KitPlus | Articles

Say again? What is loudness?

Loudness is making a lot of noise these days, but what does it really mean? There is certainly no shortage of gurus who are happy to posit answers, but are they addressing the right questions?For instance, much has been made of the EBU’s recent Loudness Metering specification (EBU Tech 3341). But it has to be said that the EBU only makes recommenda...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

No more softly softly on the cloud

According to Wikipedia The Cloud is a metaphor for the Internet in cloud computing, and cloud computing itself means using multiple server computers via a digital network, as though they were one computer. Both refer to things that have been going on for years. I can remember seeing graphic cloud symbols on computer system diagrams many years ago....

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

This Is International Playout

There is no such thing as an off the shelf solution where broadcast managed services are concerned. Here Michael Ward, Head of Operations at WRN Broadcast, who provide playout channels for such as NHK, MTV, VH1 and East Africa’s Zuku platform, breaks down a few key requirements to meeting the exacting standards of international content delivery. Tr...

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

Ask the experts......Intercoms for outside broadcasts

Ask the experts – intercoms for outside broadcastsBarry Spencer, Trilogy CommunicationsI just assume outside broadcast trucks come with an intercom. Why do I need to even think about it?The first big point is that an outside broadcast is not just a control room on wheels. It is an event. And that means communications beyond the truck. Within the pr...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2012

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

This column’s previous excursion into video post-production was just before the 2011 NAB Spring Convention, always a dangerous time to talk about new hardware or software when a deluge of upgrades, lookalikes and lite-editions are about to hit the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Quite a lot has happened in this category over the past 12...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 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

Eye to eye: How secure is your content?

Before getting up steam for this article, I contacted a former colleague who worked for several decades on the editorial side of the consumer-audio press. He became one of the first collectors of Compact Discs, a medium trusted by many archivists. The oldest items in his collection date back to the original Q4 1982 launch of audio CDs. Were the old...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

The benefits of Business Process Management in Media Asse...

How have Media Asset Management systems changed with integration of IT platforms?Traditionally MAM providers use wired logic for point-to-point integration based on dedicated custom links connecting two systems through a single communicating path. This rigid approach is not recommended for integrating the multiple third-party systems and technologi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

What is high-performance data transport and why is it imp...

What is high-performance data transport and why is it important?The advent of digital content has led major media companies and their IT partners to design fully-integrated systems for the creation, distribution, repurposing and archiving of their file-based content. While most processes associated with content production and distribution have tran...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2011

Any Channel, Anywhere. How Distribution Service Providers...

One of the features of the diversified, multi-platform media world we have today is the greater involvement of organizations that perform a specialist role in the complex chain stretching from content originator to viewer. It has been a long time since a broadcaster has owned the entire chain from talent, camera and production crew all the way thro...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 August 2011

Digital media monitoring

What is digital media monitoring?Most media delivery chains now include a combination of IP and broadcast stages, regardless of the viewing platform of the end user. This combination of technologies into a hybrid delivery chain has thrown up new complications in terms of monitoring and analysis. Before the introduction of IP technologies into media...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

QC: An Inside Job

The requirement for quality control grew up in the early days of television and depended on measurement instruments to check the video and audio going to air. This T&M made prefect sense when equipment was analogue and, to an extent, has continued into the digital era, however the needs of the digital file based workflow environment are very differ...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

The New ITU-R BS1770-2 Loudness Standard

HistoryThe ITU-R standard BS1770-1, released in 2006, describes a fundamental loudness measurement algorithm. The basic technique was validated through listening tests on varied program material, performed in labs around the world. In late 2010 the ITU committee which maintains BS1770 accepted (after much negotiation) changes submitted by the EBU....

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

NAB and the format wars

By the time you read this article you may be sitting comfortably on the plane ready to take-off to Vegas. Every year the show comes at a strange time – just after the shooting season has started in the northern hemisphere. As a result, most of the camera companies at the show will have already sorted their purchasing needs for the year ahead, espec...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011