KitPlus | Articles

Education meets industry...

by Bernard Newnham Issue 98 - February 2015 Heatherden Hall - the most famous country house you\'ve never heard of. Famous because it has appeared in large numbers of British films from Goldfinger to Carry on Camping. Why? Because it\'s the original building at the UK\'s premier film studio - Pinewood. A fitting place, then, to hold a conference on...

Submitted by Bernard Newnham

Published 01 March 2015

The fast-moving business of providing pop-up editing suit...

by Danny Carri Issue 97 - January 2015 Video editing is moving at a fast pace, with video, software and server specifications all changing with the seasons. For production companies who know what they want, hiring an editing system for the duration of a production is an efficient alternative to hiring the services of a post production facility. We...

Submitted by Danny Carri

Published 01 February 2015

ITTP Conference

by Graham Reed Issue 96 - December 2014 Plans are coming along very well for the 2015 Conference of the Institute of Training in TV Production, ITTP. The conference held last January at Pinewood Studios was a great success with many high profile speakers and there was also much lively debate between session panel members and the delegates. Since th...

Submitted by graham reed

Published 01 January 2015

Training in the video industry

by Bob Butler Issue 95 - November 2014 I have read quite a lot recently about training in the \'Video\' industry. Whilst it is true that as a hire company we at Broadcast Services are often surprised at the lack of knowledge about equipment, we can understand it to a point, due to the ever changing digital world. Not so long ago there were only a c...

Submitted by Bob Butler

Published 01 December 2014

Wireless Production Tools - Hints, tips and a word of war...

by Alan March Issue 95 - November 2014 Some Do\'s and Don\'ts Over the years, there have been certain questions or queries that have had a habit of re-occurring. At the risk of teaching you, dear reader, to suck eggs, here are a few of them;Can I use two transmitters with just one receiver? No. With wireless microphones, a dedicated transmitter and...

Submitted by Alan March

Published 01 December 2014

Exposed to ideas

by Dick Hobbs Issue 94 - October 2014 I did not get the chance to attend much of the IBC conference this year. But I did make sure I was there for the interview with Professor Brian Cox, which was excellent. He is witty, charismatic and exceptionally clever. Once a keyboard player in a rock band, Cox is now a particle physicist and one of the leade...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 November 2014

A new age of teleprompting?

by Jon Hilton Issue 92 - August 2014 Whilst it may not be the first thing on the production agenda, one could argue it is an essential production tool today delivering at least two fundamental production values. Firstly it can save you money by reducing the time required to get that perfect take and secondly it means that your presenter will be wor...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 01 September 2014

UWP-D11 Review

by Kevin Cook Issue 91 - July 2014 Ever since the new regulations in the UK on radio microphone frequencies were introduced in the UK at the end of 2012, the days were numbered for my trusty old Sony UWP series radio mic system (consisting of the URX-P1 UHF dual-diversity receiver and UTX-B1 transmitter). Whilst super-reliable and excellent quality...

Submitted by Kevin Cook

Published 01 August 2014

Skillset Accreditation

by Nick Way Issue 90 - June 2014 After the ITTPs inaugural conference on 27th January this year Skillset very kindly invited a member of ITTP to observe them accrediting a University Film and Television Course. I responded quickly and won the prize¦!I journeyed from work on the Thursday evening to the hotel for an evening meeting so the team could...

Submitted by Nick Way

Published 01 July 2014

RTS Thames Valley NAB 2014 Review

by Simon Tillyer Issue 90 - June 2014 A sunny, early summer evening welcomed over 40 people to the annual RTS NAB review on 14th May. This annual get together features a panel of guests, chaired by Dick Hobbs discussing their experiences and thoughts of NAB. The panel consisted of Maya Severyn (Head of Technical Services & Support - Chellomedia), J...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 01 July 2014

Does lack of training produce inaudible sound

by John Barlow Issue 89 - May 2014 Jamaica Inn just happens to be the latest example of a mainstream TV drama production being broadcast with inaudible dialogue. The reasons vary from production to production but the end result is always an enormous waste of both acting and technical talent along with immense swathes of production budgets. Was it a...

Submitted by John Barlow

Published 01 June 2014

Head in the cloud

by Dick Hobbs Issue 89 - May 2014 Ive just had a look back through the archives, and I am pretty certain that this was my 25th NAB: a couple in the eighties and every year since 1992. In many peoples eyes this makes me just a beginner, I know. In the past I have spent the week on a stand, trying to sell something. My first ever NAB in Dallas, Texas...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 June 2014

Premier league infrastructure

by Alan Green Issue 88 - April 2014 It is now common practice to cable major sports venues for broadcast operations. It saves time rigging pulling cables in to every camera and commentary position can take a day or more. The efficiency is great for broadcasters it means that the same truck can work at different grounds on consecutive days. As well...

Submitted by Alan Green

Published 01 May 2014

Training the next generation

by Dick Hobbs Issue 86 - February 2014 At the end of January a new body the Institute for Training in Television Production (ITTP) held its first conference, organised by the publishers of TV-Bay magazine and chaired by former broadcaster Roz Morris, MD of TV News London Ltd. A packed room debated sometimes hotly the issues. Chair of ITTP is freela...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 March 2014

Moving into the IP based 4K UDTV camp

by Chuck MeyerIssue 84 - December 2013 There appear to be two parallel trains of inertia currently taking place in broadcast, one of course being the onset of 4K UDTV, the other being the transition to an IP-based content transport infrastructure. For many, the rapid changes and associated question are daunting, even for experienced professionals....

Submitted by Chuck Meyer

Published 01 January 2014