KitPlus | Articles

Polecam user review

When it comes to filming from above, drones have dominated in recent years. But restrictions on where and when they can be used means there is still a demand for traditional style jibs. Polecam has been a major player in the crane market for nearly two decades and its rigs have captured everything from interesting perspectives of major sporting eve...

Submitted by Phil Vinter

Published 15 March 2017

Smarter Branding

The past decade of multi-channel digital broadcasting has created a paradox. The addition of OTT, VoD and other online services only serves to add to it. On the one hand, the more channels there are, the more you need to market yours if it is to win and retain a healthy audience. On the other hand, the more channels there are, the more the total re...

Submitted by James Gilbert

Published 15 February 2017

Grading Quantum Break

Developed by Remedy Entertainment, published by Microsoft Studios and produced by Lifeboat Productions, the sci-fi game Quantum Break is an interactive and integrated live-action TV show that features actual characters chosen by the players game choices. Available for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows users, Quantum Break follows protagonist Jack Joyc...

Submitted by Juan Ignacio

Published 15 February 2017

Where university meets universe with Tim Peake

If you had told me last year that, going into my second year at the University of Portsmouth, I would have met and interviewed Tim Peake, then I would have probably laughed and said something along the lines of "I wish". Well, turns out I didn\'t have to wish, because I did just that. As a second year in Television and Broadcasting BSc I\'ve starte...

Submitted by Georgia Thirtle

Published 13 January 2017

Diversify or Die

This headline of this article is a simple fact, diversify or die! It is necessary for survival as well as interest of mind to do this within business. "If a farmer can no longer produce crops because no-one wants them he must diversify or die.\" Caravans, glamping, corporate days in the country with hunting, fishing and shooting; these are just som...

Submitted by Steffan Hewitt

Published 13 January 2017

The eye in the sky

EVENT360 specialises in production and delivery of sport presentation, entertainment and stadium ceremonies, and, as such, we\'re always looking for new, interesting, and innovative crowd engagement tools. One of those engagement tools that we\'d been using for many years was a crowd-surfing ball - basically a sponsor-branded beach ball thrown into...

Submitted by Julian Marks

Published 13 January 2017

Broadcasting virtual reality to the world

Following the recent launch of a number of virtual reality (VR) headsets, such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, VR is introducing new and compelling platforms for broadcasters to deliver their content, and new ways for audiences to consume. While the way that audiences consume content continues to shift, with the ratio between viewing on fixed scre...

Submitted by Steve Plunkett

Published 13 January 2017

Radio cameras bring a live broadcast to life

Radio cameras bring a live broadcast to life - especially news, sports and studio shows - by their ability to roam around and move in closer to a subject. They capture a more natural spectator\'s view than a camera that is fixed at one point, and usually get the most intimate shots and the most exciting angles in a production. Today they are indisp...

Submitted by Tony Valentino

Published 13 January 2017

The importance of a low noise floor

The Noise Floor of a piece of T&M equipment is the inherent noise (or intrinsic jitter) introduced by the equipment itself. The level of inherent noise affects the accuracy and repeatability of jitter measurements that can be made, especially when measuring low levels of jitter. With the permitted 100KHz jitter on a 12G-SDI signal being only 0.3UI,...

Submitted by Alan Wheable

Published 07 December 2016

Television is dead, long live television

After decades of operating within the same fundamental model, the walls around our world - what was the broadcast world, or "vertical", in marketing terms - are crumbling. NAB 2016 clearly showed this and IBC 2016 took it one step further: momentum is strengthening as we push towards an IP future. The TVB2020 conference earlier this year also refle...

Submitted by Ephraim Barrett

Published 07 December 2016

Life through a hire lens

There are loads of differences in the requirements for say news, sport or live entertainment events, and it\'s digging a little deeper into those differences that ultimately, well, makes the difference in what cameras and lenses we hire out to customers. It\'s a bit of a cliche, but what customers want is not always what they need. Add to that all...

Submitted by Neville Fuller

Published 10 November 2016

IBC with the BBC

IBC is an exciting opportunity for us in BBC R&D to share with the world the work we've been doing on a range of technologies. Those attending the conference will be able see much of the work we are doing on new forms of content and workflows and get an understanding of the object based principles for broadcasting which we are working towards, enab...

Submitted by Jon Page

Published 26 September 2016

Sadies 7 top tips for getting stuff done

Up until 3rd August 2016 Kevin Roberts was the chairman of Saatchi and Saatchi, one of the largest and most high profile companies in the world. For those of you that were already on a sun lounger by then reading a John Grisham or you skipped over it because you thought it didn't matter to you here is a quick re-cap. In an article in Business Insid...

Submitted by Sadie Groom

Published 26 September 2016

Documentary filmmaking - Protecting the past

If you wanted my opinion on what I thought was the most rewarding media making pursuit, I'd have to single out documentary filmmaking. All media making can be very demanding, and each genre has its own particular issues that make it what it is, but almost nothing is certain about documentary which is why I find it so exciting. The idea could be ins...

Submitted by Charlie Watts

Published 26 September 2016

Wireless transformation contributes to IP future

The consumer appetite for content is driving broadcast manufacturers to explore every opportunity to make physical devices smaller, faster and more efficient - right from the ability to squeeze the business end of an OB truck into a single flight case to HD transmitters that can be held in a child's hand. Only a few years ago none of this would hav...

Submitted by JP Delport

Published 26 September 2016