KitPlus | Articles

Taking the heat out of lighting

by Kevin CookIssue 82 - October 2013 Weve seen a gradual move away from tungsten video lighting for a number of years now and for all sorts of reasons. Firstly theres the ecological issue about using tungsten lights. Burning a metal filament within a gaseous-free glass chamber is not the most efficient way to generate a light source. Most of the en...

Submitted by Kevin Cook

Published 01 November 2013

Will Strauss rounds up IBC 2013

by Will StraussIssue 82 - October 2013 Dear Reader. I have a confession. I did not visit every single one of the many hundreds of stands at IBC this year. In fact, I didnt even visit all 11 halls within the RAI. And I didnt talk to all 52,974 attendees. I was there. I have the stroopwafels to prove it. Its just that IBC is a massive show. And I am...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2013

The art of E.P.I.C innovation

by Robin BrownIssue 81 - September 2013 Autoscript has a history of innovation, technological development and investment that push the boundaries of the prompting discipline not just for the sake of selling more stuff but to solve our customers real-world problems or challenges. All of our innovations are derived from intimate customer knowledge, a...

Submitted by Robin Brown

Published 01 October 2013

The joys of the outside broadcast!

by Barrie WilliamsIssue 81 - September 2013 When Michael Essien wanted to broadcast his charity football match from Ghana, the natural choice was In-5 Broadcast, who over recent years have become well- known for cost-effective outside broadcasts, writes Barrie Williams. However, with no HD broadcast equipment hire in Accra, it was necessary to take...

Submitted by Barrie Williams

Published 01 October 2013

A complete cable network out of a hat!

by Peter LampelIssue 79 - July 2013 Time-to-market a familiar buzz word for any engineer. Meeting these demands requires early concept testing where simulations have become an indispensable tool. This approach is particularly useful when developing cable TV components, which must cope with many different types of interference. Simulating complete c...

Submitted by Peter Lampel

Published 01 August 2013

Ask the experts: Content readiness in time-deferred workf...

by Sudeep BoseIssue 79 - July 2013 What are the fundamental considerations that must be addressed to ensure the quality of non-real-time content, whether played out from a broadcasters media server or time-shifted for VOD and other OTT services?When focusing on the actual content itself, rather than the service, network or other components, the key...

Submitted by Sudeep Bose

Published 01 August 2013

Addressing challenges in multiformat signal management an...

by Brian PeterssonIssue 79 - July 2013 One of the many demands broadcasters face today is establishing effective multiformat signal management and confidence monitoring, which have become critically required capabilities, and there are several reasons behind this. The first is the broadcast industrys progressive evolution slow at first, but acceler...

Submitted by Brian Petersson

Published 01 August 2013

Continuous power in the field

When on location whether in the depths of a jungle with reduced access to power or in a city centre with limited charging opportunities then good consideration to your kit bag is needed to remove those power hungry devices that could leave you running short for the final big shot of the day!The benefits of field recorders are well known, often doub...

Submitted by Raymond Burns

Published 01 July 2013

Finance - the shooting season with Peter Savage

Peter Savage goes biking and rediscovers that new isn’t always best for creating real impact, and that flexibility is the new game. The shooting season has started and, with it, the weather looks (well, this week at least) as if we could at last see some summer. The light is better, the days are longer, and the summer sports programme has kicked of...

Submitted by Dave Martland

Published 01 July 2013

PAGlink reviewed

Up until recently I always thought that a battery was, well just a battery. After all it’s just a load of cells strung together and put in some kind of case right? Well apparently not, it seems that there is a bit more to it than that, and the folks at PAG were keen to prove this by providing me with a set of their PL96e V-Mount Batteries to test....

Submitted by Jon Pratchett

Published 01 July 2013

Intelligent linking - answering some key power questions

with Steve EmmettWhat makes a safe Li-Ion Battery?Recently, the Boeing Dreamliner story has added to the perception of the Li-Ion battery as a potentially dangerous item. However, the reality is that Li-Ion batteries are a safe and robust source of portable power, when they are designed and constructed by a recognised battery manufacturer that has...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 July 2013

Sony NEX-EA50 reviewed

Once in a while you get the chance to review a camera that brings back memories of years gone by - Sony's NEX-EA50 camera is one of those cameras. Some may say I am stretching things a bit too far, but as I looked at it I felt at home with it because it reminded me of my old Sony VX9000E (also known as the DSR200). This was my first DV camera and a...

Submitted by Zulqar Cheema

Published 01 July 2013

Changing the art of Chroma Key

ChromaKey technology has been used for decades in TV and film studios to composite images or footage into a shot using green and blue screen backdrops. Although used on multi-million dollar movies, such as AVATAR and used all around the world in News rooms, conventional ‘Fabric’ ChromaKey technology requires Kilowatts of lighting, hours of setup ti...

Submitted by Rod Aaron Gammons

Published 01 June 2013

Learning to love IT with Dick Hobbs

There are three clearly defined levels of activity at NAB. There is the buzz which someone is trying to get going, there is the stuff which people are actually trying to buy, and there is the latest collection of buzzwords and catchphrases which provide endless entertainment for those with a love of language. This year, for instance, we were all to...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2013

Evolving the industry audio monitoring systems

With respect to monitoring, particularly for multiplatform content delivery, how can our facility straddle the divide between baseband and file-based signals?The media industry as a whole is moving toward multiplatform content delivery. This shift includes and affects not only traditional broadcasters and new media outlets, but the content creators...

Submitted by Don Bird

Published 01 June 2013