KitPlus | Articles

Rising to the occasion

by Kevin CookIssue 83 - November 2013 I must admit I wasnt really in the market for a camera crane until I set eyes on the iFootage M1 Mini Crane. Sure, I love seeing craning shots in a film - and I understand perfectly how these types of shots give the viewer an additional and otherwise unavailable perspective to A scene but it all seemed like a l...

Submitted by Kevin Cook

Published 01 December 2013

Streaming Downtown Showdown

by Kate PhibbsIssue 82 - October 2013 With summer well and truly on its way out, what better way to send it off than a trip to Paris to produce and live stream the Vans Downtown Showdown 2013. After the success of producing and broadcasting the Vans Spring Classic in Italy in April, we here at 3xScreen Media knew that Downtown Showdown, Europes lar...

Submitted by Kate Phibbs

Published 01 November 2013

Sportsnet stays ahead of the game with Quantel

by Roger ThorntonIssue 81 - September 2013 Over the last 15 years, Sportsnet has risen to become one of Canadas leading sports media operations. The Sportsnet and Sportsnet One TV channels are complemented by Sportsnet Radio, Sportsnet Magazine and its premium international sports channel, Sportsnet World. In May 2013, parent company Rogers Media a...

Submitted by Roger Thornton

Published 01 October 2013

Quantum StorNext plays a starring role for Framestore

by Laurent FanichetIssue 80 - August 2013 Even Oscar winners need to update tools to cope with the rapid transition from film to digital, for leading post production studio Framestore that meant choosing StorNext File System and Storage Manager to improve digital workflows and automate data management, resulting in a 30-60 percent saving. Data File...

Submitted by Laurent Fanichet

Published 01 September 2013

Do you have the computing horsepower you need? XMac Mini...

by Greg LaPorteIssue 80 - August 2013 In high-pressure audio/video production environments, adequate computing horsepower is critical for handling the volume of tracks and channels to be recorded, played back, mixed, edited and streamed. The Apple® Mac Pro® offers great performance and extensibility but its heavy, bulky tower configuration doesnt l...

Submitted by Greg Laporte

Published 01 September 2013

Ask the experts: Content readiness in time-deferred workf...

by Sudeep BoseIssue 79 - July 2013 What are the fundamental considerations that must be addressed to ensure the quality of non-real-time content, whether played out from a broadcasters media server or time-shifted for VOD and other OTT services?When focusing on the actual content itself, rather than the service, network or other components, the key...

Submitted by Sudeep Bose

Published 01 August 2013

Singularity - QA and compliance monitoring in one box

by Martin DysterIssue 79 - July 2013 The task of maintaining loudness-compliant, high-quality delivery for broadcast audio is no longer a question of simply using ones ears. Audio channels produced for todays fast-paced productions come in embedded SDI workflow with streaming signals containing a mix of mono, stereo, surround, Dolby encoded and des...

Submitted by Martin Dyster

Published 01 August 2013

Increasing creativity and functionality with Q-Ball

By Jim Daniels, technical director, Camera CorpsTell us more about Camera Corps and its position within the industry…Camera Corps was founded almost 20 years ago to offer broadcasters video system design and rental services. Having focused on rentals from the very beginning, we have provided high-volume cameras, pan-and-tilt heads and tracking syst...

Submitted by Jim Daniels

Published 01 July 2013

The greening of broadcast facilities

By Chris Exelby, Managing Director, TSL Professional Products, Ltd. In today’s world of tightening broadcast facility budgets, planners need to keep a keen eye on the bottom line to ensure operational efficiency. An integral part of this process is getting a green handle on power management, an increasing necessity around the globe. Power managemen...

Submitted by Chris Excelby

Published 01 July 2013

4K at NAB with Bob Pank

As we head once more to NAB you may wonder what this year’s big thing will be. I put my money on 4K. As I write there must be many exhibitors polishing up their ‘4K solution’ message, ready for their customers at the show. With the extraordinary situation of screens costing more than cameras, a viable business model clearly remains far off. But, to...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2013

Dick Hobbs remembers the BBC Television Centre

I am writing this column the day after the last news programme was transmitted from BBC Television Centre, and by the time you read it the place will be more or less moribund. Which is sad. My first experience of Television Centre was – frighteningly – 40 years ago when I went to a recording of Andr Previn’s Music Night in TC1. It was a Rachmaninov...

Submitted by Bogdan Frusina

Published 01 May 2013

Monitoring OBs the light and easy way

by Stuart Cameron, MD of Cache-MediaI wonder sometimes whether a successful OB should be measured as Outside Broadcast Coverage per KG or OB coverage per KM. The cost of fuel keeps rising and so the cost of getting to an OB location is also increasing. To anyone who is a cyclist, you know that extra weight slows you down when climbing hills. Theref...

Submitted by Stuart Cameron

Published 01 April 2013

Cue Systems, more important than ever in live OB producti...

An effective cue system performs a crucial role in coordinating broadcast activity, keeping directors, production crew and camera operators informed and in control. Data gathered from vision mixers, routers and other production path components generates tally information that can be displayed on under-monitor displays (UMDs) and multi-screen viewer...

Submitted by Bob Head

Published 01 April 2013

Cooke Optics

by Robert HowardHere at Cooke Optics we’re currently basking in the golden glow of our brand new Academy Award® of Merit – yes, that’s an Oscar® statuette – which we received this February in recognition of our continuing innovation in the design, development and manufacture of motion picture camera lenses. From Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy...

Submitted by Robert Howard

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