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The World of 12G 4K/UHD Processing
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Technology moves fast and when it comes to audio and video broadcasting, there is always room for improvements in audio and video quality and ease of production. One of the main goals of broadcasters and content providers today is to create an immersive experience for the viewers, giving them the feeling of being part of the viewed content. The 4K/UHD buzz has been in the consumer world for some time but what does that actually mean for the content producer? |
| Tags: iss138
| lynx technik
| ott
| greenmachine
| yellobrik
| conversion
| Varun Patel
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Making the Workflow Flow
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The toughest things about being the Standards Vice President (SVP) is that everyone expects standards to be the most important thing. In all the systems that I’ve designed and deployed over the years, I've yet to find any production workflow that is 100% standards based. True, the core technologies may well be standards based, but the overall workflow is made up of many technology pieces from open source code, through de-facto delivery specifications based upon SMPTE or Trade Association Specifications that in turn depend on full, International Standards to work. I can already hear some folks saying "In the good old days, everything used standards", but I beg to disagree. |
| Tags: iss138
| pye museum
| pye-philips
| smpte
| ietf
| ieee
| w3c
| aes
| Bruce Devlin - new
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State of the Nation - If Winter Comes
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Here’s an important fact that might get lost in all the noise of the moment. HBO’s Game of Thrones, which is relentlessly covered in the press as well as being talked about by its fans, is not actually terribly popular. The opener of the current (and last, thank goodness) series attracted a consolidated audience of about 3.5 million – that includes 2.7 million who watched the first showing at 2am, plus those who watched it at a more civilised hour, or who recorded it. Informed comment seems to be that those who watch on catch-up at some time in the following week or so might add a million more. |
| Tags: iss137
| gof
| games of thrones
| 8k
| hdr
| Dick Hobbs - new
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Lighting with Gurdip Mahal
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Gurdip Mahal’s credits for lighting design are impressive. Including major Awards shows such as BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Children in Need, as well as The Voice, Top Gear and Crystal Maze, his CV would almost certainly include at least one show with which any one of us is familiar. In addition, he has applied his own particular style to performances by major artists such as U2, Beyonce and Lady Gaga. |
| Tags: iss137
| ac entertainment
| gurdip mahal
| lighting
| stage lights
| light assistant
| Ian Muir
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What is the JT-NM Tested Program
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The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show 2019 has come and gone with the usual onslaught of product announcements, launch parties, demonstrations and the usual high-density crowds preventing any high-speed movement between halls. The IP showcase, this year, featured a JT-NM tested program. If you're unfamiliar with the JT-NM, then it's worth checking out their website jt-nm.org where you can find out about the work being done to coordinate the different aspects of building an inter-working ST 2110 eco-system. The JT-NM tested program catalogue can be downloaded from the website and it highlights a series of tests that were performed prior to NAB on various products to see how they performed against the written standards upon which the ST 2110 eco system is based. |
| Tags: iss137
| st2110
| class
| jt-nm
| nab
| ieee
| secuirty
| amwa
| Bruce Devlin - new
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A Truly Mobile Fly On The Wall
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Fly on the Wall Entertainment is responsible for over 2000 hours of programing that have aired on multiple networks. As the Executive Producers of CBS’s summer sensation Big Brother, going into its 20th season this summer, they have been the key to the growth and evolution of one of the most groundbreaking entertainment franchises ever on broadcast television. As a team, they constantly push the boundaries of unscripted television, creating programing unimagined by anyone else. |
| Tags: iss137
| dejero
| fotw
| engo
| KitPlus
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NAB 2019 Highlights
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The NAB Show in Las Vegas never loses its capacity to surprise. With NHK already transmitting in 8K and the Tokyo Olympics just a year away, this might have been the year that 8K equipment prices descended from the stratosphere to just plain expensive. The main trends at NAB 2019 were an increasing focus on HD-HDR, Media-over-IP and 4K. 8K was pretty low key except for a very promising demo on the Sharp stand: an extremely compact 8K camera at an impressively low price point: $4,000. Shooting at 30 frames per second to an internal card and using a prosumer-style Olympus lens, it looked very much an entry-level product but one with phenomenal potential for any videographer looking to work with very large display screen sizes. |
| Tags: iss137
| finepoint
| nhk
| media-over-ip
| canon xa50
| xa55
| huddlecam
| jvc
| gy-hc550
| panasonic aw-ue-150 ptz
| samsung
| 8k signage
| hdr10+
| livetrakl-20
| mediakind
| Paul MacKenzie
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Capturing Haute Couture
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As the fashion world returned to the French capital for the most prestigious of the 'Big Four’ fashion weeks, historical venues such as the Carrousel du Louvre and the Grand Palais played host to famous emblematic brands such as Chanel, Valentino, Louis Vuitton and Stella McCartney, showcasing their autumn/winter 2019 collections. |
| Tags: iss137
| blackmagic design
| ursa mini
| freecaster
| atem
| KitPlus
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Preparing for the holiday peak
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The summer holiday getaway of 2018 hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. A UK airport's non-functional departure boards left travellers unable to find their flights. Meanwhile, an airline cancelled over 2,000 flights due to a computer glitch. One European city closed its airspace entirely. |
| Tags: iss137
| adder
| kvm
| server
| Jamie Adkin
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Cinegy Channel Playout
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Canis Television & Media is a UK-based specialist broadcast services company, providing its clients as a one-stop shop for everything from production facilities to asset valuations to traffic control. In response to growing demand from its clients, Canis identified a need for channel playout facilities. |
| Tags: iss137
| cinegy
| canis media
| David Wright
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IMF Adoption
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The Interoperable Master Format isn’t new. It’s been around for more than six years. Despite this longevity, the broad adoption since the publication of SMPTE 2067 has been pretty slow. This is perhaps more because of the age old mantra “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” than the ease with which many could interpret the standard. However, it is safe to say that movie producers blazed a trail in using IMF for original content delivery. Perhaps the key is that those early adopters didn’t have any significant tape based infrastructure that had been modified for file-based working when receiving content. So, many longer established content distributors have the immense resources to create the vast array of versions required to address the ‘version issue.’ This being how do you get the same content to look good on the back of an aeroplane seat headrest or an iPhone in the back of car as well as a good old TV set. Over time these resources have been diminishing and many organisations recognise that they have to adopt workflow automation to survive. |
| Tags: iss137
| editshare
| imf
| standards
| smpte 2067
| Howard Twine
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The Latest Trend in Cloud Ingest Portals
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The unique demands of the media industry have created an equally unique ecosystem. With high-resolution video constantly moving over the Internet during production, post production, and multi-device, multi-channel distribution, as well as the need for flexible storage and security at every stage — all under impossibly tight timelines — there isn’t another industry like it. It’s not surprising then that technologies that work for some industries often don’t work the same in media, and cloud ingest is a great example. |
| Tags: iss137
| signiant
| saas
| ftp
| dropbox
| file transfer
| media shuttle
| Megan Cater
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NAB Intelligence
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It's that time of year again. 06:30 on road bikes on the Las Vegas Strip with a merry bunch of folks who believe they look good in lycra. As we pedal West up the hill towards Red Rock there will be stories of the year just gone and questions about what to look for at the show. I, for one, will be attending the Devoncroft event to check up on who is spending what and where. I will then look forward to the topics that might be buzzing around the halls. I predict there will be many displays of Machine Learning hiding under the banner of Artificial Intelligence. Some of these will show better picture quality, others will show personalisation engines, some will be improved search tools and yet more will be synthesising pictures and motions to replace reality with and Artificial reality that's more compelling for the viewer. |
| Tags: iss136
| nab
| class
| ai
| smpte
| st2110
| imf
| Bruce Devlin - new
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Remote Teams and Talent
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If your studio works with non-local creative talent, you already know that there are opportunities and challenges associated with distributed production and post production. Bridging the distance not only allows you to find the best talent for the job anywhere in the world, it creates the potential for a diverse and globally-minded workforce that boosts the creativity and vision of your entire company. |
| Tags: iss136
| signiant
| file acceleration
| ftp
| dropbox
| sharepoint
| slack
| saas
| media shuttle
| Megan Cater
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4k and HDR Wireless Camera Transmitters
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Across the globe, live events represented over 50 percent of the most watched TV programs last year. However, big budget episodic shows are impacting live TV and the way viewers want to see their content. Viewers are demanding the same quality of production for live event broadcasts as they see in pre-recorded TV series and films. Producers of live content are looking to new, immersive and cinematic mobile camera views to better achieve these results. This presents a challenge to live production teams as these new camera views and angles must match the quality of the rest of the production - the demand for mobility means that the cameras need to be wireless. |
| Tags: iss136
| wireless
| hdr
| 4k
| transmitter
| bandwidth
| imt vislink
| hcam
| David Edwards
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Preserving the British Film Institute Archive
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Today, the media and entertainment industry faces numerous challenges. To remain successful and competitive, these organisations must be ever innovative, agile and cost efficient in the way they produce, store, manage and distribute their digital assets. Content creators have traditionally relied upon outdated storage models, comprised of legacy interfaces, file structures and historical proprietary storage management software that tend to be complex, cumbersome and expensive. This makes it difficult to forecast and budget for ever-growing content in the effort to reach viewers. |
| Tags: iss136
| bfi
| archive
| blackpearl
| spectra
| storage
| film
| tape
| David Feller
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Looking for the Silver Lining
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According to the World Meteorological Organisation, there are 10 different types of cloud, each of which can be divided further into sub-types. They range from the cirrus, the thin floaty clouds which generally serve only to make the sky look beautiful to the towering, all-embracing cumulonimbus which can deliver fearful quantities of rain – the biggest cumulonimbus clouds can contain 50 million tonnes of water. |
| Tags: iss136
| cloud
| lto
| archive
| storage
| Harry Grinling
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TV Futures - The Shadowing Experience
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My name is Daniel Jones, and it is no accident that I’m currently studying BSc (Hons) Television and Broadcasting at the University of Portsmouth. Since completing GSCE media studies I have been constantly questioning what I watch with questions such as, “Wow, how was that filmed?” or “That looks amazing, I wonder how long that took?” It should come as no surprise that I made it a big focus of mine to get myself some real work experience to give myself some answers to these production questions. |
| Tags: iss136
| portsmouth university
| runner
| student
| education
| training
| Daniel Jones
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Living LIVE at BVE with Ross Video
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KitPlus’ Jon Pratchett chats to Stuart Russell, Ross Video, in the BVE studio. Covering customer partnerships and loyalty, pain points, growth, industry trends, pace of IP adoption, 12g SDI technologies, UHD / HDR, 8k, AI and we try to get a hint of new products on the horizon... |
| Tags: iss136
| ross video
| 12g sdi
| uhd
| hdr
| ip
| bve 2019
| bvexpo
| Jon Pratchett
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Test, Measurement and Standards
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The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), is a non-profit trade alliance that fosters the adoption of one set of common, ubiquitous, standards-based protocols for interoperability over IP in the media and entertainment, and professional audio/video industries. |
| Tags: iss135
| omnitek
| aims
| SNMP
| hdr
| ai
| Alan Wheable
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Future proofing post production storage
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Advancements in NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), the storage protocol designed for flash, are revolutionising data storage. According to G2M Research, the NVMe market will grow to $60 billion by 2021, with 70 percent of all-flash arrays being based on the protocol by 2020. NVMe, acting like steroids for flash-based storage infrastructures, dynamically and dramatically accelerates data delivery. |
| Tags: iss135
| nvme
| sas
| sata
| it
| storage
| post production
| Josh Goldenhar
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Grading BBC Sounds
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The BBC has launched its new personalised music, radio and podcast app with a campaign that follows one listener’s journey from meeting Kylie Minogue in a lift to Idris Elba on a bus.
BBC Sounds offers a single home for the BBC’s thousands of hours of audio content, including live and on-demand shows and special music mixes curated by artists.
BBC Creative, the broadcaster’s in-house creative division, took the brief to agency Riff Raff Films and Megaforce directing duo of Charles Brisgand and Raphaël Rodriguez who in turn brought on board regular collaborators Time Based Arts.
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| Tags: iss135
| bbc
| grading
| bbc sounds
| davinici
| resolve
| blackmagic
| editing
| Simone Grattarola
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Switching to Internet Based Distribution
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"An IP status check for the broadcast industry", "Resistance is futile", "IP points the way forward for the broadcast industry"...
Yes, we've read the headlines too. But rather than force you into submission, scare you, or leave you feeling like you have no other choice, we want to give you the information that helps you to make a sensible decision about Internet-based distribution.
So what’s stopping you from making the switch right now?
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| Tags: iss135
| ip
| internet
| distribution
| cerberus
| Chris Clark
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Your two week editing future
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So here we are - January again! Usually a good time to reflect on the year just gone by, and a good time to look forward to the coming months as the new year begins.
When I was reflecting on my 2018, and when thinking about what to write for my first article for Kit Plus - I kept coming back to one theme - organisation.
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| Tags: iss135
| editing
| mediacity training
| premiere pro
| dit
| Alex Macleod
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21st Century Technology for 20th Century Content
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A big challenge facing owners of legacy content is rationalising and archiving their tape and film-based media in cost effective and efficient ways, whilst also adding value. Normally the result of this is to find a low cost means of digitising the content – usually leaving them with a bunch of assets on HDD. But then what? How can content owners have their cake and eat it? |
| Tags: iss135
| legacy
| digitising
| digitizing
| archive
| James Hall
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Battery Power Management
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There are many obvious ways a modern battery is better than one that would have been common just a few years ago and is light years ahead of what was available a generation ago. In everything from form factor to battery life to charge time, things have vastly improved. Consider cycle ratings, an indication of how many times a pack has or can be used. Some battery packs for professional video production and broadcast are now promising up to 2,000 full discharge/recharge cycles, double what was state-of-the-art just a year ago. That’s a significantly better return on investment. |
| Tags: iss135
| core
| battery
| charging
| power
| Ross Kanarek
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Viva La Microphone Evolution
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2018 marks the twentieth year of Sennheiser Evolution microphones - a range of wired and wireless live performance microphones and wireless systems that took Sennheiser from relatively small-volume broadcast manufacturing to a prime position on stages around the world. Last November, Sennheiser UK marked this auspicious occasion by holding an evening of storytelling, hosted by Jamie Gosney and featuring Michael Polten, Martin Fischer and Andrew Lillywhite, all key members of the Sennheiser Evolution team, as well as Pete Malandrone (guitar tech to Dr Brian May), Joe Campbell (monitor engineer for artists include Chris Rea, Placebo and Adele) and Chris Denman (producer of the live sessions at Global Radio) who have all used, and loved, Evolution microphones for many years. |
| Tags: iss135
| sennheiser
| evolution
| microphone
| KitPlus
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TVFutures - Location Assistant
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Hi, my name is Maddison Young and I am an undergraduate on BSc (Hons) Television and Broadcasting at the University of Portsmouth. If there is one consistent message being given to students these days it is ‘move out of your comfort zone, and get real industry work and experience’! It’s a scary message, and my first year saw me take mostly internal and ‘safe’ experiences within the realms of the university. I was determined to change this approach as a second year student. |
| Tags: iss135
| portsmouth university
| location
| training
| education
| Maddison Young
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Sony PWS-4500 Live Production Server Reviewed
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Available since 2016, the Sony PWS-4500 is a solid-state UHD/HD live production server designed for use in applications such as sports, studio or stage events. The target applications are master recording and advanced replay operations for live production companies for whom the server's ability to record the output from high frame rate cameras and deliver easily controllable slow motion is a major asset. The PWS-4500 is already in use by many prestigious live production companies and broadcasters around the world. |
| Tags: iss135
| finepoint
| sny
| pws-4500
| review
| production server
| Andy McKenzie
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