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The future of Audio

Total audio has been around for 12 years now and I worked for the BBC for 13 years prior to that, I resigned in 1996 as a senior sound supervisor based at Pebble Mill. I firmly believe that sound is only noticed twice, the first time it was distorted and the second time it wasn’t there. When it all goes swimmingly it’s rarely mentioned. In the last...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

Audio acquisition and production

Remembering the days when the average 'portable' sound recorder was heavy enough to induce a hernia, I have high respect for the capabilities of modern digital audio devices. Not least the solid-state recorders that have emerged as successors to the Sony-originated DAT and MiniDisk formats. But avoid anything that lacks XLR connectors unless you ar...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

The Fairlight Time Machine

Just over fifty years ago, the then Soviet Union launched the first satellite into orbit around our planet. At that time the USA and USSR were in the depths of the cold war and the launch of Sputnik 1 on the 4th October 1957 was the starting gun for the space race. The winner would be the country to successfully land the first human being on the Mo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

Audio Technology Spotlight

In the ever changing world of TV technology, formats, standards and delivery, it’s always been reassuring to think that audio equipment for sound gathering on location hasn’t changed too much. That is, until the last couple of years when the emergence of the now widely used digital solid state recorders, digital transmission radio mic systems, high...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2009

Choosing the right tripod

Camera support equipment is constantly changing as technological advances influence what can be created in the viewfinder. New generations of ultra compact cameras are enabling the camera operator to explore and get into the action as never before and longer lenses allow close-up views previously unobtainable. But with so much choice, how do you se...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

How we lit Mick

Shine a lightLets start at the beginning with the most fundamental, basic of questions – what’s the point of lighting anything, let alone a living legend like Sir Mick Jagger? The answer is simple – because lighting is the most important part of the whole process. Not the filming. Not the fiddly edit. Not the chin-scratching pre-production. The lig...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

New developments in mobile HD production

When widescreen HDTV was first demonstrated back in the 1980s, the pictures were great but the size and price of the kit left much to be desired. Two decades on, broadcast-quality 1080i/720p HD cameras and recorders have reached levels of compactness and affordability that would have seemed impossible in those early days. When I designed the origin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

SOOM under the Senegal sun

No power – inconceivable for Europeans, but normal for the African village Ndelle. Situated six hours from Dakar, it is attainable only by dusty, sandy fields. However the approximate 800 village inhabitants have reason for joy: The company Solar 23 is building a solar plant in Ndelle. The German cameraman Jrgen Killenberger captured this project i...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2009

How and where to do your Post Production.

The world of professional editing and post production has changed dramatically in the last few years. The biggest of the barriers to entry – (cost), has all but disappeared with the advent of desktop editing solutions. Manufacturers like Apple and Adobe and even Avid have made this possible with products like Final Cut Studio 2 and Adobe’s CS3 Prod...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

New editing essentials

I like to think of myself as a bit of a pioneer at the frontier of the new age of HD Digital Cinematography. Investigating the best of the new technology available to our industry and evaluating its possible impact. I ‘d like to explain the impact of some of the particular examples of this today starting with:-XDCam EX Tapeless HD Camcorders. One w...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Behind the scenes at Big Brother 9

Working 94 days with no day off is a hard task. It’s even harder for the TV equipment that has to keep going round the clock, every day, to keep all the viewing ‘addicts’ supplied with live footage and highlight editions. This is the situation that the Big Brother 9 team finds itself in. For those inside the house, there is actually a means of esca...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Lights, Camera, Makohead Action

With the movie Quantum of Solace due to hit the big screens in October, audiences around the world are already gearing up for another huge blockbuster from the James Bond stable. The movie, which began shooting at Pinewood studios in November 2007, will undoubtedly include the spectacular action sequences that are the hallmark of James Bond films....

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

The largest fibre and Ethernet video SAN network in the w...

Out of the Ashes of the old Anglian TV studios EPIC has risen like a phoenix to become not only a major broadcasting hub in Norfolk but to rival traditional studios throughout Europe. With the financial backing of Norfolk County Council and the East of England development agency, EPIC has converted the old TV studios and installed a state of the ar...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 December 2008

Back in the days before microprocessors

Back in the days before microprocessors, Character Generators were members of the Graphics Department armed with sheets of Letraset and cardboard. The finished caption cards were then handed over to the stage crew who acted as "Caption Pullers". For a title caption sequence, cards were stacked in shooting order alternately into two separate piles (...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

When trouble looms phoenix your company

So, the US Federal Reserve (broadly equivalent to the Bank of England – it influences the availability and cost of money and credit in the US economy) is about to bail out Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest US mortgage providers. This comes on the back of the Bank of England helping, in no small way, Northern Rock. One rule for them, anothe...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008