KitPlus | Articles

Product update with Swit - travel safe power solutions

Swit Electronics is a high-tech enterprise that manufacture power solutions and accessories for the professional broadcast and video industry. Products include batteries and chargers, on-camera lights, monitors and more. Swit design and manufacture their products to the smallest detail and therefore the end result is a high performing, high quality...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 July 2013

Delivering in all conditions with a Petrol Bags raincover

Autumn in the Czech Republic is damp and foggy, and the higher the altitude, the more piercing and rainy the climate becomes. At an old, remote mill 40 km (25 miles) away from Prague, sludge and mud are everywhere while moisture penetrates the bones. These are the filming conditions on the main set of the psychological thriller Cold Sunday. The oth...

Submitted by Raymond Burns

Published 01 May 2013

Crowd pulling at BVE

There is no better crowd puller at a trade show than a stand using equipment from multiple manufacturers being used in way it will be once unpacked by the customer. This ethos is really the idea behind our monthly live studio show and was also the theme for our stand at this year’s BVE. Pooling stands with Autocue was the first good move as it not...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 April 2013

Monitoring OBs the light and easy way

by Stuart Cameron, MD of Cache-MediaI wonder sometimes whether a successful OB should be measured as Outside Broadcast Coverage per KG or OB coverage per KM. The cost of fuel keeps rising and so the cost of getting to an OB location is also increasing. To anyone who is a cyclist, you know that extra weight slows you down when climbing hills. Theref...

Submitted by Stuart Cameron

Published 01 April 2013

Life live beyond the Premier League

by Kieron SethIn Europe outside broadcast has traditionally been within the reach of a handful of deep-pocketed television companies. Across the Atlantic, small OB vans have been popular for years with niche, regional news crews beaming state pie eating competitions to eager viewers. With the advent of Local TV and low-cost fast turnaround producti...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2013

Live production for multi-platform delivery

by Steve Burgess, technical director, Megahertz Broadcast SystemsLive event television, whether it is sport or music and entertainment, has always made serious demands of production technology. At Megahertz Broadcast Systems we have been building outside broadcast trucks for some of the world’s most demanding customers, for more than 25 years, so w...

Submitted by Steve Burgess

Published 01 April 2013

Cue Systems, more important than ever in live OB producti...

An effective cue system performs a crucial role in coordinating broadcast activity, keeping directors, production crew and camera operators informed and in control. Data gathered from vision mixers, routers and other production path components generates tally information that can be displayed on under-monitor displays (UMDs) and multi-screen viewer...

Submitted by Bob Head

Published 01 April 2013

What you see is what you get? Doubtful!

by Robin PalmerThe colour you see is not necessarily the same colour experienced by someone else looking at the same thing. It all depends on the viewer and the viewing conditions as well as the actual colour of the thing. In some professions having perfect colour vision is a matter of safety as in the case of airline pilots and those in railway si...

Submitted by Robin Palmer

Published 01 March 2013

Ask the Experts: What Workstation?

Investing in a new computer workstation or high end PC for use with digital video/or and media production can be a daunting task. With so many different manufacturers to choose from, and with a practically endless list of components to select from customers can be left with literally millions of possible choices. Scary if you aren’t a hardware guru...

Submitted by Mike Leach

Published 01 February 2013

Maximizing the Efficiency of Multiscreen Video Delivery

By Shawn SaleemAs consumer demand for video content anywhere, anytime, and on any connected device continues to grow at a rapid pace, today’s pay-TV operators are in need of next-generation technologies that will lower the cost of multiscreen content delivery while enabling them to adapt to new business models. Advanced content networking ICs resol...

Submitted by shawn saleem

Published 01 February 2013

Call of Duty Black Ops II: World Exclusive First Look Str...

I work a lot in live online broadcasting, and backup systems are top of mind when designing any live event. Being off air for any reason is unacceptable, so I build systems knowing that should something fail, I can easily reroute the signal or switch to another machine. This was on my mind when we were asked to live stream for four straight days at...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 January 2013

Ask the Experts Monitoring sound in the stdio

1. Why do I need monitors? And why can't I just use my Hifi speakers?It may sound like the most obvious thing in the world, and it is, but along with your headphones your monitoring system is the only thing in your mix room that actually makes sound. All the decisions you make in relation to mixing, mic placement, balancing and more are coloured by...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 December 2012

3d Screens

Often exhibitions such as IBC and NAB can be summed up as progressive – slightly better products but nothing really new. Sometimes there is a breakthrough such as Ampex’s introduction of the VTR in 1956. The early years of digital production and post tools were rich in totally new things. At the time I worked at Quantel and seeing inventions like P...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2012

Loudness Monitoring: Complacent Wont Get You Compliant

Stricter regulations across the globe, the worldwide need for standardized audio level loudness processing, the need for logging and graphing mixed with long-term records maintenance for compliance verification, and the convergence of SDI/IP and ASI technologies all make for a challenging time in the broadcast industry. Identical and obligatory com...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2012

Monitoring: Cutting the Wires

Teradek began the wireless monitoring revolution at last year's NAB show. Its Cube wireless encoders are no bigger than a pack of playing cards. They compress a camcorder's video feed into an H.264 signal for transmission to either a WiFi-enabled laptop, iPad or tablet or to a Cube decoder. Straight-away live, remote and affordable monitoring was b...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012