KitPlus | Articles

Pointing out the right colours

In the old days of PAL and NTSC analogue television, a vectorscope was an essential tool for examining chroma at every part for the programme production and transmission chain. This was because the colour information was carried as a phase and amplitude modulation which could be sensitive to a variety of transmission or recording non-linearities an...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Testing times of a 4K world

The term '4K' applies to some five slightly different picture formats with around 4,000 pixel horizontal resolution: all much bigger than HD. In fact roughly four times the total pixels required for 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition. 4K has been around for some years but was until recently only affordable by producers with mega budgets. Advances in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

Handheld T and M the broadcast emergency service

“Test and Measurement”. Shudder. Like “Health and Safety”, “Bus” and “Replacement Service” or “Keith and Orville” it’s a collocation of words that fills me with dread. Seriously, who wants to read about “Test and Measurement”? Well, as it turns out, the answer is: quite a lot of people. Because, despite its lack of glamour, it is hugely important....

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

Gamut errors: Who cares?

Gamut errors are the most common video signal problems. This is because colour television or cinematography depends on being able to represent every pixel on the screen in terms of red, green and blue. We want to deliver perfect RGB signals representing all the possible colours in our pictures. Virtually all display technologies use RGB primary col...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2012

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

This column’s previous excursion into video post-production was just before the 2011 NAB Spring Convention, always a dangerous time to talk about new hardware or software when a deluge of upgrades, lookalikes and lite-editions are about to hit the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Quite a lot has happened in this category over the past 12...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Is it time to hang up your glasses for field 3D monitorin...

The rapid growth of 3D content being shot and produced has created many challenges to the camera operators, production teams and indeed manufacturing companies. There has always been the problem of viewing 3D material as it is being shot and the ability to review it immediately afterwards, whether as a camera viewfinder or a portable 3D monitor. At...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

JVC 3D Spotlight

JVC Professional’s expanded family of 3D products now include the new GY-HMZ1 3D ProHD handheld camera, along with the GD-323D20 32 inch 3D display/production monitor, our popular DT-3D24G1 3D production monitor and the upgraded IF-2D3D1 2D to 3D converter. The products are already widely used throughout the post industry, helping content creators...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

3D Five years on

For me, IBC2006 was the beginning of the modern 3D era. At an invitation-only presentation, 3ality’s CEO Steve Schklair described what his company was achieving with S3D. Suddenly it all made sense. With the accuracy of digital shoots and computer technology replacing difficulties and expense of working with film, 3D could now be viable. Unlike the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Multi Function 2D and 3D Signal Monitoring Capability

We find ourselves in a constantly evolving industry with an ever increasing variety of video sources and devices that require monitoring. There is still a significant amount of analogue equipment requiring both composite and component monitoring, and then there is the whole raft of digital video equipment supporting SDI, HDSDI, 3G and now HDMI conn...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

10 things you must monitor

Everyone will have their own view as to the ‘critical’ items that have to be monitored constantly in broadcast. It was this need to offer a solution to QC that led PHABRIX to create a new range of products moving on from the highly successful PHABRIX Sx hand held products to a rack mount solution. The PHABRIX Rx series was released at NAB this year...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Whats new in video monitoring

The great majority of video monitoring displays in any modern broadcast presentation facility are LED-backlit LCDs. Reliable, space-efficient and economical on power, they produce excellent pictures for all but the most critical applications, usually in conjunction with one or more multiviewers to emulate a monitor stack. Domestic television began...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Panasonic AF101 review

In 2008 Canon released its latest stills camera the 5DMk2. Little did they know what they had released on the videographers world. This so called STILLS camera had a hidden talent, that of course of remarkably good 1080p video. The indie film makers went wild, no more did they have to bolt on large cumbersome depth of field adapters to their video...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

On the level

In shooting 3D you naturally have two cameras and two lenses: albeit, there are some weird and wonderful single lens/single sensor contraptions out there. This usually means there are any number of ways each camera lens combination could be producing images with minor are major signal level differences. If these level differences are not dealt with...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

Reviewed DSC Labs Chroma Du Monde

Visual Impact were provided with a DSC Labs CamAlign CDM 28R Chroma Du Monde to test at their Teddington base this week, and unsurprisingly were impressed with what they found. Upon first impressions, the test chart seemed to employ a far too reflective surface which would inherently cause unwanted reflections and thus yield incorrect results. A br...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

Whats new in broadcast test and measurement

The test and measurement product category continues to expand as the broadcast business itself diversifies. Notable recent developments include higher resolution displays and a gradually increasing number of analysers which, having detected a fault, endeavour to fix it. No sign at NAB 2011 of any tablet-based test and measurement equipment but perh...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011