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The filming of Lands End to John OGroats

I’ve been here for several minutes now. Standing in the pouring rain with a camera pointing at the road sign for Somerset, the drops of rain tapping on the camera rain cover add a certain atmosphere to the wild track. I stood trying to work out who was the madder, the two cyclists I was waiting for, or me. Here they come, 10 seconds on the tape, ba...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Broadcast management systems specialisation not generali...

“Broadcast management systems” is used here as a collective term to encapsulate all of the processes involved from capturing and creating content, to distribution and monetisation. There are so many points of decision making in a broadcast production chain that automating the processes can be mind boggling in complexity. Taking just a view of frame...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Polecam on Safari

Safaricam"No, you can’t get out of the car", the voice replied. "Why not?’ I asked. "Because you might get eaten by a lion."I put the phone down and contemplated what it was I had just agreed to do. The Kenya project started with a call from a French production company expressing an interest in hiring my Polecam system for three weeks. The series,...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Longevity of media archives

The role of the archive has evolved rapidly, delivering not only new revenue opportunities but crucial conservation possibilities for historical and cultural libraries that have lain dormant for many years. The economic downturn means that now more than ever cost saving is a huge issue; facilities need to create new revenue opportunities whilst red...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

A Guide to Testing IPTV: Technologies and Challenges Par...

High consumer expectations have put pressure on content producers, network operators and equipment manufacturers to deliver consistently high quality audio and video to their end users. The proliferation of enabling technologies has resulted in a wide variety of formats and standards adding to the complexity of the challenges faced in establishing...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Jargon Buster

IPTV: The delivery of broadcast quality video over an IP network. Set-Top Box: The consumer equipment which acts as the interface between the user and the IPTV services provided by the network (converts signal to content which can then be displayed on the television screen) VoD: Video on Demand NDVR: Network Digital Video Recording (allows fe...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Brand New School Makes the Move to Uncompressed HD

What did you do over Christmas 2008? I spent the whole two-week break rebuilding the post production workflow at Brand New School, the prestigious commercial production and design firm in Santa Monica, CA, and the experience let me stretch every technology muscle I had built up in 10 years as a video engineer. At the time, Brand New School was usin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Automation in Uncertain Times

In light of the unfavourable economic outlook broadcasters need to protect their investment in technology like never before. There is a high chance that some products designed to make the broadcast environment more efficient will become obsolete and this in turn will have a knock-on and negative effect on workflow in transmission suite. Although br...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

HD Camera Measurements. Getting the most out of your came...

Recap previous Parts:While the first parts covered the theory and actual measurements of white shading, setting up colorimetry, exposure, greyscale adjustments, alignment and matching of cameras using a waveform monitor, this final part is devoted to providing a better understanding of the displays used. Interpreting a waveform monitor displayA Wav...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

A day in the life of a TV lecturer

0830The Dorset country lanes give way to the flood of traffic into Poole and Bournemouth as I negotiate the rush hour streaming into the seaside town. Driving past Poole Harbour, home of Sunseeker Yachts and the RNLI reminds me that yacht I once dreamed of is still a dream. However, the job I once dreamed of became a reality when I became a televis...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

NAB 2009 report

By general consensus, this year's NAB Spring Convention, or 'NABshow' as it styles itself, was one of the best ever. Wider aisles and a respectable rather than manic level of attendance made the event, in the words of one exhibitor, 'Business Class'. NAB was always the prototype show where you could sense the directions in which manufacturers were...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

Holophone H2-PRO used on Slumdog Millionaire

As far as independent films go, Slumdog Millionaire has certainly hit the jackpot, garnering eight Oscars including one for “Best Sound Mixing”. Contributing to the movie’s triumphant soundscape is Holophone’s H2-PRO surround microphone, which award-winning Sound Mixer Resul Pookutty used to capture ambient sounds for some of the film’s most essent...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Africans in London TV

Joseph Otieno Adamson, Managing Director of the new TV Station Africans in London or AIL TV, is a man whose enthusiasm for all things media knows no bounds. A talented musician, he attended a university course to learn to become a music producer, set up his own recording studio and later decided to extend his talents to video and the world of broad...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Common Questions on the Topic of Distribution and Deliver...

As the Broadcast and Post industries continue to adopt file-based workflows, there has been an ever-increasing need for the implementation of technologies for the distribution of digital media. Being tapeless also means being aware of how to send and receive files over IP networks, but there are many common questions that arise. Here is a sampling...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Eye to Eye File-based content distribution 2009

The rapidly divergent pattern of broadcast market development resembles the branches of a fast-growing tree. But there is one crucial aspect in which the industry is quite obviously converging: the transition from video and audio to file-based content distribution and delivery. This would have happened anyway given the increasing popularity of the...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009