KitPlus | Articles

NFTS, the future of digital visionaries

The Confession, a film from The National Film and Television School (NFTS), has recently been nominated for an Academy Award, in the Live Action Short Film category - the second nomination for an NFTS graduation film in this category in the last five years. The success of the film comes days after more than 40 NFTS graduates worked on nominated fil...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Tape goes West at UWE

Three years ago a convoy of white vans arrived at the Faculty of Arts at the University of West of England in Bristol. An hour later its entire stock of SVHS camcorders, linear editing decks and analog tape were history. In came Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro and Panasonic digital camcorders. Now 20 professional tapeless HD camcorders have taken up...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Monitoring digital TV signal quality

The new R&S®DVMS1 and R&S®DVMS4 DTV monitoring systems keep track of the quality of digital TV signals – they detect all relevant errors at the RF and transport stream levels. They provide parallel monitoring of up to four signals and carry out in-depth signal analysis. These capabilities combine with an ultra-compact size of just one height unit a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Using Multipoint Monitoring to Ensure Reliable Digital Vi...

Because the quality and bandwidth-efficiency advantages of digital over analog methods have made digital transport preferred, the world continues its migration to an all-digital approach to delivering video signals – from the studio through distribution networks to the end-viewer. As with any new technology, adopting and integrating digital video d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

tv-bay questions

Name & Title?Ben Holmes, Owner and Senior EditorWho are you? (about yourself and EditOut)We're a specialist edit company focusing on editing for Outside Broadcast, as well as some corporate work. What do you do? What does EditOut do?My day-to-day work is as a VT and edit supervisor, producing packages for live TV broadcasts. Edit Out supplies Final...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Ring out the old, ring in the new

At the start of a new year many of us will look back on the highs and lows of the last 12 months and try to predict what’s in store for us in the coming months before seeking advice on how to protect our business against the unknown. Before making predictions for 2011 I thought I’d take a look back at key industry and business milestones over the p...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Test Chest 3G and the Baptism of Fire

Murraypro recently received a request from Manchester's Granada Studio Complex to borrow a Test Chest 3G for an evaluation they wished to undertake. While Murraypro were delighted to lend them a demonstration unit for their technical testing, they had no concept of any of the background story developing at the TV Centre. Mr Steve Craddock, Technica...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Broadcast Batteries, Today and Tomorrow

As consumers, we all have experience of being let down by batteries (think rusty Italian cars in the 1970s!). But thankfully the world of batteries has moved on: the global battery industry is today worth $71 billion and is estimated to be growing at nearly 5% a year. Of this, broadcast batteries make up a tiny fraction but the manufacturers that s...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Bridging the divide between production and post productio...

In the last couple of years we have seen a considerable increase in the adoption of digital film cameras. This is not only fuelled by improvements in the technology and image quality but also by the adoption of 3D filmmaking, which significantly lends itself to the digital arena. Digital cameras have brought some wonderful benefits to the filming c...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

Synchronising the Shelf Stackers

The six-episode BBC Series “Shelf Stackers” brings audiences lots of laughs with its witty teenage commentary. Dom Bridges directed and helped edit the popular show as well as automating the synchronisation of audio clips for its dual-system sound productionBridges began his career as a graphic designer, which eventually led him to commercial desig...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2011

TV Bay Questions

Who are you? (about yourself and Online Creative)I am the owner of Brighton based post production facility, Online Creative Ltd. I started the company in 1999 primarily as an edit facility which has since developed further into a production company and training facility. We have recently invested in a fully equipped grading suite to add to the serv...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011

Truth Lies and LEDs

As an emergent technology within film and broadcast over the last six years, LEDs have generated strong opinions for and against, adjudging their capabilities and relative merits, when compared to traditional light sources. Development has seen them grow from the small coloured pinpoints of light on your stereo or TV, to a level where they can prod...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011

HotTips on how to be a better lighting cameraman.

First up, don’t worry too much about HDFor most of my early career I shot with film, not video, so I usually approach things from a film point-of-view. This means I don’t see an awful lot of difference between SD and HD. In my opinion, the extra definition has more of an impact on the make-up team and the set designers because, regardless of what l...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011

Lighting up Yorkshire

The Yorkshire town of Rawmarsh looks like an easy target. Its trolley buses have come and gone and its two train stations were both wrapped up more than 40 years ago. For many years, it was the home of potters and steel workers; it was a mining town from the 15th century, an industry that survived over 500 years until it was closed by a certain rut...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 January 2011

Launching Call of Duty Black Ops

So, how do you get the feed from 8 full HD camera's, games console screen captures, and a remote camera feed from 6 miles away to over 180,000 live game junkies all waiting to see the release of what is likely to be the world’s fastest selling and most anticipated Console/PC Game to date?That was the question posed to us at Mediakinetic by the digi...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 January 2011