KitPlus | Articles

The Importance of Audio Production Systems

Large-scale entertainment programming presents a unique set of challenges for broadcasters. Often extremely high-profile keystones of a broadcaster’s schedule and increasingly billed as live ‘event television’, as well as delivering the very best audio quality they demand a huge degree of flexibility and agility in terms of their production. With m...

Submitted by Tom Knowles

Published 26 March 2020

Review: JVC GY-HC900 Camera

JVC has a long history of developing relatively low price-point equipment, dating right back to its success in the 1970s with the VHS tape format. JVC products sometimes impact the broadcast mainstream but generally find greatest success in niche market segments such as news production where price and portability take priority over the no-comprise...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 16 July 2019

Out of the box: Sennheiser Ambeo VR microphone

The use of 360 video, especially on platforms like Facebook and YouTube is really starting to take off. Gone are the days when you needed to buy multiple GoPros and rigs in order to get something decent looking. Now players like Insta360 and even GoPro with their fusion 360 camera are providing single camera, high quality solutions, enabling the ma...

Submitted by Jon Pratchett

Published 26 March 2018

Panasonic GH5: Tried and Tested

My journey as a filmmaker began with a select number of enthusiastic BBC reporters picked out and trained in the concept of Personal Digital Production by the American Video Journalist Michael Rosenblum. Back in the early naughties he was pioneering the concept of one person journalist shoot editors. A complete news reporting package with small per...

Submitted by Tim Bearder

Published 12 February 2018

Steadicam M-1 Volt: Tried and Tested

Early in November some of us lucky Steadicam Operators from around the UK were invited to try out the new Tiffen M1 Volt, which is essentially an electronic motorized horizon assist unit attached to the gimbal of the latest Steadicam M1. Is it a good idea? As experienced Steadicam Operators, directors or producers, why would we be interested? Let’s...

Submitted by John E Fry

Published 12 February 2018

Scopes, a creative trilogy

The purpose of color correction is to fix any problems with exposure and color, ensuring the final image looks right. Color grading is used to set the mood by adjusting the colors of the video imagery to achieve a certain look or feel. At the core of color correction is tonal range: the range of brightness from dark (black) to light (white). When t...

Submitted by Paul Issacs

Published 07 December 2016

5 Things I Saw At NAB

by Peter Savage Issue 113 - May 2016 ARRI Trinity stabilisationIt may look like something that was dreamt up for a sci-fi film but the Trinity stabilisation system is a truly remarkable bit of kit that is most certainly real. Available as an upgrade to the Artemis or a third-party camera stabiliser, it consists of a compact and lightweight two-axis...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 13 May 2016

Microphone Placement

by Beth Zarkhosh Issue 107 - November 2015 Recording vocals on your microphone sounds like an easy job, but making sure you use the correct techniques and appropriate placement is essential. Today well take a look at some of the industry standard techniques as well as some more weird wonderful recording solutions along the way. Its important to kno...

Submitted by Beth Zarkhosh

Published 01 December 2015

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

Capture and Produce

Issue 94 - October 2014One of the hot topics at this year’s IBC was undoubtedly the growing adoption of end-to-end IP production and the imminent death of SDI. During a panel session, hosted by Mediasmiths and Cognizant, and including representatives from BBC, Sony and more, the key point made was that the adoption of IP production technology and w...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2014

Every Thing You Every Needed to Know About Flying a Drone

by Jon Pratchett Issue 94 - October 2014 Last month we went over some of the legal issues with flying unmanned aircraft in the UK, especially if you attach a video camera to them and charge for your services as an aerial videographer. This month, let\'s look at what you need to get started kit wise in this business. First of all, I would like to po...

Submitted by Jon Pratchett

Published 01 November 2014

Everything you need to know about Anamorphic Lenses

by Les Zellan Issue 94 - October 2014 Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, film studios and theatre owners panicked. Television was the emerging new technology and as it expanded in popularity they feared audiences would shun the theatre to stay home and watch TV instead. What could they do to beat that? They needed a competitive edge to draw au...

Submitted by Les Zellan

Published 01 November 2014

Black magic studio camera

by Mark Stopher Issue 92 - August 2014 Blackmagic Design recently released their new Studio Camera - it’s a small, portable broadcast camera, intended for live studio productions. There’s an HD version that you can pick up for £1,289 and a 4K version is said to be shipping soon. At tv-bay we were shooting some product demonstration videos in our st...

Submitted by Mark Stopher

Published 01 September 2014

Mildred: The next generation of OB vans

by Kate Phibbs Issue 87 - March 2014 As live streaming occupies an ever-increasing piece of the broadcast industry pie, todays leaders of the online broadcasting industry are paving the way by investing in original and status quo challenging research and development. The team of engineers at industry leader, 3xScreen Media, kept these principles of...

Submitted by Kate Phibbs

Published 01 April 2014

23 Countries, 93 Load-ins, 106 shows

by Rob Wick Issue 87 - March 2014 Woo what happened there then? Sixteen months of my life gone in a pole swinging, rain drenched, popstar grabbing haze. The Polecam held its own though. I was touring with the band Muse, using the slip-ring narrow head with the Camera Corps HD Camera on the end. I also purchased a rain bag for the back end and the w...

Submitted by Rob Wick

Published 01 April 2014