KitPlus | Articles

All I want for Christmas...

by Peter Savage Issue 96 - December 2014 As if no time has passed since last Christmas, the festive season is upon us and Xmas cheer is all around. Sticking with our own tradition of a themed view on the broadcast industry specifically, and the wider economy in general, here are our wish lists for Santa. Five wants A good story about the banking...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 January 2015

News

Issue 94 - October 2014The most complete, compact multimedia studio in the World NewTek™ have unveiled TriCaster Mini™––the world’s most complete and compact multimedia studio. The ultra-portable system allows anyone who doesn’t speak or understand the technical language of video production or broadcasting to transform an ordinary presentation into...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2014

Training Tomorrows Technicians

by Tony Cahalane Issue 94 - October 2014 Ours is a hungry and demanding industry. It requires a constant supply of highly skilled and dedicated technicians who are willing to work hard, under often difficult circumstances, to help deliver the environment for production teams to thrive, in an ever-evolving media landscape and one where insecurity is...

Submitted by Tony Cahalane

Published 01 November 2014

Manipulate and Edit

Issue 93 - September 2014 Company mergers can be no fun. Staff panic about ‘efficiencies’ and therefore their jobs. The press speculates about ‘what really happened?’ And there are always lawyers involved. And no one likes that. When DiGiCo revealed that it would merge with fellow audio console manufacturers Calrec and Allen & Heath, following a bu...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2014

SIZE is everything

Issue 93 - September 2014Live broadcast television or stage productions are a fast moving environment where clear instructions need to be delivered quickly if everything is to run smoothly. Whilst efficient conveyance of prompts or direction is vital, there is usually the additional need to avoid the audience being aware of the methods employed. La...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 October 2014

In the Field

by Robin Brown Issue 93 - September 2014 Traditionally teleprompters were seen solely as a studio staple, but for more than two decades they have been consistently supporting talent in the field in a variety of locations around the globe. The numerous step changes in technology, which have had such a dramatic impact on all types of television equip...

Submitted by Robin Brown

Published 01 October 2014

Keeping it real

by Will Strauss Issue 92 - August 2014 With Sky buying into an immersive video start-up, and the BBC trialling content on an Oculus Rift headset, virtual reality could be about to move from simply sets and studios to a whole new realm. Once residing purely in the realms of science fiction and, latterly, video gaming, it appears that virtual reality...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 September 2014

An editors perspective

by Larry Jordan Issue 92 - August 2014 When it comes to chroma-key (also called “green-screen key”) the phrase “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in post.” is a recipe for disaster, because if you don’t shot your key right during production, it will be painful, timeconsuming and expensive to fix it later during editing. I know, because I’m an editor. Bad c...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 September 2014

What Directors do and dont do

by David Crossman Issue 92 - August 2014 Piers Haggard the BAFTA award-winning Director for his BBC TV work - says you can\'t teach Directing any more than you can teach Art. Piers may be right but I believe there are some directorial skills which can be passed on. Like many crew members and actors I have suffered at the hands of inexperienced Dire...

Submitted by David Crossman

Published 01 September 2014

A new age of teleprompting?

by Jon Hilton Issue 92 - August 2014 Whilst it may not be the first thing on the production agenda, one could argue it is an essential production tool today delivering at least two fundamental production values. Firstly it can save you money by reducing the time required to get that perfect take and secondly it means that your presenter will be wor...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 01 September 2014

Does lack of training produce inaudible sound

by John Barlow Issue 89 - May 2014 Jamaica Inn just happens to be the latest example of a mainstream TV drama production being broadcast with inaudible dialogue. The reasons vary from production to production but the end result is always an enormous waste of both acting and technical talent along with immense swathes of production budgets. Was it a...

Submitted by John Barlow

Published 01 June 2014

#TVFUTURES

by Danny Hutchings Issue 89 - May 2014 Quite a lot has happened since my last article here with tv-bay in January!Previously I mentioned how we where working on a 25-30 minute IPTV music show and since then have finished that project with a high merit. We cut the final project up into sections to give to the talent their part of the show; they all...

Submitted by Danny Hutchings

Published 01 June 2014

Centralised tapeless workflow at BT sport studios

by Steve Montgomery Issue 88 - April 2014 Part of the former International Broadcast Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London has been transformed into the new home of BT Sport with state-of-the-art production and broadcasting systems for BTs new television broadcast operations. BT sport is a broadcasting station with 24-7 operational c...

Submitted by steve montgomery

Published 01 May 2014

Fixing that inhospitable location shoot

by Harry Amies Issue 88 - April 2014 Say Iran. What do most people think of? Hostage-taking, nuclear programmes, angry mobs, CGI outsourcing, VFX, a multi-million dollar movie industry? If Harry Amies and Amir Rezazadeh of UK based co-producers HarryAmir have anything to do with it itll be the last three. HarryAmir is a UK-based company, that helps...

Submitted by Harry Amies

Published 01 May 2014

A splunking in the thames

by Andrew Morris Issue 88 - April 2014 Betsy boo is my 3 year old daughter. She is Amazing, Unique, Talented, Individual, Sensitive, Thoughtful, Indestructible, Cool. She is also AUTISTIC. To be honest we didnt know what autism was and are still learning; it is a problem within the brain; it happens when kids are born, and is often not picked up un...

Submitted by Andrew Morris

Published 01 May 2014