KitPlus | Articles

Closed Captioning Comes to IP and Mobile TV

As mobile or IP-based TV becomes increasingly popular with viewers, so will the demand for closed captioning for the deaf or hard of hearing. Lawmakers are already flexing their muscles regarding this issue, with the U.S. federal government enacting regulations making it mandatory for broadcasters to supply closed captioning for IP and mobile progr...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

BVE 2012 in no particular order.......

The big story at BVE 2012 was BVE 2013. With the Earls Court exhibition site scheduled for redevelopment, BVE relocates next year to the ExCel exhibition site in London’s Docklands. The distance is only about 10 miles but, in the minds of many BVE exhibitors, the move is comparable with moving the NAB Convention to the Mississippi Delta. If you rea...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

Want to take the road?

3D Storm, the distributor of NewTek products in EMEA integrated a MINI Countryman with a complete and fully operational HD Live Production system. When 3D Storm started the MINI LiveManTM project, the concept was to showcase the latest production systems developed by NewTek TM. Two key words: Compact, all-terrain. MINI cars were used at several occ...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

The Biggest Game in Town

The Biggest Game in TownAnnually, as the Super Bowl approaches, stores across the States stack their shelves with the latest HDTV sets. Advertising sales teams cancel all holidays and prepare for a feeding frenzy. Networks bid in earnest to win exclusive game broadcasting rights. And new media innovators roll out their latest online and mobile apps...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2012

Unconvincing conversion?

There have appeared in the last year or two an amazing array of 2D to 3D conversion boxes and software processors. Also nearly every major manufacturer of high end 3D sets has its own proprietary built-in processor allowing the user to view any ordinary TV broadcast or DVD instantly as a 3D rendition. The production of genuine 3D is expensive compa...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

Audio loudness for video post

For decades audiences have been complaining about the differences in perceived loudness between different parts of a television service, most commonly that the commercials seem louder than the programmes. Finally broadcasters, prompted in many cases by regulators, have addressed the issue. Over the last decade research has determined what it is tha...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Do you think 3D Broadcasting in its current format is lik...

There are two issues that affect the potential growth of 3D in broadcasting: they are the widespread availability of 3D enabled devices, and the cost of producing and broadcasting 3D content. All HD TV sets from major manufacturers over 40 inches that are sold today include 3D capability, so the end-user market of 3D capable viewers is growing by d...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

Eye-to-eye: 2011 highlights

“Broadcasters must climb up the ladder into high definition or they’ll get their ankles chewed by the computer industry”. Memorable quote from a manufacturer of video standards converters nearly 30 years ago when NHK was trying to establish its original 1125-line (1080-active) 5:3 aspect-ratio ‘Hi-Vision’. Well it happened. 2011 was the year ‘high-...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

The Anatomy of a Good QC Solution

As the media transitions from tape-based analog to file-based digital content, the existing workflows and operational methods of media companies will need to be updated. File-based workflows are being widely adopted as mainstream solution by Broadcasters, Post-production houses, IPTV, satellite and archiving companies. A file-based content can be s...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Storage and archiving

Anyone looking closely at a helical scan video tape mechanism, particularly the miniature variety, might be forgiven for wondering how such an elaborate technology ever came to be invented. The first experimental video tape recorders were essentially audio recorders running at very high speed to achieve the bandwidth needed for television signals....

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

IBC2011 must sees

Over 1,300 exhibitors will be supporting IBC2011, each bringing perhaps one, two or three new or enhanced products. My task is to distill these down to the 20 devices likely to be of greatest interest to TV-Bay readers, so far as that is possible several weeks before the show opens. As a recent convert to OS X, I note with gloom that Apple remains...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

Eye to Eye on Delivery and Distribution

A notable aspect of the 2010 IBC and 2011 NAB conference sessions was the rapidly increasing focus on IP streaming. Fibre-optic delivery to the home has yet to be turned into widespread reality but transport speeds over existing electrical infrastructure continue to accelerate. Cloud-based storage and distribution services offer a solution to the c...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2011

HTML5 and H.264. Friends United....

H.264 - The Success StorySome technologies like DVD, CD, TV and the PC prove themselves over time. They are practical, flexible, reliable - even universal. Is H.264 one of those magic bullet technologies?H.264, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC, is the video codec that has taken the broadcast and consumer world by storm. In 2008, Anthony Rose, fo...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 August 2011

Whats new in broadcast test and measurement

The test and measurement product category continues to expand as the broadcast business itself diversifies. Notable recent developments include higher resolution displays and a gradually increasing number of analysers which, having detected a fault, endeavour to fix it. No sign at NAB 2011 of any tablet-based test and measurement equipment but perh...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

DVB-3DTV: A Milestone

In 1822, George Stephenson set his Standard Gauge for the world’s first steam railway at 4 foot 8 inches (1.44m), to match a nearby wagonway that worked well at Killingworth Colliery. Despite Isambard Kingdom Brunel building the London-to-Bristol line (1838) on what he considered to a better 2.2m ‘Board Gauge’ (he was right!), the Gauge Act of 1846...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011