KitPlus | Articles

MAM needs to adapt or die

The media landscape has shifted dramatically over recent years. Content providers are under increasing pressure to deliver compelling content to multiple platforms. Also, the production and distribution of video is no longer limited to traditional broadcasters, which face rising competition from a range of media providers. We are also seeing a mass...

Submitted by Tim Child

Published 15 February 2017

Mr MXF thinks the future is bright

I have had the good fortune to spend some time with students at Southampton Solent, The University of Surrey, Ravensbourne and Godalming College in the last few weeks. Although student numbers are down on the technology courses, enthusiasm is high and the passion for the broadcast and media industry is evident in the eyes of the stars of tomorrow....

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 13 January 2017

Rethinking standards in the media world

It\'s actually a more difficult question than you think. When I ask the majority of engineers this question, I will get a technical answer. It will be something like "to be sure we meet the specification\" or "to be sure we don\'t put bad signals on air\" or "so that I don\'t get fired for getting loudness wrong\" The reality of course is that moni...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 07 December 2016

The value of an industry placement

"Do a placement after the second year of your degree they said, it\'ll be fun they said!\" You know what, they were right! Hello there, my name is Abbie Smith and I have just returned from my placement year to conclude my third and final year studying BA Film and Television Studies. Undertaking a placement within your university degree is heavily p...

Submitted by Abbie Smith

Published 07 December 2016

Heading towards brightness regulations

I like IBC in the same way that I find NAB grating. Maybe I have been living in the UK for too long, but the bright morning Amsterdam sun breaking through clouds and reflecting off the canal while fit young things on bicycles pedal to college; snapchatting with their friends and avoiding collisions with practised ease has a certain charm. You just...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 10 November 2016

IBC - how was it you

IBC 2016 was very much a launching show, with more new products and updates than in many recent IBC\'s or NAB\'s. With so many of these announcements directly in the remit of a cameraman, blink and you\'d miss the next big thing in camera and lenses news. With this in mind, this review focuses on camera and lenses only. One consistent factor among...

Submitted by Duncan Payne

Published 10 November 2016

Live streams versus srowing files

So, what is the difference between a stream and a file? It may seem like a dumb and obvious question, but it's crucial in the design of many file based workflows and the applications that drive them. Let's start with the basic and obvious answer. "You can random access a file but you sequentially process a stream". This used to be important back in...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 26 September 2016

Wireless transformation contributes to IP future

The consumer appetite for content is driving broadcast manufacturers to explore every opportunity to make physical devices smaller, faster and more efficient - right from the ability to squeeze the business end of an OB truck into a single flight case to HD transmitters that can be held in a child's hand. Only a few years ago none of this would hav...

Submitted by JP Delport

Published 26 September 2016

Reducing the costof live production

Prime time ratings are declining. Viewers can now watch their favourite shows plus new programming where and how they want and it customer loyalty is fast becoming a trait of the past. However, one area which is still continues to attract significant audience figures is live TV, particularly live sporting events. For example: it was estimated that...

Submitted by John Smith

Published 26 September 2016

The true benefits of the media factory ideal

As an industry we know that to be successful in the new multi-platform, multi-format environment there are hurdles that broadcasters and other content owners must overcome. These include: the introduction of non-linear offerings, which require different services to be managed in parallel; the reduction of revenues from conventional linear channels,...

Submitted by Julian Fernandez-Campon

Published 22 July 2016

OTT - is it over the top or business as usual

OTT is a term that is casually bandied about as though everyone knows what it is, but is there really a single definition? Hopefully this little guide will have you speaking the jargon like a native!OTT stands for Over The Top. If you're into linguistics, then the first question that comes to mind is "What are A & B in the sentence: A is going over...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 22 July 2016

Content Security in the CLoud

Security is a difficult topic. There is no such thing a generic security. You always secure yourself against specific threats and hope the solution is generic enough to cover other similar classes of threat. For example - placing an expensive lock on the front door of your house prevents the specific threat of gaining access by using the door handl...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 14 June 2016

TVFutures looking back at the class of 2015

In a review of the academic year, KitPlus looks back over all of the contributions from students (and staff) and asks for one last comment 'with an eye to the future'Charlie Watts - Course Leader - TV and Broadcasting#TVFutures is a brilliant way for students to evaluate their current situation and really articulate important moments of learning an...

Submitted by Charlie Watts

Published 14 June 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