KitPlus | Articles

Planetary scientists stream galaxy worldwide

Sky-live.tv is a website that broadcasts real-time astronomical occurrences. It is the result of collaboration between Ciclope Group, at the Technical University of Madrid’s Montegancedo Astronomical Observatory, and Shelios, a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting and disseminating lectures, courses, exhibitions, and the results of scientific...

Submitted by Raymond Burns

Published 01 May 2013

Trends that could bring a much needed change to post-prod...

In my Christmas article I made the analogy that the post-production market was like high street shopping where the superpowers – Tesco, Waitrose, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrison’s – have become ever larger at the expense of the poor, independent, high street retailers. With American venture-vultures circling the likes of HMV and Dreams, shoppers inc...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2013

Understanding and Managing the Piracy Continuum

Content owners, content distributors and security vendors have traditionally characterized digital “pirates” as a single malicious group with ill intentions. This, however, is seriously short-sighted because it is an overgeneralization that not only overshadows true consumer behavior, but results in misguided piracy mitigation tactics and missed re...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Building a digital archive

The search for specific content within masses of stored videotape once required a visit to the archive librarian, a great deal of patience, and some luck. Even if one was able to explain successfully the footage you needed, and if the librarian proved able to locate that content, there remained the possibility that tape degradation or generational...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

All Aboard The XDCam Recycling Service

For many television producers, archiving content is a fairly simple process. It generally goes something like this: 1) Pick up tape/disc/hard-drive. 2) Extend arm across to wall area. 3) Put tape/disc/hard-drive on shelf. 4) Retract arm. 5) Rinse and repeat. And that’s about it. Some people might add labels and go as far as adopting a cataloguing s...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

New Solutions for Accelerated and Secure Movement of High...

For broadcasters and media enterprises of all shapes and sizes, the ability to move critical content rapidly and securely from point A to point B has always been important – but it’s never been so complex and rife with risk as in today’s multiformat, multiscreen content delivery environment. Today’s broadcasters and content owners are often require...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Ask the Experts: Content Storage, Security, Archive and M...

The media and entertainment industry is currently experiencing an unprecedented level of financial pressure. This comes from not only the turbulent economic era in which we are living, but also from increased competition and the need to repurpose content for consumption on different platforms and devices. In order to succeed, businesses need to do...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

A credit to whom?

Just over 40 years ago I was involved in the formation of the Guild of Television Cameramen as an independent non-profit-making international organisation that cares about television camerawork and the people who make it their craft. The GTC today has over 1,000 members, in the UK, Europe, Australia, Russia, Singapore, South Africa and the USA. The...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Eye to Eye: Video over IP

Live video streaming via Internet Protocol is perhaps most familiar in the form of Skype’s free-of-charge online videophone service. Skype is a very easy way for an on-location broadcaster to get a video contribution back to base. A safer and more conventional technique, as with a reporter-to-anchor interview, is to live-stream video via one’s own...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

ARE QUALIFICATIONS RECOGNISED?

In a recent survey of 1,000 employers in various industries about whether job applicants possess the skills to thrive in the work place, more then half of employers said finding qualified applicants was difficult. It appears that many companies in our industry are pretending that all is well. They must believe because as so many people want to work...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

ITS SHOW TIME how will you make the most of it?

Trade shows can be hugely valuable for your business, but only if you have the right approach, as Peter Savage explains. Well, the season has finished – the festive season that is and, by the time you have sat down to read this, the new season will be almost upon us. What season is that? I hear you mutter. The trade show season. Yes, February is th...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Without training will there be future for the TV Industry...

It might come as a surprise to you but do you know that there in the UK 80,000 people working in the TV industry. That's 10% of the work force. And some more facts:The UK has overseas programme sales of £980 million. Non-terrestrial TV spends £193 millions on content whilst terrestrial TV spends £2.6 billion on content. Independent producers in the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

Ten Top Tips For OB Operators Fuel Economy

As fuel prices around the world hit a record high, every driver is looking for ways to squeeze as many miles as possible from every precious gallon or litre. If you are a broadcaster with a fleet of Outside Broadcast vehicles, how do you stop fuel overheads from rocketing and eating in to your hard earned profits?Recognising that fuel is not a disc...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

Focus on camera remote control systems

Bradley Engineering is a customer led, Innovation Company specialising in camera remote control systems. They have a strong and clearly defined company culture which, together with their technical expertise, has enabled the company to achieve steady and sustainable growth even throughout the recession years. A large part of their external philosoph...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

Back to basics asset management

There are two things you should know before I start. One is that the strapline for my company’s product, Mediaflex, is “Beyond Media Asset Management”. And the second is that I hate the term “Media Asset Management” because it has come to be meaningless. Too many people have used it to mean too many different things. So what is Media Asset Manageme...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011