KitPlus | Articles

Exhibiting at CABSAT first time feedback

CABSAT started with a curious phenomenon. Rain in the desert. It was PHABRIX’s first time in Dubai exhibiting its test and measurement products at CABSAT and we’d obviously brought the weather with us. Now rain in Dubai is like a severe snowstorm in the UK – everything stops. As the Emirates plane, equipped with a front video camera, displayed our...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

How to Automate HD

HD movies are on average more than three times larger in size than the equivalent SD movie. Naturally therefore, HD material requires more storage and longer to transfer from the archive/storage to the transmission path. Managing these increased file sizes and optimally controlling the bandwidth is one of the main challenges which need to be addres...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

2020 television

Television has proved the most popular and efficient form of human communication since the evolution of speech and the development of the written word. The industry has come a long way in a short time and still has a huge future, whatever the delivery route or the receiving platform. My intention here is to outline the key factors influencing the d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

The Real Cost of Calibration

Calibration is the cornerstone of measurement confidence. Badly calibrated instruments are liable to produce measurement errors which can then propagate throughout an enterprise and even to the end-user’s product… and beyond! This can have a detrimental effect on a company’s reputation and profits, and could even have legal implications. The best w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

3D home viewing

It seems the whole world is excited about the return of 3D to cinemas. Older sceptics said it wouldn’t last as it used to give them a headache. Sure, the old celluloid-based 3D delivery system had real problems and the production chain was slow and very expensive. This time is different, with rock-steady digital images in cinemas ensuring that the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

Musical matches for your production

The best production you've ever created is in the can. It's time to match your masterpiece with an equally impressive musical soundtrack. But where to start? It's time to dispel the myth that music licensing is complex or expensive and to understand what options are available to you. Firstly, let's get one thing straight. Music, a bit like lunch, i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010

SATIS in a day

Aware that several French distributors had pulled out of this year's SIEL & SATIS, I chunnelled to Paris on day two of the October 20-22 show with minimal expectations. The small size of the Guide de Visite (20 pages A5) added to my misgivings but the event itself proved respectably large, crowded and buzzing. Nearly 280 companies occupied stands i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2009

Eye to Eye: Content Protection 2009

In the early days of audio and video recording, the limitations of analogue devices provided a fairly high level of content protection by ensuring that any captured signal was either inferior to the original or fairly soon became so. Optical digital media changed all that, allowing practically perfect copies of speech, music, still images and movin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2009

Africans in London TV

Joseph Otieno Adamson, Managing Director of the new TV Station Africans in London or AIL TV, is a man whose enthusiasm for all things media knows no bounds. A talented musician, he attended a university course to learn to become a music producer, set up his own recording studio and later decided to extend his talents to video and the world of broad...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

How to market your business in a recession January 2009

In the first of a four part series, Peter Savage offers tips that will help you get customers buying from you, even in this economic downturn. This year we are going to look more on the bright side of life as last year was full of doom and gloom. So this is the start of a four part series about developing your business in a downturned market. I tho...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 April 2009

How we lit Mick

Shine a lightLets start at the beginning with the most fundamental, basic of questions – what’s the point of lighting anything, let alone a living legend like Sir Mick Jagger? The answer is simple – because lighting is the most important part of the whole process. Not the filming. Not the fiddly edit. Not the chin-scratching pre-production. The lig...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

New editing essentials

I like to think of myself as a bit of a pioneer at the frontier of the new age of HD Digital Cinematography. Investigating the best of the new technology available to our industry and evaluating its possible impact. I ‘d like to explain the impact of some of the particular examples of this today starting with:-XDCam EX Tapeless HD Camcorders. One w...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Lights, Camera, Makohead Action

With the movie Quantum of Solace due to hit the big screens in October, audiences around the world are already gearing up for another huge blockbuster from the James Bond stable. The movie, which began shooting at Pinewood studios in November 2007, will undoubtedly include the spectacular action sequences that are the hallmark of James Bond films....

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

London to Capetown, by bike part 1

South Africans are known for being to the point, so when I was told that I had done the whole thing ‘Arse Backwards’ I wasn’t unduly upset, but I did feel a need to justify the way I had approached this project. I had just arrived in Cape Town and was rather pleased with myself, having just completed a year long journey through some of Africa’s mos...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Guide to filming in London

Film London aims to make filming in the capital as straight-forward a process as possible. They hold a library of over 10,000 London film locations, a comprehensive database of crew and facilities in the region, and can also provide information and advice about the filming process. Please note however that they do not provide permits for filming. T...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2008