KitPlus | Articles

The Benefits of LED Lighting in Broadcast

The humble LED studio light has come a long way since its introduction. In the early days adoption was low, while scepticism that the quality and functionality of LEDs could rival traditional tungsten lighting was high. There has been a period of adjustment, challenges (particularly around light quality and manufacturing) overcome and the broadcast...

Submitted by Rod Aaron Gammons

Published 15 March 2017

How to illuminate a better shot

LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology built for the general lighting market is designed to meet very different criteria than the critical lighting requirements for image capture. While LEDs may be a suitable lighting option for some photography and videography, critical applications, such as feature film, production requires users to understand the...

Submitted by Chuck Edwards

Published 15 March 2017

Sully - Grading a miracle

We all know the story. On 15 January 2009 an Airbus A320 took off from LaGuardia airport in New York, heading for Charlotte. Just a couple of minutes later the plane flew through a flock of Canada geese and blew out both engines. Knowing the risk of crashing into heavily populated areas, Captain Chesley Sullenberger - Sully - aimed for the only lon...

Submitted by Maxine Gervais

Published 15 February 2017

Life through a hire lens

There are loads of differences in the requirements for say news, sport or live entertainment events, and it\'s digging a little deeper into those differences that ultimately, well, makes the difference in what cameras and lenses we hire out to customers. It\'s a bit of a cliche, but what customers want is not always what they need. Add to that all...

Submitted by Neville Fuller

Published 10 November 2016

The Future of LED Lighting

From the moment the LED light entered the broadcast, media and entertainment world its key differentiator was its energy efficiency compared to traditional tungsten studio lighting. LEDs use far less energy in the region of 90% less than tungsten lights and produce less heat. In addition, they are far more portable and generally have a longer lifes...

Submitted by Rod Aaron Gammons

Published 25 August 2016

Educating with Robots

by Sian Roberts, Online Editor Issue 110 - February 2016 Educating with RobotsTimeline North's post production director, colorist and VFX artist reveal how they used DaVinci Resolve and Fusion to complete 140 sketches for upcoming CBeebies children's series, Spot BotsMade up of a series of funny live action sketches, new CBeebies - a popular BBC ch...

Submitted by Sian Roberts

Published 16 March 2016

4k - is it really worth it

by Beth Zarkosh Issue 108 - December 2015 4K; the holy grail of modern digital filmmaking. Weve all heard of it, but perhaps not all of us are ready for the change. Here we look at the perceptions versus the realities of shooting in 4K. Ultra High Definition is something that has derived from 4K, but now it seems most filmmakers are pressured into...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 15 December 2015

Missing Parts Of The Spectrum

by Graham Jaggers Issue 107 - November 2015 Since the phasing out of conventional filament light bulbs and their replacement with fluorescent and LED, many manufacturers indicate the colour accuracy of their lamps with a CRI (Colour Rendering Index) number. It is possible however, to illuminate a scene using lamps with quite good CRI ratings and ex...

Submitted by Graham Jaggers

Published 01 December 2015

Ground breaking production tool

with Stefan Lange Issue 106 - October 2015 NEO¢, the latest product from British LED manufacturer Rotolight, is a revolutionary on-camera or location LED lighting fixture designed for the most demanding of professionals. NEO¢ includes several industry first features that set it apart from the field, notably amongst which is an arsenal of Cinematogr...

Submitted by Stefan Lange

Published 01 November 2015

Back in the day

by Larry Jordan Issue 100 - April 2015 Congratulations, TV-Bay, on your tenth anniversary; as well as the 100th issue of TV-Bay/KitPlus magazine. Very cool!Ten years ago seems like forever. Some of us were editing with Final Cut Pro 5. LiveType was still with us. Others were using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 (CS3 was still two years in the future). Stil...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 May 2015

Why video codecs matter

by Larry Jordan Issue 99 - March 2015 Video codecs confuse a lot of people. But understanding codecs is critical to just about every element of video production, editing and distribution. Codec is an acronym that stands for "COmpressor/DECompressor.\" It is easy to get intimidated by all the technical jargon surrounding codecs, but, at their core,...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 April 2015

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

Video post-production has long been one of the fastest developing subsets of the broadcast business. It was among the first to lead the shift from hardware into software, bringing huge advantages in terms of affordability and ease of use. I can still remember the high cost, heavy weight and low quality of the early analogue tape to tape video editi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

High Resolution graphics for 4k and beyond

by Jesper Gawell Issue 96 - December 2014 It seems like 4K is everywhere these days - it\'s the dominant topic at broadcasting trade shows. Is there substance behind the hype? Will it transform television the way HD broadcasting did? Clearly, one of the "next big things\" in the media and entertainment world is higher resolutions and 4K delivery o...

Submitted by Jesper Gawell

Published 01 January 2015

Wireless Production Tools - Hints, tips and a word of war...

by Alan March Issue 95 - November 2014 Some Do\'s and Don\'ts Over the years, there have been certain questions or queries that have had a habit of re-occurring. At the risk of teaching you, dear reader, to suck eggs, here are a few of them;Can I use two transmitters with just one receiver? No. With wireless microphones, a dedicated transmitter and...

Submitted by Alan March

Published 01 December 2014

An artist gets bored of the same colour palette

by Rob Tarrant Issue 95 - November 2014 So the wait is over. The brand new VariCam was launched at IBC in September. Above all else that means extra choice for high end episodic dramas, advertising and movies, where it has to be said the choice has been limited for far too long. Since the introduction of the original VariCam in 2002, the first high...

Submitted by Rob Tarrant

Published 01 December 2014