KitPlus | Articles

4k - fancy fad or future of broadcasting?

by John Halksworth Issue 96 - December 2014 Given the increasing popularity of 4K or Ultra High Definition (UHD) televisions, as well as 4K-capable video cameras, it is safe to say that 4K/UHD is here to stay. While filmmakers in all spheres have been shooting in 4K for some time, distribution of 4K is still in its infancy with very few cinemas sho...

Submitted by John Halksworth

Published 01 January 2015

4k - The biggest New Years resolution

by John Ive Issue 96 - December 2014 Whether it is Ultra High Definition (UHD), 4K or 8K - the predictions surrounding when and if this higher resolution format will become a widespread reality are still rife in the broadcast and media industry. The consensus in the sector seems to be that we may be edging marginally closer. However, many of the ba...

Submitted by John Ive

Published 01 January 2015

Hearing is believing - but Testing Helps

We live in the age of measurement and all too often the results are prejudiced by the methods employed and the ease of digitally processing data. As Per Bruel, the founder of B&K, arguably the foremost measurement company in audio history put so succinctly,‘The development of standards is not always based on true science but more often a consensus...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

Essentials for Viable Audio over IP Distribution

by Werner Drews Issue 95 - November 2014 Using IP for audio distribution is an enticing prospect for most broadcasters. It offers the prospect of OPEX economies and opens up a lot of new flexibility for infrastructure design: backup and regionalisation solutions are among the many possibilities. IP lines can be used for STL (Studio to Transmitter L...

Submitted by Werner Drews

Published 01 December 2014

Manipulate and Edit

Issue 94 - October 2014It will come as no surprise to many but the results of a survey unveiled at IBC have shown once again that some European broadcasters are struggling to keep up with the speed of technology change. Faced with new ways of working and constantly shifting goalposts, not to mention reduced budgets, many technology decision makers...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2014

Manage and Monitor

Issue 94 - October 2014In the month that digital files become the preferred method of delivery for television programmes in the UK, it will come as a blessed relief to many in both post and production that one of the biggest bugbears of file-based delivery – how to deal with insert editing - may have been solved, just in the nick of time. It didn’t...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2014

Move and Deliver

Issue 94 - October 2014You may not have heard of the open source video company Kaltura. But you probably will have heard of Harmonic. Together the two companies made an announcement at IBC that is indicative of where multi-screen, multi-platform TV is heading. They have teamed up to develop and market a cloud-based video infrastructure and OTT TV p...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2014

Professional Media Card Readers

by Greg Laporte Issue 94 - October 2014 You\'re on location and you\'re done shooting for the day and you have a sizeable stack of fully recorded memory cards. It\'s a complex shoot, perhaps with multiple cameras from different vendors recording on different memory card formats. Now, how do you get the raw video files from all of those cameras into...

Submitted by Greg Laporte

Published 01 November 2014

How To Produce and Stream a live Production

by Chris Waddington Issue 94 - October 2014 Today, anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can stream video content for free. The challenge is to create professional looking content that makes an impact; to do that it needs to have the polished look viewers are accustomed to seeing on network television, or they\'ll stop watching. In th...

Submitted by Chris Waddington

Published 01 November 2014

Mobile News Gathering

by Erwan Gasc Issue 93 - September 2014 What are the most common challenges facing broadcasters in the field today? One of the most critical challenges for broadcasters today is arriving first on the scene of a breaking news story and being able to send live video coverage. Tough competition between TV channels, combined with the fact that consumer...

Submitted by Erwan Gasc

Published 01 October 2014

Communicating via IP

by Andy Covey Issue 93 - September 2014 At the turn of the 21st century the concept of IP-based systems first started to emerge, and with all things new, there were those who said it couldn’t be done with intercom systems. Communication, some reasoned, was simply too important to trust to perceived IT infrastructure issues of bandwidth and latency...

Submitted by Andy Covey

Published 01 October 2014

How to Produce and Stream a Live Production Part One

by Chris Waddington Issue 93 - September 2014 With recent advances in camera technology, services that can send your content across the internet to any web-connected device and desktop streaming production systems like NewTek’s TriCaster, even beginners can create sophisticated video content that looks great and stream it live to the web. In this t...

Submitted by Chris Waddington

Published 01 October 2014

FM Over Satellite Challenges

by Werner Drews Issue 93 - September 2014 Seeking new ways to refine operational efficiency, broadcasters using satellite to deliver FM now have a palette of options. The combination of satellite with IP is being investigated by many in a variety of configurations, to achieve some or all of the goals of cost reduction, flexibility, redundancy, and...

Submitted by Werner Drews

Published 01 October 2014

SIZE is everything

Issue 93 - September 2014Live broadcast television or stage productions are a fast moving environment where clear instructions need to be delivered quickly if everything is to run smoothly. Whilst efficient conveyance of prompts or direction is vital, there is usually the additional need to avoid the audience being aware of the methods employed. La...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 October 2014

A Closer Look at DVB-S2X

by Joerg Rockstroh Issue 93 - September 2014 Is DVB-S2X a feature set on top of DVB-S2 or a complete new signal form?DVB-S2X is an extension of the DVB-S2 specifi cation that formalizes existing features (e.g., smaller roll-offs) in addition to introducing completely new features (e.g., higher MODCODs). This enables operators to achieve substantial...

Submitted by Joerg Rockstroh

Published 01 October 2014