The State of the Art in Fiber October 26^th 2018 - 08:00 AM

Fiber has been around the broadcast and media industry for a long while: SMPTE 311M, which defines fiber camera cables, was published 20 years ago in 1998. Engineering attitudes have tended to settle around the fundamental pros – high bandwidth, low attenuation so long cables – and cons – difficult to splice connectors and fiber may r…

Entertainment Enablement - Part II October 23^rd 2018 - 12:30 PM

The Entertainment Enablement session at SMPTE 2018 presented a wide spectrum of technologies that could enhance time spent in the driverless cars of the future.

Why RAW? What’s the Deal? October 18^th 2018 - 04:00 PM

The announcement by Blackmagic of their new RAW camera file format reminds us that there is choice to record RAW versus regular video with digital cinematography cameras. What is RAW, what are the pros and cons, and why should cinematographers capture RAW files rather than conventional video? At a first…

Viewpoint: Navigating the Challenge of UHD Delivery October 17^th 2018 - 01:00 PM

The industry has long considered Ultra High Definition (UHD) with High Dynamic Range (HDR) to be the ‘wow factor’ behind the next-generation TV viewing experience. Unfortunately, there are too many different HDR formats being touted, causing industry confusion about how to proceed, which in turn has delayed deployments.

Ultra HD Forum declares High Dynamic Range ready for prime time September 28^th 2018 - 08:00 AM

The Ultra HD Forum has declared HDR (High Dynamic Range) ready for full commercial deployment after successful trials at recent marquee sporting events including the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the earlier French Open tennis championships at Roland Garros, Paris. This also marks a milestone for the Forum in establishing its…

IP - A Golden Opportunity ? September 25^th 2018 - 10:00 AM

Broadcast television has witnessed many advances in technology since the first electronic images were transmitted in the 1930’s, and none have been as influential or disruptive as IP. But are we now at the dawn of the perfect win-win outcome? Can manufacturers, entrepreneurs, and broadcasters all equally gain from IP m…

Timing - Tails of Truth September 11^th 2018 - 01:50 PM

Recognising the extremities of the bell curve distribution and the impact large jitter variances have on picture and sound stability is critical. Only when this is understood, do we hope to be able to build reliable, flexible, IP infrastructures that will meet the demands of real-time broadcast facilities.

Reality of IP - Part 1 - Real Time August 30^th 2018 - 03:00 PM

Live broadcast television was once considered to be unique as every bit of data had to be delivered to the viewers television set in real-time. However, as IT continues to leverage its influence on television, we discover the uniqueness of broadcasting isn’t as exclusive as we may have once t…

Broadcast For IT - Part 19 - Why Use IP? August 21^st 2018 - 01:50 PM

Moving from the luxury of dedicated point-to-point connectivity in favor of asynchronous, shared, and unpredictable IP networks may seem like we’re making life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves. However, there are compelling reasons to make the transition to IP. In this article, we look at the primary motivation for moving t…

Broadcast For IT - Part 12 - Lenses June 25^th 2018 - 12:05 PM

In this series of articles, we will explain broadcasting for IT engineers. Television is an illusion, there are no moving pictures and todays broadcast formats are heavily dependent on decisions engineers made in the 1930’s and 1940’s, and in this article, we look at camera lenses, why, and how we use…