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Broadcast Nuggets

Dolby E Decoders in Cortex

by Jay Versluis on October 22, 2011

in Broadcast Nuggets

So we’ve got these Dolby E Decoders and Encoders at IMG MCR.

We need to use them more and more for various client requests – but for the last year or so Richard Bagnall was the only human in Chiswick who understood how to make them do something useful. We all had a look at them and most of us are still clueless as to how they work.

In many attempts he was kind enough to explain to me what we as operators need to do in order to utilise them, and I’m exicted to say that last week something made CLICK in my brain when I understood the magic behind them: they’re not complicated as such – they’re just incredibly badly labelled ni the Cortex system!

Let me pass on this essential knowledge in this guide and assure you this: if you know how to work an Axon Shuffler, you sure can operate one of these Dolby Cards!

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To complete my migration from PC to Mac I’ve downloaded the trial version of the latest Premiere Pro CS 5.5 yesterday. I bought CS 3 a few years ago and haven’t regretted it, but at work we have CS 4 and now CS 5 and I can see the feature improvements and benefits to our workflow.

As last time, this is a rather large expense for me (£285 for the upgrade, which is still better than £810 for the full version) – however Premiere is a fascinating powerful programme and I know how helpful it is.

My old version has made its money back many times over so I’m sure this version won’t disappoint me either. In fact, I’m quite excited about the new options in version 5.5 and the idea of having it on my laptop.

Here are my hands-on notes, my first impressions and my two cents about Adobe’s rival to Final Cut Pro.

For the geeks: I’m using Premiere on a MacBook Pro with 8GB of Ram, 64 bit OS (Lion) and an Intel Dual Core i7 processor at 2.7 GHz.

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Nintendo 3DS: no glasses required. It’s like Futureworld, Dude!

April 6, 2011

Well before the European launch of the Nintendo 3DS and many announcements I kept thinking: what will the impact of this device be on the broadcast industry? 3D television is spreading like wildfire and appears to be the next “in-thing” – if it wasn’t for overpriced TV sets that require you to wear sunglasses. This [...]

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Adtec RD-60: The Future of Satellite Transmissions

January 21, 2011

Since we started to explore the possibility of satelite transmissions in 32APSK last year, Adtec have been busy working on a new box that could potentially revolutionise the way we think about satellite receivers. Imagine we could have 30% better pictures and 4x the amount of discreet audio channels than we currently have, but at [...]

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What’s the difference between HDCAM and HDCAM SR?

February 5, 2010

Let’s take a look under the hood of two broadcast VT formats: both are called HDCAM, both do some form of HD, but apart from the operational differences, the funky coloured flap and two extra letters, what is the real difference between them? Let’s find out. HDCAM (non-SR) HDCAM was introduced by Sony ages ago [...]

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Making Television History in 32APSK with NFL Football

February 2, 2010

We made some television history the other night: in a test for the NFL International Distribution, Adrian from TV2Go and us folks at IMG Mediahouse have successfully brought a 32APSK encoded signal across the Atlantic, with a datarate of 30Mbps using a 9MHz carrier! Since the start of the current NFL season in 2009, part [...]

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Behind the Scenes of Inter vs Milan for ESPN

January 26, 2010

Sometimes a feed comes in, gets an English voiceover and is put straight to air on ESPN UK. But on Sunday, we pulled various aces from our sleeves to bring the Serie A “Milan Derby” to an expecting UK audience. The feed comes in from Eutelsat W3 in HD, the studio for pre match presentation [...]

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YouTube has invited me to make some cash… but it’s a gamble!

December 18, 2009

Here’s a funny one… I made this video on Xbox drive noise over a year ago. It has now had 55.000 views and 129 ratings on YouTube. Out of a sudden YouTube are inviting me to cash in on it. It means that they’re eager to display adverts in the video and on the page. [...]

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