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Eye to Eye: Sports Production

I was somewhat crestfallen to receive the advice 'Lay off 3D' when I rang TV Bay for guidance on the theme for this month's Eye to Eye. For better or worse, 3D looks set to be a major part of sports television in the coming years. But I picked up my crest, closed one eye and carried on running. Long-range opticsIt is by now quite widely appreciated...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

A dream budget

As the coalition government prepares its emergency budget, Peter Savage looks at what is planned and tells us what he thinks the government should do. Apologies to avid readers of this column that there wasn’t one in the last issue. The editors decided on an article on the effects of the general election on our industries and, sod’s law, the deadli...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

Hawk-Eye Accuracy and Believability in Cricket

In 1999 research began at Roke Manor Research Ltd., a company with over thirty years of vision processing expertise. Led by Dr. Paul Hawkins and funded by The Television Corporation, the concept of “Hawk-Eye” was born. First developed in 1999, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd continues to grow and develop with Hawk-Eye recently creating a system for the BB...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

How to create and brand a live TV experience online

Late last year, Pixel Power worked closely with the Perform Group to brand the first ever live England football match online, a landmark event. Before we discuss that in detail, there is a wider question to answer: what do we mean by “branding”? Branding is fundamentally how you differentiate your channel; how you make it stand out in the crowd and...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

What happened after NAB 2010.....

What happened next.......... On Wednesday the 14th April, evening time in Las Vegas, a text message came through from home reporting a Volcano in Iceland was affecting flights back to the UK, a wind up surely...did they not want us back.........?With NAB about to close for another year and 1000’s of Brit visitors and exhibitors at the show it beca...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2010

NAB2010 review

Sometimes NAB can be very predictable. For me NAB 2010, or 2010 NAB SHOW as its organisers call it, was not one of those shows. The mail that arrived at my inbox on 5 April from NAB Housing, saying there were hotel room bargains still to be had, lead me to think attendance would be well down. This was certainly not like the old days when rooms were...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2010

Aston ON

In August 2009 leading Spanish real-time graphics manufacturer, Brainstorm Multimedia acquired the Aston 7 character generator from the Softel Group. With over 30 years on the market, Aston is one of the most established brands in the business and has been the gold standard in character generation in the United Kingdom for many years – to the exten...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2010

3D Diaries Part 1

Believe it!Welcome to 3D Diaries, TV-Bay’s own monthly column dedicated to 3D. Each month will feature an aspect of the 3D chain from scene to screen – all areas are affected in some way or another, so there’s plenty to talk about! But this would be meaningless if you are not a 3D believer, so this month I’ve shown why 3D is now here to stay. At NA...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2010

With Polecam to the Antarctic

Whale Wars is a documentary-style reality television series that airs on Animal Planet, and follows the activities of the eco-activist group, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Last year, I was aboard Sea Shepherd’s flagship, “Steve Irwin” as Director of Photography and, along with a 5-man camera team, documented the “war” between the Japanese whal...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

Eye to Eye: Whats even newer in test and measurement 2010

A year is a long time in broadcast test & measurement, which is just as well because that is when this column previously focused on it. Given the current push to establish 3D as a permanent feature of the broadcast landscape, one might reasonably expect T&M kit designers to be heading along the same road. Hamlet and Omnitek certainly are but it see...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

POV cameras explained

John Chambers is Managing Director of Drivedata (UK) Ltd, which specialises in minicam solutions for broadcast, military and extreme-sports applications. Minicams, also referred to as POV cameras, are becoming increasingly popular as they get smaller, cheaper and easier to use. The POV camera is now a firm favourite in reality TV, sports coverage a...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2010

Im a celebrity get me out of here

Gearhouse Broadcast was awarded the contract to supply broadcast equipment and some crew for Granada Productions “I Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” in 2008. Since that time we have been involved in two UK shows and one German show in Australia plus a USA show in Costa Rica. Planning for these shows is an all year round exercise as the UK show is Dece...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Robotic cameras on location

Television is such a natural extension of the human senses that I doubt if more than one viewer in a thousand gives much thought to the effort put into modern programme production. Much of the original push for creative freedom came from outside broadcast crews, initially using turret-mounted optics and later zoom lenses to obtain close-ups of dist...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Two Decades of Development With DK-Technologies

For more than 20 years, DK-Technologies has been developing audio and video test and measurement products that have become industry standards thanks to their adoption by many of the world’s top music, broadcast and post production facilities. Founded in 1987 by its current CEO Karsten Hansen, DK began by developing complex, custom-designed matrix s...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010

Surround technologies

Throughout the world, in a wide range of broadcasts, surround sound has become a vital tool for easily and effectively capturing real-life recordings. Playing an equally important role in developing advanced surround sound microphones is Holophone®, with its patented audio recording devices designed specifically to address the challenges audio prof...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010