Elon Musk’s 2018 Tesla roadster was recently launched on an interplanetary space trip, complete with a multi-camera, ride-along, streaming-live-from-space view on YouTube. Some say it’s the longest and most expensive automobile commercial ever made. Others see it as a bizarre marketing gimmick. Either way, it put the Tesla name and brand back in the public spotlight.
Because of the the holiday season, a lot of young people now have new video gear and may be anxious to try out their video production skills. The good news is today’s technology can provide great images at a lower cost than ever. An important, less technical, skill is for the director to bring organizational skill to the shoot.
As long as there have been cameras, there have been tripods. In it’s basic form, a tripod is camera support. But, as cameras have gotten tinier in size over the past few years, tripods have morphed into new devices that would have not been recognized only a decade ago.
360-degree video is hot. Global 360-degree camera sales are expected to grow at an impressive CAGR of more than 35% through 2020. When will 360-degree news production begin? It’s happening now say some experts.
The new Apple iPhone X is an excellent video camera for news and documentary interviews. But creating a very lightweight package around it can be challenging. I took the challenge and here are the results.
On 25 May 2018, a new EU General Data Protection Regulation comes into force and will apply across all EU member states. Pending the outcome of Brexit this also includes the UK. There are potentially serious implications for drone filmmakers and in an increasingly litigious society it is probably only a matter of time before an operator is taken to court under the new rules. When infringements can be subject to fines of up to EUR 20 million or in the case of in the case of a business, up to 2% or 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is the higher – then it’s worth paying attention to what the rules do and do not permit.
A quick look at the lens to display pipeline highlights some trivial-seeming bottlenecks that place important constraints on motion imaging systems. One of these is the connection to the consumer display. The announcement of HDMI 2.1 is key to advancing to 4K and beyond, with additional support for HDR, and increased frame rates for UHD video.
4K imagery has become the quality standard for many broadcast applications. A key requirement is that the transmission links be of sufficient bandwidth. Links using H.264 can be overwhelmed by the much higher bandwidth requirements of 4K video. HEVC is often the better solution. How does it work and what are some benefits?