KitPlus | Articles

Law Enforcement - Live, Mobile Video Surveillance

by Eric Chang Issue 108 - December 2015 Law enforcement, homeland security, surveillance, emergency response and military operations may span a range of operations, but they all share a crucial need for a detailed, real-time picture of rapidly changing events from various field locations. Leading law enforcement agencies have learned that there\'s...

Submitted by Eric Chang

Published 15 December 2015

Microphone Placement

by Beth Zarkhosh Issue 107 - November 2015 Recording vocals on your microphone sounds like an easy job, but making sure you use the correct techniques and appropriate placement is essential. Today well take a look at some of the industry standard techniques as well as some more weird wonderful recording solutions along the way. Its important to kno...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 01 December 2015

Test & Measurement: Ask the expert

by Alan Wheable Issue 107 - November 2015 What should an Eye diagram look like?There are basically two different approaches to capturing the Eye Diagram from an SDI signal. These are real-time capture (employed by Real Time oscilloscopes) and signal subsampling (employed by Sampling oscilloscopes such as the Omnitek Ultra 4k Tool Box). All broadcas...

Submitted by Alan Wheable

Published 01 December 2015

TVFutures: Student pitch

by Emma Cox Issue 106 - October 2015 Student Pitch - Our second article pitch comes from Emma Cox, third year student studying BSc Television and Broadcasting at the University of Portsmouth. Personally I think this months KitPlus theme of acquisition is a tricky one for students to write about, but Emmas approach displayed real insight, and it als...

Submitted by Emma Cox

Published 01 November 2015

Ground breaking production tool

with Stefan Lange Issue 106 - October 2015 NEO¢, the latest product from British LED manufacturer Rotolight, is a revolutionary on-camera or location LED lighting fixture designed for the most demanding of professionals. NEO¢ includes several industry first features that set it apart from the field, notably amongst which is an arsenal of Cinematogr...

Submitted by Stefan Lange

Published 01 November 2015

A brief history of time

by Dick Hobbs Issue 106 - October 2015 And another IBC is written into the annals of history. Another week in Amsterdam, sharing knowledge and experience. Say what you like about IBC: it is a great chance to meet, talk and learn. Now at IBC I actually perform a number of tasks behind the scenes which keep me largely occupied and out of trouble. And...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 November 2015

Picking the right prompter

by Jon Hilton Issue 104 - August 2015 There is so much choice available today for prompting devices. From phones and tablets to full Broadcast Studios systems and with non-word prompting techniques like Interrotrons becoming popular choosing the best prompting system for your productions needs some serious consideration. 1. The Talent comes first...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 01 September 2015

The Lobster - achieving a textural grain

Issue 104 - August 2015 Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos is about to debut his first English language feature with The Lobster, which will be in UK cinemas on the 15th of October. We speak to DaVinci Resolve colorist and long time collaborator Tony Ford about the meticulous approach to color grading this dystopian love story. Featuring an impressiv...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 September 2015

Cue Dick Barton Music

by Charlie Watts Issue 103 - July 2015 RUN VT: This time last year the University of Portsmouth course team and students of BSc Television and Broadcasting were recovering from a mammoth charity fundraising 24 hour broadcast. In hindsight this event helped to convey what the course was capable of, and it created an unforgettable milestone moment. I...

Submitted by Charlie Watts

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

The importance of storage

by Larry Jordan Issue 102 - June 2015 "What\'s the best computer to edit video?\" It\'s a great question - it\'s just the wrong question. Yes, CPU speed is important and the Internet is buzzing with the latest specs on GPUs. But, today, virtually any currently shipping computer is more than adequate to edit video; even 4K. The critical component th...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 July 2015

DIY Camera dollies, flatbed vs T frame and is it worth it...

by Alasdair Brenninkmeijer Issue 102 - June 2015 As filmmakers we are creatives and sometimes we see a simple product as a waste of money, saying "I could make that.\" Sure enough with enough time, maybe we could, but is it really worth it? Lets take a camera dolly for example. The challenge is to create something to smoothly move the camera from o...

Submitted by Alasdair Brenninkmeijer

Published 01 July 2015

Moving voiceovers into the 21st century

by Leigh Emmerson Issue 101 - May 2015 There was a time when the only way to get a voiceover for your production was by contacting a voiceover agent who would obligingly send over a CD or two full of voiceover sparkle and you and your client would choose one, schlep on down to a studio and pay a small fortune to sit on a swanky sofa and watch said...

Submitted by Leigh Emmerson

Published 01 June 2015

Finding the Oracle of audio capture

by Simon Tillyer Issue 101 - May 2015 With over 300 hours of YouTube video uploaded every 60 seconds it\'s not hard to understand why any manufacturer would be looking closely at the new generation of emerging filmmakers whether they be in the consumer (creating content for "fun") or prosumer (creating content for a fee) markets. You might however...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 01 June 2015

Rise of the drones

by Jeremy Braben Issue 100 - April 2015 Drones are taking TV and film productions where they have never gone before. But how can they be used to best effect, what challenges do they present and will they replace helicopters in aerial filming? Jeremy Braben of Helicopter Film Services (HFS) has some of the answers... The recent explosion of unmanned...

Submitted by Jeremy Braben

Published 01 May 2015