KitPlus | Articles

Listening to the needs of audio engineers

Monitoring SDI video content within an installation is and has always been straight forwards. If you have a monitor, and you can see the image correctly, all is well. This is not necessarily the case for metadata and especially not for audio. Assuming a SMPTE 352 payload packet is present on the SDI signal, this metadata determines how the video co...

Submitted by Alan Wheable

Published 07 June 2018

The Pitfalls of Online File Sharing and Sending Services

Easy-to-use, readily-accessible, and consumer-oriented, online file sharing platforms such as Dropbox and Google Drive are, to end users, a pleasant replacement to older file transfer methods such as FTP. FTP is complex to use and requires IT intervention to make almost any change. The pain associated with FTP, which was developed in the 1970s, is...

Submitted by Mike Nash

Published 07 June 2018

Delivering on the 4k Promise

It’s happened. Consumers are demanding 4K UHD content. They have the TVs, smartphones, tablets and other devices they need, and with much of Netflix and Amazon original content in 4K, as well as sports coverage from BT and Sky, consumers have tasted the future of content quality and are hungry for more. But broadcasters need not worry if their cust...

Submitted by Lorna Garrett

Published 07 June 2018

What is Next for Broadcast

The Broadcast industry is always chasing new technology. Some of that technology is further than it appears to be, and some of it is closer to adoption than it seems. In part, early adopted technology is accelerated because of customer or business demands, and in the case of IP based environments, the driving factors are speed, cost reduction, and...

Submitted by David Schleifer

Published 07 June 2018

State of the Nation

I sometimes think I pay too much to get my hair cut. On the most recent occasion I was trimmed, my hairdresser had just returned from a holiday in Hawaii. Where she thought she was going to die. She thought this because the state’s emergency alert system was triggered, sending messages across all available platforms, for 38 minutes, that a ballisti...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 26 March 2018

How IP-based KVM can improve workflow in broadcast contro...

One of the most significant shifts the broadcast industry has seen over recent years is the adoption of IP technology as a standard infrastructure across the entire broadcast workflow. IP provides a network suitable for routing audio, video and control around a broadcast facility and is providing the answers to many industry challenges. An increasi...

Submitted by John Halksworth

Published 26 March 2018

Interview with Peter Rowsell, Polar Graphics

If you don’t recognise the name Peter Rowsell instantly you no doubt would recognise him in person, from the famous ‘Pink Coconut’ parties during IBC (Brighton) in the 80s or the name ‘Polar Video or Polar Graphics’ both companies which he’s built up over the years. Entering his 43rd NAB (yes 43rd, that is NOT a typo!) who better to catch up with t...

Submitted by Polar

Published 26 March 2018

Why OTT needs multicast ABR

Last year, Netflix’s global revenue reached $11 billion, with 24 million new names added to its subscribers’ list. Viewers are certainly making their preferences heard – and voting with their remote controls to show that over-the-top (OTT) content is here to stay. However, OTT doesn’t just mean video on demand but extends to live streaming too. Dri...

Submitted by Damien Lucas

Published 26 March 2018

Supporting broadcast quality control

With the ever-increasing number of program channels and range of different program distribution formats, the process of ensuring program quality has become a complex one for contribution/capture, production, post production, server ingest and content distribution. Add to this the complexities of HDR and WCG gamut, it is essential to ensure that the...

Submitted by Alan Wheable

Published 02 November 2017

Class - Treat your virtual machines like cattle

i The AWS Summit 2017 in London For several years I have felt that I should attend the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in London, but never quite found the time to do it. After an exhilarating and educational day, I will now regret that I didnt go sooner. The Summit is basically a way for newbies to learn about the scope of AWS, for professionals...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 19 October 2017

Boradcast playout on-site and in the cloud

Broadcasters come in many shapes and sizes, each with their own unique set of ambitions and their own preferred route to success. Some are happy to innovate, particularly if it increases staff efficiency or reduces operating costs. Others prefer to let their competitors do the innovating and then follow whatever path appears to work best. Thus the...

Submitted by Don Ash

Published 19 October 2017

Ad servers and switching solutions

i Hardware-based ad servers and switching solutions have been around for a long time and, broadly speaking, do the job just fine. That said, after a number of meetings before and during NAB 2017, what I found is that a lot of people are looking to replace components of their hardware-based ad servers, the switching function being chief among them....

Submitted by Peter Blanchford

Published 07 September 2017

Infrastructure boost with single node storage solutions

i Like other market segments, the motion picture and video production industry is dominated by smaller productions and facilities. Until now, the only option for this portion of the market to take advantage of the performance, fault-tolerance and ease of management of a modern scale-out storage platform was to invest in a storage cluster consisting...

Submitted by Lee Griffin

Published 07 September 2017

Thinking clearly about the cloud

As someone who is constantly trying to build better products, I\'m always asking questions and listening to the ones I get asked. For several years now I\'ve asked every broadcaster and media production company I\'ve met what they plan to do about \'the cloud\'. I\'ve had replies which range from \'the media must never leave the premises\' (imagine...

Submitted by Chris Steel 2

Published 19 May 2017

Modernizing the Cutting Edge

Over the last decade, streaming as a medium has seen tremendous growth. Services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video are no longer just post-hoc distributors of broadcast television content, they have become content creators and are producing some of the most well received "television\" content of the past few years. For example, at the 2013 Prime...

Submitted by Myles Carter - new

Published 19 May 2017