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Camera innovations from IBC

IBC 2012 – ‘Dam, that was a good showFresh from another trip to Amsterdam, Will Strauss picks his ‘best in show’ camera innovations from IBC. I know, I know. It’s October and the chances are that you’ve already had your fill of ‘round-ups’, ‘reviews’ and ‘what I saw in Amsterdam’ type articles. But with so much stuff to choose from at the show, hop...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2012

Parting the Cloud

Every so often a trend looms over the broadcast horizon that gathers pace so quickly it soon becomes the buzzword at every launch and trade show. A few years ago it was MAM and more recently stereoscopic; now the big buzz in town is the cloud. But despite its recent rise to fame in the broadcast sector there’s still a lot of confusion regarding how...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Say again? What is loudness?

Loudness is making a lot of noise these days, but what does it really mean? There is certainly no shortage of gurus who are happy to posit answers, but are they addressing the right questions?For instance, much has been made of the EBU’s recent Loudness Metering specification (EBU Tech 3341). But it has to be said that the EBU only makes recommenda...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Getting back to basics on HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR GRIP AND SUP...

When looking to purchase grip and support systems there are now a variety of different options available to the dedicated cameraman and this potential minefield of different equipment, at varying prices, can seem daunting and confusing at first. What’s the difference between a shoulder support, steady mount and a stabilizer? Are slide rail systems...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

2011: 3D Make or break?

Last year was predicted to be the year when 3D would leap forward or flop. History is littered with short periods of interest and development only for 3D to drop off the scene again. 3D Diaries has maintained that this time it’s different as now nearly all the right technologies are available – the only missing link being a practical autostereoscop...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Looking for the connection

This time last year I wrote a column which looked back. This year I have set myself the infinitely more challenging task of looking forward. What are the hot topics for 2012?The first prediction is easy. Television coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics will be extraordinary, capturing all the skill and dedication, elation and heartbreak of the w...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Storage and archiving

Anyone looking closely at a helical scan video tape mechanism, particularly the miniature variety, might be forgiven for wondering how such an elaborate technology ever came to be invented. The first experimental video tape recorders were essentially audio recorders running at very high speed to achieve the bandwidth needed for television signals....

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

RAID SATA Storage System for Music Production

In today’s music industry, it is no longer necessary to have a big studio to produce a hit. This is nothing new to Future Cut Productions, Ltd., a London-based music production studio comprised of Darren Lewis and Tunde Babalola. Utilizing a unique approach, Future Cut produces, mixes, and remixes most of its tracks using only a Mac® Pro in a small...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

tv-bay questions

Name & Title?Barrie Williams, owner and founder of Pixelfantastic, a boutique post production facility 13 miles east of SohoWho are you? (about yourself and who you work for)?I started my career in front of the lens as a musician, touring Europe for several years playing Jazz violin. We did a lot of TV work, so I became very familiar with the insid...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

IBC2011 must sees

Over 1,300 exhibitors will be supporting IBC2011, each bringing perhaps one, two or three new or enhanced products. My task is to distill these down to the 20 devices likely to be of greatest interest to TV-Bay readers, so far as that is possible several weeks before the show opens. As a recent convert to OS X, I note with gloom that Apple remains...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

Getting the 3D words right

Captions and sub-titling in 3D is not so easy as in 2D. The words cannot simply be superimposed over 3D content. They need to be accurately positioned in the depth plane otherwise they can create visual confusion and break the whole 3D illusion. For instance, consider a street lamp-post on the right in the foreground and in front of the screen plan...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Why do broadcasters need to take an interest in connected...

Why do broadcasters need to take an interest in connected TV?With ever-increasing amounts of content available, we’re heading towards a world where catch-up TV will enable you to access last week’s content as easily as today’s. This doesn’t mean to say that linear broadcasts are over; I would expect broadcast delivery to continue to dominate and fo...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011

Eyeballing 3D errors

Standard-issue human eyeballs are very adaptive and clever. Of course it’s the massively powerful image processing in the visual cortex of the brain that really allows us to resolve 3D images. Stereographers have been very practised over the years in achieving good camera set-up with only simple tools. The most common test uses a picture monitor sh...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Ask the experts - Monitoring

What are the latest innovations in monitoring?For both film and broadcast work, in addition to the fact that the picture must be true, without motion artifacts or aliasing, for a lot of applications you can also add that the picture must be processed in real time - less than one frame or one picture in progressive mode – so the main innovations are...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Seeing 3D or 2D

The press coverage of all angles of 3D continues unabated but the subjects are changing away from the technology and more towards the commercial aspects and how 3D should be shot. With some people saying there’s no extra money above an HD budget to make 3D, there’s a money problem. For a start there’s twice as many cameras and more people, specific...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011