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TV Futures - Streaming

by Danielle Wiltshire and Oliver Ray Issue 111 - March 2016 Hello I\'m Danielle Wiltshire and I am currently in my final year at the University of Portsmouth studying on the specialist course BSc Television and Broadcasting. One of the things I love about my course is that the academics involved are always striving to be ahead of the curve with tea...

Submitted by Danielle Wiltshire

Published 01 April 2016

Highly Experienced

by Dick Hobbs Issue 110 - February 2016 I was recently asked to write an article on quality of experience in video streaming. Obviously the first thing I did was ask Saint Google to find me recent research on the subject. It pulled up an absolute gem, a report published by Ofcom, the UK government's communications supremos. It was written by an out...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 16 March 2016

Editing broadcast video in a mobile app a ridiculous noti...

by Jason Cowan Issue 109 - January 2016 A trend appears to be developing in broadcast technology development the more ridiculous an idea initially seems, the better the chances are that it will turn the whole industry on its head. Ten years ago editing over an internet connection was a pipe-dream, and the suggestion that broadcast equipment might b...

Submitted by Jason Cowan

Published 21 January 2016

Broadcast Playout Over IP and in The Cloud

with Don Ash Issue 109 - January 2016 Simon Tillyer: Before we get heavy about IP and the cloud, what is the current state of the broadcast playout business? Don Ash: The transition to server-based systems in recent years has made the entire process of broadcast playout much easier to operate and automate than the tape-based equipment which precede...

Submitted by Don Ash

Published 21 January 2016

The 4K Conundrum

by Eric Achtmann Issue 108 - December 2015 2015 has confirmed once more that 4K remains the TV industrys Holy Grail. While 4K TV screens are becoming more affordable and Netflix, Amazon Prime and even YouTube are beginning to offer some 4K content, mass adoption is still sluggish as the increases in bandwidth required for distribution make 4K busin...

Submitted by Eric Achtmann

Published 17 December 2015

The Evolution of Cloud

with Micky Edwards Issue 108 - Decmeber 2015 Television was originally created to be a mass communication platform. Yet, over the last few years, it is becoming increasingly hyperlocal. There are several reasons the television industry is transitioning from a broadcast to narrowcast schematic. One is monetization. According to Borrell Associates, l...

Submitted by Micky Edwards

Published 15 December 2015

Sorry for any disruption caused: Netflix strikes again

by Peter Savage Issue 107 - November 2015 Netflix helped to change the TV landscape with its OTT subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service and its Originals. Could it be about to change things again by making programmes in-house? It might seem obvious to say it but what we used to call television is currently changing at great speed: and its all...

Submitted by John Smith

Published 01 December 2015

The beat goes on... 4k, 8k and the continual need for T&a...

by Adam Schadle Issue 107 - November 2015 Just a few short years ago, 4k was the future, but now that 4k televisions and other screens are becoming more widely available, the format is careening toward the present. 4k is still an emerging delivery format, to be sure. After all, there are still places in the world that have yet to transition from SD...

Submitted by Adam Schadle

Published 01 December 2015

Sony PXW-FS5 Review

by Alister Chapman Issue 106 - October 2015 I was lucky enough to get some hands on time with a prototype FS5 in Amsterdam at IBC. In case you havent heard about it, the PXW-FS5 is a compact interchangeable lens, super 35mm camcorder from Sony that can record in HD or UHD 4K. It shares many of the features of the already incredibly popular PXW-FS7...

Submitted by Alister Champman

Published 01 November 2015

Making multi-camera shooting faster & more affordable

by Datsa Gaile Issue 105 - September 2015 Multi-camera filming has been known for years. There was a time when shooting any production involving multiple-camera positions would require a very large studio budget. Today we have many solutions for live vision mixing and great editing platforms what offer multi-camera editing. As there are so many gre...

Submitted by Datsa Gaile

Published 01 October 2015

The production desk finally gets innovative

by Kieron Seth Issue 104 - August 2015 The video switcher (aka vision mixer) is at the heart of all live television, all AV and many a live webcast. But despite its core role, its remained essentially the same concept for decades, consisting of a digital video effects processing unit, matrix switcher and control panel. Fundamentally this hardware-b...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 September 2015

The evolution of vision mixers

by Liam Laminman Issue 104 - August 2015 At the heart of any multi-camera production is a vision mixer or production switcher as some people call them. Its core role is the switching of different sources, primarily cameras, often VTs and sometimes incoming external sources such as remote feeds from broadcasters. Even for non-TV types, thats relativ...

Submitted by Liam Laminman

Published 01 September 2015

How we got live streaming to work for us

by Larry Jordan & Megan Paulos Issue 103 - July 2015 We originate three hours of live programming from our studios every week. In fact, everything we do is designed for live web streaming. For the last several months, we have been exploring a number of options that would enable live video streaming with live audio mixing and support an unlimited nu...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 August 2015

How to go Over the Top with your video experience

by Lorna Garrett Issue 103 - July 2015 Going over the top opens up boundless opportunities. As a viewer, you can watch content on any device you have connected to the Internet without going through an ISP (internet service provider). As a broadcaster you can use OTT to enhance what you already offer, like Channel 4s Box TV service. These days, with...

Submitted by Lorna Garrett

Published 01 August 2015

Distribution in the UHD Era

by Paul Briscoe Issue 103 - July 2015 Once upon a time, there were few broadcast TV standards. Each used its own regional image formats, color encoding scheme and sound and vision modulation standards. High-power over-the-air (OTA) transmitters broadcast the signal on internationally coordinated and regionally allocated radio frequency (RF) channel...

Submitted by Paul Briscoe

Published 01 August 2015