KitPlus | Articles

The new world of playout

Consumers know what they expect from a television channel. They expect programmes, of course, but they also know they are going to get commercials, trailers, station idents, graphics, break bumpers, squeezebacks and hot starts, bugs and brand identities, and more. Significantly, they expect these to arrive smoothly and seamlessly, in consistent hig...

Submitted by James Gilbert

Published 22 July 2016

Looking back at a typical day working on Top of the Pops

A few weeks ago I was watching television and caught a bit of 'Top of the Pops ' from 1984, and I thought, 'Was this one of the programmes I worked on? ' I was privileged enough to be a staff cameraman at the BBC for 20 years, during that time I was able to work on many great shows: Only Fools and Horses, Blue Peter and Two Ronnies to name but a fe...

Submitted by graham reed

Published 14 June 2016

Meeting the Challenges of Media Assett Management

It's been 20 years since Microsoft founder Bill Gates uttered the words "content is king,\" and never has that statement been more true in media production environments. And yet, ask producers in any high-pressure broadcast operation to name their biggest challenges, and you can bet that managing video assets - finding them, accessing them, and usi...

Submitted by Dave Clack

Published 14 June 2016

Building Out Storage for UHD

As the next big thing in video, from capture and production through to display in the home, 4K and ultra-high-definition (UHD) video offers many benefits. Most notable of these is an eightfold increase in resolution as compared with 1080i, the established standard for HD broadcast. A number of other significant enhancements to image quality are als...

Submitted by Andy Warman

Published 14 June 2016

Girl Power

This month I was going to write about something important about the future technological platforms of our industry. It would have been incisive, enlightening and enriching. It really would have been. But I have just got completely derailed by the discovery of what I hesitate to call a cultural phenomenon. And while it is almost certain that you all...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 14 June 2016

NAB Review

by Duncan Payne Issue 113 - May 2016 As I emerge from the customary post-NAB haze and try to formulate a coherent analysis of the 2016 show, perhaps the most striking realisation is that despite pacing the halls for four long days, I barely scratched the surface. The scale of the event, much like Las Vegas itself, is simply extraordinary, with over...

Submitted by Duncan Payne

Published 13 May 2016

Audio

by Pieter Schillebeeckx Issue 113 - May 2016 Audio monitoring has come a long way since its humble beginnings of a box with a speaker, a volume control and an analogue input. Today\'s high-end audio monitoring units boast an impressive array of I/O such as SDI, MADI, AES-3 and Analogue while offering a large amount of functionality such as accurate...

Submitted by Pieter Schillebeeckx

Published 13 May 2016

Shooting the Extreme

by Mel Noonan Issue 112 - April 2016 Steffan Hewitt started covering extreme sports as a cameraman and learnt to ski backwards while shooting skiers in front of him. Surprisingly he survived, and went on to design and use a lightweight pole with an early SD minicam slung at the top operated via a remote pan and tilt head from the other end. He call...

Submitted by Mel Noonan

Published 25 April 2016

SDI, IP, Uncompressed and Compressed

by Phil Adams Issue 112 - April 2016 Why did you decide to create a new platform for T&M? There\'s a lot of talk about hybrid in the industry and we recognised early on that there were some big changes in the pipeline to do with SDI, IP, uncompressed and compressed signals and we had a lot of our own end users asking for something specific for UHDT...

Submitted by Phillip Adams

Published 25 April 2016

Recreating a Masterpiece

by Stuart Harris Issue 112 - April 2016 Tell us a bit about yourself Stuart. At the moment I am the acting head of cinematography here at the National Film and Television School. I have been a cinematographer from around 1980 and I have done commercials, music videos, feature films, sort of everything really. I think a creative career was what I wa...

Submitted by Stuart Harris

Published 25 April 2016

The secret world of the underwriter

Am I a good or bad risk? And how much do Insurers really make? In this edition I will be given you a peek behind the underwriter's desk and an insight into how they go about making their money. I think that it is fair to say that all of us feel a little bit aggrieved paying out premiums, particularly those of us who don't make claims. It is certain...

Submitted by Leighton Chenery

Published 01 April 2016

Being heard in the jungle

Professional wireless sound solution specialists, Raycom, were asked in summer 2015 to specify, supply and commission a huge new RF wireless distribution system for ITV's popular reality television show, "A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!"The show is set in 500,000 square metres of dense Australian jungle. The celebrities competing are filmed in vari...

Submitted by Andy Clements

Published 01 April 2016

The secrets behind live streaming

I made my on air debut at BVE 2016, taking alongside industry legend Larry Jordan. We explored the challenges and benefits of streaming online video and audio. You can find the discussion online, where we cover:When to choose streaming your video and offering it for download When to consider streaming video live? How to monetize your online vide...

Submitted by Thom Holliday

Published 01 April 2016

Highly Experienced

by Dick Hobbs Issue 110 - February 2016 I was recently asked to write an article on quality of experience in video streaming. Obviously the first thing I did was ask Saint Google to find me recent research on the subject. It pulled up an absolute gem, a report published by Ofcom, the UK government's communications supremos. It was written by an out...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 16 March 2016

Gaining insight in a fragmented broadcast world

by Keith Bedford Issue 110 - February 2016 The proliferation of mobile devices, on-demand content and the fragmentation of viewing habits makes the task of measuring TV audiences and the level of audience participation a bigger challenge than ever before. While the ways that consumers' access content may have changed radically, broadcasters' need f...

Submitted by Keith Bedford

Published 16 March 2016