KitPlus | Articles

Automation in Uncertain Times

In light of the unfavourable economic outlook broadcasters need to protect their investment in technology like never before. There is a high chance that some products designed to make the broadcast environment more efficient will become obsolete and this in turn will have a knock-on and negative effect on workflow in transmission suite. Although br...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

Automation in Uncertain Times

In light of the unfavourable economic outlook broadcasters need to protect their investment in technology like never before. There is a high chance that some products designed to make the broadcast environment more efficient will become obsolete and this in turn will have a knock-on and negative effect on workflow in transmission suite. Although br...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

OLED vs LCD

There was a rapid change in image display technology within the last few years. Nowadays CRTs are history, flatpanels substitute them everywhere. Even in the broadcast industry. Different technologies dominate the market;Plasma - a self-lighting principle - mostly used for large screens;TFT-LCDs - a concept that always needs a backlight - most comm...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Automation in Uncertain Times

In light of the unfavourable economic outlook broadcasters need to protect their investment in technology like never before. There is a high chance that some products designed to make the broadcast environment more efficient will become obsolete and this in turn will have a knock-on and negative effect on workflow in transmission suite. Although br...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

NAB 2009 report

By general consensus, this year's NAB Spring Convention, or 'NABshow' as it styles itself, was one of the best ever. Wider aisles and a respectable rather than manic level of attendance made the event, in the words of one exhibitor, 'Business Class'. NAB was always the prototype show where you could sense the directions in which manufacturers were...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

Eye to Eye. Whats new in test and measurement 2009

The transition from analogue to digital programme production, storage and delivery lulled some innocent folk into anticipating a world without need for test equipment. If required at all, so the thinking went, all signal analysis would be performed in software. Maybe someday. For now, the T&M sector remains alive and well. The following summary out...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

JVC introduces new Final Cut Pro 6

Victor Company of Japan, Ltd. (JVC) further expands its ProHD camcorder line-up by introducing two professional solid state camcorders, the industry's first to store files in the native QuickTime format for Apple's Final Cut Pro™ onto reliable and inexpensive SDHC media cards. The compact hand-held GY-HM100 3-CCD camcorder is introduced in January...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2009

Surround Sound For HD Broadcast

While 2008 may not be fondly remembered as a classic year if you work in certain industries, it's a fascinating time to be working in video media production or broadcast television. The steady move to high-definition at all stages of the video production process, is causing the biggest shake-up in technology and working practices since the introduc...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

RF Condenser Microphones why they are so good in the wet

A question I am often asked when people discover who I work for is “Why are ‘RF condenser’ microphones so good in the wet, being so much less susceptible to humidity problems than the more common ‘AF condenser’ microphones?”Basically, AF capacitor microphones use the capsule as a capacitor to store charge. With one fixed plate and the other free to...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

How we lit Mick

Shine a lightLets start at the beginning with the most fundamental, basic of questions – what’s the point of lighting anything, let alone a living legend like Sir Mick Jagger? The answer is simple – because lighting is the most important part of the whole process. Not the filming. Not the fiddly edit. Not the chin-scratching pre-production. The lig...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

Lighting and Grip.

Lighting and Grip are often spoken as if they are one item, inseparable and complete. However the clue is in the phrase lighting AND grip. So let’s start by separating them. Lighting covers the instruments that provide the light. Grip covers the instruments we use to hold and control the light. LightingThere is a huge range of lights, luminaires, p...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

Getting the best out of your LCD

Getting the best out of your LCDs?Many people who use CRT picture monitors have found the introduction of LCD displays disappointing. Getting the best out of your LCD may not be as simple as it may seem. With a wide choice of vendors and models all proclaiming broadcast quality, it can be difficult to determine which product is most suitable for yo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Is it cool to use cool lighting

Is it cool to use cool ?The term ‘cold lighting’ is used within the film & TV lighting industry as a generic term for energy efficient, Fluorescent, LED, and Plasma (panel) lighting sources which emit little or no radiant heat. HistoryThe technology is not so new; Evidence exists of neon lighting being used on a film set in Teddington Studios Engla...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2008

The Reflecmedia Chromaflex portable chromakey system

The use of keying a foreground image over a background image to form a composite is an established and widely used technique in film and TV production. For most cameramen this will usually involve them in shooting a subject against a coloured background, typically green or blue. Sounds simple but reality can be far from it, anecdotes abound of nigh...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2008