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Test and measurement in a multiformat world

The evolution of television technology since the days of 525-line and 625-line standard definition has left a large legacy of standards which modern broadcast systems now have to recognise and process. In today's video and audio business, creatives and technical staff have to be ready to handle a multiplicity of signal types. In its standard form,...

Submitted by Kevin Salvidge

Published 24 August 2016

Dance hall days are over for professional lighting

Photon Beard has made lights since before the days of electric power. "What\'s that, you say"? Well, it\'s true. Photon Beard started in 1882 when the founder, R.R. Beard, invented the automatic gas regulator. Yes, the thing that allows you to barbeque that steak in summer sunshine, or any time of year that you fancy grilled food. In the days befor...

Submitted by Peter Daffarn

Published 24 August 2016

Ask the experts - Transitioning to IP

1) What has been the broadcast industry's feeling about the move to an all IP workflow?Transitioning from conventional signal transport to an all-IP environment in broadcast or content production operations seems to be a matter of "when\" rather than "if,\" as it brings a great number of advantages with it. IP is touted as offering numerous benefit...

Submitted by Craig Newbury

Published 22 July 2016

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

Everything you need to know about true IP

In its own way, every trade show - whether IBC, NAB or CABSAT - is full of firsts. New companies, new partnerships and most importantly, new product releases all want to make their presence known. Nearly all of these firsts however are either a) in response to a hot industry topic or trend or b) trying to predict the next industry trend. The last f...

Submitted by Joop Jensen

Published 22 July 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

Smaller, Lighter, High-Capacity Batteries

Issue 113 - May 2016 The desire for longer run-times from smaller and lighter batteries, has always been keenly felt by users of high power consumption digital cinema style cameras. The new generation of cameras is smaller but the power consumption, in most cases, has increased. High-capacity Li-Ion batteries of 150Wh or more provide longer run-tim...

Submitted by Steve Emmett

Published 20 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

Measurement and Visualization of Loudness

by Michael Kahsnitz Issue 113 - May 2016 Today\'s audio engineers and editors have to fight various battles, including constantly shrinking production budgets, less time to create the final program content and more tech specs to match than ever. For this compilation, we take a deeper look at the required major indicators common to all the standards...

Submitted by Michael Kahsnitz

Published 13 May 2016

Sin City

by Dick Hobbs Issue 113 - May 2016 I am writing this is the immediate aftermath of yet another NAB. For me that means a week of walking around,talking to a wide variety of people and taking the temperature of the industry. This year I developed a theory that there were three sorts of companies exhibiting at NAB,or at least three sorts of spokesmen...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 13 May 2016

Fact from Fiction - IP transport

by Bruce Devlin Issue 112 - April 2016 Wandering around the endless corridors of NAB in 2016, you\'ll hear much more talk of IP transport than in previous years. If you\'re lucky then you\'ll see a few GUIs that might show Software Defined Network (SDN) routings or channel allocations. You might see a GUI that shows the flows of essence, grains, pa...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

Published 25 April 2016

Resolute over Resolution

by Leighton Chenery Issue 112 - April 2016 According to an industry think-tank, the end of 2017 will see the tipping point for UHD in the UK. But, ask the people working on the frontline, and that picture is not so clear. As we approach NAB, talk will once again return to the thorny subject of picture resolution. I say \'thorny\' because it has div...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 25 April 2016

The World Of Risk

by Leighton Chenery Issue 112 - April 2016 For those who follow the World Economic Forum in Davos, the forum provides a fascinating insight into the minds of our top business leaders\' and politicians. Risk was again the topic of the day. From Brexit to China\'s debt issues, from migration to food shortage, oil price to climate change, the discuss...

Submitted by Leighton Chenery

Published 25 April 2016

Camera Operations (part 2)

by Peter Leverick Issue 112 - April 2016 In Part 1 (issue 110) I addressed the practical skills required by Camera Operators aspiring to enter the Broadcast TV market. A good camera operator also needs to have good artistic senses and abilities. Like practical skills this is something that is acquired through training and practice. As with all trai...

Submitted by Peter Leverick

Published 25 April 2016

The Power Of IP

by Jamie Shepperd Issue 112 - April 2016 There is little doubt that the adoption of IP technology across the broadcast workflow can bring significant benefit to broadcasters. IP is ubiquitous, it\'s based on common standards and broadcast can benefit further from the wealth of expertise and technology that exist in other industries. While we are st...

Submitted by Jamie Shepperd

Published 25 April 2016