KitPlus | Articles

Just the facts with Dick Hobbs

My best ever expenses claim – back in the days when I was employed and had someone to claim expenses from – included the line item “Charter of train”. This was 25 or more years ago, back when IBC alternated with a television exhibition in Montreux in Switzerland. My employer at the time was launching something pretty revolutionary (although they su...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 July 2013

Is 4K the end of the line?

In my TV-Bay April 2013 article I mused over the familiar BNC connector and was it at the end of its line as far as broadcast interconnections were concerned. It’s been around a long time, the BNC was invented in the late 1940s primarily for military radio frequency and microwave interconnections but then became the standard for baseband video conn...

Submitted by Robin Palmer

Published 01 July 2013

Capturing awesome audio

Paul Sargeant, Director of Operations at Procam discusses the challenges facing sound recordists using the latest broadcast technology If you look at the industry as a whole, the rapid evolution of camera technology is drifting away from audio, despite the importance of compatibility between the two. Meaning it’s becoming harder to plug straight in...

Submitted by Oliver Masciarotte

Published 01 June 2013

Sony UWP series microphone review

It’s all well and good having a beautifully lit and well framed and focused shot, but if the sound is rubbish then you might as well throw the footage in the bin. Sound is as important as the quality of the video image. This is especially true when interviewing someone or recording a corporate presentation. Here the message is the key reason that t...

Submitted by Jon Pratchett

Published 01 June 2013

Will Strauss captures some decent sound gear

Capturing decent location sound requires skill, experience and, as Will Strauss discovered when compiling a list of recent audio acquisition innovations, piles of expensive kit. Although some cameramen might disagree, audio is still the most important thing to get right when on location. The odd dodgy shot can, generally speaking, be sorted in post...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 June 2013

Leading-edge cellular bonding technologies smooth the way...

COVERING THE PAPAL SUCCESSION: Leading-Edge Cellular Bonding Technologies Smooth the Way for Global News TeamsBy Bogdan FrusinaOn February 11, Catholics all over the world were stunned when Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation – an event that is unprecedented in modern history. In response, global news organizations went into scramble mode t...

Submitted by Bogdan Frusina

Published 01 May 2013

BNC: Is it at the end of the line?

by Robin PalmerThe familiar BNC connector has been around a long time. It was invented in the late 1940s, primarily for military radio frequency and microwave interconnections. The initials derive from the style plus the names of the inventors (Paul Neill and Carl Concelman): Bayonet Neill–Concelman. The original development work was done by Octavi...

Submitted by Robin Palmer

Published 01 May 2013

IPTV at Frankfurt airport

At Frankfurt Airport, dreams of the future already come as standard: television and radio programmes are distributed all over the airport grounds site using IPTV. The existing network infrastructure is used as a basis here. The operating company, Fraport AG uses the IPTV hardware and software of manufacturer Teracue for its distribution. More than...

Submitted by Raymond Burns

Published 01 May 2013

Live from the supermarket car park

What’s Cooking? is the new daily daytime TV show beamed from a temporary studio in the car park of a supermarket. As chefs prepare dishes live on air, a roving camera crew relays pictures from the aisles of the shop while Channel 4 viewers interact with the presenters and cooks via social media. Produced by Superhero TV, technical integration and i...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 May 2013

Review of Kinoflo Celeb 200

Good quality lighting is at the heart of all great photography, when we use the sun we are at the mercy of the weather and need to take into consideration all the variables from time of day to position of sun to name a few, importantly however we can trust the source to provide a complete spectrum. However when we are shooting with tungsten or with...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2012

SPORT GB AND IBC 2012

Peter Savage has sobering thoughts about the Olympics and Paralympics while looking forward to a beer or two at IBCWell, we will soon come to the end of a summer that has been completely sports-dominated. I like sport. In fact, I could be classed as almost sport-obsessed. However, even I will soon breathe a sigh of relief knowing that, no matter wh...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Here is the news

Here is the newsIn mid-May the EBU and SMPTE brought together many of the great and the good of the television industry – and me – to a forum on emerging media technologies. Held in Geneva, in a hotel expensive even by Swiss standards, it was supposed to set the agenda for the future, to share solutions so the future will be bright. As is always th...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2012

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

How location audio changed with the birth of reality TV

In the twenty-plus years that I’ve been a sound mixer/recordist I’ve witnessed countless changes in our industry from the introduction of digital multi-track recording to the arrival of 5.1 surround sound. But the biggest, most dramatic paradigm shift I’ve seen is much simpler than that – and it’s a social thing. For many years, when it came to rec...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Wireless Audio at the sharp end

Wireless Audio at the sharp endIt's noisy, it's very, very hot, but then often it can be cold or raining but it's still noisy and everything has to be de-rigged and moved to another country, sometimes in a different continent, every two weeks – did I mention it's noisy? Formula 1 motor racing has never been more popular – witnessed at the tracks by...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012