KitPlus | Articles

IBC 2019 A Whistle Stop Rundown

I’ve been to IBC once before, taking to the floor with Simon, Matt, Jon and the rest of the KitPlus team to assist with the filming of interviews. This was a lot of fun, but it was hard to find the time to look at the kit I wanted to see. This year with the demise of BVE and unable to make it to the Media Production Show I decided to fork out for a...

Submitted by Ben Sherriff

Published 03 November 2019

Keeping the Show on the Road

There is long-established saying in the media business that, if something goes wrong, at least nobody dies. It is almost true unless you happen to be a TV producer suffering a cardiac arrest because your primary video feed has gone blank during a high-budget programme. First-line maintenance is usually in the hands of the user. If a device malfunct...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 10 September 2019

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

BSC Expo 2019 Report

BSC Expo returned to the Battersea Evolution on Friday February 1st and Saturday 2nd. It is a busy and friendly event though this year in need of some temperature control: exhibitors around the entrance area were uncomfortably aware of the wintry conditions outside and the main hall was in need of cooling. BenQ showed examples from its range of mon...

Submitted by Paul MacKenzie

Published 21 March 2019

Sennheiser Memory Mic User Review

The Sennheiser Memory mic, adding to the new generation of semi-professional equipment that is helping the need for high quality audio in parallel markets that until now, did not have the budgets to achieve ‘great’ results. As part of training to be a General Practitioner, trainee doctors have to be observed interacting with patients. This is essen...

Submitted by Dr Anthony Willman

Published 21 March 2019

Your two week editing future

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. As someone who gets hired to...

Submitted by Alex Macleod

Published 25 January 2019

Future proofing post production storage

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, dynam...

Submitted by Josh Goldenhar

Published 25 January 2019

State of the Nation - January 2019

I’m writing these thoughts on the morning of 20 December. From my desk in Tunbridge Wells I am normally gently aware of air traffic at five thousand feet, lining up to land at Gatwick Airport. Today it is silent: since 9.00 last night some idiot has been flying drones across the runway. An airport is a finely tuned machine, with all the interconnec...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 24 January 2019

Sony PWS-4500 Live Production Server Reviewed

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...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 24 January 2019

Sony HDC-4800 Review

First announced at NAB 2016, the Sony HDC-4800 is a studio camera system capable of shooting 4K/UHD at up to 8x or full HD at up to 16x. With a price point upwards of £250,000 it is a very high-end product with a wide feature set. In Sony's own words, "This is the future of live production, designed to satisfy the storytelling aspect of modern spor...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 09 November 2018

How todays technology platforms can make AMAZING seem mun...

Some things never change. It's September and it's time for another IBC. Maybe I'm getting old and maybe I have selective memory about the past, but recently there hasn't been the buzz of years gone by. Sure, as you wander around the vast halls there will be lots of enthusiastic sales people trying to give you the best demo possible, but something h...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 08 September 2018

Panasonic EVA1 and Atomos Shogun Inferno ProRes Raw Revie...

Filmmakers all over the world are embracing an affordable new route to higher-than-4K video recording. It’s just a few weeks since Atomos enabled support for 5.7K Apple ProRes RAW recording from the Panasonic EVA1 with the Shogun Inferno monitor/recorder, but filmmaker David Fernandes and DP Gregory Bennett have already become the first to use 5.7K...

Submitted by David Fernandes

Published 18 July 2018

Playing with Pink Floyd

For the founder of London-based Hangman, James Tonkin, this has indeed been a summer to remember. After sixteen years of working in the same suites, he designed and moved his team into a new future proofed facility in Kew Gardens created specifically for the manipulation and delivery of formats in up to 8K HDR. Soon afterward, he was approached by...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 12 February 2018

A Bluffers Guide to Batteries

The Christmas decorations are down; the family have all headed home – and the New Year’s festivities have drawn to a close. I put my hand up to it – I’m a little drained. As such, I figured I’d start the new year with a Bluffer’s Guide to Batteries. With the cold weather setting in, it can be a nightmare to pick the right disposable batteries for s...

Submitted by Mike Colyer

Published 12 February 2018

Class: Do we still need standards

On the 1st January 2018, I officially took on the post of SMPTE Standards Vice President. The role has responsibility for all of SMPTE’s standardisation activities and it fills me with equal measures of excitement and terror. A big thank you to Alan Lambshead who, after 4 years as Standards Vice President is handing over the post to me. I think it...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin - new

Published 12 February 2018