KitPlus | Articles

Business advcie from the football pitch

Much has been written in the press about the performance of the beleaguered England football team during the World Cup and particularly Fabio Capello’s management. It seems that Capello was the root of the team’s problems, so this month I have analysed our performance through some very simply management headings to see how we could take some key le...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2010

Getting rid of the horn

I have to start this column with a statement that may, to some readers, be profoundly shocking. I am not much of a football fan. Indeed, writing this in the immediate aftermath of that dismal Sunday when England’s “finest” succumbed pathetically to the might of the German machine, I have to say I did not watch a moment of the match. There was some...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2010

Expanding Video Monitoring to Meet Todays Demands

With the rapid evolution of the industry, new technologies must offer users both value and performance in the short term, as well as the promise of continued utility in the long term. A number of key advances in the design of video monitoring solutions are giving broadcasters and other media companies the means to manage monitoring of a growing num...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2010

Game, Set and Media Management

A week into Wimbledon and my chances of getting there this year seemed to be dwindling fast. A late call on Friday afternoon though from Timeline TV rekindled my hopes of not only seeing a bit of tennis but getting an exclusive tour around the Wimbledon Broadcast Centre. Always one to grab the opportunity to see both tennis and kit in action my nex...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2010

A dream budget

As the coalition government prepares its emergency budget, Peter Savage looks at what is planned and tells us what he thinks the government should do. Apologies to avid readers of this column that there wasn’t one in the last issue. The editors decided on an article on the effects of the general election on our industries and, sod’s law, the deadli...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

Enabling the fans

The days when a simple hotdog, a pint of beer, a score board and good lungs were the main ingredients of a great day at a football game are soon to be a thing of the past. Mike Arthur, general manager, sports and live events, at Harris Broadcast Communications, talks to TV-Bay Magazine about the advances in technology which will enable interactive...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

Hawk-Eye Accuracy and Believability in Cricket

In 1999 research began at Roke Manor Research Ltd., a company with over thirty years of vision processing expertise. Led by Dr. Paul Hawkins and funded by The Television Corporation, the concept of “Hawk-Eye” was born. First developed in 1999, Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd continues to grow and develop with Hawk-Eye recently creating a system for the BB...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

How to create and brand a live TV experience online

Late last year, Pixel Power worked closely with the Perform Group to brand the first ever live England football match online, a landmark event. Before we discuss that in detail, there is a wider question to answer: what do we mean by “branding”? Branding is fundamentally how you differentiate your channel; how you make it stand out in the crowd and...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2010

Does one size fits all

Economic realities are driving most technical industries toward considering solutions that combine what began as stand-alone, discrete devices into single, multifunction systems. In the broadcast and multimedia production arenas, character generators (CGs) are among the discrete systems now being offered in multifunction platforms. The assumption i...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2010

Aston ON

In August 2009 leading Spanish real-time graphics manufacturer, Brainstorm Multimedia acquired the Aston 7 character generator from the Softel Group. With over 30 years on the market, Aston is one of the most established brands in the business and has been the gold standard in character generation in the United Kingdom for many years – to the exten...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2010

With Polecam to the Antarctic

Whale Wars is a documentary-style reality television series that airs on Animal Planet, and follows the activities of the eco-activist group, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Last year, I was aboard Sea Shepherd’s flagship, “Steve Irwin” as Director of Photography and, along with a 5-man camera team, documented the “war” between the Japanese whal...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

Eye to Eye: Distribution and Delivery 2010

Distribution and Delivery are two elements of in the broadcast chainthat get taken pretty much for granted but both are highly important. My focus in this summary is on equipment and software introduced since IBC 2009 and in the run-up to NAB 2010. Distribution linksThese come in many shapes and flavours, over copper, optical fibre, RF, point-to-po...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

How to Automate HD

HD movies are on average more than three times larger in size than the equivalent SD movie. Naturally therefore, HD material requires more storage and longer to transfer from the archive/storage to the transmission path. Managing these increased file sizes and optimally controlling the bandwidth is one of the main challenges which need to be addres...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

Ask the experts on cable

Digital, server-based systems in production, post-production, news gathering and playout bring increased efficiencies and productivity. Nonlinear editing and news gathering allow users to access the same material across a data network. Digits are here and are now dictating the form of cables and connectors, from camera through to playout. What qual...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2010

2020 television

Television has proved the most popular and efficient form of human communication since the evolution of speech and the development of the written word. The industry has come a long way in a short time and still has a huge future, whatever the delivery route or the receiving platform. My intention here is to outline the key factors influencing the d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010