KitPlus | Articles

The way forward for lighting control

High Quality LED Fixtures are the Way Forward for Lighting ControlPat Grosswendt, Co-Founder, LitepanelsThe majority of directors of photography (DPs) work by the motto that if anything looks lit then it has been done badly. Whether on the set or in the studio, lighting directors strive to create images that look as natural as possible. The key to...

Submitted by Pat Grosswendt

Published 01 March 2013

Photon Beard shines bright in South India

by Peter Daffarn, Managing Director, Photon BeardOn 23 January 2013, the highly anticipated Mathrubhumi News Channel, part of a 24-hour Malayalam-language cable television network based in Trivandrum, capital city of the state of Kerala on the southwest coast of India, was officially launched. Also launched that day was India’s first wirelessly con...

Submitted by Peter Daffarn

Published 01 March 2013

Will Strauss gets a grip!

By Will StraussOf all the many areas of television technology that tv-bay Magazine covers, you might think that camera support is the one that appears, on the surface at least, to move the slowest. Take the tripod for example. Fundamentally, the design hasn’t changed for a hundred years. Or how about the dolly? The wheels and track device that Alfr...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 March 2013

Professional Video Editing Just Got Better

Endorsed by twenty five thousand Facebook fans, six industry awards and thousands of new users through the trial download and active forum communities, Autodesk, Inc.,announced that the new Autodesk Smoke 2013, professional video editing software is now shipping. “The anticipation for Smoke, since its thrilling announcement at the National Associat...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 February 2013

The cushion quotient

I have just been to a conference organised by the Mobile Data Association. I was very grateful to the organisers for the invitation, as it is the sort of thing that appeals to me: some of the top analysts in the industry throwing out statistics and predictions. Of course, at this sort of conference you get a lot more about where we are than where w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2012

IT Broadcasting

Magdoos Media is the archetypal early 21st century broadcaster. The company televises live events for such clients as Codemasters, ArabicGamers, 2K Games and Russell Investment, webstreaming and narrow-casting programmes on behalf of niche markets, from gaming conventions to corporate events. “Delivery channels vary from public access networks such...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

The highs and lows of histograms

Histogram displays for video analysis probably followed those found in common computer graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop. This can be very useful in finding video signal problems that would be difficult or impossible to see with a conventional waveform display. The histogram is a way of showing statistical results as a bar-chart. The range...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

4k The New Gunslinger in Town

Just when you thought it was sufficient to declare yourself ‘HD Ready’, along comes 4k. But don’t panic. Here’s the lowdown on what it all means and what tools are currently available. By Will Strauss. As someone that works in (or near) the town named broadcasting I probably don’t need to tell you this but technology advances pretty quickly around...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 December 2012

The semantic web made simple

There is a new term creeping in to discussions in the broadcasting business, and particularly around those involved in asset management and research projects. The term is “semantic web” and, I suspect, there are a lot of people who are neither completely sure they know what it means, nor trust its relevance in our business. I aim to provide some si...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Wibbly Wobbly Waveforms

The very first analytical electronic instrument, developed in the late 1890s, was the oscilloscope. This used a cathode ray tube (CRT) to paint a graph of voltage on the Y axis versus time on the X axis. Once television became a practical reality in the 1930s, the same instrument was applied to the video output from the camera and became the very u...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Pointing out the right colours

In the old days of PAL and NTSC analogue television, a vectorscope was an essential tool for examining chroma at every part for the programme production and transmission chain. This was because the colour information was carried as a phase and amplitude modulation which could be sensitive to a variety of transmission or recording non-linearities an...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Parting the Cloud

Every so often a trend looms over the broadcast horizon that gathers pace so quickly it soon becomes the buzzword at every launch and trade show. A few years ago it was MAM and more recently stereoscopic; now the big buzz in town is the cloud. But despite its recent rise to fame in the broadcast sector there’s still a lot of confusion regarding how...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Business travel

Talking to people in the broadcast industry, it is clear that travelling to shows, exhibitions or to visiting customers and suppliers is still part and parcel of the trade we are in. As the saying goes, people buy from people. And obviously it has its perks, including visiting places with slightly warmer climates than the freezing UK. But the bigge...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Handheld T and M the broadcast emergency service

“Test and Measurement”. Shudder. Like “Health and Safety”, “Bus” and “Replacement Service” or “Keith and Orville” it’s a collocation of words that fills me with dread. Seriously, who wants to read about “Test and Measurement”? Well, as it turns out, the answer is: quite a lot of people. Because, despite its lack of glamour, it is hugely important....

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

TV-BAY Questions

Name & TitleJohn R Williams, Director Oscus Media in EdinburghWho are you (about yourself and who you work for)?This is a hobby that has got out of control! I was always keen of Tape recorders, and my son who is now 24, has followed the same pattern with an edit suite at aged 10. I have had no formal training and so I’ve have had to learn from the...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012