KitPlus | Articles

Zoom lenses and minicams

Finding a quality tracking zoom lens for the minicams made for the likes of Toshiba/Iconix/Hitachi/Sony has been an uphill battle. The cameras have been made primarily for the medical imaging market for microscopes and endoscopes but adopted by the broadcast industry as a high end minicam. However lenses were always a problem. Fujinon made the TF r...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Keeping a router cool is hot

To mangle a metaphor: The more things stay the same, the more they need to change. A significant percentage of the global installed base of broadcast routers has stayed, more or less, the same – many for more than a decade. We think that needs to change, not entirely because of ultra new technology, but because many of the fundamental elements comm...

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

Handheld T and M the broadcast emergency service

“Test and Measurement”. Shudder. Like “Health and Safety”, “Bus” and “Replacement Service” or “Keith and Orville” it’s a collocation of words that fills me with dread. Seriously, who wants to read about “Test and Measurement”? Well, as it turns out, the answer is: quite a lot of people. Because, despite its lack of glamour, it is hugely important....

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

SPG - a commodity product or something special?

The need for a reference generator in broadcast television applications is universally accepted. Quite what that reference generator is or should be is another matter. Early reference generators produced signal pulses like Line Drive, Field Drive, Mixed Blanking, Sync, etc. Soon thereafter analogue colour black appeared on the scene and the sync pu...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

An effective strategy for monitoring broadcast audio loud...

One of the factors affecting a television viewer’s satisfaction and overall quality of experience is the consistency of the audio level of the programming. Inconsistent loudness levels between channels or between programming and advertisements can ruin a viewer’s television watching experience. Over the past several years, erratic audio levels have...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

Are you out on the range

The main parameters to worry about in any stereoscopic scene are the most negative and positive disparity values. These numbers are usually expressed in percentage terms rather than in actual screen pixels. The distance between the numbers is the depth range. The depth budget is the maximum value this range can be allowed without being too uncomfor...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

TV-BAY questions Jason R Moffat

Name & Title: Jason R Moffat, ColouristWho are you (about yourself and who you work for)?I’m a film colourist living in London, I mainly work on independent fiction features, shorts and commercials from my Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve based studio, where I do most of my work. What do you do? What does your company do?The work I do is specifica...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

Casual specs

If you are a regular reader of this column, you probably know by now that I am a lover of technology that is useful, or at least very attractive. On the other hand I am quite scornful of stuff that engineers come up with because they can, without ever having an idea of what it is for. I do not go to the CES show – one trip a year to Las Vegas is en...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

tv-bay Questions

Anthony Bairstow – Senior Video Editor at MTV and Editor of Two and Two, BAFTA nominated short. Who are you?I graduated from the BA Film & TV course at Westminster University and gradually found my way into the TV industry, eventually working at MTV Networks Europe. However, I have always had numerous side projects on the go, one of the latest bein...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2012

Canon C300 Review

Canon's highly anticipated C300 camera is their first offering to the 'digital cinema' market. The camera was released amid a meticulously planned marketing campaign, which created a hype not seen since the Red One camera's introduction in 2006. Canon have since taken the camera on a global roadshow showcasing to all potential suitors, of which the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

Grading across the Atlantic

In the last five years, color correction has made leaps and bounds in terms of the way we grade, the performance capabilities of grading systems and even the locations where we grade. Only a few years ago, color correction suites were isolated rooms that were nearly impossible to connect to other offices or artists. But the color world has changed...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

2011 wasnt all that bad for TV & Commercials, was it?...

2011 was pretty depressing, reading the paper or watching the news was a miserable experience, and all in all, those who still have a job, or have a business should apparently be chuffed to bits!Manufacturers have had a torrid 2011 with various disasters striking key supply lines around the world, meaning shortage of tape stock, and now hard drives...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Convergence Grading for Stereoscopic 3D Broadcast with Da...

After soldiering through a long run of freelance work in Soho, I had a couple of days off. I thought, “It’ll be nice to relax a little bit,” which is when I got the call. “We have this project with quite a tight turnaround, a couple of days to deliver 75 minutes worth of 3D.” I told them to hold on — this would be my first 3D job. They replied, “It...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012