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Articles by Bob Pank#

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

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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

Expanding Arqiva into HD playout

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ATG Broadcast recently completed a major SD to HD upgrade for Arqiva broadcast transmission centre at Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. The expanded system enables Arqiva to process and transmit four fully-operational 1080i HD channels as well as six new SD channels. It includes the installation and equipping of a server-based ingest suite, playout...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

Heavy duty LCD Transportation

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Over the last few years we have seen the release of hundreds of new plasma LCDs LEDs and now 3D LED with new models from new manufactures being released with what seems like every day. The huge growth in the sector has driven down the cost of production allowing companies to be very creative in how and which way to use the screens. For example we n...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

IDX E-HL9 Battery review

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Author: Jon BoastManufacturer: IDXModel: E-HL9 BatteryShort Description: 88Wh Li-ion V-Mount High Load Battery with PowerLink & Digi-View. Why was it needed and what did it replace: I'd had my IDX E-10 batteries for a long time and so I needed to re-invest in new batteries to power my cameras, monitor and glidecam. What other systems did you consid...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

Panasonic Previews Field of Hope

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The latest documentary film from award winning photojournalist Fiona Lloyd-Davies, shot with the Panasonic AG-AF101, is being previewed at Panasonic Experience Centre, Pinewood Studios today August 10th 2011. 'Field of Hope' will be aired on Al-Jazeera English Channel in a programme called ‘Witness’ from 30th August until 6th September 2011. In the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

Making It Easy To Be In Two Places At Once

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In these economically straitened times, all broadcast facilities are seeking ways to reduce cost without compromising quality. Equally, those equipment manufacturers that want to stay ahead of the game are responding by looking at how customers work and then seeing if there is a way to deliver the same results more simply and cost effectively. One...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

Hearing is believing - but Testing Helps

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We live in the age of measurement and all too often the results are prejudiced by the methods employed and the ease of digitally processing data. As Per Bruel, the founder of B&K, arguably the foremost measurement company in audio history put so succinctly,‘The development of standards is not always based on true science but more often a consensus...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

4K at NAB

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by Bob Pank Issue 89 - May 2014 The long term NAB veterans will be well aware of just how quickly new technologies can come and go in the television industry. For instance, only a couple of years ago, 3D was still the hot topic, now it has gone quiet, but not altogether gone away. So it is good to report that 4K had another very good NAB, probably...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 June 2014

Get the 8k WOW factor at NAB

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by Bob Pank Issue 88 - April 2014 Once again 4K will be a prominent feature at NAB. There will be a 4K Zone in the North Hall but surely the format is now so popular that its many supporters will make it 4K everywhere and not confined to a dedicated zone. But 4K is only a part of UHD, the other being 8K, which has far more wow factor (why else go t...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2014

Bob Pank looks at the size of 4k

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by Bob Pank Issue 86 - February 2014 The television industry has had many new technological eras in recent years. Only two years ago we were still a 3D era; the latest of the many that have surfaced and sunk over the years of cinema, making it recurring fad. Now 4K / UHD is firmly grabbing the attention of equipment manufacturers as well as product...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2014

A new 4k year with Bob Pank

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by Bob Pank Issue 85 - January 2014 Throughout 2013 manufacturers were popping up with solutions for 4K which together could take the format all the way from scene to screen. It has been an amazing experience to watch all the technical bricks being developed to complete, well almost, the 4K wall. This rate of progress shows just how fast digital te...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 February 2014

Bob is up in the air with 4K

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by Bob Pank Issue 84 - December 2013 The closer you look at 4K UHD the more you see what needs to be done to make it work from scene to screen. Until that pipe is complete no practical service can flow to the consumer. The parts that are working and available now are the cameras, recorders and post production. Beyond those there are a few satellite...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2014

Bob Pank looks at shooting 4K TV

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by Bob PankIssue 82 - October 2013 Not unexpectedly IBC was full of buzz and products for 4K the new image format for television. This is generally taken to be a 2x2 version of HDTVs 1920 x 1080, i.e. defining a 3840 x 2160 pixel picture. But there is nothing new about big pictures like this. Back in late 2004 a draft of the Digital Cinema Initiati...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2013

Evolutions in the media cloud with Bob Pank

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by Bob PankIssue 80 - August 2013 Years ago my boss, the sales director, warned me that talk of technical revolutions was not good. After all, a revolution ends up where it started. On the other hand evolutions were much better. Of course he was right. Over the years the technology of television has continuously evolved via numerous incremental imp...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2013

4K is bigger than size alone

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by Bob PankIssue 79 - July 2013 It seems that numbers are a great eye-catcher and 4K was everywhere at NAB, and will be at IBC too. Here, of course, we are talking about a TV system with four times the number of pixels of HD, namely a picture area of 3840x2160 for TV, or for cinema 4096x2160. At the recent BeyondHD conference in London discussion a...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2013