KitPlus | Articles

Looking for the connection

This time last year I wrote a column which looked back. This year I have set myself the infinitely more challenging task of looking forward. What are the hot topics for 2012?The first prediction is easy. Television coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics will be extraordinary, capturing all the skill and dedication, elation and heartbreak of the w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

2011 wasnt all that bad for TV & Commercials, was it?...

2011 was pretty depressing, reading the paper or watching the news was a miserable experience, and all in all, those who still have a job, or have a business should apparently be chuffed to bits!Manufacturers have had a torrid 2011 with various disasters striking key supply lines around the world, meaning shortage of tape stock, and now hard drives...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Putting the Realism into Reality Television

“Reality television’ as a category of programming emerged in the late 1990s with the introduction of shows that attempted to portray real people responding to real challenges under more or less continual public gaze. Unlike sport, where the focus is primarily on physical skills and endurance, reality television shows place their participants in a w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

Austerity Cuts What do they mean for you and me

Whichever newspaper you read (or several, if you are a news-junkie like me), last week the big story was all about austerity cuts, Greek haircuts and numerous other types of cuts that don’t sound particularly pleasant to the uninformed masses – you and me. So I thought I would cut through the jargon to look into what it really means to the man in t...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

SETTING UP A COMPANY ABROAD

I’ve been busy setting up a business in Germany (replicating our UK operation) and thought it might make an interesting read for those of you who are thinking of establishing an office abroad – or even setting up a business in the UK. It all starts with a planYes, I’ve said it before but it’s a fact. The first and most important step is to form a p...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

All the Things You Want to Know About Cloud Computing

Though the current buzz surrounding the concept of cloud computing makes it seem like an all-new technology, the idea and practice originate from IBM’s pioneering use — nearly three decades ago — of virtualized mainframes with “thin clients.” These thin clients allowed users to centralize processing in the very expensive mainframe components, CPU m...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

How do you prepare for a curved ball

Peter Savage looks at the effect of the Japanese tsunami and considers whether it has changed our perception of acquisition formats and how we could have planned for itI was sitting with a client in Camden having a quiet lunch in a small Spanish caf. Very nice, very authentic and, as with all good cafs, Sky news was rolling (because no one was play...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

Using Panasonic AG-AF101 HD Camera

Introduction When award winning film maker and photojournalist Fiona Lloyd-Davies announced her latest project to embark on a journey to The Democratic Republic of Congo, she described the place as “probably one of the toughest environments that a camera can work in - very hot and very, very dusty” but, this was to be just one rigor amongst many du...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2011

THE RISE AND FALL AND RISE AND FALL OF POST PRODUCTION

I was sitting in the pub the other day and met an old editor mate of mine. We started chewing the cud about post-production and, inevitably, the glory days. When I first met him, in the early 80s, I hadn’t even started my career in broadcast leasing. He, meanwhile, had a money clip full of £50 notes and was the talk of the town. He didn’t have enou...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2011

tv-bay questions

Q. What is your opinion on the current state of the broadcast market?Broadcast is back! Well, of course, it never went away, but the recession hit many capital projects for broadcasts all over the world and it slowed significantly. Recently, we’ve seen a significant upturn in all areas, which is good for us all. Our business has been very successfu...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2011

Either meet your listeners halfway, or get them to come t...

In TV Bay’s IPTV & Online issue, I spoke about how streaming video online enabled content owners to share their work with the world a lot more effectively, so although the end result is the same, what technical procedures are different for streaming pure audio content?The pace of technical advancements have now established distinct requirements for...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 June 2011

NAB and the format wars

By the time you read this article you may be sitting comfortably on the plane ready to take-off to Vegas. Every year the show comes at a strange time – just after the shooting season has started in the northern hemisphere. As a result, most of the camera companies at the show will have already sorted their purchasing needs for the year ahead, espec...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

What are the most important opportunities and challenges...

What are the most important opportunities and challenges facing the TV industry today?To answer this question we need to look more broadly at consumer behaviour and the changing way people are consuming content. Viewers no longer solely want a passive experience with a TV programme in their front room. They want to watch catch-up TV on a laptop, do...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Neither a borrower nor a lender be....

Much has been written in the press recently about access to, or more frequently, the absence of funding for small businesses, otherwise known as SMEs (small and medium enterprises). But how do we define a small enterprise and when does a company transition from a small to medium enterprise?The official definitions are as follows: a small company ha...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Commonwealth Games Will Be All Right On The Night

Fans of Bollywood films will be familiar with the classic Indian wedding storyline in which complete chaos usually engulfs the event right up to the moment when the groom arrives, at which point everything comes together and everyone has a whale of a time and puts behind them the dramas that preceded the ceremony. The XIX Commonwealth Games (CWG) i...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2010