KitPlus | Articles

More than just software - SaaS is a relationship

As cloud technology becomes mainstream in media, the highly customized applications deployed by early adopters are increasingly being retired in favor of off-the-shelf, multi-tenant SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions. Well-designed SaaS offers economic advantages in terms of much faster onboarding times, orders of magnitude lower TCO and the ab...

Submitted by Jon Finegold

Published 27 January 2020

Informed Disruption

The industry is currently going through an enormous amount of disruption, and while many are charging in to embrace the changes, others are wringing their hands with indecision. In 1990 during a time of disruption, Boxer was founded to help companies make sense of the changes and provide independent counsel that would steer its clients through the...

Submitted by Marc Risby

Published 07 June 2018

The 7 Steps to Saving Film

i We live in a world where - thanks to everything from smartphones to cheaper professional gear - more and more footage is being shot today than ever before. It\'s a little known fact, however, that as more movies are made, archived physical film works all over the world are in danger of being lost to the damage of time. The Library of Congress alo...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 07 September 2017

The future of post production

Love it or hate it, 2016 will certainly be a year to remember, for many reasons. In the world of post-production, we\'ve seen high dynamic range become incorporated into UK studio pipelines for the very first time. We watched Ang Lee demonstrate exactly what you can do by shooting at 120 frames per second in combination with stereo 3D. We\'ve even...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 15 February 2017

A Marathon Filming Review

Issue 113 - May 2016 A marathon filming review... 60+ interviews filmed, edited and promoted within 24 hour... A 26 mile marathon in anyone\'s world is a long way with cobbles, uneven surfaces, steps and thousands of people in your way. However I\'m not talking about the recent London Marathon but our ‘adventures\' at NAB 2016 in Las Vegas. If you...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 20 May 2016

Highly Experienced

by Dick Hobbs Issue 110 - February 2016 I was recently asked to write an article on quality of experience in video streaming. Obviously the first thing I did was ask Saint Google to find me recent research on the subject. It pulled up an absolute gem, a report published by Ofcom, the UK government's communications supremos. It was written by an out...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 16 March 2016

A wide spectrum of choice

by Andy Clements Issue 101 - May 2015 Without microphones, in-ear monitors (IEMs), intercom and distribution systems based on wireless technology, many of today\'s large-scale television studios, outside broadcast and film productions would be very difficult, if not impossible, to stage. Wireless solutions provide convenience and, in the main, grea...

Submitted by Andy Clements

Published 01 June 2015

What a difference a decade makes

by Dick Hobbs Issue 100 - April 2015 If you have got to the back of this magazine, you cannot fail to have noticed that it is issue number 100. I asked Simon Tillyer and Matt Robbins, the dynamic duo behind the publication, how it all started. "The website was initially just a project,\" Simon said, "and when Matt arrived in the summer of 2005 we c...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 May 2015

Managing Loudness for Broadcast TV

Often viewed as the “ugly sister” when compared to its more glamorous rival video, audio is finally receiving some much deserved attention in broadcast circles. The trigger for this realisation is an increasing shift in awareness that viewers are interested in not just the pictures they are seeing, but equally the sound they are hearing. In particu...

Submitted by Anothony Wilkins

Published 01 June 2013

Sony UWP series microphone review

It’s all well and good having a beautifully lit and well framed and focused shot, but if the sound is rubbish then you might as well throw the footage in the bin. Sound is as important as the quality of the video image. This is especially true when interviewing someone or recording a corporate presentation. Here the message is the key reason that t...

Submitted by Jon Pratchett

Published 01 June 2013

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

This column’s previous excursion into video post-production was just before the 2011 NAB Spring Convention, always a dangerous time to talk about new hardware or software when a deluge of upgrades, lookalikes and lite-editions are about to hit the aisles of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Quite a lot has happened in this category over the past 12...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2012

Fast 3D

It is easy to make the assumption that 3D should comply with existing standards, as in the 2D video streams of television or movie images running at 24, 25 or 30 frames per second, according to the relevant 2D standards. However, the recent step up to doubled frame rates, generally referred to as 50p or 60p for television and 48p (or higher) for mo...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2011

Post Production Ask The Experts

IntroductionIt’s a familiar scenario: A client calls with an urgent transfer request. It may be a movie sourced at 23.98PsF that needs conversion for broadcast, and the client needs an HD version at 1080 50i with Dolby E audio and an SD program at 625 50i with PCM audio, as well. Or perhaps the content was shot at 1080 59.94i, but the client needs...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2011

Eye to Eye: Video monitoring and displays

Given a decent stereo audio source and a pair of headphones, it is quite easy to imagine that you are actually attending a live performance. Not so with video; human eyes are much more demanding. Fortunately picture display technology is developing very quickly and along many different routes. OLEDsLED-backlit LCDs were about the best screens avail...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2010

Eye to Eye New post-production kit at IBC 2009

This alphabetical overview of new video and film post-production kit at IBC 2009 was going to start with Apple but the company pulled out of both NAB and IBC in 2008. I begin instead with Avid which has certified its Media Composer, NewsCutter, Symphony and DS software to run on the new HP Z series Workstations – the HP Z800 and HP Z400. Avid custo...

Submitted by Dennis Lennie

Published 01 October 2009