KitPlus | Articles

Whats new in video monitoring

The great majority of video monitoring displays in any modern broadcast presentation facility are LED-backlit LCDs. Reliable, space-efficient and economical on power, they produce excellent pictures for all but the most critical applications, usually in conjunction with one or more multiviewers to emulate a monitor stack. Domestic television began...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Monitoring, managing and processing SDI signals efficient...

With the proliferation of HD, Dual Link and 3G technologies, SDI signal management is now, more than ever, a challenge for broadcast engineers and A/V professionals. They would often like to use affordable HDMI displays for monitoring. They need to distribute signals throughout their facility, which often means video feeds must be amplified to acco...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Getting close to the edge?

'Edge Violation – A visual artifact that can arise when part of an object near the edge of the display is represented in the left-eye image but is not represented in the right-eye image or vice versa.' So says the 3D glossary given by 3D@Home. Figure 1 shows an example of edge violation. A street lamp post is located on the extreme right in the for...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

Back to Basics with Stereo 3D

In 2011 more than 35 networks in Europe and North America will broadcast stereo 3D programming — and several will launch dedicated 3D channels. 40 3D features are expected to hit theatres this year, and stereo-3D-ready consumer devices from TVs to video cameras to smartphones are hitting the streets. The demand for compelling content to meet the ne...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 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

tv-bay questions

Name & Title?Barrie Williams, owner and founder of Pixelfantastic, a boutique post production facility 13 miles east of SohoWho are you? (about yourself and who you work for)?I started my career in front of the lens as a musician, touring Europe for several years playing Jazz violin. We did a lot of TV work, so I became very familiar with the insid...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

The Red Epic has landed

Finally the Red Epic has started to appear in facilities companies around the world, S+O Media is one of the first in the UK to receive a handmade Epic-M. I’ve taken the camera out on a couple of shoots and I have to say I’m pretty impressed. I’m sure everyone is aware of the Red One, the first camera from Red. Billionaire Jim Jannard decided he co...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 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

Cameras for streaming

I first saw true HD pictures years ago at IBC. OpTex had a camera focusing on some beautifully lit fruit. The image on the screen was extraordinary, hypnotising. Leap forward a decade and Amsterdam brought Europe its first taste of Ultra High Definition Television - not 720p, not 1080i, but 4320p. The enveloping cinematic pictures and the embrace o...

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

RIDING THE AUDIO WAVE ON SET OF HAWAII FIVE-O

McGarrett eyes his foe across the beach. After signaling to his trusty sidekick Dano, he jumps on an ATV and the chase is on. Dano jumps on a jet ski and tries to cut off the enemy's escape from the sea. Yet in middle of all this, you can actually hear what they're saying to each other. Ever try to mic somebody on a jet ski? Location sound guys hav...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2011

Getting the 3D words right

Captions and sub-titling in 3D is not so easy as in 2D. The words cannot simply be superimposed over 3D content. They need to be accurately positioned in the depth plane otherwise they can create visual confusion and break the whole 3D illusion. For instance, consider a street lamp-post on the right in the foreground and in front of the screen plan...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

HD Video on your website

IntroductionVideo has become an affordable way to effectively connect with your customers. Whether you are a content producer or equipment manufacturer there are fewer ways to communicate a message more quickly, concisely and with as much impact. This article looks at how the current state of online video, what the opportunity is, and how to get st...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011

BVE 2011 retrospect

BVE 2011 had much of the buoyancy and buzz of an IBC. The organisers claimed an attendance of over 15,500 visitors and 240 exhibiting companies. Many of the UK-based stalwarts who make the annual pilgrimage to Amsterdam could be seen exploring the show, confirming that BVE is now taken seriously by mainstream broadcasters. It is perhaps over-optimi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2011

Eyeballing 3D errors

Standard-issue human eyeballs are very adaptive and clever. Of course it’s the massively powerful image processing in the visual cortex of the brain that really allows us to resolve 3D images. Stereographers have been very practised over the years in achieving good camera set-up with only simple tools. The most common test uses a picture monitor sh...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011