For all of last year’s talk about distributing 4K television to home viewers, there has been little real progress on making it a reality. The only place 4K technology is being used regularly is in some sports production and in the making of premium television programming.
Video and audio crews operate in all climates; from hot to humid to freezing to desert dry. While the crews go about their production work, many never consider how these conditions may affect their recording media.
Optical storage is popular on many fronts, especially for archival purposes. Even so, sales of the popular storage media are falling as other technologies, including spinning disks and the cloud, become more common.
_460_920_70.jpg "ATSC 3.0 preliminary list of standards. Image courtesy ATSC.")
The current digital terrestrial broadcast system, now referred to as ATSC 1.0, has been around for more than 20 years. Although it has seen widespread use and success, technologies and viewer expectations have changed dramatically since the standard was created.
The differences in archive and backup technologies are significant. Be sure you know which solution you really need.
Across the board, virtually every piece of equipment in modern video production field packages has become smaller, lighter and more power efficient. With this trend has come an increased reliance on standard AA and nine-volt batteries to run devices like audio mixers, wireless microphones and LED light fixtures.
Do you realize that mysterious computer RAID freezes, crashed applications and dog-slow or aborted offloads can be caused by bad cables? Apple’s Thunderbolt technology is good, but when it comes to the connectors, beware.
_460_345_70.jpg "Egripment supports a commercial shoot at an English Castle.")
Nearly 40 years ago, camera operators needed a safe way to obtain high-camera-angle shots. At the time, the only solution was a quality camera crane available through a single rental house, and that one was not for sale. Egripment took on the challenge and developed the now well-known Tulip Crane, which received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement. More innovative products followed.
