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The importance of a low noise floor
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The Noise Floor of a piece of T&M equipment is the inherent noise (or intrinsic jitter) introduced by the equipment itself. The level of inherent noise affects the accuracy and repeatability of jitter measurements that can be made, especially when measuring low levels of jitter. With the permitted 100KHz jitter on a 12G-SDI signal being only 0.3UI, it is important to establish the total level of jitter in the signal path to ensure that it does not exceed this limit and cause data errors. |
| Tags: iss119
| omnitek
| test and measurement
| intrinsic jitter
| Alan Wheable
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Rethinking standards in the media world
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It's actually a more difficult question than you think. When I ask the majority of engineers this question, I will get a technical answer. It will be something like "to be sure we meet the specification" or "to be sure we don't put bad signals on air" or "so that I don't get fired for getting loudness wrong" |
| Tags: iss119
| qc
| monitoring
| mr mxf
| class
| Bruce Devlin
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Hacking Hell
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There was a really scary story in the news a week or two ago. In the words of Yves Bigot, director-general of TV5 Monde, "we were a couple of hours from having the whole station gone for good". |
| Tags: iss119
| hacking
| hackers
| dick hobbs
| Dick Hobbs.
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Highlighting YouTube Space
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Video, by definition, requires space and light.
However, the right space, with the right light, can make or break a production.
YouTube parent company Google's new London HQ in Pancras Square at King's Cross is certainly the right space. In fact, it's so right they've called it YouTube Space London, a 20,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility for collaboration, learning and production.
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| Tags: iss118
| youtube space
| lighting
| photon beard
| highlight led
| remote phosphor technology
| Peter Daffarn
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10 Ways to make your trade show booth stand out
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With 15 halls and over 1600 exhibitors, there's little chance of seeing every stand at the IBC trade show - but this year I gave it a good try and racked up an impressive number of daily steps to prove it! Unlike most show visitors, however, I wasn't looking for the latest bit of tech or next product to purchase, instead I was focussed on how IBC exhibitors use stand design and trade show marketing techniques on the show floor to attract the attention of exhibition visitors. |
| Tags: iss118
| ibc
| trade show
| marketing
| Candice Cowan
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Selecting the right broadcast minicam lens
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So we all know that HD and 4K (and beyond) is the norm for content creation and delivery, with the need for unique and versatile shots being offered to increase the audiences participation and visual experiences. A major factor aside from the camera itself is the selection of lens, for some of the UHD sensor formats a broad spectrum of "off the shelf" lenses exist - this however can mean that in some restrictive instances (such as In-Goal and In-Car environments) the physical size of the camera and lens are too large and therefore not suitable for the application.
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| Tags: iss118
| polecam
| toshiba IK-4K
| lenses
| toshiba
| Steffan Hewitt
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Heading towards brightness regulations
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I like IBC in the same way that I find NAB grating. Maybe I have been living in the UK for too long, but the bright morning Amsterdam sun breaking through clouds and reflecting off the canal while fit young things on bicycles pedal to college; snapchatting with their friends and avoiding collisions with practised ease has a certain charm. You just don't see that in the after-party morning-after haze of the Las Vegas Strip in the harsh desert sunlight. |
| Tags: iss118
| class
| mr mxf
| hdr
| Bruce Devlin
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IBC with the BBC
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IBC is an exciting opportunity for us in BBC R&D to share with the world the work we've been doing on a range of technologies.
Those attending the conference will be able see much of the work we are doing on new forms of content and workflows and get an understanding of the object based principles for broadcasting which we are working towards, enabled by Internet Protocol (IP). |
| Tags: iss117
| bbc
| ibc
| ip
| Jon Page
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The vital role of communications in live production
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Live event production is extremely challenging under the best of circumstances. Whether it be sports, concerts, theater or some other event, live production only gives you one chance to get it right. Staging, sound, lighting, cameras, video, special effects, costume, makeup and more, can all go into making a successful live production. Starting hours or days before the show, right up to the critical moments of the actual performance, communications play a critical role across all production disciplines in the execution of a successful live event. |
| Tags: iss117
| live production
| crewcom
| intercom
| pots
| Tom Turkington
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Dick puts it all together
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Many of you will be reading this as you prepare for IBC. Some may even be reading it on the train/plane/ship to Amsterdam. I want to take a couple of minutes of your time to look at a last minute addition to IBC. It concerns IP, but trust me: this is good news so please do not stop reading just yet. |
| Tags: iss117
| aims
| smpte
| ibc
| iabm
| dick hobbs
| Dick Hobbs.
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Documentary filmmaking - Protecting the past
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If you wanted my opinion on what I thought was the most rewarding media making pursuit, I'd have to single out documentary filmmaking. All media making can be very demanding, and each genre has its own particular issues that make it what it is, but almost nothing is certain about documentary which is why I find it so exciting. The idea could be inspirational, but the shoot might be flawed and not yield the required depth. Perhaps the idea and the shoot go brilliantly, but in the edit the real story gets lost. The latter suggestion contains the key ingredient - story. All media making is reliant on a good story, and knowing what makes a good story is something all teachers are keen to convey. |
| Tags: iss117
| mary rose
| portsmouth
| ccitv
| tvfutures
| Charlie Watts
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Wireless transformation contributes to IP future
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The consumer appetite for content is driving broadcast manufacturers to explore every opportunity to make physical devices smaller, faster and more efficient - right from the ability to squeeze the business end of an OB truck into a single flight case to HD transmitters that can be held in a child's hand. Only a few years ago none of this would have seemed possible. Today, it's all but a necessity. |
| Tags: iss117
| domo
| solo 8 sdr
| cofdm
| JP Delport
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Tips on how to reduce your exposure to business crime
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Business Crime is growing in popularity and is cunning, smart, and very convincing. It is being spurred on by the very technology that is supposed to help media and other businesses improve performance. One of the trending frauds is 'Social Engineering' where criminals can make use technology, and trickery to exploite our human nature. Here we outline 2 true stories from clients of Sutton Winson and provide some useful tips on managing your risks:
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| Tags: iss116
| business crime
| social media
| online crime
| Phil Bower
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Shooting the WRC Rally
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Mark bites the dust for his art and lives to tell the tale...
A look at my website will confirm I don't just shoot cars, I cover a wide range of genres. But I have shot in and around cars through my career. Early on I joined a facilities company specialising in the design and build of onboard camera systems for F1 and Motorcycle GP live TV coverage. |
| Tags: iss116
| wrc rally
| polecam
| toshiba ik-hd1h
| Mark Sallaway
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Are you female and going to IBC
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Trade shows within this industry can be hard enough to survive for anyone, let alone as a woman when women make up less than 10% of the general populace. There are undoubtedly some benefits to being the minority (as there are with many things); I've never had to queue for the toilets for a start. However, feedback we have collated from our FBI database on the female experience at trade shows suggests there is still some way to go for gender equality and having an equivalent presence as a woman on the show floor.
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| Tags: iss116
| females in broadcast
| fbi
| ibc show
| Sadie Groom
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Comparing Stage and Screen
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It can be a common misconception that all forms of acting are the same, if you are good at one then it must follow that you are good at another. This is not necessarily the case and is particularly true for the two disciplines of stage and screen acting.
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| Tags: iss116
| ittp
| stage and screen
| Jo Wickham
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Yonsei Church Preaches to the Masses
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Yonsei Central Baptist Church in Seoul is a thriving church community on a massive scale. Having outgrown several previous buildings, the church purchased a 9.8 acre plot of land in order to build a church big enough to house its congregation, which amounts to hundreds of thousands of members. The church building itself covers 427,000 square feet. The site also houses an Education Center, which is serving the community with Christian education, as well as 214,000 square foot of World Vision Center, with seven floors, a basement and parking for up to 300 vehicles.
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| Tags: iss116
| yonsei church
| streaming
| KitPlus
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The Future of LED Lighting
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From the moment the LED light entered the broadcast, media and entertainment world its key differentiator was its energy efficiency compared to traditional tungsten studio lighting. LEDs use far less energy in the region of 90% less than tungsten lights and produce less heat. In addition, they are far more portable and generally have a longer lifespan; all benefits that are all now well recognised. |
| Tags: iss116
| led lighting
| rotolight
| anova
| anova pro
| cinesfx
| Rod Aaron Gammons
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The FAQs on automated quality assurance
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The transition from tape-based to file-based video and audio recording allowed a completely new approach to the business of checking that programmes and interstitials conform to broad-cast industry standards prior to transmission. The Vidcheck team designed the world's first au-tomated broadcast quality control product. We have been working on file-based content analy-sis and repair since 2003 and are probably the most experienced and innovative team active in this area. Our flagship solution is Vidchecker. The following short article addresses some of the questions most commonly fielded by potential customers. |
| Tags: iss116
| vidcheck
| vidchecker
| test and measurement
| Thomas Dove
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The return of the Minimoog
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The iconic Minimoog is making a return and a return well worth the wait! As this was the world's first portable synthesizer and became the role model for all electronic keyboards, the Minimoog Model D was and now is a synthesiser force to be reckoned with. First released in the 1970's, it became popular worldwide and attracted attention for its fantastic sound of Moog's commonly known modular synthesizers.
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| Tags: iss116
| minimoog
| editors keys
| Beth Zarkosh
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The future of timing and timecode
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It is SMPTE's 100th anniversary! I hope that all readers have had a chance to view the Centennial Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN2yYrEFMFQ) and to contemplate that 100 years ago we were in the dawn of the cinema era, where different equipment used different frame rates, different sprocket sizes, different frame sizes and the concept of distributing and delivering content between different manufacturers was a real headache. |
| Tags: iss116
| timecode
| timing
| IP
| amwa
| Bruce Devlin
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Realising the ideal
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On 26 July 1916 there was a public meeting in New York. It was called by a group led by Charles Francis Jenkins (and more on him in a moment). But the guest speaker was Henry D Hubbard, at the time the secretary of the US National Bureau of Standards. This is some of what he said:
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| Tags: iss116
| smpte
| standards
| dick hobbs
| Dick Hobbs.
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Dance hall days are over for professional lighting
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Photon Beard has made lights since before the days of electric power.
"What's that, you say"?
Well, it's true. Photon Beard started in 1882 when the founder, R.R. Beard, invented the automatic gas regulator. Yes, the thing that allows you to barbeque that steak in summer sunshine, or any time of year that you fancy grilled food. In the days before R.R. Beard's invention, a lot of lighting was limelight, which was created when an oxyhydrogen flame was directed at a cylinder of quicklime (calcium oxide). The light was produced by a combination of incandescence and candoluminescence, which is basically a fancy way of saying "lime burns and gets brighter the hotter it gets."
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| Tags: iss116
| photon beard
| lighting
| led
| highlight led
| Peter Daffarn
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Seeing things with a 360 viewpoint
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One of the benefits of working in teaching support is you often get opportunities to explore and experiment with lots of new kit that has been purchased for teaching or research. I have spent the past couple of years supporting the activities that take place within the Creative and Cultural Industries TV Studios (CCI TV for short) at the University of Portsmouth, and I assist in all kinds of areas such as live video production, video editing and outside broadcasting. Aside from sharpening my own skills I also get to help others learn and develop as well. |
| Tags: iss115
| tvfutures
| portsmouth uni
| ccitv
| 360
| vr
| Michael Parsons
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The changing face of streaming
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I have been in the streaming business for more than 20 years and I've witnessed a number of major shifts in the industry. Currently we are experiencing such a shift as we see a massive increase in users viewing content but also a sea change in how it's being discovered and viewed. Over the last few years there has been a continual rise in the use of online video, with Cisco predicting 82% of all Internet traffic will be video by 2020 . By 2020 there will be nearly a million minutes of video content being delivered every second. The sheer volume of video makes it more important to understand how to ensure your content reaches its audience. |
| Tags: iss115
| streaming
| facebook
| api
| Jake Ward
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On the road with AMG
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Established in 1994, AMG Television Productions started out as a video production company filming small club rallies on a local basis. The first TV contract came in 1995 when they were commissioned to film the Safety Devices Hillrally for a program on Sky Sports. The following year they filmed the complete Hillrally championship along with several rally championships. |
| Tags: iss115
| rally
| outside broadcast
| edius
| Andy Glossop
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The true benefits of the media factory ideal
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As an industry we know that to be successful in the new multi-platform, multi-format environment there are hurdles that broadcasters and other content owners must overcome. These include: the introduction of non-linear offerings, which require different services to be managed in parallel; the reduction of revenues from conventional linear channels, which increases output while reducing costs; access to content across multiple platforms; and integration of news and production environments and the business systems that control them. So how can this be achieved? |
| Tags: iss115
| tedial
| uhd
| mam
| opl
| Julian Fernandez-Campon
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The new world of playout
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Consumers know what they expect from a television channel. They expect programmes, of course, but they also know they are going to get commercials, trailers, station idents, graphics, break bumpers, squeezebacks and hot starts, bugs and brand identities, and more. |
| Tags: iss115
| pixel power
| playout
| ip
| James Gilbert
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Freelance finance
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As a freelance cameraman working on varied productions, you need to be sure you always have the right kit for the job. Acquiring the latest equipment is a necessity, not a luxury; the difficulty is being certain you will be able to manage the cost. How can a freelancer be sure he can finance his equipment? |
| Tags: iss115
| freelance
| finance
| Peter Savage 2
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Do you have a MAM solution
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One of the top questions I get asked at trade shows is, "Do you have a MAM solution?"
Well, yes. Of course. It's what we do; but thank you for asking. What you should be asking is, "What differentiates your MAM solution from the rest of the MAM pack?" |
| Tags: iss115
| mam
| tmd
| mediaflex
| Paul Wilkins
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