KitPlus | Articles

Is the future virtual

by Dick Hobbs Issue 91 - July 2014 Just a couple of days ago, I went to a memorial service for a very nice man called John Wilson. If you have heard of John, it was probably for his work as the chairman of IBC in the 1990s, leading the move from Brighton to Amsterdam, then to an annual event, then to its management by an independent and professiona...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 August 2014

RTS Thames Valley NAB 2014 Review

by Simon Tillyer Issue 90 - June 2014 A sunny, early summer evening welcomed over 40 people to the annual RTS NAB review on 14th May. This annual get together features a panel of guests, chaired by Dick Hobbs discussing their experiences and thoughts of NAB. The panel consisted of Maya Severyn (Head of Technical Services & Support - Chellomedia), J...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 01 July 2014

Head in the cloud

by Dick Hobbs Issue 89 - May 2014 Ive just had a look back through the archives, and I am pretty certain that this was my 25th NAB: a couple in the eighties and every year since 1992. In many peoples eyes this makes me just a beginner, I know. In the past I have spent the week on a stand, trying to sell something. My first ever NAB in Dallas, Texas...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 June 2014

Be bold be brave but get the basics right

by Peter Savage Issue 88 - April 2014 The world, and especially George Osborne, is telling us that we have never had it so good. GDP has finally climbed past the 2008 mark, and we are now set for many years of rose-tinted growth from our strong economy. Well George may have a point, and it may be worth considering some of the aspects of business ma...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 May 2014

Fixing that inhospitable location shoot

by Harry Amies Issue 88 - April 2014 Say Iran. What do most people think of? Hostage-taking, nuclear programmes, angry mobs, CGI outsourcing, VFX, a multi-million dollar movie industry? If Harry Amies and Amir Rezazadeh of UK based co-producers HarryAmir have anything to do with it itll be the last three. HarryAmir is a UK-based company, that helps...

Submitted by Harry Amies

Published 01 May 2014

Shooting in secret

by Kieron Seth Issue 88 - April 2014 Now showing on Channel 4 is Endemols new and highly popular Secret Eaters series. Based round a fixed rig production, the series uses newly developed mobile fixed rig technology and incorporates a number of recently introduced technical innovations, vital for fast turn-around TV. Secret Eaters is one of a string...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 May 2014

Dick Hobbs is Counting Pixels

by Dick Hobbs Issue 86 - February 2014 At the start of each year you hear the sound and fury as the technology correspondents of broadcasters and the popular press head off to Las Vegas for CES, the annual exhibition of the Consumer Electronics Association. I have never been: I feel that two trips to Las Vegas a year would count as cruel and unusua...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 March 2014

Covering the Winter Games for Broadcast

by Mel Noonan Issue 86 - February 2014 This was written a few days before the opening ceremony so news arriving from the front line is of last minute angst for some of the tech teams who go out and perform daily miracles in such unuser-friendly locations year after year. Camera platforms erected in the wrong place, cables lost under a recent snowfa...

Submitted by Mel Noonan

Published 01 March 2014

Will Strauss looks at 6 reasons why 4k is so special

by Will Strauss Issue 86 - February 2014 4k (or UHD) is everywhere. Whether you want it or not, it is (slowly) permeating the living room - in the form of TV sets - and gradually becoming more commonplace on location and in the studio. Someday soon it will be broadcast in the UK too. As Bob Pank points out on page 56 there are a number of reasons f...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 March 2014

Training the next generation

by Dick Hobbs Issue 86 - February 2014 At the end of January a new body the Institute for Training in Television Production (ITTP) held its first conference, organised by the publishers of TV-Bay magazine and chaired by former broadcaster Roz Morris, MD of TV News London Ltd. A packed room debated sometimes hotly the issues. Chair of ITTP is freela...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 March 2014

Modern movie finishing

by Alexa Maza Issue 85 - January 2014 Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, Elysium is a new science fiction movie starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. Set in the year 2154, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined planet. Digit...

Submitted by Alexa Maza

Published 01 February 2014

Why is mediocrity such a powerful force?

by Thomas Urbye Issue 85 - January 2014 Ive hit the decade mark!Yes, Im now in to my second ten years working in Sohos post production world. Not only that, Im ten years working with some great Directors, DoPs, Producers and Exec Producers (not to mention the great people that are hired by these people). In that time Ive met all sorts of characters...

Submitted by Thomas Urbye

Published 01 February 2014

Will Strauss looks at post production in 2014

by Will Strauss Issue 85 - January 2014 Despite being named in Americas Top 10 Dying Industries in 2011, post-production still very much has its place in the UK. But it is changing. And fast. With increasingly commoditized and affordable technology allowing pretty much anyone (within reason) to do post-production, the lines between production and p...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 February 2014

The circle of life with Dick Hobbs

by Dick HobbsIssue 84 - December 2013 Being a simple soul, I am endlessly fascinated by ideas which are the great new thing one day, rubbished the next, and resurface the day after as the next great thing. In the 1960s, the BBC decided that it was wrong to concentrate all its radio and television production in London, and established national and r...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 January 2014

To have and to hold... with Polecam!

Issue 84 - December 2013 The meaning of "Darwinism\" has changed over time, and varies depending on its context. While the term has remained in use amongst scientific authors when referring to modern evolutionary theory, it has increasingly been argued that it is an inappropriate term for modern evolutionary theory. For example, Darwin was unfamili...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 January 2014