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London to Capetown, by bike Part 2

Continuing Frank’s journey after leaving Nigeria….. I arrived in Cameroun at the beginning of the wet season and it had been raining constantly for a week before I got there. The road was in a horrendous state. It was a two hundred kilometre long mudbath, in some places the mudholes were two metres below the normal road height. My bike fully loaded...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Screen and Music Travel

What do Screen and Music Travel do?Screen and Music Travel are specialist travel agents to the television and film industries. We move film crews (many of whom are probably your readers) to destinations all over the world. We have many deals in place with a number of airlines, for discounts on excess baggage charges, for passengers travelling with...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Getting the best out of your LCD

Getting the best out of your LCDs?Many people who use CRT picture monitors have found the introduction of LCD displays disappointing. Getting the best out of your LCD may not be as simple as it may seem. With a wide choice of vendors and models all proclaiming broadcast quality, it can be difficult to determine which product is most suitable for yo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Virtual Studios

Traditionally virtual studios have been extremely expensive to equip due to the amount of technology required just to make the studio work. Besides the standard studio cameras and lighting, sophisticated additional technology is required to provide feedback from lenses, pan and tilt heads and dollies, to seamlessly synchronise foreground and backgr...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 November 2008

Stryder TV Brick House Video User Report

Stryder TV is based in Oxfordshire and for decades we have provided both British and International broadcasters with a complete video production services. Our camera crews have operated in 45 countries from the Arctic to the Tropics and we produce anything from web content to beaming live pictures across the world with our satellite truck. We neede...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Making the most of a downwardly mobile market

CRISIS? WHAT CRISIS?When the economy takes a downward turn you must look for opportunities to succeed, not assume you will fail, explains Peter Savage The trade press has been rife recently with stories of doom and gloom. Speculation abounds about more post houses hitting the wall as the economy continues to slide. So I thought it was timely to giv...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

A brief history of television graphics

Thirty years ago, television captions were routinely created by sticking white Letraset characters onto black card. Credit rolls were possible using special devices which used long strips of black material onto which the Letraset was stuck, and which were literally rolled, either by an electric motor but sometimes even by hand. There were, of cours...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Everything you ever wanted to know about TV lighting Part...

In my last article, I talked about some of the basic technical aspects that we need to think about when we start on the lighting trail. I covered light levels and intensities in relation to lens apertures before discussing colour temperature and its relevance to producing ‘nice’ pictures. Although I’d like to move on into lighting ‘proper’ there ar...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

London to Capetown, by bike part 1

South Africans are known for being to the point, so when I was told that I had done the whole thing ‘Arse Backwards’ I wasn’t unduly upset, but I did feel a need to justify the way I had approached this project. I had just arrived in Cape Town and was rather pleased with myself, having just completed a year long journey through some of Africa’s mos...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Mixing with the wildlife on Springwatch

As the 5th series of ‘Springwatch’ draws to a close I’d like to share with you an insider view of one of my favourite vision mixing jobs. As a freelance vision mixer I work across the board on all sorts of programmes: quiz & chat shows, sports, drama, music & Light Entertainment, recorded & live, studio-based or Outside Broadcast. But for four week...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2008

Selling your business Part 3. Gearing up for sale

In the final article in his series about preparing your business for sale, Peter Savage outlines the strategy that leads to success even in a slowing economy. Last month we were left with a conundrum: how do you sell a business when the company clearly has a value but the market, and consequently the performance of the business, is in reverse? This...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2008

Flexiscope from Hamlet

A number of years ago Hamlet gave itself the impossible task of developing the worlds first HD and SD video and audio measurement and monitoring instrument that could be packed into one small handheld device. The new instrument would need to provide waveforms, vectors, audio bar graphs, measurement cursors, a range of error detection, decoding of b...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2008

IPTV in 21st Century TV

The radio and television networks born and raised in the last century are a consequence of a medium in which broadcasting is the natural way of working. From one to a fickle many it has been a matter of finding material with mass appeal which has occupied generations of commissioners. Recently, I went to the exhibition of the IPTV World Forum 2008...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2008

Scriptwriting

“Is the pen mightier than the sword?”As a writer myself and having penned a few scripts in the past, mainly for TV commercials, corporate presentations and voice overs, it always amazes me 'when a film actor, whether it be a known or an up and coming potential' just seems to utter those mortal words “It was such a great script...I just had to do it...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 September 2008

tv-bay interviews Malcolm Robinson

How long have you been with Sony?Just over 4 yearsAnd where were you before?I originally trainedat Ravensbourne before moving to CNN where I worked on stories such as the Russian Coup. I then worked for Cine Video where amongst others covered the West Indies cricket tours. After working for Visions I contracted for 4 years before moving to Sony. Wh...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 August 2008