KitPlus | Articles

The Future of 3D

Over the last 3 years I’ve worked in more than ten different countries on stereo 3D; and no matter where in the world I am I’m continually running across the rumour that 3D has done its dash and will soon be heading the way of the dodo. As with most rumours though I have yet to see any evidence of this. One of the most anticipated releases for Fran...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 January 2013

Meeting standards in 3D

It has been said that poor quality stereoscopic TV will ‘poison the water’ for everyone. This was because in the past 3D was made to quite poor and uncontrolled production and delivery standards. But since BSkyB’s “Technical Guidelines for Plano Stereoscopic 3D Programme Content” were published over two years ago programme makers have had specific...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2013

Twas the issue before Christmas;

As it’s nearly Christmas, I figured, what better way to honor the end of anther year than to celebrate everything that has gone before? To do that, I’ve picked my favourite production technology innovations of 2012. But, as we’re fast approaching the festive season, I’ve compiled them in the form a Christmas shopping list. Yes, I know. It’s genius....

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 January 2013

Take control with Helm

Control and monitoring are two of the biggest issues faced in playout operations. Broadcasters and playout providers want to be able to select precisely the equipment that they need and probably more so than ever, are now able to very accurately do that. But this, combined with the fact that previously largely ‘static’ devices are now empowered by...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

The highs and lows of histograms

Histogram displays for video analysis probably followed those found in common computer graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop. This can be very useful in finding video signal problems that would be difficult or impossible to see with a conventional waveform display. The histogram is a way of showing statistical results as a bar-chart. The range...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

4k The New Gunslinger in Town

Just when you thought it was sufficient to declare yourself ‘HD Ready’, along comes 4k. But don’t panic. Here’s the lowdown on what it all means and what tools are currently available. By Will Strauss. As someone that works in (or near) the town named broadcasting I probably don’t need to tell you this but technology advances pretty quickly around...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 December 2012

Pushing remote broadcast boundaries

Film and TV coverage as varied as the London 2012 Olympics and the BBC’s Springwatch are raising the bar where viewer expectations are concerned. Bradley Engineering (BradEng) is a remote camera technology pioneer that has been at the forefront of meeting these expectations. TV Bay spoke to Bradley Engineering founder, David Bradley, about the late...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Watch out for dead pixels

A dead pixel in a camera imaging sensor can manifest itself in a number of ways. Implying black, 'dead' is not necessarily the correct term for a pixel failure. This is because imager defects include hot pixels, sparkles, noisy or lazy pixels. These problems usually arise during the chip manufacturing process. Defective pixels can appear as unusual...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Testing times of a 4K world

The term '4K' applies to some five slightly different picture formats with around 4,000 pixel horizontal resolution: all much bigger than HD. In fact roughly four times the total pixels required for 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition. 4K has been around for some years but was until recently only affordable by producers with mega budgets. Advances in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

4KTV The next bigger thing?

4KTV – The next bigger thing?The history of 4K digital moving images goes way back to the mid 1990s. That was when film effects started to be processed digitally and produced amazing results – maybe a bit too amazing for some. Of course the effects had to be seamless and so the digitised effects images had to carry all the required detail of the 35...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

Beaten by branding

Beaten by brandingI should say right at the start that I very much like Pixel Power’s James Gilbert. He is charming company, an excellent engineer and a good judge of wine. Yet, for all these admirable qualities, I hold him personally responsible for one of the greatest evils of modern society. I refer, of course, to the squeezeback. This is the ho...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

Big Fish, Little Fish, Camera-Top-Box

Big Fish, Little Fish, Camera-Top-BoxFor whole swathes of people within the television industry the concept of digital production - and what we generally refer to as ‘going tapeless’ – is probably now considered slightly old hat. Broadcasters, engineers, camera people and other early adopters of technology are so au fait with digital production the...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 July 2012

Gamut errors: Who cares?

Gamut errors are the most common video signal problems. This is because colour television or cinematography depends on being able to represent every pixel on the screen in terms of red, green and blue. We want to deliver perfect RGB signals representing all the possible colours in our pictures. Virtually all display technologies use RGB primary col...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Ask the Experts with Dolby

Q: Dolby has recently been making waves in imaging with its PRM-4200 Professional Reference Monitor, but isn’t Dolby an audio company?Dolby has been involved with imaging technology for years, beginning with Dolby® Digital Cinema in 2005, then launching Dolby 3D for the cinema in 2007, and then in 2010 we introduced the Dolby PRM-4200 Professional...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

The evolution from audio to PIX

Sound Devices has built a strong reputation throughout the world as a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio field recorders and mixers renowned for rugged reliability, operational flexibility and pristine audio quality. While our users are quite familiar with our folks in sales, marketing and technical support areas, they may not be aware of t...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012