KitPlus | Articles

Expanding Arqiva into HD playout

ATG Broadcast recently completed a major SD to HD upgrade for Arqiva broadcast transmission centre at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The expanded system enables Arqiva to process and transmit four fully-operational 1080i HD channels as well as six new SD channels. It includes the installation and equipping of a server-based ingest suite, playout...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

The Tour Revisited

Issue 96 - December 2014The November tour attracted over 1500 registrations visiting London and Manchester for one day in Shoreditch and the next in MediaCityUK. We asked people what they thought and there was simply too much to print. However here are the selected, together with our gallery and answers where there were issues, comments from visito...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 January 2015

Tour competition winners announced

Issue 96 - December 2014Miller Tripods have been celebrating their 60th anniversary in 2014 and donated one of their limited edition LP\'54 classic Tripods to our Tour raffle in aid of Dreamflight, raising £1040. You can watch the drawand presentation to winner,Peter Baughan, click hereHireacamera were offering a Sony FS7 hire for a week to a luck...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 January 2015

The Pitfalls of buying second hand kit

by Peter Savage Issue 95 - November 2014 Last week a client, on the lookout for some second-hand kit, asked me about the basic ground rules when buying equipment. How could he be assured that everything was sound, and in an orderly fashion, and that he would be able to gain good title on the equipment? There are two ways to buy equipment: through a...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 December 2014

Training in the video industry

by Bob Butler Issue 95 - November 2014 I have read quite a lot recently about training in the \'Video\' industry. Whilst it is true that as a hire company we at Broadcast Services are often surprised at the lack of knowledge about equipment, we can understand it to a point, due to the ever changing digital world. Not so long ago there were only a c...

Submitted by Bob Butler

Published 01 December 2014

Shooting Cinematically

by Ben Baldwin Issue 93 - September 2014 One Monday morning in July I headed to Pinewood Studios to spend an hour in the company of Den Lennie and Philip Bloom for a Sony Webinar - Shooting Cinematically. Both DOPs share a passion for helping aspiring filmmakers grow their skills and confidence and both have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to c...

Submitted by Ben Baldwin

Published 01 October 2014

Flying a Drone part 1

by Jon Pratchett Issue 93 - September 2014 Drones! The word imparts a sense of fear into the hearts of many. You immediately think of US spy planes, covert missions to attack forces deep in enemy territory. Yet it’s also the word that many now use to describe those little flying multi rotor things with GoPro’s on that seem to be popping up everywhe...

Submitted by John Pratchett

Published 01 October 2014

Playing games with radio mics on location

by Richard Meredith Issue 93 - September 2014 Some people use the same radio mics year in year out for every job that they do - others hire in radio mics for every job and don’t own anything - I am in the unique (nearly) position of being able to select the most appropriate from my own hire stock, and so every project has the equipment best suited...

Submitted by Richard Meredith

Published 01 October 2014

Making the invisible visible

by Charlie Watts Issue 92 - August 2014 September 2014 will see a brand new communication and televisual experience unleashed for University of Portsmouth students within the newly opened Eldon Building. Catherine Harper, Professor and Dean of the Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) Faculty, and Gary Bown, Principal lecturer, have both made it t...

Submitted by Charlie Watts

Published 01 September 2014

On Set of Top Gear festival live

Issue 91 - July 201420th June 2014, London UK - Zero Division provided a bespoke installation of the Boxx TV Zenith system for the Top Gear Festival in Barbados at the newly renovated Bushy Park race track, and provided on-site support during the event. The Top Gear Festival is a live show staged to tens of thousands of visitors, to bring the spiri...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 August 2014

RTS Thames Valley NAB 2014 Review

by Simon Tillyer Issue 90 - June 2014 A sunny, early summer evening welcomed over 40 people to the annual RTS NAB review on 14th May. This annual get together features a panel of guests, chaired by Dick Hobbs discussing their experiences and thoughts of NAB. The panel consisted of Maya Severyn (Head of Technical Services & Support - Chellomedia), J...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 01 July 2014

Taming the Thames for Boat Race coverage

by Presteigne Charter Issue 89 - May 2014 Each April teams representing the two oldest universities in England, Oxford and Cambridge, meet on the Thames for one of the toughest challenges in rowing. A very popular event, this years race, which was covered by BBC Sport, saw Oxford claim an emphatic 11-length victory over their old rivals. Leading hi...

Submitted by Presteigne Charter

Published 01 June 2014

Game Set Match

by Nico Lewis & Jon Ridel Issue 89 - May 2014 Sports events such as the Super Bowl, the Winter Games in Sochi and the Wimbledon Championships are among the most prestigious jobs for broadcast companies. The larger the event, the more viewers it reaches and consequentially, the more complicated and important the communication system becomes. Without...

Submitted by Nico Lewis

Published 01 June 2014

Ask the experts: Life behind the rate card

by Mike Ransome Issue 88 - April 2014 From time to time, most people in broadcast and production need to rent in some equipment. It might be to extend capabilities an extra camera channel, for example or it might be to bring in something you do not normally use, like an EVS server, for instance. Now picking a dry hire company sounds awfully simple....

Submitted by Mike Ransome

Published 01 May 2014

Be bold be brave but get the basics right

by Peter Savage Issue 88 - April 2014 The world, and especially George Osborne, is telling us that we have never had it so good. GDP has finally climbed past the 2008 mark, and we are now set for many years of rose-tinted growth from our strong economy. Well George may have a point, and it may be worth considering some of the aspects of business ma...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 May 2014