KitPlus | Articles

Video Monitoring Essentials - By Den Lennie

As a DP the video monitor you work with is one of the most important tools on set. I began my career in 1994 shooting television news for Reuters on Betacam SP and it was very rare that I'd get to use a monitor on location. As my career evolved I started shooting more considered pieces and used Sony 9\" tube monitors all flight cased up. I shot the...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

The highs and lows of histograms

Histogram displays for video analysis probably followed those found in common computer graphics programs such as Adobe Photoshop. This can be very useful in finding video signal problems that would be difficult or impossible to see with a conventional waveform display. The histogram is a way of showing statistical results as a bar-chart. The range...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

OMNEO Networking Technology

Why are digital media networks becoming more and more important? For two main reasons. First, if designed properly, they allow plant communications infrastructure to be used for multiple purposes: the same “pipe” can carry audio, video, control, and other needed signals. This reduces costs of materials and installation. Second, if designed to pub...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

4k The New Gunslinger in Town

Just when you thought it was sufficient to declare yourself ‘HD Ready’, along comes 4k. But don’t panic. Here’s the lowdown on what it all means and what tools are currently available. By Will Strauss. As someone that works in (or near) the town named broadcasting I probably don’t need to tell you this but technology advances pretty quickly around...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 December 2012

Camera innovations from IBC

IBC 2012 – ‘Dam, that was a good showFresh from another trip to Amsterdam, Will Strauss picks his ‘best in show’ camera innovations from IBC. I know, I know. It’s October and the chances are that you’ve already had your fill of ‘round-ups’, ‘reviews’ and ‘what I saw in Amsterdam’ type articles. But with so much stuff to choose from at the show, hop...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

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

Ask the Experts - IT and Broadcast converge

Q. ‘Convergence’, specifically the convergence of IT and broadcast technology, appears to be one of those themes that endures. Why does the subject still garner so much attention in 2012? It must be 15-years since the term was first used in this context, are we not a fully converged industry?No, I don’t think we are fully ‘converged’, far from it;...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

An Olympian Effort

For obvious reasons, the broadcasting world does not generally hold mass-murdering dictators in high esteem. But, in a small way, and despite his many, many faults, the world of television has one such tyrant to thank for the connection between technological innovation and the Olympic Games. And no, this is not a joke. The first handful of modern d...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 September 2012

Testing times of a 4K world

The term '4K' applies to some five slightly different picture formats with around 4,000 pixel horizontal resolution: all much bigger than HD. In fact roughly four times the total pixels required for 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition. 4K has been around for some years but was until recently only affordable by producers with mega budgets. Advances in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

4KTV The next bigger thing?

4KTV – The next bigger thing?The history of 4K digital moving images goes way back to the mid 1990s. That was when film effects started to be processed digitally and produced amazing results – maybe a bit too amazing for some. Of course the effects had to be seamless and so the digitised effects images had to carry all the required detail of the 35...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

X 10 or X 3? - That is the question

X 10 or X 3? - That is the questionFor many years now, the sports programme producer has benefited from a triple speed (75fps) super motion replay facility. Initially replayed via specially modified BVW tape decks but once the industry standard EVS server acquired the ability to record the three phases of such cameras and supply a continual record...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2012

Big Fish, Little Fish, Camera-Top-Box

Big Fish, Little Fish, Camera-Top-BoxFor whole swathes of people within the television industry the concept of digital production - and what we generally refer to as ‘going tapeless’ – is probably now considered slightly old hat. Broadcasters, engineers, camera people and other early adopters of technology are so au fait with digital production the...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 July 2012

NAB 2012 Kit Review used by BroadcastShow

NAB kit review:-So pre-NAB we are all very busy organising interviews with 70 exhibitors over 4 days covering 4 halls and in our case around 28 miles. Late last year we developed an online interview booking system at www.broadcastshow.com which allows exhibitors to book one or more 15 minute slots, enter stand information and questions they may lik...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Silly Plugger

I have never been to a Mobile World Congress. I take the view that exhibitions are generally noisy, uncomfortable places where the chances of learning something interesting are widely variable. NAB and IBC are must-sees, of course, but otherwise I am not a great fan of exhibitions. Although it is impossible to type its name in Word, I make an excep...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 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