KitPlus | Articles

Does the cloud have substance?

Just at the moment, every customer we talk to wants to move to the cloud. It is not just a techno-buzzword: people are really attracted by it. The idea of getting rid of all hardware and letting someone else worry about keeping machine rooms alive seems like a good plan. And they sometimes feel a bit deflated when we talk quietly and calmly about w...

Submitted by Ciaran Doran

Published 04 April 2017

New workflows floating on the horizon

The way in which we consume content has fundamentally changed. We want to watch what we want, when we want, where we want and how we want, and we want to find programmes quickly, preferably in HD or increasingly UHD. Content is king and in order to satisfy consumer requirements it is essential media companies can locate their material quickly and e...

Submitted by Lee Sheppard - new

Published 04 April 2017

Assets in the air

People everywhere are talking about "the cloud", as if it is somehow something (1) new and (2) intrinsically exciting. It really is neither of those things. In the IT world, software as a service (SaaS) has been around since the 1960\'s when organisations bought the use of mainframe software on a time-sharing basis. The important part of SaaS is th...

Submitted by Paul Wilkins

Published 15 February 2017

Small post houses delivering a big service

In today\'s fast-paced world of video production, the importance of a well-organized, responsive media asset management system cannot be overstated. After all, time is money, and the more quickly people can find and retrieve the exact content they need, the more quickly they can complete their video projects ¦ and capitalize on the content. This no...

Submitted by Jack Wenzinger

Published 15 February 2017

Streamlining operations at BFBS

British Armed Forces around the world rely on British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) to provide them with entertainment and information via their TVs and radios. Operating from studios in Buckinghamshire, BFBS is part of Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), a not-for-profit charitable organization that makes a considerable contribution...

Submitted by Adrian Richmond

Published 07 December 2016

Taking a hybrid approach to the SDI/IP transistion

Broadcasters are not newcomers to technological transitions. As an industry, we\'ve survived analogue to digital, baseband to file-based workflows, SDTV to HDTV and now 4KUHD resolution, not to mention weathering a barrage of new compression formats. Today, we\'re facing one of the most dramatic transformations we\'ve ever undergone: SDI to IP. Unl...

Submitted by Matthew Coleman

Published 07 December 2016

Space lights and a man called Bill

The Space Light has become one of those universally used fixtures which inhabit many film sound stages, as well as finding employment within studio-based broadcast productions. Its history, not completely lost in the sands of time, is very much part of the evolution of the British film industry, whilst its use extends now to Hollywood and beyond. F...

Submitted by Ian Muir

Published 07 December 2016

Behind the scences of Under the Shadow

BAFTA nominated director Babak Anvari\'s first feature length film, "Under the Shadow", certainly offers a unique insight into the devastation of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. Taking place in Tehran just as the war enters its eighth year, the thriller follows a mother and her young daughter struggling to survive a brutal bombing campaign whilst also dea...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 07 December 2016

Self contained and expandable commentary systems

Adopting innovative technologies and techniques is always fundamental to the control of capital and operational costs - the key to broadcast facilities or technology providers gaining competitive advantage. Sports commentary has continually suffered from high operational costs, whether at the sports venue itself or "off-glass", due to the need for...

Submitted by Chris Collings

Published 26 September 2016

Ask the experts - Transitioning to IP

1) What has been the broadcast industry's feeling about the move to an all IP workflow?Transitioning from conventional signal transport to an all-IP environment in broadcast or content production operations seems to be a matter of "when\" rather than "if,\" as it brings a great number of advantages with it. IP is touted as offering numerous benefit...

Submitted by Craig Newbury

Published 22 July 2016

OTT A Multiscreen Environment

Just when pay-TV operators and content providers seemed to be facing an insurmountable number of challenges related to OTT multiscreen delivery, the cloud has emerged as their saving grace. During this Q&A session, Sefy Ariely, EVP Americas at Viaccess-Orca, discusses the advantages of using a complete cloud-based TV Platform as a Service (PaaS) fo...

Submitted by Sefy Ariely

Published 14 June 2016

The Pros and Cons of Archiving in the Cloud

Archiving content in the cloud provides a number of key benefits. However, many media companies and content owners are still hesitant to store their assets that way due to content security implications and cost concerns. So what are the pros and cons of storing content in the cloud?There are a number of key drivers including: access to content from...

Submitted by Lee Sheppard

Published 14 June 2016

Girl Power

This month I was going to write about something important about the future technological platforms of our industry. It would have been incisive, enlightening and enriching. It really would have been. But I have just got completely derailed by the discovery of what I hesitate to call a cultural phenomenon. And while it is almost certain that you all...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 14 June 2016

The Power Of IP

by Jamie Shepperd Issue 112 - April 2016 There is little doubt that the adoption of IP technology across the broadcast workflow can bring significant benefit to broadcasters. IP is ubiquitous, it\'s based on common standards and broadcast can benefit further from the wealth of expertise and technology that exist in other industries. While we are st...

Submitted by Jamie Shepperd

Published 25 April 2016

The secret world of the underwriter

Am I a good or bad risk? And how much do Insurers really make? In this edition I will be given you a peek behind the underwriter's desk and an insight into how they go about making their money. I think that it is fair to say that all of us feel a little bit aggrieved paying out premiums, particularly those of us who don't make claims. It is certain...

Submitted by Leighton Chenery

Published 01 April 2016