KitPlus | Articles

A guide to DTV transport stream monitoring

by Ralph BachofenIssue 79 - July 2013 Delivering a high quality of service (QoS) is critical in the broadcast world, as it greatly impacts viewer satisfaction and a broadcasters revenue streams. However, the television environment is becoming increasingly more complex, as stations transition to digital and add next-generation OTT or hybrid TV servi...

Submitted by Ralph Bachofen

Published 01 August 2013

A cinematic makeover with Blackmagic Design

With the announcement of Blackmagic Cinema Camera at NAB 2012, Mark Linnhoff, a France based cinematographer, began to see the future of filmmaking in a new light. “Finally, an affordable acquisition tool that doesn’t compromise on image quality,” he recalled. “When I got the camera, I carried out some tests with a series of Carl Zeiss ZF.2 and Nik...

Submitted by Mark Linnhoff

Published 01 July 2013

Loudness: What happens now if my work is not compliant?

Now that loudness is a mandatory requirement in the United States, Europe, and much of the rest of the world, it’s not so much a question of when organizations will begin to comply, but how?1. Now the standards are in place, what happens now if my work is not compliant?There are varying repercussions for noncompliance, depending where you work and...

Submitted by Jon Schorah

Published 01 June 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

Dick Hobbs looks at intellectual property rights

Troll onby Dick HobbsIn my column last month I wrote about the Tolkein sort of troll. This month I want to look at another sort: the ones who acquire portfolios of patents not with the intention of making anything useful, but simply to try to extort money from those who just want to earn an honest buck. I am sure that every one of you reading this...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2013

Finally a compact HD zoom lens!

By Steffan Hewitt, director, PolecamThere are a great number of situations in our industry where the requirement for a small low profile broadcast quality HD camera is needed, whether it be for documentaries, natural history, in car, on board, covert, news, drama, underwater, on a jib arm or small remote head – the list goes on, and expands from th...

Submitted by Steffan Hewitt

Published 01 March 2013

Ask the Experts: What Workstation?

Investing in a new computer workstation or high end PC for use with digital video/or and media production can be a daunting task. With so many different manufacturers to choose from, and with a practically endless list of components to select from customers can be left with literally millions of possible choices. Scary if you aren’t a hardware guru...

Submitted by Mike Leach

Published 01 February 2013

Plan Bs Playing with Fire Gets the DaVinci Resolve Treatm...

London-born rapper, singer-songwriter, actor and film director Plan B first hit the hip hop scene with his critically acclaimed debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words in 2006. Since then Plan B has released a further two albums, made on-screen film appearances and picked up scores of industry accolades including Best Male Solo Artist at t...

Submitted by Dan Moran

Published 01 February 2013

The joy of field editing

In the world of remote working, cloud storage and instant news, the ability to edit on location at a shoot has become a pre-requisite. Only a few years ago, field editing used to be merely about the quick rough cut, the assembly of proxy files or simply the ingest of media in an edit-friendly format. These days, however, energy efficient, high perf...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 February 2013

Is it time to review your colour grading toolset?

One important step for all budget levels of post-production is the colour correction or grading tools you use to match the colour of different shots in your edit, to give a consistent look and feel. You may already be doing basic colour grading without really thinking of it as a separate process in your edit, or you may be sending off your edited t...

Submitted by Mark Brindle

Published 01 February 2013

Maximizing the Efficiency of Multiscreen Video Delivery

By Shawn SaleemAs consumer demand for video content anywhere, anytime, and on any connected device continues to grow at a rapid pace, today’s pay-TV operators are in need of next-generation technologies that will lower the cost of multiscreen content delivery while enabling them to adapt to new business models. Advanced content networking ICs resol...

Submitted by shawn saleem

Published 01 February 2013

Ask the Experts - 3d with BSkyB

This month we had an exclusive opportunity to talk to Cara Cheeseman, Post Production Supervisor for all 3D content, both internally and externally, at BSkyB. The 21 questions are gathered from a variety of industry professionals with an interest, some sceptical and some fanatical, in 3DWhen it comes to 3D conversion... creating 3D images from 2D s...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2013

Meeting standards in 3D

It has been said that poor quality stereoscopic TV will ‘poison the water’ for everyone. This was because in the past 3D was made to quite poor and uncontrolled production and delivery standards. But since BSkyB’s “Technical Guidelines for Plano Stereoscopic 3D Programme Content” were published over two years ago programme makers have had specific...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2013

Take control with Helm

Control and monitoring are two of the biggest issues faced in playout operations. Broadcasters and playout providers want to be able to select precisely the equipment that they need and probably more so than ever, are now able to very accurately do that. But this, combined with the fact that previously largely ‘static’ devices are now empowered by...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012

TV-BAY Questions

Name & Title? Den Lennie, director of photography/Producer/EducatorWho are you? (about yourself and who you work for)? I am a director of photography and one of the world’s leading coaches on the new wave of digital filmmaking. What do you do? What does your company do? I run an online film school at fstopacademy.com and specialise in small group f...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 December 2012