KitPlus | Articles

The UPs and Downs At NAB with Mr MXF

i "Nothing is finer than the pictures on that monitor", said my colleague as we stood in front of the enormous Sony LED screen showing super bright, super wide HDR pictures that were beautifully shot and carefully presented. The English language, however, can be confusing because when I returned from NAB and showed my wife the photos that I took, s...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 01 August 2017

What happened to audio networking

i It may seem hard to believe, but audio networking has now been with us for over 20 years. In 1996, Peak Audio released CobraNet, the first system that used computer networking of some sort to transport audio. Looking at that early system, it wasn\'t easy to see all the benefits that were to come. Yes, you eventually got up to 64 channels on a sin...

Submitted by Brad Price

Published 01 August 2017

Mr MXF does Vegas

For quarter of a century I have been boarding planes to Las Vegas every April and the thing I look forward to most is the Sunday morning cycle from the Strip up to the top of Red Rock Canyon to look back down upon Vegas. From up there, you get a sense of perspective of how alien the city stuck in the desert really is. This year\'s NAB Show is likel...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 19 May 2017

Dick brings out his cutting room scales

At this time of year, in the run-up to NAB, my in-box is even more filled than usual with press releases craving my attention. It is one of the universal truths so unloved by PR people that the sheer weight of numbers threatens to overwhelm. Smart companies use blatant tricks to get you to read. An honourable mention must go to the recent press rel...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 19 May 2017

Swimrun World Championships - LiveU report

Through the open waters and across the islands of the Swedish wilderness, battling the elements in the OTILLO Swimrun World Championship isn\'t for the faint-hearted. The total distance is 75 kilometres, of which 10 km are open-water swimming and 65 km are trail-running, presenting a huge physical - and doubtless mental - challenge. Taking place in...

Submitted by Kim Svensson - new

Published 04 April 2017

Who really benefits from the Cloud?

The transition to "the cloud\" in our industry has been challenging. Why is it so important to have cloud technologies? What do customers really expect? The term "cloud\" has been used to such an extent that it has diminished the real and actual importance of what\'s really going on - off-premise compute power. With typical cloud adjectives still a...

Submitted by Jayson Tomlin - new

Published 04 April 2017

5G Streaming - The Rollout

5G will bring significant improvements in bandwidth per device, capacity per network and reduced latency per session. These are all very important features for video both today and going forward. The growth of new formats such as UHD, AR, VR and 360 video place much greater demand on the networks that serve consumer devices, so 5G will be essential...

Submitted by Steve Plunkett - new

Published 04 April 2017

What Virtual Dreams Are Made Of

As you might expect, virtualisation is now a very common topic in terms of the questions we get from customers and partners and it also appears in almost all RFPs that we take part in. Basically, customers want to know what we\'re doing with the cloud, but often when they say this, they are talking about private clouds. The tendency is that people...

Submitted by Mike Jacobs - new

Published 04 April 2017

A Software Based Approach to Video Monitoring

Real-time content monitoring is a mission-critical operation for broadcasters, telecom, and satellite operators. Traditionally, service providers have used monitoring systems based on specialized hardware with a dedicated, fixed interface designed to monitor a specific number of video feeds. Yet, bespoke hardware solutions require a substantial amo...

Submitted by Anupama Anantharaman - new

Published 04 April 2017

A transformation in aquisition technology

KitPlus spoke with Malcolm Harland of Garland Partners to find out how the requirements and capabilities of acquisition technologies have changed since the early 2000s and what the state of play now is. Back in 2004, when you launched Garland Partners, the market was focused on SD and ASI. Since then the pace of change has been immense. Is growth d...

Submitted by Malcolm Harland

Published 15 March 2017

Dick Hobbs is counting heads

Now I am absolutely not going to get into politics in this column. But as I wrote last month, I am a bit concerned about truth and honesty. As I am sure we all are. The White House press secretary has an important and powerful role, and we all loved CJ Cregg for doing it (leading to my lifelong passion for Alison Janney). So when the incoming spoke...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 15 March 2017

What are the challenges of AoIP

At the setup of a recent Outside Broadcast (OB), I was privy to an attempt to pass a signal across two independent Audio over IP (AoIP) enabled trucks. In an SDI world, this bridge would have been as simple as coupling two BNC cables together, but here the engineers quipped about the additional and sometimes challenging processes of connecting one...

Submitted by Craig Newbury

Published 15 March 2017

6 Misapprehensions of MAM

Implementing a media management system is considered to be a risky business. The perceived complexity, upheaval and perception of failure can be so daunting that the risk may seem to outweigh the reward. But, like so many business technologies, MAM have been transformed in recent years and it\'s time to debunk some common MAM myths. Perception: MAM...

Submitted by Julian Wright

Published 15 February 2017

5 top tips to getting the grade you want

Generally speaking, a grade session can be broken down into two distinct parts - managing the people involved and managing the grade itself. As colourists, we know that unless both of these criteria are satisfied, it is likely that the client will walk away from the project unhappy and not return to us with the next job. The first step is to manage...

Submitted by tom russell

Published 15 February 2017

Challenges for MAM with varying production types

Many media asset management platforms are designed to handle the immense number of assets needed for today\'s fast-moving, content-heavy productions. Since every production is unique, each has its own set of asset management requirements and workflow needs. While the unique workflows vary, a common necessity for an easy-to-use interface with the ab...

Submitted by Jonathan Aroesty

Published 15 February 2017