Olympics and Paralympics while looking forward to a beer or two at IBCWell, we will soon come to the end of a summer that has been completely sports-dominated. I like sport. In fact, I could be classed as almost sport-obsessed. However, even I will soon breathe a sigh of relief knowing that, no matter wh...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

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