KitPlus | Articles

Eye to Eye: Video over IP

Live video streaming via Internet Protocol is perhaps most familiar in the form of Skype’s free-of-charge online videophone service. Skype is a very easy way for an on-location broadcaster to get a video contribution back to base. A safer and more conventional technique, as with a reporter-to-anchor interview, is to live-stream video via one’s own...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

An Authentically American firm with an Englishmans heart

America has always been a land marked by pioneers and trailblazers, by entrepreneurship and vision. So, in 2004, when London based equipment hire firm HotCam sought to expand, founder Trevor Hotz could think of no better place to be. “Back then a lot of our competitors were opening up in Manchester and Glasgow but that didn’t appeal to me,” says Ho...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

Advanced Hybrid Optical Cable and Connectors

The march of technological advances in fiber optic cable, along with a new generation of plug-and-play connectors, is allowing camera operators and Outside Broadcast (OB) van engineers the luxury of easy and reliable deployment of remote production equipment. Studio Technologies is dedicated to delivering carefully engineered equipment solutions in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

Is it time to hang up your glasses for field 3D monitorin...

The rapid growth of 3D content being shot and produced has created many challenges to the camera operators, production teams and indeed manufacturing companies. There has always been the problem of viewing 3D material as it is being shot and the ability to review it immediately afterwards, whether as a camera viewfinder or a portable 3D monitor. At...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

3D Five years on

For me, IBC2006 was the beginning of the modern 3D era. At an invitation-only presentation, 3ality’s CEO Steve Schklair described what his company was achieving with S3D. Suddenly it all made sense. With the accuracy of digital shoots and computer technology replacing difficulties and expense of working with film, 3D could now be viable. Unlike the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Innovation is the Key to Digital Signage Success

In a recent survey conducted and published by POPAI UK & Ireland, the trade association for companies involved in point-of-purchase and retail communications, there are nearly four times as many shops and business incorporating digital signage into their retail sales operations as there were only four years ago, which essentially equates to a nearl...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Protecting your assets, safe storage and long life archiv...

A vast amount of information exists out on the Internet that can be very helpful but also misleading and confusing on how best to protect digital content over time both from degradation of content and from piracy. Thinking back on my twenty plus years in the industry, it is my personal opinion the first creative professionals to experience problems...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

Eye to Eye on Delivery and Distribution

A notable aspect of the 2010 IBC and 2011 NAB conference sessions was the rapidly increasing focus on IP streaming. Fibre-optic delivery to the home has yet to be turned into widespread reality but transport speeds over existing electrical infrastructure continue to accelerate. Cloud-based storage and distribution services offer a solution to the c...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2011

Digital media monitoring

What is digital media monitoring?Most media delivery chains now include a combination of IP and broadcast stages, regardless of the viewing platform of the end user. This combination of technologies into a hybrid delivery chain has thrown up new complications in terms of monitoring and analysis. Before the introduction of IP technologies into media...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

Real practicality in test and measurement

We are quite an unusual company, a unique hybrid. On one hand Flotsam Films is an independent producer but we also provide full production capabilities and consultancy for other filmmakers. The other part of our business is our own post production facility in London, used by our in-house productions and by other external clients, particularly indep...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 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

Realising the full benefits of hybrid broadcast and broad...

We are all clear that there is a great deal of momentum in pay television at the moment. Alongside that driver, though, there are others which are dramatically changing the way consumers watch television. These include the desire to watch programmes at a time of their choice not that of the broadcaster (and in the room of their choice), and the use...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011

Eye to Eye, Portable power supplies

The true portability of modern HD mini-cameras and flash-RAM video recorders is encouraging programme makers to go way beyond reach of tethered power supplies. But are the battery-makers living up to the demands being placed on them?Recommendation 1 in portable power supplies is so obvious it almost doesn't need stating: rechargeable batteries are...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Broadcast Batteries, Today and Tomorrow

As consumers, we all have experience of being let down by batteries (think rusty Italian cars in the 1970s!). But thankfully the world of batteries has moved on: the global battery industry is today worth $71 billion and is estimated to be growing at nearly 5% a year. Of this, broadcast batteries make up a tiny fraction but the manufacturers that s...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Television on television

Just at the moment I am receiving a steady, almost daily, stream of press releases from an American company called IVI. The service they offer is aimed at an American audience so I will not bore you with the details of their campaign. But it raised some thoughts in the back of my mind. IVI has developed some clever (it claims) software, for Mac, Li...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2010