KitPlus | Articles

Flying Pictures and the importance of a monitor

Issue 82 - October 2013 Hampshire based filming specialist Flying Pictures is the world leader in the provision of aerial & helicopter filming services for feature films, commercials, television, live broadcast events and surveillance. Based in the UK, the company nevertheless operates worldwide, so if you need something done in the air; they do it...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 November 2013

Revealing the real-lives behind 999 responses

by Jonathan BoltonIssue 82 - October 2013 Jonathan Bolton, head of PROCAMS Manchester operation discusses the challenges of capturing real time footage when following emergency services on call. Factual programming has seen a revolution. Viewers want more from factual programmes: they no longer want traditional, staid documentaries, but want to se...

Submitted by Jonathan Bolton

Published 01 November 2013

BroadcastShow Tour October 2013

Issue 82 - October 2013 October heralds the second tour of 2013 for BroadcastShow. The travelling road show of exhibiting manufacturers and seminars visited London, Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol earlier this year with well over 1000 visitors through the doors. For the autumn leg the first stop will be the Europa Hotel in Belfast on 16th...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 November 2013

Polecam delivers 500th rig

by Mel NoonanIssue 81 - September 2013 We in the UK should be rightly proud of Polecam and what it has achieved, with news that the 500th rig has been delivered. Extreme sports cameraman Steffan Hewitt designed the lightweight jib for his own use, as a tool to get the shots he wanted. He kept refining it as he used it. Others saw it and wanted it....

Submitted by Mel Noonan

Published 01 October 2013

Will Strauss looks at the growth of MediaCityUK and dock...

by Will StraussIssue 81 - September 2013 Whats up Dock?In less than three years Dock 10 has grown from a mere studio operator with add-ons to a fully-fledged digital media service provider. Will Strauss tracks the changes. MediaCityUK in Salford, Greater Manchester is exactly as the name suggests: a towering metropolis pumping out TV, radio and dig...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2013

EditShare hits the back of the net for french football gi...

by James RichingsIssue 80 - August 2013 Three times winners of Ligue 1, Frances highest football division, LOSC Lille is one of the premier professional sporting clubs in the country and have a sizeable following drawn from across Northern France. Live home games are broadcast for national TV and the club creates content for its own in-house televi...

Submitted by James Richings

Published 01 September 2013

Why test and measurement is for real life, not just for e...

by Will StraussIssue 79 - July 2013 Thanks to its long-standing association with virtually incomprehensible acronyms, dark machine rooms and (lets face it) engineers with unruly beards, the subject of Test and Measurement (T&M) always gets a bit of bum rap. Yet, for all the pre-conceptions, it is a hugely important part of the production and broadc...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2013

Do you have firmware deficiency syndrome?

For 5 days in June 2013 we did a survey on Facebook and our own website and asked how often camera users had gone online to check for firmware updates…Checked online for a firmware upgrade….. …within last 30 days 18%…within last 90 days 9%…within last 12 months 3%…never checked online 70%We could have gone further to see which users used what camer...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 July 2013

Does size matter? with Polecam

It’s simple. Horses for Courses! ScenarioWhen shooting Anything, Anywhere, there is always a trade between budget, performance, manpower, speed and space – the production company and client will inevitably want quite simply “the best they can get and at the best price”. However when the application and location of the shoot dictate over and above t...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 July 2013

Product update with Swit - travel safe power solutions

Swit Electronics is a high-tech enterprise that manufacture power solutions and accessories for the professional broadcast and video industry. Products include batteries and chargers, on-camera lights, monitors and more. Swit design and manufacture their products to the smallest detail and therefore the end result is a high performing, high quality...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 July 2013

Alex Fine is super busy: Following the Ravensbourne 3

The name of the game right now is MAJOR FRUSTRATION! The nature of the game right now is SUPER BUSY ORGANISING LOTS OF FILMS ALL AT ONCE! This part of the term in final year at Ravensbourne is quite difficult. My peers and I are all having to either Direct and/or Produce two films (of any type) and work in minor/ supporting roles for at least two o...

Submitted by Alex Fine

Published 01 June 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

Tv-bay questions with Richard Hooking

Richard Hookings Q&A for TV-BayDifferent Animals - The Polecam Full Rig owner opHow did you get in to the Broadcast business?When I was 12 I went to a Michael Faraday lecture; they were demonstrating the latest TV technology of the day– how they made Superman fly with green screen, how they did the weather - I got the bug, and from then on I wanted...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 April 2013

4K or not 4K, that is the question

Peter Savage goes all literary to show how our industry draws on Shakespeare and Keyne. 4K or not 4K, that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of a much larger workflow Or to take arms against a sea of other formats And by opposing end them. 2K, to sleep No more--and by a sleep to say we end That format,...

Submitted by Robert Howard

Published 01 March 2013

Sony cameras and Canon EF Lenses being used to great effe...

By Mike Tapa MTFWith the immanent introduction of the F5 and F55 from Sony, perhaps we should take look back on the fantastic work done by its predecessor the PMW-F3 in the past year. Interchangeable lenses is one of its main features, coupled with an extremely shallow lens register make this one of the most versatile tools in any cameraman's a kit...

Submitted by Mike Tapa

Published 01 March 2013