KitPlus | Articles

Future proofing post production storage

Advancements in NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), the storage protocol designed for flash, are revolutionising data storage. According to G2M Research, the NVMe market will grow to $60 billion by 2021, with 70 percent of all-flash arrays being based on the protocol by 2020. NVMe, acting like steroids for flash-based storage infrastructures, dynam...

Submitted by Josh Goldenhar

Published 25 January 2019

21st Century Technology for 20th Century Content

A big challenge facing owners of legacy content is rationalising and archiving their tape and film-based media in cost effective and efficient ways, whilst also adding value. Normally the result of this is to find a low cost means of digitising the content – usually leaving them with a bunch of assets on HDD. But then what? How can content owners h...

Submitted by James Hall

Published 25 January 2019

The making of The Heist

Shine TV has never been one to shy away from a challenge, be that in terms of using new technologies, filming ideas or overall formats: we pride ourselves on being ambitious and risk-takers. We make Hunted and The Island with Bear Grylls for Channel 4 and we’ve just made The Heist, this time working with Sky One. These are all huge, ambitiously for...

Submitted by Tom Hutchings

Published 25 January 2019

State of the Nation - January 2019

I’m writing these thoughts on the morning of 20 December. From my desk in Tunbridge Wells I am normally gently aware of air traffic at five thousand feet, lining up to land at Gatwick Airport. Today it is silent: since 9.00 last night some idiot has been flying drones across the runway. An airport is a finely tuned machine, with all the interconnec...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 24 January 2019

Bringing creative ideas to life

While the start of a new year is all about looking forward to the new possibilities and exciting opportunities ahead, indulge me for a moment in looking back to this time last year. CVP had just completed a management buyout and were planning how to take the company forward. We had an excellent foundation, a great team with the right skillsets and...

Submitted by Jon Fry

Published 24 January 2019

Filming behavioural sequences in tough environments

Three leading figures from the world of natural history production discuss their experiences with the Panasonic VariCam and EVA1 large sensor cameras, and offer advice for shooting in challenging environments including underwater, at high altitude and in extreme weather. Panasonic was proud to sponsor an exclusive seminar with three leading individ...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 24 January 2019

Sony PWS-4500 Live Production Server Reviewed

Available since 2016, the Sony PWS-4500 is a solid-state UHD/HD live production server designed for use in applications such as sports, studio or stage events. The target applications are master recording and advanced replay operations for live production companies for whom the server's ability to record the output from high frame rate cameras and...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 24 January 2019

State of the Nation - November 2018

There is an interesting seminar called Size Matters at the KitPlus Show – organised by the publishers of this fine magazine – at MediaCityUK in Salford on 6 November. It’s a talk by cinematographer Alistair Chapman on the way that camera technology is changing, and in particular the size of the electronic device which creates the image is growing....

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 09 November 2018

An Obituary to Timecode

A stoic and persistent character that stubbornly refused to change with the times, Timecode has finally passed on, but no-one has noticed. A long-lasting industry veteran, Timecode was brought into this world at an uncertain date in the late 1960s due to the needs of analogue tape workflows and the demand for synchronisation between audio and video...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 09 November 2018

GoPro HERO 7 Review

When I heard I was filming a nature restoration project in the pouring rain this week I was excited. WHY? No Cameraman enjoys the rain, surely but this time I was enthusiastic because I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the brand new GoPro Hero 7 Black Edition. Scythes, water, and wildlife that excrete things are not normally co...

Submitted by Tim Bearder

Published 09 November 2018

Accelerated Workflows with eGPU

Customer:Creative BlokeIndustry: Media & EntertainmentChallenges:To enable a small independent visual effects facility, Creative Bloke, with a versatile GPU that contains a combination of portability and performance to cater to their wide and varied portfolio of clients. Solution:Creative Bloke utilized the AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100 graphics card in t...

Submitted by Mike Griggs

Published 09 November 2018

The brave new world of software based production

In today’s rapidly evolving broadcast industry, the only constant media organizations can truly count on is change — and the need to adapt as rapidly and cost-effectively as possible. One of the biggest agents of change is the IP revolution, driving broadcasters to migrate their operations to all-software solutions running on commodity, IT-based te...

Submitted by Boromy Ung

Published 09 November 2018

Taking on a self employed placement year

The idea of being self-employed or freelancing has always been somewhat terrifying for me. There is a level of uncertainty and responsibility that comes with the freedom of being self-employed, the likes of which makes me wonder why I chose to give it a go for my placement year as part of my university course - (BSc) Television and Broadcasting. I...

Submitted by Joshua Round

Published 08 September 2018

What is next in OTT

In the past year alone, we’ve seen a substantial increase in the amount of OTT content that’s being streamed. In the first quarter of 2018, there’s been a 114 percent year-over-year growth in streaming video hours, and those numbers are only expected to rise. With OTT revenue predicted to reach $16.6B in 2018, a 40% gain over last year, there’s no...

Submitted by Mary Kay Evans

Published 08 September 2018

The Biggest Toy Shop in the World

When Nigel Woodford started his career at BBC Wood Norton in 1962, television was black and white and BBC Two had not yet been launched. In 2018 Nigel will retire, and Richmond Film Services, the pro-audio equipment rental company set up by Nigel in 1973, can count numerous contributions to iconic moments in British cultural, sporting and film hist...

Submitted by Emma Morrison

Published 08 September 2018