KitPlus | Articles

Navigating uncharted waters

I’m home again from the annual pilgrimage to Las Vegas. It must be something to do with getting older, but this year both key performance indicators (good dinners versus greasy hamburgers, and early nights versus late night carousing) fell on the conservative side. And my flight home landed 45 minutes early, rather than a week or so late. I was hea...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2011

Transforming Post Production With Content Supply Chain Ma...

These are challenging times for post-production companies and operations. Even the most sophisticated post houses are scrambling to evolve their content chains in the face of game-changing trends: the move from tape- to file-based workflows, the growth of new distribution outlets and windows, and the drive towards same-day-and-date release of major...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

My first direct experience of video post-production involved hauling a heavy Sony U-Matic tape machine up a flight of stairs before going back for an equally heavy playback deck, a bulky CRT monitor and a large box of interface giblets. That was in 1978. 33 years on, an Apple Mac does the whole editing job a great deal better, faster and more econo...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

What are the most important opportunities and challenges...

What are the most important opportunities and challenges facing the TV industry today?To answer this question we need to look more broadly at consumer behaviour and the changing way people are consuming content. Viewers no longer solely want a passive experience with a TV programme in their front room. They want to watch catch-up TV on a laptop, do...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Neither a borrower nor a lender be....

Much has been written in the press recently about access to, or more frequently, the absence of funding for small businesses, otherwise known as SMEs (small and medium enterprises). But how do we define a small enterprise and when does a company transition from a small to medium enterprise?The official definitions are as follows: a small company ha...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Using Multipoint Monitoring to Ensure Reliable Digital Vi...

Because the quality and bandwidth-efficiency advantages of digital over analog methods have made digital transport preferred, the world continues its migration to an all-digital approach to delivering video signals – from the studio through distribution networks to the end-viewer. As with any new technology, adopting and integrating digital video d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

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

3D to see at IBC 2010

IBC2010 marks the fourth year when the new wave of Stereoscopic 3D took hold at the show. That’s three years of time for development and implementation. While cinema is racing ahead, taking a good extra percentage of people at the door who pay a 3D premium price – television in Europe is only just beginning. Sky is the pioneer for the UK, going on...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2010

Shared Storage Comes of Age

Increasingly stored in digital form, together with related metadata, digital media is in the process of transforming both the technology and process of production throughout the broadcast and post production industries. But as every action precipitates a reaction, every advancement precipitates its own particular challenges. The challenges with dig...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2010

Restoring The World At War

Originally broadcast in 1973 by ITV, the sweeping documentary “The World at War” focuses on the events immediately before, during, and after World War II. The British-produced television series is presented in 26 hour-long episodes and provides one of the most penetrating views into the war ever put to film. Narrated by Sir Lawrence Olivier, “The W...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2010

Making the content factory a reality

The expression “content factory” has been around for a while and in a number of contexts. Is this a realistic concept? Can we – producers, facilities, broadcasters – embrace the idea of process in the manufacturing sense, or is making content for television and the new digital platforms too different to making biscuits or cars?We are naturally resi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 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

A conversation with Peter Harman, Vinten Product Manager

Vinten is celebrating its centenary in 2010. What were the origins of the business?William Vinten was an engineer with a passion for quality. He set himself in business to repair friends’ bicycles at the age of 13, did a full apprenticeship in a machine shop, and worked for Frederick Lamplough, the steam car pioneer. But it was seeing his first mov...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 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

The Real Cost of Calibration

Calibration is the cornerstone of measurement confidence. Badly calibrated instruments are liable to produce measurement errors which can then propagate throughout an enterprise and even to the end-user’s product… and beyond! This can have a detrimental effect on a company’s reputation and profits, and could even have legal implications. The best w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010