KitPlus | Articles

Finally a compact HD zoom lens!

By Steffan Hewitt, director, PolecamThere are a great number of situations in our industry where the requirement for a small low profile broadcast quality HD camera is needed, whether it be for documentaries, natural history, in car, on board, covert, news, drama, underwater, on a jib arm or small remote head – the list goes on, and expands from th...

Submitted by Steffan Hewitt

Published 01 March 2013

Robin Palmer and why flashy programmes are not so good?

by Robin PalmerEver since the 1997 Pokmon phenomenon when hundreds of Japanese children were struck with epileptic fits provoked by a series bright red flashes in a TV cartoon programme broadcasters have become only too aware of PSE. Photo-Sensitive Epilepsy is a rare condition affecting perhaps only 1 in 4,000 people where flashing lights or image...

Submitted by Robin Palmer

Published 01 February 2013

4k The New Gunslinger in Town

Just when you thought it was sufficient to declare yourself ‘HD Ready’, along comes 4k. But don’t panic. Here’s the lowdown on what it all means and what tools are currently available. By Will Strauss. As someone that works in (or near) the town named broadcasting I probably don’t need to tell you this but technology advances pretty quickly around...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 December 2012

Why a new range of cases?

The team here at Ianiro International worked with Luggy for many years - they made wonderful bags with a real Italian quality and an eye for style. Sadly, last year the owner passed away, drawing their business to an abrupt close. For Ianiro International and its customers, this left a real gap. But it gave us an opportunity to reflect on our portf...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2012

Zoom lenses and minicams

Finding a quality tracking zoom lens for the minicams made for the likes of Toshiba/Iconix/Hitachi/Sony has been an uphill battle. The cameras have been made primarily for the medical imaging market for microscopes and endoscopes but adopted by the broadcast industry as a high end minicam. However lenses were always a problem. Fujinon made the TF r...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

JVC 3D Spotlight

JVC Professional’s expanded family of 3D products now include the new GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD handheld camera, along with the GD-323D20 32 inch 3D display/production monitor, our popular DT-3D24G1 3D production monitor and the upgraded IF-2D3D1 2D to 3D converter. The products are already widely used throughout the post industry, helping content creators...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

Production Profile with Polecam

What brings an innocent young Swede into the competitive high-adrenalin business of television production? In my case, it all began at school. I developed an early fascination for photography and created slide shows that were presented as end-of-semester happenings to my fellow students. Unlike television, you can actually watch a live slide-show a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 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

Commonwealth Games Will Be All Right On The Night

Fans of Bollywood films will be familiar with the classic Indian wedding storyline in which complete chaos usually engulfs the event right up to the moment when the groom arrives, at which point everything comes together and everyone has a whale of a time and puts behind them the dramas that preceded the ceremony. The XIX Commonwealth Games (CWG) i...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2010

Eye to Eye: Acquisition and Production

Back in the days of the Audio Fair which annually graced London's Russell Hotel, my co-hack Frank Jones of Hi-Fi News put his head into the KEF Electronics demonstration room and bellowed the time-honoured question "What's new?"KEF was showing established products that year so its founder, the avuncular Raymond Cooke, responded with his own questio...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Filming Underwater

Filming underwater remains one of the toughest assignments for any professional production, whether documentary or drama. There are safety concerns involved in having crew and, possibly talent, working underwater. Documentary filmmakers often operate in remote locations, far from medical aid and, especially, decompression chambers needed to treat b...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

New Light in the Forbidden City

IBC 2009’s Production Village was the venue for the launch of a revolutionary new lighting product, the Rotolight ‘Stealth Edition’ RL48 ring-light. Although the show had more than 48,000 visitors and over 1200 exhibitors, Rotolight was listed in the TV-Bay lighting category, featured in the IBC News and the ‘Eye Catcher’ technology report on Amste...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2009

Getting the best out of your LCD

Getting the best out of your LCDs?Many people who use CRT picture monitors have found the introduction of LCD displays disappointing. Getting the best out of your LCD may not be as simple as it may seem. With a wide choice of vendors and models all proclaiming broadcast quality, it can be difficult to determine which product is most suitable for yo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

London to Capetown, by bike part 1

South Africans are known for being to the point, so when I was told that I had done the whole thing ‘Arse Backwards’ I wasn’t unduly upset, but I did feel a need to justify the way I had approached this project. I had just arrived in Cape Town and was rather pleased with myself, having just completed a year long journey through some of Africa’s mos...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008