KitPlus | Articles

Meeting the Challenges of Media Assett Management

It's been 20 years since Microsoft founder Bill Gates uttered the words "content is king,\" and never has that statement been more true in media production environments. And yet, ask producers in any high-pressure broadcast operation to name their biggest challenges, and you can bet that managing video assets - finding them, accessing them, and usi...

Submitted by Dave Clack

Published 14 June 2016

Top 10 Tips for Saving Time in Post

Whether you're working on a shoestring or with feature film budgets, every production is under pressure to save money. And while cutting back on crew and downgrading your gearlist are effective ways of reducing costs, they invariably also reduce production value. But you can make big savings simply by being organised. Time really is money in the ed...

Submitted by Max McGonigal

Published 14 June 2016

The Challenges of Streaming

The purpose of this article to highlight the challenges facing small and medium streaming services. It is intended to look at how to achieve successful live and pre recorded content by means of streaming. In this article I would like to share the knowledge and the experience I have gained so far. I will also talk about the kit I use, how it is used...

Submitted by Joseph Ail

Published 14 June 2016

Bringing Realiability to the Unpredictability of Reality...

Synonymous with reality TV, Endemol 's 2015 production of Wild Island was set in a remote location off the coast of Central America. The German-produced series, supported by MoovIT production services, featured 14 ordinary citizens left to their own devices to survive on an uninhabited tropical island with no food or water for 28 days. With six cam...

Submitted by Martin Bennett

Published 14 June 2016

TV Futures

by Gemma Frith Issue 113 - May 2016 I used to hate audio. Every time we recorded audio on a location shoot, something seemed to go wrong. It was a nightmare. And because I didn\'t understand it, I avoided it and would do anything to not be responsible for recording sound. However, eventually it got to a point where I hated how much I hated audio mo...

Submitted by Gemma Frith

Published 13 May 2016

Remote Production

by Jim Green Issue 113 - May 2016 Ten years ago,remote production was the stuff of dreams,a glimpse into a brave new world. The prospect of providing real-time audio control of live events thousands of miles away,without even leaving the studio,was as enticing as it was unlikely. But broadcasters are already reaping the benefits of remote productio...

Submitted by Jim Green

Published 13 May 2016

Fact from Fiction - IP transport

by Bruce Devlin Issue 112 - April 2016 Wandering around the endless corridors of NAB in 2016, you\'ll hear much more talk of IP transport than in previous years. If you\'re lucky then you\'ll see a few GUIs that might show Software Defined Network (SDN) routings or channel allocations. You might see a GUI that shows the flows of essence, grains, pa...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 25 April 2016

Shooting the Extreme

by Mel Noonan Issue 112 - April 2016 Steffan Hewitt started covering extreme sports as a cameraman and learnt to ski backwards while shooting skiers in front of him. Surprisingly he survived, and went on to design and use a lightweight pole with an early SD minicam slung at the top operated via a remote pan and tilt head from the other end. He call...

Submitted by Mel Noonan

Published 25 April 2016

The Power Of IP

by Jamie Shepperd Issue 112 - April 2016 There is little doubt that the adoption of IP technology across the broadcast workflow can bring significant benefit to broadcasters. IP is ubiquitous, it\'s based on common standards and broadcast can benefit further from the wealth of expertise and technology that exist in other industries. While we are st...

Submitted by Jamie Shepperd

Published 25 April 2016

A virtual world but call it cloud if you must

I prefer not to use the word "cloud". It's useful for eight points in Scrabble, but in broadcasting, if we can still call it that, what you're really describing is storing data on someone else's computer or, on an industrial scale, a whole lot of someone else's computers (data centres). Cloud is just a convenient way of saying "shedload of capacity...

Submitted by Jan Weigner

Published 01 April 2016

The work of five viewers with no transcoders

I am a digital imaging technician and editor with more than 15 years of experience in the film and television industry. I have traveled the world working with various production companies on popular network reality series, such as TNT's "72 Hours,\" National Geographic Channel's "Ultimate Survival Alaska,\" and MTV's "Are You The One?\" I'm also th...

Submitted by Randy Mills

Published 01 April 2016

Must haves for wireless camera transmission

1. How has OB technology and workflow evolved over the years?In the days of analog, camera operators were basically tethered to the camera via cable. Additionally, when doing a remote transmission the production required line-of-sight to the receive site or to a satellite. It took a small army and lots of hardware to make an on-location shoot happe...

Submitted by John Payne

Published 01 April 2016

Audio Streaming with Larry Jordan

My wife is addicted to audio podcasts; they are constantly playing throughout the house. In this day of YouTube and Vimeo it is easy to overlook the immense popularity - and ubiquity - of audio podcasts. If you are thinking about creating your own streaming video podcast or channel, a great place to start is with a live audio podcast because, as yo...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 April 2016

IP for live production

The production and transmission of a live sporting event is one of the most technically challenging assignments for any crew. After all, you can't ask to take the shot again at a live event! Multiple signals in a variety of formats need to be transmitted around the sporting venue, as well as being seamlessly integrated with feeds from a studio or o...

Submitted by John Smith

Published 01 April 2016

Being heard in the jungle

Professional wireless sound solution specialists, Raycom, were asked in summer 2015 to specify, supply and commission a huge new RF wireless distribution system for ITV's popular reality television show, "A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!"The show is set in 500,000 square metres of dense Australian jungle. The celebrities competing are filmed in vari...

Submitted by Andy Clements

Published 01 April 2016