KitPlus | Articles

The world is not flat

The world is all around us. We have a lot of cues that make us aware of how we fit into a 3D space. Many of these cues, senses and reactions are survival instincts. For example, the ability to hear someone walk up behind us, to see movement in our peripheral vision, a sense of how we are oriented when we move our bodies or swivel our head. All of t...

Submitted by David Schleifer

Published 13 January 2017

Review: Transvideo Starlite RF

The Transvideo StarliteRF is a new lightweight wireless monitor system that ticks many boxes and satisfies new and developing monitor requirements. Rental companies are reporting a rising demand for lightweight shooting kits even for commercials and movies, increasing use of hand-held, use of Steadicam, gimbals and other body rigs which keep the ca...

Submitted by Marcus Brent-Smith

Published 07 December 2016

Dick looks at the faster future

I really enjoyed IBC this year. The fact that I barely set foot on the show floor is, of course, entirely coincidental, and I should take this opportunity to apologise to all those people I did not see in Amsterdam. One of the jobs I do at IBC is produce the awards ceremony, and this year that meant I got to meet some really nice people. We gave on...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 10 November 2016

Live streams versus srowing files

So, what is the difference between a stream and a file? It may seem like a dumb and obvious question, but it's crucial in the design of many file based workflows and the applications that drive them. Let's start with the basic and obvious answer. "You can random access a file but you sequentially process a stream". This used to be important back in...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 26 September 2016

Make a scifi film in the Mexican Desert

British director Nicolas Roeg once said to me that making a film is like horse racing. To start with you give the horse a nudge to get him moving, then as you gather speed there's a point where you have to trust the horse. You hold on and the horse will carry you across the finish line. I've just returned home from shooting a Sci-fi proof-of-concep...

Submitted by Edward Andrews

Published 26 September 2016

The FAQs on automated quality assurance

The transition from tape-based to file-based video and audio recording allowed a completely new approach to the business of checking that programmes and interstitials conform to broad-cast industry standards prior to transmission. The Vidcheck team designed the world\'s first au-tomated broadcast quality control product. We have been working on fil...

Submitted by Thomas Dove

Published 25 August 2016

Realising the ideal

On 26 July 1916 there was a public meeting in New York. It was called by a group led by Charles Francis Jenkins (and more on him in a moment). But the guest speaker was Henry D Hubbard, at the time the secretary of the US National Bureau of Standards. This is some of what he said: "Interchangeability of parts is an important principle of standardis...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 24 August 2016

OTT - is it over the top or business as usual

OTT is a term that is casually bandied about as though everyone knows what it is, but is there really a single definition? Hopefully this little guide will have you speaking the jargon like a native!OTT stands for Over The Top. If you're into linguistics, then the first question that comes to mind is "What are A & B in the sentence: A is going over...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 22 July 2016

The Pros and Cons of Archiving in the Cloud

Archiving content in the cloud provides a number of key benefits. However, many media companies and content owners are still hesitant to store their assets that way due to content security implications and cost concerns. So what are the pros and cons of storing content in the cloud?There are a number of key drivers including: access to content from...

Submitted by Lee Sheppard

Published 14 June 2016

Building Blocks

by Dick Hobbs Issue 112 - April 2016 That is the MIT Media Lab saying, in a typically American academic way, that they want to help producers make better content. That is what you find if you Google "object-based broadcasting". Which is what I did on your behalf this month, because BT Sport - which seems to have taken up the idea of innovation in b...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 25 April 2016

Grading Temple - Making the future look vintage

Cineground's Simon Allard and Nguyen Anh Nguyen reveal how they used Kowa lenses and an atypical approach to grading to give their new sci-fi cyberpunk thriller, "Temple\" a unique vintage look. Created by the same indie team behind "The Akira Project,\" a viral trailer which garnered more than three million views online in 2014, "Temple\" is a new...

Submitted by Simon Allard

Published 01 April 2016

Object Audio - whats all the noise about

We all know that getting the audio right makes the pictures better. Anyone who has seen a movie created for Object Audio like Dolby Atmos will know that there is something special about it. To figure out what that is, let's rewind a little and see why we might need it. Remember the good old days of mono audio on TV? Mono audio gives a single channe...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 01 April 2016

How Your iPad Can Help Your Filmmaking

by Beth Zarkosh Issue 110 - February 2016 How Your iPad Can Help Your FilmmakingThe new iPad is a fantastic and innovative tool for practically anything, but now you can rely on it for your filmmaking needs as well. It may not be what Spielberg is using to shoot his next blockbuster, however its rapidly becoming a must-have tool for filmmakers of a...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 16 March 2016

Out with the new, in with the old

by Peter Savage Issue 110 - February 2016 Out with the new, in with the oldGetting the film look with a digital camera requires the correct lens: and sometimes that means going back in time, writes Peter SavageFor consumers and professionals alike, a digital camera offers convenience and immediacy. But when youre using one to shoot a movie or TV dr...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 16 March 2016

Editing broadcast video in a mobile app a ridiculous noti...

by Jason Cowan Issue 109 - January 2016 A trend appears to be developing in broadcast technology development the more ridiculous an idea initially seems, the better the chances are that it will turn the whole industry on its head. Ten years ago editing over an internet connection was a pipe-dream, and the suggestion that broadcast equipment might b...

Submitted by Jason Cowan

Published 21 January 2016