KitPlus | Articles

In Ear Monitors Help The Cast And Crew of Americas Got Ta...

Capturing performances for television is a stressful business, especially if the programme is being filmed live. You want everything to be perfect but you are also aware that many things can go wrong, even with the best laid plans. Reducing the list of potential disasters is therefore high on any production crew’s agenda and one area where it is po...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 21 December 2020

State of the Nation - January 2019

I’m writing these thoughts on the morning of 20 December. From my desk in Tunbridge Wells I am normally gently aware of air traffic at five thousand feet, lining up to land at Gatwick Airport. Today it is silent: since 9.00 last night some idiot has been flying drones across the runway. An airport is a finely tuned machine, with all the interconnec...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 24 January 2019

GoPro HERO 7 Review

When I heard I was filming a nature restoration project in the pouring rain this week I was excited. WHY? No Cameraman enjoys the rain, surely but this time I was enthusiastic because I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the brand new GoPro Hero 7 Black Edition. Scythes, water, and wildlife that excrete things are not normally co...

Submitted by Tim Bearder

Published 09 November 2018

The Pace of Change

The youngest human to stand on the moon (so far) was Charles Moss, the lunar module pilot of Apollo 16. Charlie had a wonderful claim: his father witnessed the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk, and lived to see his son on the moon. Does anything capture the speed of technological advance better than that? The whole of the history of powe...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 08 September 2018

Does the cloud have substance?

Just at the moment, every customer we talk to wants to move to the cloud. It is not just a techno-buzzword: people are really attracted by it. The idea of getting rid of all hardware and letting someone else worry about keeping machine rooms alive seems like a good plan. And they sometimes feel a bit deflated when we talk quietly and calmly about w...

Submitted by Ciaran Doran

Published 04 April 2017

Sully - Grading a miracle

We all know the story. On 15 January 2009 an Airbus A320 took off from LaGuardia airport in New York, heading for Charlotte. Just a couple of minutes later the plane flew through a flock of Canada geese and blew out both engines. Knowing the risk of crashing into heavily populated areas, Captain Chesley Sullenberger - Sully - aimed for the only lon...

Submitted by Maxine Gervais

Published 15 February 2017

IBC with the BBC

IBC is an exciting opportunity for us in BBC R&D to share with the world the work we've been doing on a range of technologies. Those attending the conference will be able see much of the work we are doing on new forms of content and workflows and get an understanding of the object based principles for broadcasting which we are working towards, enab...

Submitted by Jon Page

Published 26 September 2016

5 Things I Saw At NAB

by Peter Savage Issue 113 - May 2016 ARRI Trinity stabilisationIt may look like something that was dreamt up for a sci-fi film but the Trinity stabilisation system is a truly remarkable bit of kit that is most certainly real. Available as an upgrade to the Artemis or a third-party camera stabiliser, it consists of a compact and lightweight two-axis...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 13 May 2016

Leaving Las Vegas

by John Smith Issue 112 - April 2016 What is it about Leaving Las Vegas? I\'ve had the privilege of being a regular visitor and exhibitor at NAB since the early 1980\'s. One memorable occasion, our flight home had been overbooked and so an alternative arrangement was made. We wondered why it would take four hours to fly from Vegas to LA? As the pil...

Submitted by John Smith

Published 25 April 2016

Drones in the Broadcast Industry

with Leighton Chenery Issue 108 - December 2015 There is little doubt that the emerging technology of Drones within the Broadcast industry is most likely to have insurance implications. As the market continues to expand and organisations enhance their activities through the use of Drones, adequate insurance coverage will be of particular importance...

Submitted by Leighton Chenery

Published 15 December 2015

Rise of the drones

by Jeremy Braben Issue 100 - April 2015 Drones are taking TV and film productions where they have never gone before. But how can they be used to best effect, what challenges do they present and will they replace helicopters in aerial filming? Jeremy Braben of Helicopter Film Services (HFS) has some of the answers... The recent explosion of unmanned...

Submitted by Jeremy Braben

Published 01 May 2015

Creating a plan for your video business

by Den Lennie Issue 97 - January 2015 Lets not beat about the bush here. If you have set up a business then the number one priority should be to make money. If you are not seriously focussed on profit then you need to take a long hard look at yourself and ask why did you decide to set up a business at all? If you only want to shoot for art or fun t...

Submitted by Den Lennie

Published 01 February 2015

Cutting the cord

by Will Strauss Issue 87 - March 2014 Wireless cameras are not new. In fact, they date back to the 1970s. But its only been in the last ten years that this technology has really blossomed, with engineers working out how to adapt the digital terrestrial transmission technology so that it can be used efficiently for programme-making. From that tippin...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 April 2014

#TVFUTURES

by Rhiannon Chislett Issue 86 - February 2014 Since I last wrote we have accomplished a lot more work within our projects. In December we submitted our 20-minute documentary about local traditional businesses, which has resulted in achieving distinction grades and we have also progressed dramatically with our IPTV project. Before Christmas we were...

Submitted by Rhiannon Chislett

Published 01 March 2014

A new 4k year with Bob Pank

by Bob Pank Issue 85 - January 2014 Throughout 2013 manufacturers were popping up with solutions for 4K which together could take the format all the way from scene to screen. It has been an amazing experience to watch all the technical bricks being developed to complete, well almost, the 4K wall. This rate of progress shows just how fast digital te...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2014