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BVE 2011 retrospect

BVE 2011 had much of the buoyancy and buzz of an IBC. The organisers claimed an attendance of over 15,500 visitors and 240 exhibiting companies. Many of the UK-based stalwarts who make the annual pilgrimage to Amsterdam could be seen exploring the show, confirming that BVE is now taken seriously by mainstream broadcasters. It is perhaps over-optimi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011

NFTS, the future of digital visionaries

The Confession, a film from The National Film and Television School (NFTS), has recently been nominated for an Academy Award, in the Live Action Short Film category - the second nomination for an NFTS graduation film in this category in the last five years. The success of the film comes days after more than 40 NFTS graduates worked on nominated fil...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Challenging Loudness

Numerous definitions of the word loudness exist but to understand the relevance of the word in relation to the world of broadcast sound perhaps the statement that loudness is “our perceived impression of the intensity, frequency, and duration of a sound” fits closest. We all watch TV with the remote control close at hand; not just to change channel...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Expanding Arqiva into HD playout

ATG Broadcast recently completed a major SD to HD upgrade for Arqiva broadcast transmission centre at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The expanded system enables Arqiva to process and transmit four fully-operational 1080i HD channels as well as six new SD channels. It includes the installation and equipping of a server-based ingest suite, playout...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2010

Ravensbourne 21st Century Broadcast Education

Just over eighteen months ago, Adrian Scott of the Bakewell House Consultancy was commissioned to guide Ravensbourne through the EU Tendering process to appoint a Systems Integrator to transform the broadcast facilities of Ravensbourne as it moved into its new multi-million pound home at Greenwich Peninsula. Winning the contract, TSL rose to the ch...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2010

tv-bay IBC2010 double takes

Tv-bay Double Takes..!Acquisition For-A VFC-7000 Camera HD Variable Frame Rate CameraASA1800 Sensitivity, Native 720x1280 resolution with inbuilt up-convert to 1920x1080 and will output at 50 or 59.94 frame rates. 120 - 700 Frames per second recording speed. Two HD-SDI outputs enabling live and recordings to be viewed simultaneously. Standard onboa...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2010

Modern Tools for Test and Measurement in Post Production

Today’s post-production facilities and practically the entire global multimedia industry, face a common issue: how to effectively eliminate the notorious problem of inconsistent loudness being pushed to the absolute limits. Whether it’s a television commercial break or a big-screen movie, there is simply no question, the signal flow should still be...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2010

HD Post Production

In a parallel universe all forms of electronic entertainment are produced and presented in identical formats that can be exchanged and retrieved by anyone with permission to access the product. Unfortunately in our universe the opposite is true and a frustrated band of audio and video heroes spend every day of their working lives trying to satisfy...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2010

Eye to Eye: Distribution and Delivery 2010

Distribution and Delivery are two elements of in the broadcast chainthat get taken pretty much for granted but both are highly important. My focus in this summary is on equipment and software introduced since IBC 2009 and in the run-up to NAB 2010. Distribution linksThese come in many shapes and flavours, over copper, optical fibre, RF, point-to-po...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

AVCHD and NXCAM

I’ll be honest – up until recently I had not been a big fan of AVCHD. It promised great things but, having hired out consumer AVCHD cameras for the last few years, we knew there were still a few hurdles for it jump over. For corporate customers, to just ‘plug and play’ in terms of simple playback was impossible – some form of software was always re...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Broadcasting Audio in 5.1 Format

One of the positive consequences of digital television transmission is the ability to include fully embedded multi channel audio with suitable metadata to control both channel displacement and even sound levels within the domestic environment. While at the receiving end of the transmission chain there are many innovations and protocols to make life...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010

Pushing Air- the art of acoustic design

Acoustics is usually regarded (or often disregarded) as a black art that is practiced with no discernable science involved, with a great reliance on ears for measurement and blind faith as a method statement. Nothing could be further from the truth in the professional study of sound, with many practitioners furnished with several degrees and a weal...

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

Junger Audio Helps Broadcasters Get To Grips With 5.1 Upm...

Television viewers who have invested in home cinema systems will already know how dreadful mono and stereo audio can sound when played through 5.1 surround sound speakers. Instead of being enveloped by carefully mixed 5.1 surround sound, viewers are, instead, subjected to unbalanced audio coming at them from unpredictable directions. This problem i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010

Eye to eye Picture displays and multiviewers 2009

The transition from cathode-ray tubes to flat-panel display devices for broadcast picture monitoring was a long time coming but is now almost complete. Grade 1 CRTs from suppliers such as Ikegami and Sony are still purchased in small numbers for monitoring in quality-conscious playout centres and post-production houses. For every other broadcast ap...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009