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Dick Hobbs is counting heads

Now I am absolutely not going to get into politics in this column. But as I wrote last month, I am a bit concerned about truth and honesty. As I am sure we all are. The White House press secretary has an important and powerful role, and we all loved CJ Cregg for doing it (leading to my lifelong passion for Alison Janney). So when the incoming spoke...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 15 March 2017

Dick finds the truth out there

The Oxford English Dictionary has determined that its word of the year for 2016 was "post-truth". We\'ll skip over the fact that it is, clearly, two words. Post-truth is, according to the world\'s best lexicographers, "an adjective defined as \'relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opi...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 15 February 2017

MAM needs to adapt or die

The media landscape has shifted dramatically over recent years. Content providers are under increasing pressure to deliver compelling content to multiple platforms. Also, the production and distribution of video is no longer limited to traditional broadcasters, which face rising competition from a range of media providers. We are also seeing a mass...

Submitted by Tim Child

Published 15 February 2017

Live streaming and the power of your own channel

We\'ve just celebrated 80 years of television. And it\'s been quite a journey from the birth of television to where we are now. Only a small percentage of UK households had television sets when the BBC began broadcasting in 1936, and of course the Second World War temporarily suspended any television viewing shortly after that for the duration of t...

Submitted by Liam Laminman

Published 13 January 2017

Social streaming and broadcast

We are witnessing a growing trend from broadcasters looking to complement TV content with social streaming. When done well, it can really help increase consumer engagement on a huge scale and we have seen some great examples of it over recent months. At the recent Kit Plus Show, I talked about the marriage between broadcast and social streaming, wh...

Submitted by Craig Moehl

Published 13 January 2017

Make a scifi film in the Mexican Desert

British director Nicolas Roeg once said to me that making a film is like horse racing. To start with you give the horse a nudge to get him moving, then as you gather speed there's a point where you have to trust the horse. You hold on and the horse will carry you across the finish line. I've just returned home from shooting a Sci-fi proof-of-concep...

Submitted by Edward Andrews

Published 26 September 2016

The changing face of streaming

I have been in the streaming business for more than 20 years and I've witnessed a number of major shifts in the industry. Currently we are experiencing such a shift as we see a massive increase in users viewing content but also a sea change in how it's being discovered and viewed. Over the last few years there has been a continual rise in the use o...

Submitted by Jake Ward

Published 22 July 2016

Seeing things with a 360 viewpoint

One of the benefits of working in teaching support is you often get opportunities to explore and experiment with lots of new kit that has been purchased for teaching or research. I have spent the past couple of years supporting the activities that take place within the Creative and Cultural Industries TV Studios (CCI TV for short) at the University...

Submitted by Michael Parsons

Published 22 July 2016

Bridging the Gap between Broadcast and Online

Social media and VOD services have increasingly become more important platforms for the telling of news and current affairs stories. Just a few years ago news producers would create a show for a particular time slot but now, news segments are published online almost immediately after being created. To do this however, each platform having its own f...

Submitted by Petter Ole

Published 14 June 2016

Breakthrough

By Julia Belle Issue 113 - May 2016 How do you become a Hollywood Film Producer? Or a Second Assistant Director? Or a Gaffer?Truth is, they’re not particularly straight-forward questions to answer. But that doesn’t mean you should give up there and start working in a jam factory as your school careers advisor recommended. (Not that there’s anythin...

Submitted by Julia Belle

Published 20 May 2016

NAB Review

by Duncan Payne Issue 113 - May 2016 As I emerge from the customary post-NAB haze and try to formulate a coherent analysis of the 2016 show, perhaps the most striking realisation is that despite pacing the halls for four long days, I barely scratched the surface. The scale of the event, much like Las Vegas itself, is simply extraordinary, with over...

Submitted by Duncan Payne

Published 13 May 2016

Females In The Broadcasting Industry

by Emma Clifford Issue 113 - May 2016 You\'re hiring. You\'re reviewing CVs.You\'re not bothered about names are you?What matters are skills, experience and the competencies of the candidates, right?Wrong! You probably have unconscious bias. A recent US study used 100 STEM professors (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) to review CVs. But h...

Submitted by Emma Clifford

Published 13 May 2016

Riding the TV Marketing and Social Media Wave

with Safiya Pomell and Aislinn Fadian Issue 108 - December 2015 Television is something that has always interested me. My name is Safiya Pomell and my journey into the industry started in 2012 when I joined a specialist school on the broadcasting strand at the age of 15. Being apart of Television and Broadcasting at the University of Portsmouth has...

Submitted by Portsmouth University

Published 15 December 2015

McDonalds goes live multi-camera

Issue 105 - September 2015 Earlier in 2015 SIS LIVE was central to the London section of an ambitious 24-hour global entertainment campaign by McDonalds, involving a surprise open-top bus gig by Jessie J. Fans worldwide shared the excitement of the 24 continuous gifts of joy in synchronised public events, across 24 cities around the world over a 24...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 October 2015

Chasing ratings

by Dick Hobbs Issue 104 - August 2015 As everyone is no doubt aware, the BBCs core structures are being investigated at the moment as part of the renewal of its charter. The political bodies set up to do this are made up largely of anti-BBC people, so we are in for interesting times. I have a view on the BBC and its funding, and maybe one day in on...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 September 2015