KitPlus | Articles

Breaking Down Loudness Control

Q: What is loudness and why is so much attention being paid to it?A: Loudness is what people hear. It refers to the perceived strength of a piece of audio such as music, speech or sound effects. Among other factors, loudness depends on the level, frequency, content and duration of the audio the listener is hearing. Right now, television viewers are...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

Frame Rates and HD

Much has changed since the 25 Hz and 30 Hz frame rates for television were defined over 60 years ago. In Part 1, last month we noted how the USA (followed by others) adopted the 1000/1001 frequency offset to produce the 29.97 Hz rate and the resulting drop-frame timecode. Of course at that time, 1953, they could not imagine the consequences of thei...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Note Perfect

Live music events are big business. Major artists can expect millions of pounds to be poured into full scale productions where the ticket prices are as high as audience expectations. As the artist takes to the stage the atmosphere is electric and for the poised camera operator the pressure is high. He needs to acquire the best shots, capture the im...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Stereoscopic production and transmission

If ever there was a technology that has taken it’s time to mature, it is that of stereoscopic (3D) production and transmission. It is well documented that the mechanics behind the technology has been around almost since the inception of the moving picture itself and in fact stereoscopic stills technology was developed in the 1840’s. Until now, the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Accessorising DLSR video

Some DSLR stills camera manufacturers now include HD video capabilities within their top-of-the-range products. This raises the prospect of lower cost stills cameras shooting good quality HD video. While this is true in certain circumstances there is much more that needs to be included with these cameras to make them consistently produce their best...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Business lessons from tennis

It was interesting reading Rachel Bridge’s article in the Sunday Times this week, whilst watching Andy Murray lose to Roger Federer in the final of the Australian Open. Rachel is the paper’s enterprise editor and her column is always worth a general look (though I sometimes wonder, cheekily, if she plagiarizes my articles). And now you are wonderin...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Looking back, and forward to the next decade of media pro...

The year 2000 doesn’t seem that long ago – and what’s for certain is that as you get older ten years is a very short space of time. A decade is a long time in technology though. In 1999 most people didn’t have a mobile phone and weren’t even on the internet at home, painfully slow dial-up was the only option for most. A decade on, the internet is a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010

Location Sound Recording And Post-production with Chris W...

Sound is often regarded as playing a subordinate role to visuals in film, TV and video production, but the finest directors and producers have insisted on taking as much care over the sonics of a production as the visuals. Of course, on smaller-scale productions, it's still often the case that the soundtrack is whatever you capture while you’re bus...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Business conditions of Nigeria v UK

Peter Savage continues his series of articles on maximising business opportunities with a sideways look at opportunities in with emerging marketsDue to the efficiency (ahem) of TV Bay’s management and my own scheduling skills, I find myself, the day before going to press, writing an article whilst sitting in a hotel in Lagos, Nigeria. So, for a com...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

A day in the like of a location manager

One of the most dramatic moments I have witnessed whilst filming a series called Dempsey and Makepeace was in Limehouse Basin, not looking at all like it does today. It had a swing bridge, where you could cause the most enormous traffic jam if you kept it open long enough and get mentioned on the local traffic news, which we did manage quite succes...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Im a celebrity get me out of here

Gearhouse Broadcast was awarded the contract to supply broadcast equipment and some crew for Granada Productions “I Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” in 2008. Since that time we have been involved in two UK shows and one German show in Australia plus a USA show in Costa Rica. Planning for these shows is an all year round exercise as the UK show is Dece...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Location test equipment

What to look for…. SizeRuggedFast switch on timeLight weightMultiple applications from one unitDaylight readable displayLong Battery lifeSound monitoring as well as videoMountings (when you need both hands!)A number of years ago Hamlet gave itself the impossible task of developing the world’s first 3G, HD and SD capable, video and audio measurement...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

The best job in the Met

If you have ever wondered “How did they do that?” when you watch the car chase in Spooks or the gun fight in Ashes to Ashes or even the thrilling gun shot scene at Waterloo Station in Bourne Ultimatum, then you may want to talk to the Metropolitan Police Service Film Unit (MPS FU). “COPS FORM A LUVVY SQUAD” was how one red-top newspaper commented o...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Robotic cameras on location

Television is such a natural extension of the human senses that I doubt if more than one viewer in a thousand gives much thought to the effort put into modern programme production. Much of the original push for creative freedom came from outside broadcast crews, initially using turret-mounted optics and later zoom lenses to obtain close-ups of dist...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 February 2010

Broadcasting Audio in 5.1 Format

One of the positive consequences of digital television transmission is the ability to include fully embedded multi channel audio with suitable metadata to control both channel displacement and even sound levels within the domestic environment. While at the receiving end of the transmission chain there are many innovations and protocols to make life...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 January 2010