KitPlus | Articles

Navigating Unfamiliar Territory

The traditional broadcast model - where TV networks play content on a linear schedule, and viewers tune in on their TV sets - is under siege. Linear TV is not going away anytime soon, but the model is becoming less and less relevant. Thanks to the rise of OTT services, viewers have become accustomed to watching content when and where they want, on...

Submitted by Vijay Sagar Vinnakota

Published 19 May 2017

Live Remote Production Over IP

As broadcasters migrate to a more ubiquitous IP transport and switching network infrastructure, a key benefit is that the variable expenditures of remote on-site live productions can be dramatically reduced, as it is no longer necessary to carry the high field costs associated with these activities. The broadcast studio can now be seamlessly connec...

Submitted by John Smith -new

Published 04 April 2017

Pushing the Boundaries for OTT

OTT video consumption is gaining traction in Western Europe, with 55 percent of UK broadband households and 51 percent of homes in France watching TV programming and movies online, according to Parks Associates. OTT subscriptions are especially popular with today\'s Millennial population, as Parks Associates found that 23 percent of Millennial head...

Submitted by Yaniv Ben-Soussan -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

Mr MXF thinks the future is made of components

The recent SMPTE IMF plugfest that was kindly hosted by Fox in Burbank gave the vendors, users and content owners a chance to discuss the fine details of the IMF standard and to get excited about where it will take the Post Production community. If you haven\'t heard of IMF then you have not been standing within 500ft of me for the past year. IMF i...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 15 February 2017

The secret to global Gogglebox success

People all over the world love watching other people watch TV. What many of us thought was a ridiculous notion when Gogglebox first aired in the UK in 2013, has since become a worldwide phenomenon. \'Gogglebox is held up by the global industry and broadcast community as an example of excellence in audience engagement and production innovation, and...

Submitted by Chris Cooper

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

Health and Safety gone mad

The first true broadcast television service started 80 years ago, on 2 November, 1936. Its home, famously, was Alexandra Palace, a vast and really rather run-down building on top of Muswell Hill in north London. Originally opened in 1873, and re-opened in 1875 after a catastrophic fire, it was built primarily as an entertainment venue. Indeed, it w...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 13 January 2017

Trends in IP based broadcast

The momentum behind moving media operations to IP-based environments is unstoppable and to stay ahead of the competition these days, companies need to be migrating operations away from rigid, single-purpose components and towards software-based common computing resources. The good news is a well-architected IP-based production facility is now able...

Submitted by Glodina Lostanlen

Published 13 January 2017

Broadcasting virtual reality to the world

Following the recent launch of a number of virtual reality (VR) headsets, such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, VR is introducing new and compelling platforms for broadcasters to deliver their content, and new ways for audiences to consume. While the way that audiences consume content continues to shift, with the ratio between viewing on fixed scre...

Submitted by Steve Plunkett

Published 13 January 2017

The value of an industry placement

"Do a placement after the second year of your degree they said, it\'ll be fun they said!\" You know what, they were right! Hello there, my name is Abbie Smith and I have just returned from my placement year to conclude my third and final year studying BA Film and Television Studies. Undertaking a placement within your university degree is heavily p...

Submitted by Abbie Smith

Published 07 December 2016

Behind the scences of Under the Shadow

BAFTA nominated director Babak Anvari\'s first feature length film, "Under the Shadow", certainly offers a unique insight into the devastation of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. Taking place in Tehran just as the war enters its eighth year, the thriller follows a mother and her young daughter struggling to survive a brutal bombing campaign whilst also dea...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 07 December 2016

Make a scifi film in the Mexican Desert

British director Nicolas Roeg once said to me that making a film is like horse racing. To start with you give the horse a nudge to get him moving, then as you gather speed there's a point where you have to trust the horse. You hold on and the horse will carry you across the finish line. I've just returned home from shooting a Sci-fi proof-of-concep...

Submitted by Edward Andrews

Published 26 September 2016

Comparing Stage and Screen

It can be a common misconception that all forms of acting are the same, if you are good at one then it must follow that you are good at another. This is not necessarily the case and is particularly true for the two disciplines of stage and screen acting. The biggest difference between of these two types of acting is the audience. On the stage audie...

Submitted by Jo Wickham

Published 25 August 2016

Interrontrons - a prompting gimmick or a real production...

The first question for many is what is an Interrotron? Essentially it is the use of a traditional prompter but instead of the words in the script the presenter sees the interviewer\'s or director\'s face. This technique was pioneered by American film director Errol Morris in his film The Fog of War which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Fe...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 24 August 2016