KitPlus | Articles

Dick looks at the faster future

I really enjoyed IBC this year. The fact that I barely set foot on the show floor is, of course, entirely coincidental, and I should take this opportunity to apologise to all those people I did not see in Amsterdam. One of the jobs I do at IBC is produce the awards ceremony, and this year that meant I got to meet some really nice people. We gave on...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 10 November 2016

IBC with the BBC

IBC is an exciting opportunity for us in BBC R&D to share with the world the work we've been doing on a range of technologies. Those attending the conference will be able see much of the work we are doing on new forms of content and workflows and get an understanding of the object based principles for broadcasting which we are working towards, enab...

Submitted by Jon Page

Published 26 September 2016

Documentary filmmaking - Protecting the past

If you wanted my opinion on what I thought was the most rewarding media making pursuit, I'd have to single out documentary filmmaking. All media making can be very demanding, and each genre has its own particular issues that make it what it is, but almost nothing is certain about documentary which is why I find it so exciting. The idea could be ins...

Submitted by Charlie Watts

Published 26 September 2016

Make a scifi film in the Mexican Desert

British director Nicolas Roeg once said to me that making a film is like horse racing. To start with you give the horse a nudge to get him moving, then as you gather speed there's a point where you have to trust the horse. You hold on and the horse will carry you across the finish line. I've just returned home from shooting a Sci-fi proof-of-concep...

Submitted by Edward Andrews

Published 26 September 2016

The vital role of communications in live production

Live event production is extremely challenging under the best of circumstances. Whether it be sports, concerts, theater or some other event, live production only gives you one chance to get it right. Staging, sound, lighting, cameras, video, special effects, costume, makeup and more, can all go into making a successful live production. Starting hou...

Submitted by Tom Turkington

Published 26 September 2016

Make sure you are connected. The writing is on the wall

SIS LIVE has a long history of providing OB technology for horse and dog racing, our traditional link to sports. So you can rightly deduce that we\'re not what could be considered a more generic OB company. Racing is our heritage and is something we continue to support. Having said that, we work with a multitude of OB companies in our new guise as...

Submitted by John Bozza

Published 26 September 2016

Self contained and expandable commentary systems

Adopting innovative technologies and techniques is always fundamental to the control of capital and operational costs - the key to broadcast facilities or technology providers gaining competitive advantage. Sports commentary has continually suffered from high operational costs, whether at the sports venue itself or "off-glass", due to the need for...

Submitted by Chris Collings

Published 26 September 2016

Shooting the WRC Rally

Mark bites the dust for his art and lives to tell the tale... A look at my website will confirm I don\'t just shoot cars, I cover a wide range of genres. But I have shot in and around cars through my career. Early on I joined a facilities company specialising in the design and build of onboard camera systems for F1 and Motorcycle GP live TV coverag...

Submitted by Mark Sallaway

Published 25 August 2016

The FAQs on automated quality assurance

The transition from tape-based to file-based video and audio recording allowed a completely new approach to the business of checking that programmes and interstitials conform to broad-cast industry standards prior to transmission. The Vidcheck team designed the world\'s first au-tomated broadcast quality control product. We have been working on fil...

Submitted by Thomas Dove

Published 25 August 2016

Comparing Stage and Screen

It can be a common misconception that all forms of acting are the same, if you are good at one then it must follow that you are good at another. This is not necessarily the case and is particularly true for the two disciplines of stage and screen acting. The biggest difference between of these two types of acting is the audience. On the stage audie...

Submitted by Jo Wickham

Published 25 August 2016

The future of timing and timecode

It is SMPTE\'s 100th anniversary! I hope that all readers have had a chance to view the Centennial Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN2yYrEFMFQ) and to contemplate that 100 years ago we were in the dawn of the cinema era, where different equipment used different frame rates, different sprocket sizes, different frame sizes and the concept of d...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 24 August 2016

The return of the Minimoog

The iconic Minimoog is making a return and a return well worth the wait! As this was the world\'s first portable synthesizer and became the role model for all electronic keyboards, the Minimoog Model D was and now is a synthesiser force to be reckoned with. First released in the 1970\'s, it became popular worldwide and attracted attention for its f...

Submitted by Beth Zarkosh

Published 24 August 2016

Test and measurement in a multiformat world

The evolution of television technology since the days of 525-line and 625-line standard definition has left a large legacy of standards which modern broadcast systems now have to recognise and process. In today's video and audio business, creatives and technical staff have to be ready to handle a multiplicity of signal types. In its standard form,...

Submitted by Kevin Salvidge

Published 24 August 2016

Interrontrons - a prompting gimmick or a real production...

The first question for many is what is an Interrotron? Essentially it is the use of a traditional prompter but instead of the words in the script the presenter sees the interviewer\'s or director\'s face. This technique was pioneered by American film director Errol Morris in his film The Fog of War which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Fe...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 24 August 2016

Dance hall days are over for professional lighting

Photon Beard has made lights since before the days of electric power. "What\'s that, you say"? Well, it\'s true. Photon Beard started in 1882 when the founder, R.R. Beard, invented the automatic gas regulator. Yes, the thing that allows you to barbeque that steak in summer sunshine, or any time of year that you fancy grilled food. In the days befor...

Submitted by Peter Daffarn

Published 24 August 2016