KitPlus | Articles

3D is moving fast

Helicopter Film Services (HFS) have been a specialist in aerial filming for 20 years, but recently, they have successfully added another element to their diverse services: Aerial 3D. HFS are the only company in the world to have designed and built a custom 3D rig for aerial filming. Their “Da Vinci” rig for the Stab-C Compact allows for ‘hyper-ster...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

How a live streaming launch comes together....

Well it’s that time of year again. CALL of DUTY Launch. That’s right it’s been a whole year since I wrote about the successful launch of Call of Duty Black Ops, and now we have the new Call of Duty MW3 launch. Just as last year, myself as part of the Mediakinetic team were once again asked by Headstream and Five by Five Digital to live stream the l...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2012

Learning from the master

In 1985 I took a job at Logica. In those days we were developing systems for teletext and subtitles, and later for graphics management, using computer hardware from DEC, a brand name that disappeared in 1998 when it was acquired by Compaq. The PDP-11 was revolutionary in that it was a 16 bit computer, but even then there was a suspicion that it did...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

How mobile phone video will change the world

With every man and his dog owning a smartphone, the whole world is now able to film and edit HD video right from the palm of their hands. How will this change the professional landscape and more importantly will it change things for the better?Just over ten years ago I was in college trying to create my first short film. Boy, how things change! At...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 2011

Protecting your assets, safe storage and long life archiv...

A vast amount of information exists out on the Internet that can be very helpful but also misleading and confusing on how best to protect digital content over time both from degradation of content and from piracy. Thinking back on my twenty plus years in the industry, it is my personal opinion the first creative professionals to experience problems...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

All the Things You Want to Know About Cloud Computing

Though the current buzz surrounding the concept of cloud computing makes it seem like an all-new technology, the idea and practice originate from IBM’s pioneering use — nearly three decades ago — of virtualized mainframes with “thin clients.” These thin clients allowed users to centralize processing in the very expensive mainframe components, CPU m...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2011

Getting Social

There are, apparently, 200 million tweets a day. Given that Twitter claims 200 million active users that seems a modest output, it is true, but the Twitterati have a disproportionate reach because large numbers of people – many of them lazy journalists – follow other people’s trending topics without contributing themselves. YouTube users download c...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2011

Cameras for streaming

I first saw true HD pictures years ago at IBC. OpTex had a camera focusing on some beautifully lit fruit. The image on the screen was extraordinary, hypnotising. Leap forward a decade and Amsterdam brought Europe its first taste of Ultra High Definition Television - not 720p, not 1080i, but 4320p. The enveloping cinematic pictures and the embrace o...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 August 2011

Robert Llewellyn

Many of you will have heard of the TV show on the "Dave\" Channel called "Carpool". You know the one, Red Dwarf and Scrap heap Challenge star Robert Llewellyn picks up someone in his car, drives him or her around a bit and has a chat. It’s a great series and you feel like your spying on a private conversation between two people on their way to work...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 August 2011

HTML5 and H.264. Friends United....

H.264 - The Success StorySome technologies like DVD, CD, TV and the PC prove themselves over time. They are practical, flexible, reliable - even universal. Is H.264 one of those magic bullet technologies?H.264, also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC, is the video codec that has taken the broadcast and consumer world by storm. In 2008, Anthony Rose, fo...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 August 2011

Thanks for the memory

If I need to impress on someone just how old I really am, I explain that my first computer had 32kB of Ram. Then we go through the “you mean 32 meg” “no, I mean 32 k” routine. It does seem implausible that, while I managed to write letters on my BBC Model B, today I need half a million times the memory to bash out columns for TV Bay. This is, of co...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2011

3D Film-making Goes Independent

James Cameron and Sky TV have stolen the stereoscopic 3D limelight. Events such as football cup finals and royal weddings have seemingly been produced with no expense spared in order to show 3DTV at its best. The Ryder Cup, for example, employed an incredible 21 3D Polecam rigs, supplementing the main camera systems. Beyond the world of Hollywood a...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 June 2011

An Introduction To Microphone Types, Uses, and Techniques

Almost everyone knows what a microphone is, but far fewer people know how they actually work and how to get the best out of the various types available. Pieter Schillebeeckx, Chief Designer at UK microphone manufacturer SoundField, fills in some basics. As technology has become easier to use, cheaper and more portable, it's become more popular. Ear...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 June 2011

Hands on an IPad 2

It’s been near on 1 year since the Apple iPad landed on planet earth. No one knew if it was going to be a success, sceptics were sure that the tablet format would be nothing more than a fad and that true portable computing still lay in the realms of the notebook pc's. However after 9 months and 12 million units sold, Apple of course, again, annoyin...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

My first direct experience of video post-production involved hauling a heavy Sony U-Matic tape machine up a flight of stairs before going back for an equally heavy playback deck, a bulky CRT monitor and a large box of interface giblets. That was in 1978. 33 years on, an Apple Mac does the whole editing job a great deal better, faster and more econo...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011