KitPlus | Articles

The Cloud - a measured approach

With the buzz of ‘cloud’ everywhere in our industry it would be natural to think that cloud is the only game in town. Isn’t it time to step back and consider very carefully how, or whether, you make that journey to the cloud?The pandemic has been front and centre in our minds for close to two years now. Overnight, facilities had to either shut down...

Submitted by Ciaran Doran

Published 07 December 2021

A Broadcasters Guide to Microservices

The word “microservices” has been creeping into the conversation about software-centric systems recently. Is it really a different approach, what does it mean, and what are the advantages? Anyone who has ever designed a software device will understand the basic principles of modular design. It is easier to keep track of what the whole system is doi...

Submitted by Roger Persson

Published 31 March 2021

The Importance of Audio Production Systems

Large-scale entertainment programming presents a unique set of challenges for broadcasters. Often extremely high-profile keystones of a broadcaster’s schedule and increasingly billed as live ‘event television’, as well as delivering the very best audio quality they demand a huge degree of flexibility and agility in terms of their production. With m...

Submitted by Tom Knowles

Published 26 March 2020

Why Routing Control

Routing control sits at the very heart of all advanced control systems. A well-configured system that manages signal routes throughout a facility and groups multi-level actions into a single control surface allows for much richer and focused production. Using one-touch panels, operators could route video, audio and data signals between the various...

Submitted by Mark Davies

Published 26 March 2020

State of the Nation - The chances of anything coming from...

Among the autumn dramas the old-fashioned broadcasters have offered us this year was a new adaptation of the HG Wells classic The War of the Worlds. Writer Peter Harness stayed pretty faithful to the book, retaining its setting of leafy Surrey and focusing on the human stories. But any mention of The War of the Worlds inevitably brings up the CBS R...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 27 January 2020

The World of 12G 4K/UHD Processing

Technology moves fast and when it comes to audio and video broadcasting, there is always room for improvements in audio and video quality and ease of production. One of the main goals of broadcasters and content providers today is to create an immersive experience for the viewers, giving them the feeling of being part of the viewed content. The 4K/...

Submitted by Varun Patel

Published 16 July 2019

State of the Nation - Drama

If you can remember as far back as the 1980s, then you probably remember a Saturday night drama called Hill Street Blues, written and developed by Steven Bochco. Made for NBC in the States, it was widely shown around the world, including in the UK. It was a pioneer ensemble drama, with no star characters but a lot of individuals – the police office...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 21 March 2019

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

Sony HDC-4800 Review

First announced at NAB 2016, the Sony HDC-4800 is a studio camera system capable of shooting 4K/UHD at up to 8x or full HD at up to 16x. With a price point upwards of £250,000 it is a very high-end product with a wide feature set. In Sony's own words, "This is the future of live production, designed to satisfy the storytelling aspect of modern spor...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 09 November 2018

Security, Identity and Privacy

Put your hand up if you have more than one online-identity. Keep your hand up if the adverts for your latest online purchase follow you between identities as you surf the web. You can now let your hand fall into your lap because adverts that follow you indicate algorithms that have merged your multiple identities into the one and only you. Why does...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 07 June 2018

Moving to an IP Platform Considerations

Audio transport methods have remained virtually unchanged in the broadcast industry for more than half a century. Common approaches to routing audio around large broadcast facilities have closely followed methodology employed in telco central offices, with the use of X-Y crossbar or crosspoint switching. This began to change with the arrival of sol...

Submitted by Stephen Brownsill

Published 07 June 2018

What is Next for Broadcast

The Broadcast industry is always chasing new technology. Some of that technology is further than it appears to be, and some of it is closer to adoption than it seems. In part, early adopted technology is accelerated because of customer or business demands, and in the case of IP based environments, the driving factors are speed, cost reduction, and...

Submitted by David Schleifer

Published 07 June 2018

VR and the importance of tracking

I would like to begin this article by clarifying what we at Shotoku mean when we talk about VR in live production. It’s not the production of immersive, 360 content where you need to wear a headset; we are talking about virtual studio (VS) and augmented reality (AR) work, such as placing graphics into a green screen environment or physical set. The...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 26 March 2018

Growing a news agency from the inside out

Growing a new media outlet in todays highly competitive market requires taking a strong look at the new ways media is being consumed. Many of the most successful recent startups are community focused, often finding a niche market that wants to be engaged in a way they perceive themselves. Al-Araby TV is a London-based news and current affairs satel...

Submitted by Lorna Garrett

Published 02 November 2017

A bluffers guide to image stabilisation

i(Due to the number of image references this articleis best read via the digital magazine on the link above)This month’s article is about Jelly. Unfortunately, not the kind that can be served with whipped cream after about four hours in the fridge (sorry) – but instead the video artefact seen from improperly stabilised video cameras. One of the gre...

Submitted by Mike Colyer

Published 19 October 2017