KitPlus | Articles

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

Video post-production has long been one of the fastest developing subsets of the broadcast business. It was among the first to lead the shift from hardware into software, bringing huge advantages in terms of affordability and ease of use. I can still remember the high cost, heavy weight and low quality of the early analogue tape to tape video editi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

Matrox MC-100 Reviewed

I have always liked multitools, leatherman, Gerber, Swiss Army. Amazing little all in one tools that can get you out a hole when you need. It’s the same when out setting up a Live webcast, a multi camera event or simply assisting another crew, I always like to have a few useful boxes of tricks with me just in case. This is where the new Matrox MC-1...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 May 2012

3D Diaries Cameras: more for less

http://www.tv-bay.com/imag/issue062/files/44.htmlCameras: more for less?There is plenty of guidance available about how to shoot ‘good’ stereo 3D and the principles are quite easy to understand. Achieving good results takes good equipment and, maybe, the assistance of a stereographer and even a convergence puller... unless you are using one of thos...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

Convergence Grading for Stereoscopic 3D Broadcast with Da...

After soldiering through a long run of freelance work in Soho, I had a couple of days off. I thought, “It’ll be nice to relax a little bit,” which is when I got the call. “We have this project with quite a tight turnaround, a couple of days to deliver 75 minutes worth of 3D.” I told them to hold on — this would be my first 3D job. They replied, “It...

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

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

Monitoring, managing and processing SDI signals efficient...

With the proliferation of HD, Dual Link and 3G technologies, SDI signal management is now, more than ever, a challenge for broadcast engineers and A/V professionals. They would often like to use affordable HDMI displays for monitoring. They need to distribute signals throughout their facility, which often means video feeds must be amplified to acco...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 December 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

Ask the experts - Monitoring

What are the latest innovations in monitoring?For both film and broadcast work, in addition to the fact that the picture must be true, without motion artifacts or aliasing, for a lot of applications you can also add that the picture must be processed in real time - less than one frame or one picture in progressive mode – so the main innovations are...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

3D camera mirror rigs

3D camera mirror rigs will be around for a long time to come and contrary to popular belief, shooting in 3D is very easy with the right equipment. Entry level 3D mirror rigs made in the UK are now available, such as the manual Hurricane Rig developed by Alistair Chapman and the fully automated 'BINORIG' developed by us at Teletest Ltd. The key to a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2011

Anaglyph, old hat but still useful

There are now many technologies for viewing 3D on television or the cinema. The oldest, dating from the 1850’s, is the anaglyph glasses. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the ‘red’ and ‘green’ style of old, though those particular single colours are hardly used these days. The basis of an anaglyph is to separate left and right image components for...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2011

Lighting up Yorkshire

The Yorkshire town of Rawmarsh looks like an easy target. Its trolley buses have come and gone and its two train stations were both wrapped up more than 40 years ago. For many years, it was the home of potters and steel workers; it was a mining town from the 15th century, an industry that survived over 500 years until it was closed by a certain rut...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 January 2011

Eye to Eye: Whats even newer in test and measurement 2010

A year is a long time in broadcast test & measurement, which is just as well because that is when this column previously focused on it. Given the current push to establish 3D as a permanent feature of the broadcast landscape, one might reasonably expect T&M kit designers to be heading along the same road. Hamlet and Omnitek certainly are but it see...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2010

Stereoscopic production and transmission

If ever there was a technology that has taken it’s time to mature, it is that of stereoscopic (3D) production and transmission. It is well documented that the mechanics behind the technology has been around almost since the inception of the moving picture itself and in fact stereoscopic stills technology was developed in the 1840’s. Until now, the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2010