KitPlus | Articles

ALEXA bringing new creative freedom to filmmakers

ALEXA brings new creative freedom to filmmakers. A compact, lightweight and affordable digital camera, ALEXA redefines the limits of motion picture capture with ultra-fast workflows and image quality akin to 35 mm film. From major motion pictures and high-end dramas to commercials, music videos and mainstream TV, ALEXA suits a wide variety of appli...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2010

Modern Test Techniques for Digital Audio Broadcast System...

The move to digital systems in broadcast audio means that engineers and systems integrators have had to evolve new means of testing equipment. Simon Woollard, Applications Engineer for audio test and measurement manufacturer Prism Sound, discusses some of the issues faced by today’s broadcast engineers. The AimsIn terms of audio performance, the br...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

Accessorising DLSR video

Some DSLR stills camera manufacturers now include HD video capabilities within their top-of-the-range products. This raises the prospect of lower cost stills cameras shooting good quality HD video. While this is true in certain circumstances there is much more that needs to be included with these cameras to make them consistently produce their best...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

The Prism Sound Effect

The Prism Sound Effect. When Prism Sound took over the SADiE brand last year, it embarked on a fact-finding mission to discover why the brand had such a huge and extremely dedicated international user base. This process has been extremely enlightening and has enabled Prism Sound to respond with SADiE 6 - a new product for professional sound editors...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010

3D Movie Making: Stereoscopic Digital Cinema from Script...

Having indulged for several years in stereo photography of the hand-held cross-your-eyes variety, I was interested to watch the broadcast industry respond to the availability of increasingly affordable flat-panel 3D displays. A critical point in the price threshold has finally been crossed: fast-refresh-rate 22 inch 3D computer monitors using circu...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2009

Mercedes-Benz Worlds winning formula, Online Creative and...

I set up Online Creative in 1999 after a number of years of linear editing and five years of post working for German non-linear editing manufacturer, FAST, during the pioneering days of digital video. The early 90s were a very exciting time editing with non-linear for the first time, although I haven’t done a linear edit since!Online Creative has g...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

Digital Vision case study

The Edit Store, based in London’s W1, is one of the last few independent facilities in the city. Spread across two buildings, the Edit Store provides many of the world’s leading broadcasters with offline, online, grading and audio dubbing facilities primarily for broadcast factual programmes. At the heart of its HD grading suite, introduced in 2008...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

Eye to Eye New post-production kit at IBC 2009

This alphabetical overview of new video and film post-production kit at IBC 2009 was going to start with Apple but the company pulled out of both NAB and IBC in 2008. I begin instead with Avid which has certified its Media Composer, NewsCutter, Symphony and DS software to run on the new HP Z series Workstations – the HP Z800 and HP Z400. Avid custo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009

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

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

Delivering Superior Quality of Service in IPTV Networks

To maintain differentiation in a competitive triple play market, the key operational challenge for telecommunications operators is how to efficiently deliver superior quality of service (QoS) levels. Intuitive use and simplified presentation of video quality and telecom transmission information are essential to win and keep customers. The video and...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

EPIC HD Upgrade

EPIC-TV came into being in late 2006, after Norfolk County Council acquired the ITV Anglia Regional news and Network production studios at Magdalen Street Norwich. Since then it’s been re-developed as one of the technically most advanced production facilities in Europe, with three broadcast studies, two of the HD, one of them Virtual, linked direct...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

Mobile communications Eye to Eye

Point to point communication via satellite is one of the most useful tools available to television and radio reporters in a world of fast news distribution. This short summary looks first at some of the newest SNG link kit and then at broadcast-related telecoms. Advent Communications has introduced an enhanced version of its 1.5m and 1.8m NewSwift...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 March 2009

How and where to do your Post Production.

The world of professional editing and post production has changed dramatically in the last few years. The biggest of the barriers to entry – (cost), has all but disappeared with the advent of desktop editing solutions. Manufacturers like Apple and Adobe and even Avid have made this possible with products like Final Cut Studio 2 and Adobe’s CS3 Prod...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

CTV OB Truck

Responding to the growing demand for HD broadcasts and with a fleet of already overworked outside broadcast trucks, CTV Outside Broadcast’s newest addition to its fleet, OB 9, is a fully-equipped production facility with the latest in High Definition production, mixing and recording equipment. Targeted squarely at major entertainment and sporting e...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2008