KitPlus | Articles

Saving your laptop from spills

by Beth Zarkhosh Issue 109 - January 2016 Saving your laptop from spills!Whether you\'re a wedding videographer or a small production company, we all know the stress of the edit process, nothing adds to that stress more than the full destruction of your PC or Mac. So its the New Year and youre finishing off that last bit of mulled wine from over Ch...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 21 January 2016

Taking aim

by Dick Hobbs Issue 109 - January 2016 Happy 2016! We have a lot to look forward to this year. In Europe we are likely to find huge amusement in the American presidential election which this year seems to be throwing up an unprecedented set of clowns. In midsummer we have the Olympics in Rio, which should be quite a carnival. In our industry we hav...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 21 January 2016

Ensuring a Quick Recovery

by Chris Steele Issue 109 - January 2016 While the thought of fire or flood strikes fear into the heart of those responsible for managing IT infrastructures, the fact is that simple equipment malfunction, like the failure of a disk drive, or even human error itself, are by far the most common causes of local outages. Having a robust major disaster...

Submitted by Chris Steele

Published 21 January 2016

Broadcast Playout Over IP and in The Cloud

with Don Ash Issue 109 - January 2016 Simon Tillyer: Before we get heavy about IP and the cloud, what is the current state of the broadcast playout business? Don Ash: The transition to server-based systems in recent years has made the entire process of broadcast playout much easier to operate and automate than the tape-based equipment which precede...

Submitted by Don Ash

Published 21 January 2016

4k - is it really worth it

by Beth Zarkosh Issue 108 - December 2015 4K; the holy grail of modern digital filmmaking. Weve all heard of it, but perhaps not all of us are ready for the change. Here we look at the perceptions versus the realities of shooting in 4K. Ultra High Definition is something that has derived from 4K, but now it seems most filmmakers are pressured into...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 15 December 2015

Virtually there - media monitoring goes beyond hardware

by Simen Frostad Issue 108 - December 2015 Being a hardware manufacturer is a great thing. It allows you to design the totality of the product and the users experience of it, to create a plug-and-play appliance that is uniquely fitted to its task. And there are plenty of tasks that are best done with the help of a piece of dedicated hardware, for m...

Submitted by Simen Frostad

Published 15 December 2015

TVFutures:Student pitch

by Alex Watson Issue 107 - November 2015 Studying at university is so much more these days than just turn up to lectures, hand in assignments and get a degree, and at the end of my first year studying for a BSc in Television and Broadcasting at the University of Portsmouth, I had the opportunity to attain my Avid Media Composer User Certification....

Submitted by Alex Watson

Published 01 December 2015

Taming the 12Gbs beast and how to T&M it with the Qx

by Philip Adams and Paul Nicholls Issue 107 - November 2015 The one thing you can say about working in the broadcast industry is that there isnt time to get bored! Hesitant, perhaps even frightened these days might be more accurate but bored, certainly not. Such is the case with the planned UHDTV roll out and the need for customers to invest in tec...

Submitted by Phillip Adams

Published 01 December 2015

Budgeting and controlling costs

by Den Lennie Issue 106 - October 2015 This is a very important aspect of running a production, and one you have to keep a close eye on. Its very simple; you have your actual hard costs in one budget and you have what youre charging the client in another. Lets say you charge the client £450 per day for the camera package, but the rental house is on...

Submitted by Den Lennie

Published 01 November 2015

Talking Steadicam and Exovest

by David Crute Issue 105 - September 2015 Q: When did you first get into using Steadicam?There were only about 10 UK Steadicam operators when I started, and very few that owned a rig. It was a massive investment for me as a young cameraman. The reason I did it was very simply that I found myself in this unusual position of doing both film and video...

Submitted by David Crute

Published 01 October 2015

Wireless and satellite

by John Wastcoat Issue 105 - September 2015 Each day, clips and other promotional materials needed to be transferred from the shooting location in South Africa to Network Tens editors in Sydney, Australia. However, the shows distant and isolated filming location in the South African jungle posed some major challenges for the broadcaster. Editors we...

Submitted by John Wastcoat

Published 01 October 2015

Lighting fundamentals

by Larry Jordan Issue 104 - August 2015 Lighting is like chess. Simple on the surface yet wondrously complex the more you learn about it. Recently, I was asked to do a presentation on the basics of lighting. So, I decided to share that presentation with you here. It starts with 3-point Lighting, though, um, we actually use four lights (see above):-...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 September 2015

The production desk finally gets innovative

by Kieron Seth Issue 104 - August 2015 The video switcher (aka vision mixer) is at the heart of all live television, all AV and many a live webcast. But despite its core role, its remained essentially the same concept for decades, consisting of a digital video effects processing unit, matrix switcher and control panel. Fundamentally this hardware-b...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 September 2015

Dynamic display revolution!

Issue 104 - August 2015 Projection mapping and dynamic video displays have transformed live events and performance art. Blended projection and massive video walls have given event directors the ability to deliver a whole new level of creativity to theatre, music and outdoor events. One of the companies at the forefront of this revolution is SNP Pro...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 September 2015

Keep memories safe at RWF

by Martin Bennet Issue 103 - July 2015 RWF World founders Gwynne Roberts and Sadie Wykeham have embarked on a 30-plus year mission with a single purpose: to tell the world about human rights violations through the eyes of its survivors. Through the course of their journey, these truth-seekers have informed the world of late 20th-century injustices...

Submitted by Martin Bennett

Published 01 August 2015