KitPlus | Articles

Understanding the process of video production

i In this article I will focus on understanding the process of video production. The use of miniaturised video equipment and understanding the capability of the kit chosen for the job will be mentioned. The video production process is a road map, which not only helps the producer to minimise problems during production and achieve professional resul...

Submitted by Joseph Adamson

Published 07 September 2017

State of the Nation - part 1

i Imagine you are the director of the Champions League Final, knowing that 200 million people will be watching your every decision. Or you\'re directing the Eurovision Song Contest. Or even, to be honest, the Tunbridge Wells local news opt out. And at live minus 30 seconds, all the screens in the monitor wall suddenly go black then show a demand, i...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 07 September 2017

The UPs and Downs At NAB with Mr MXF

i "Nothing is finer than the pictures on that monitor", said my colleague as we stood in front of the enormous Sony LED screen showing super bright, super wide HDR pictures that were beautifully shot and carefully presented. The English language, however, can be confusing because when I returned from NAB and showed my wife the photos that I took, s...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 01 August 2017

What happened to audio networking

i It may seem hard to believe, but audio networking has now been with us for over 20 years. In 1996, Peak Audio released CobraNet, the first system that used computer networking of some sort to transport audio. Looking at that early system, it wasn\'t easy to see all the benefits that were to come. Yes, you eventually got up to 64 channels on a sin...

Submitted by Brad Price

Published 01 August 2017

Is everyone a journalist these days

i Today\'s content consumers have endless viewing and streaming possibilities thanks to the advent of smart phones and tablets that allow them to watch pretty much anything they want, on the go, and away from the confines of a television screen. Those very same smartphones and tablets have also brought another revolution to the broadcast industry -...

Submitted by Rene Morch

Published 01 August 2017

Misinterpreting complexity for sophistication

i Professor Niklaus Wirth was one of the pioneers of computing as we know it. He was responsible for the Pascal language, a project he completed in 1970. Wirth became professor of computing studies at ETH-Zrich, and retired in 1999, although he remains active to this day. He grew ever-more despairing of the complexities of computing systems, which...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 01 August 2017

Designing the correct workflow

Last year I took a year-long placement as a video editing support technician. The role exposed me to the common issues that students run into when editing their projects, and I developed an understanding as to why they might struggle understanding the complexities of video workflow. As a student myself I can understand why workflow can be a difficu...

Submitted by Harry Smith

Published 19 May 2017

A Software Based Approach to Video Monitoring

Real-time content monitoring is a mission-critical operation for broadcasters, telecom, and satellite operators. Traditionally, service providers have used monitoring systems based on specialized hardware with a dedicated, fixed interface designed to monitor a specific number of video feeds. Yet, bespoke hardware solutions require a substantial amo...

Submitted by Anupama Anantharaman - new

Published 04 April 2017

Libec TH-X Tripod review

It is worth highlighting that I am primarily an Editor. Like many of us, over the years I have regularly been involved in the entire creative process in some capacity but increasingly I am asked to go out and film the simpler corporate jobs such as exhibition stands or a \'piece to camera\' for YouTube, Vimeo etc. and embedded into the customer\'s...

Submitted by Nick Robbins

Published 15 March 2017

What are the challenges of AoIP

At the setup of a recent Outside Broadcast (OB), I was privy to an attempt to pass a signal across two independent Audio over IP (AoIP) enabled trucks. In an SDI world, this bridge would have been as simple as coupling two BNC cables together, but here the engineers quipped about the additional and sometimes challenging processes of connecting one...

Submitted by Craig Newbury

Published 15 March 2017

Smarter Branding

The past decade of multi-channel digital broadcasting has created a paradox. The addition of OTT, VoD and other online services only serves to add to it. On the one hand, the more channels there are, the more you need to market yours if it is to win and retain a healthy audience. On the other hand, the more channels there are, the more the total re...

Submitted by James Gilbert

Published 15 February 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

The secret to global Gogglebox success

People all over the world love watching other people watch TV. What many of us thought was a ridiculous notion when Gogglebox first aired in the UK in 2013, has since become a worldwide phenomenon. \'Gogglebox is held up by the global industry and broadcast community as an example of excellence in audience engagement and production innovation, and...

Submitted by Chris Cooper

Published 15 February 2017

Top gadgets for 2017

Wow - 2016 - we certainly didn\'t see you coming. Thankfully, one thing we can reliably see coming in the midst of our increasingly unpredictable futures, are the beautiful range of shiny inventions, gadgets and technological wonderment of the year 2017 - so put today\'s headlines to one side and enjoy this rare opportunity to take a look at a reli...

Submitted by Beth Zarkosh

Published 13 January 2017

Hacking Hell

There was a really scary story in the news a week or two ago. In the words of Yves Bigot, director-general of TV5 Monde, "we were a couple of hours from having the whole station gone for good". What happened to this highly respected broadcaster was that malicious hackers set out to destroy the network\'s systems. That has to be an alarm call for al...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 07 December 2016