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Converting for displays

Behind every great display there’s a great converter. Ever since television started to go digital in studios and post production, the number of digital formats has grown. For a while the television standards bodies got a grip and succeeded in pulling nearly everyone along the ‘SDI’ track; now itself expanded to HD-SDI and 3G-SDI – carrying a multit...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Eye to eye Picture displays and multiviewers 2009

The transition from cathode-ray tubes to flat-panel display devices for broadcast picture monitoring was a long time coming but is now almost complete. Grade 1 CRTs from suppliers such as Ikegami and Sony are still purchased in small numbers for monitoring in quality-conscious playout centres and post-production houses. For every other broadcast ap...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Ancillary Data Monitoring in Multiviewers

The broadcast environment has gone through enormous change over the last decade, creating challenges in the management, storage and broadcast of material. Factors contributing to these challenges include the increase in the number of channels with the move to digital, the introduction of various aspect ratio and video standards with the transition...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2009

Beating the Blu-ray coding blues

Tommy Simonsson runs SitoCad in Stockholm, Sweden, a professional video production company specialising in industrial work, conferences and weddings. He shoots in high definition on a Sony PMW-EX3 camcorder, and finishes his projects using the Grass Valley EDIUS nonlinear editor. “When I show them what HD looks like, most of my customers choose Blu...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Ask the Experts on the Topic of Distribution and Delivery

NAB 2009 was fascinating with respect to how many customers were looking for solutions and insisting that manufacturers work together to provide solutions, as opposed to just supplying products. File-based workflows were the talk of the town (well, at least the talk of NAB) and there certainly continues to be significant discussion and implementati...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Eye to eye on Broadcast content management 2009

Content asset management is one of the fastest developing areas of the entire broadcast business. Its advantages over old-style film and videotape libraries are so widely recognised that they hardly need repeating. NAB provided an opportunity to look at new advances from some of the key players. AP introduced a new module for its ENPS 6.0 and 7.0....

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Broadcast management systems specialisation not generali...

“Broadcast management systems” is used here as a collective term to encapsulate all of the processes involved from capturing and creating content, to distribution and monetisation. There are so many points of decision making in a broadcast production chain that automating the processes can be mind boggling in complexity. Taking just a view of frame...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Longevity of media archives

The role of the archive has evolved rapidly, delivering not only new revenue opportunities but crucial conservation possibilities for historical and cultural libraries that have lain dormant for many years. The economic downturn means that now more than ever cost saving is a huge issue; facilities need to create new revenue opportunities whilst red...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Its A Bigger DAM Picture

There’s a lot of fuss these days about “Digital Asset Management.” Why? Because organizations (and their hard drives) are busting at the seams with digital assets that are multiplying faster than hamsters at a rave. Many of these organizations already have enterprise management software solutions in place, so DAM often becomes a new, isolated plane...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

SRW-5800 Training

“Hi Dave, how was the course?” This is the sort of greeting you come to expect from fellow engineers when you have recently attended a training course. Engineers are notorious for having no “small talk”, probably because our minds are usually concerned with things like volts, amps and ohms… and why that VTR always works on the bench, but fails as s...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

Common Questions on the Topic of Distribution and Deliver...

As the Broadcast and Post industries continue to adopt file-based workflows, there has been an ever-increasing need for the implementation of technologies for the distribution of digital media. Being tapeless also means being aware of how to send and receive files over IP networks, but there are many common questions that arise. Here is a sampling...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Eye to Eye File-based content distribution 2009

The rapidly divergent pattern of broadcast market development resembles the branches of a fast-growing tree. But there is one crucial aspect in which the industry is quite obviously converging: the transition from video and audio to file-based content distribution and delivery. This would have happened anyway given the increasing popularity of the...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

HD Camera Measurements. Getting the most out of your came...

Recap previous Parts:The first parts covered the theory and actual measurements of white shading, setting up colorimetry and exposure as well as greyscale adjustments using a waveform monitor. The objective was to provide a thorough understanding of the functions and benefits of using a waveform monitor when addressing non-linear effects in the cam...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Ask the Expert with Broadcast Service Centre

Ask the Expert with Broadcast Service Centre’s Dave LlewellynThis month we visited independent service company, Broadcast Service Centre Ltd (BSC), specialising in providing top quality technical support for a wide range of equipment within the Broadcast and Pro video industry. Dave Llewellyn has worked as a broadcast engineer for BSC (Broadcast Se...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

Edirol R-09HR records Obama inauguration

When sound recordist Alan O’Duffy was contracted to travel to the USA to record interviews and atmospheres for a “feature documentary” about Barack Obama becoming the 44th President of the USA, one of the first pieces of kit he packed was Edirol’s R-09HR digital recorder. Irish film company, Alpha Films, wanted Alan to record on location first in N...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009