KitPlus | Articles

Broadcast management systems specialisation not generali...

“Broadcast management systems” is used here as a collective term to encapsulate all of the processes involved from capturing and creating content, to distribution and monetisation. There are so many points of decision making in a broadcast production chain that automating the processes can be mind boggling in complexity. Taking just a view of frame...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Polecam on Safari

Safaricam"No, you can’t get out of the car", the voice replied. "Why not?’ I asked. "Because you might get eaten by a lion."I put the phone down and contemplated what it was I had just agreed to do. The Kenya project started with a call from a French production company expressing an interest in hiring my Polecam system for three weeks. The series,...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Longevity of media archives

The role of the archive has evolved rapidly, delivering not only new revenue opportunities but crucial conservation possibilities for historical and cultural libraries that have lain dormant for many years. The economic downturn means that now more than ever cost saving is a huge issue; facilities need to create new revenue opportunities whilst red...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

A Guide to Testing IPTV: Technologies and Challenges Par...

High consumer expectations have put pressure on content producers, network operators and equipment manufacturers to deliver consistently high quality audio and video to their end users. The proliferation of enabling technologies has resulted in a wide variety of formats and standards adding to the complexity of the challenges faced in establishing...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

Brand New School Makes the Move to Uncompressed HD

What did you do over Christmas 2008? I spent the whole two-week break rebuilding the post production workflow at Brand New School, the prestigious commercial production and design firm in Santa Monica, CA, and the experience let me stretch every technology muscle I had built up in 10 years as a video engineer. At the time, Brand New School was usin...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2009

SRW-5800 Training

“Hi Dave, how was the course?” This is the sort of greeting you come to expect from fellow engineers when you have recently attended a training course. Engineers are notorious for having no “small talk”, probably because our minds are usually concerned with things like volts, amps and ohms… and why that VTR always works on the bench, but fails as s...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

HD Camera Measurements. Getting the most out of your came...

Recap previous Parts:While the first parts covered the theory and actual measurements of white shading, setting up colorimetry, exposure, greyscale adjustments, alignment and matching of cameras using a waveform monitor, this final part is devoted to providing a better understanding of the displays used. Interpreting a waveform monitor displayA Wav...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

A day in the life of a TV lecturer

0830The Dorset country lanes give way to the flood of traffic into Poole and Bournemouth as I negotiate the rush hour streaming into the seaside town. Driving past Poole Harbour, home of Sunseeker Yachts and the RNLI reminds me that yacht I once dreamed of is still a dream. However, the job I once dreamed of became a reality when I became a televis...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 July 2009

Africans in London TV

Joseph Otieno Adamson, Managing Director of the new TV Station Africans in London or AIL TV, is a man whose enthusiasm for all things media knows no bounds. A talented musician, he attended a university course to learn to become a music producer, set up his own recording studio and later decided to extend his talents to video and the world of broad...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Common Questions on the Topic of Distribution and Deliver...

As the Broadcast and Post industries continue to adopt file-based workflows, there has been an ever-increasing need for the implementation of technologies for the distribution of digital media. Being tapeless also means being aware of how to send and receive files over IP networks, but there are many common questions that arise. Here is a sampling...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Eye to Eye File-based content distribution 2009

The rapidly divergent pattern of broadcast market development resembles the branches of a fast-growing tree. But there is one crucial aspect in which the industry is quite obviously converging: the transition from video and audio to file-based content distribution and delivery. This would have happened anyway given the increasing popularity of the...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Delivering Superior Quality of Service in IPTV Networks

To maintain differentiation in a competitive triple play market, the key operational challenge for telecommunications operators is how to efficiently deliver superior quality of service (QoS) levels. Intuitive use and simplified presentation of video quality and telecom transmission information are essential to win and keep customers. The video and...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

PHABRIX storming ahead at NAB with eye and jitter

It is not often that a product is released that encapsulates so distinctly the essence of British ingenuity but the new SxE hand held test and measurement instrument with eye and jitter functionality from PHABRIX may just have set itself in that mould. Having successfully launched the PHABRIX SxA, a three in one portable testing device at IBC2008,...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 June 2009

Ask the Expert with Broadcast Service Centre

Ask the Expert with Broadcast Service Centre’s Dave LlewellynThis month we visited independent service company, Broadcast Service Centre Ltd (BSC), specialising in providing top quality technical support for a wide range of equipment within the Broadcast and Pro video industry. Dave Llewellyn has worked as a broadcast engineer for BSC (Broadcast Se...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009

Eye to Eye. Whats new in test and measurement 2009

The transition from analogue to digital programme production, storage and delivery lulled some innocent folk into anticipating a world without need for test equipment. If required at all, so the thinking went, all signal analysis would be performed in software. Maybe someday. For now, the T&M sector remains alive and well. The following summary out...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 May 2009