KitPlus | Articles

Monitoring: Cutting the Wires

Teradek began the wireless monitoring revolution at last year's NAB show. Its Cube wireless encoders are no bigger than a pack of playing cards. They compress a camcorder's video feed into an H.264 signal for transmission to either a WiFi-enabled laptop, iPad or tablet or to a Cube decoder. Straight-away live, remote and affordable monitoring was b...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

The semantic web made simple

There is a new term creeping in to discussions in the broadcasting business, and particularly around those involved in asset management and research projects. The term is “semantic web” and, I suspect, there are a lot of people who are neither completely sure they know what it means, nor trust its relevance in our business. I aim to provide some si...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

An Epic Journey for the Summer Games

With the abundance of international sporting events taking place this summer, broadcast technologies and logistics are being put to the test across the board. Beyond the typical coordination and on site expertise required for broadcasts, many companies face not only longer engagements but aggressive turnaround times and long travel distances betwee...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Who wouldnt consider a career in Live sports?

There are many diverse things in this industry which give me a buzz but I think that live sports coverage is probably pretty near the top of the pile. With a 17yr old son considering his career options I thought it time to introduce him to the world of live sports and SIS LIVE were kind enough to give us a quick tour behind the scenes on the second...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Ask the Experts - Loudness

Introduction:Loudness level inconsistencies are one of the most common problems in the broadcast industry. Loudness standards are now being introduced as discontinuities in audio levels between programs, or between programs and advertisements, have been the cause of viewer complaints – in fact they are the number one cause. Of course anything that...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

An effective strategy for monitoring broadcast audio loud...

One of the factors affecting a television viewer’s satisfaction and overall quality of experience is the consistency of the audio level of the programming. Inconsistent loudness levels between channels or between programming and advertisements can ruin a viewer’s television watching experience. Over the past several years, erratic audio levels have...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

Testing mixed signals

It is fitting that a lot of the avid readers of this article are broadcast manufacturers flying over the Atlantic to NAB in Las Vegas so I have a captive audience to influence with an open invitation to come and visit us in the North Hall N5015. Whereas the new product range has been designed for applications in traditional settings such as enginee...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

Are you out on the range

The main parameters to worry about in any stereoscopic scene are the most negative and positive disparity values. These numbers are usually expressed in percentage terms rather than in actual screen pixels. The distance between the numbers is the depth range. The depth budget is the maximum value this range can be allowed without being too uncomfor...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

Cloud Matter Part 1 - Fear of Fluff!

Although I’m writing this article in the usual way, by sitting at my desk and tapping on my keyboard, the only app running on my computer is the web browser. I can see the article on the screen but have no idea where it’s being stored. Still I have every confidence that it will be instantly recalled whenever I want it.... provided my modem and Inte...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

BVE 2012 in no particular order.......

The big story at BVE 2012 was BVE 2013. With the Earls Court exhibition site scheduled for redevelopment, BVE relocates next year to the ExCel exhibition site in London’s Docklands. The distance is only about 10 miles but, in the minds of many BVE exhibitors, the move is comparable with moving the NAB Convention to the Mississippi Delta. If you rea...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

10 things you must monitor

Everyone will have their own view as to the ‘critical’ items that have to be monitored constantly in broadcast. It was this need to offer a solution to QC that led PHABRIX to create a new range of products moving on from the highly successful PHABRIX Sx hand held products to a rack mount solution. The PHABRIX Rx series was released at NAB this year...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Capturing the Gumball 3000 Rally 2011 with an iPhone4

Sons of Oscar nominated Director - Mike Figgis, Arlen and Louis Figgis, were tasked this year with following and recording the Gumball 3000 Rally. The Gumball 3000 is an annual 3,000-mile (4,800 km) international road rally which takes place over 8 days on public roads, with a different route around the world each year. Founded in 1999 by Maximilli...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

Ask the Experts - Integrating Social Media

Why should I care about integrating social media into my broadcast operations?Viewers are the lifeblood of any broadcaster, whether public service or commercial, major national broadcaster or special interest, free-to-air or pay TV, RF or IP delivery, fundamentally it's all about getting, and keeping, as many viewers as possible. Social media provi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

How the mysteries of Library and Archive have changed in...

As I walked into the ATV Bridge Street studios in Birmingham in November 1974 I could not have known what a revolutionary time I would experience in my career as a “Library Guy”. Since 2” tape became the recording medium for television in the late fifties nothing much had changed in its cataloguing, storage and usage. A few stickers on the tape, a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

Getting Social

There are, apparently, 200 million tweets a day. Given that Twitter claims 200 million active users that seems a modest output, it is true, but the Twitterati have a disproportionate reach because large numbers of people – many of them lazy journalists – follow other people’s trending topics without contributing themselves. YouTube users download c...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011