KitPlus | Articles

Pushing the Boundaries for OTT

OTT video consumption is gaining traction in Western Europe, with 55 percent of UK broadband households and 51 percent of homes in France watching TV programming and movies online, according to Parks Associates. OTT subscriptions are especially popular with today\'s Millennial population, as Parks Associates found that 23 percent of Millennial head...

Submitted by Yaniv Ben-Soussan -new

Published 04 April 2017

New workflows floating on the horizon

The way in which we consume content has fundamentally changed. We want to watch what we want, when we want, where we want and how we want, and we want to find programmes quickly, preferably in HD or increasingly UHD. Content is king and in order to satisfy consumer requirements it is essential media companies can locate their material quickly and e...

Submitted by Lee Sheppard - new

Published 04 April 2017

5G Streaming - The Rollout

5G will bring significant improvements in bandwidth per device, capacity per network and reduced latency per session. These are all very important features for video both today and going forward. The growth of new formats such as UHD, AR, VR and 360 video place much greater demand on the networks that serve consumer devices, so 5G will be essential...

Submitted by Steve Plunkett - new

Published 04 April 2017

DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel from Blackmagic Design - Revie...

Blackmagic\'s new, more affordable control surface for professionals is probably the most perfect panel I\'ve ever used. By Rebecca Goodeve I\'ve been a colourist for a number of years now. I\'ve worked on everything from Pan to the latest Lurpak commercial, and, in that time, I\'ve also had the chance to work with a variety of grading solutions cu...

Submitted by Rebecca Goodeve - new

Published 04 April 2017

Driving the Bandwidth Conundrum

At the time of writing, there is a story on the IBC website with the headline "In five years the problem won\'t be bandwidth, but knowing what to do with it". That seemed to me to be an interesting assertion, so I read on. Now I appreciate there are few who are as old as I am, but if you are you may remember the claim, in the early days of nuclear...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 04 April 2017

Health and Safety gone mad

The first true broadcast television service started 80 years ago, on 2 November, 1936. Its home, famously, was Alexandra Palace, a vast and really rather run-down building on top of Muswell Hill in north London. Originally opened in 1873, and re-opened in 1875 after a catastrophic fire, it was built primarily as an entertainment venue. Indeed, it w...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 13 January 2017

Cause and effect of jitter in an operational IP video net...

What are the advantages of moving to an IP infrastructure? The most commonly cited advantage of deploying IP Video networks in production and other operational applications is the ability to use Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) IT-based infrastructure, which takes advantage of the economies of scale of the IT industry when compared with the relative...

Submitted by Paul Robinson

Published 07 December 2016

Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Reviewed

The yeti finally arrived earlier this year - I call it so, because for almost twelve months until BVE 2016 we\'d only seen it in pictures! So getting my hands on one in a real word environment was an absolute no brainer, when Simon Tillyer dropped me a line offering the opportunity to review the camera for KitPlus. I\'ll cut right to the chase with...

Submitted by Ben Sherriff

Published 07 December 2016

A changing media industry

Q. How is the media industry changing today? The media industry, especially the digital TV industry, is going through some revolutionary changes both in terms of how video is delivered and how it is watched. Until a few years ago, consumers watched TV programs that were delivered via a dedicated and controlled network. Content was aggregated and de...

Submitted by Anupama Anantharaman

Published 07 December 2016

Highlighting YouTube Space

Video, by definition, requires space and light. However, the right space, with the right light, can make or break a production. YouTube parent company Google\'s new London HQ in Pancras Square at King\'s Cross is certainly the right space. In fact, it\'s so right they\'ve called it YouTube Space London, a 20,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facili...

Submitted by Peter Daffarn

Published 10 November 2016

Selecting the right broadcast minicam lens

So we all know that HD and 4K (and beyond) is the norm for content creation and delivery, with the need for unique and versatile shots being offered to increase the audiences participation and visual experiences. A major factor aside from the camera itself is the selection of lens, for some of the UHD sensor formats a broad spectrum of "off the she...

Submitted by Steffan Hewitt

Published 10 November 2016

Self contained and expandable commentary systems

Adopting innovative technologies and techniques is always fundamental to the control of capital and operational costs - the key to broadcast facilities or technology providers gaining competitive advantage. Sports commentary has continually suffered from high operational costs, whether at the sports venue itself or "off-glass", due to the need for...

Submitted by Chris Collings

Published 26 September 2016

Interrontrons - a prompting gimmick or a real production...

The first question for many is what is an Interrotron? Essentially it is the use of a traditional prompter but instead of the words in the script the presenter sees the interviewer\'s or director\'s face. This technique was pioneered by American film director Errol Morris in his film The Fog of War which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Fe...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 24 August 2016

Dance hall days are over for professional lighting

Photon Beard has made lights since before the days of electric power. "What\'s that, you say"? Well, it\'s true. Photon Beard started in 1882 when the founder, R.R. Beard, invented the automatic gas regulator. Yes, the thing that allows you to barbeque that steak in summer sunshine, or any time of year that you fancy grilled food. In the days befor...

Submitted by Peter Daffarn

Published 24 August 2016

High throughput satellite meets the challenge of IP media

For some time, many people in the media industry have been wondering how much longer satellite could remain a major player now that the era of 4K is upon us and there is such a rapid proliferation of channels. There just isn't the throughput for these new services on the current generation of satellites, so the argument goes, and the costs per giga...

Submitted by Simen Frostad

Published 22 July 2016