This Fly Away was created using any available kit that we found on Level 9, then using the time in our 208 and 204 lectures to design and build the system with the help of James Uren and the rest of the BET Pathway. After an initial brain storm and specification  we came up with a simple system that consisted of:

• 7 SD Cameras
• 1 VT Deck
• 1 16 Channel Vision Mixer
• 1 16×1 Router
• CTP and Jack Field
• 3 Digital DA’s – 1 Analogue DA in the Fly Away
• 8 Digital DA’s – 4 Digital to Analogue Converters in the Monitor Stack
• 10 Monitors
• 1 Large Engineering Monitor
• 1 Test Pattern Genorator
• 2 Wave Form Monitors

The initial brainstorm and scribbled drawing was then drawn up, neatly, onto a large A1 sheet of paper, along with a Cable Schedule and CTP / Jack Field layouts. This large Drawing was then attached to the side of the rack and used as a reference throughout the rest of the project.

After the project was completed on Tuesday (22/11/2011) we were required as part of our Hardware Systems unit (204) to draw up a full CAD in AutoCad based on the same layers and components that were used to create the CAD’s for the main system in Ravensbourne. This exercise was designed to teach us how to use CAD to create Technical Drawings as well as be confident in reading and updating existing drawings. A screen shot of mine can be found on the right, with a PDF copy of the final cad available for download below.

The technical drawing we had to create was in fact two drawings of two separate systems which interacted closely with each other. The first was the main Fly Away, which was a single rack with all the processing and routing required, and the second was of the Monitor Stack which was required to make the Rack work. This is a major problem with the system as it require one part to work to make the rest work, whilst also doubling the amount of video connections in and out of the rack. However these problems were only noticed after the initial and were not a problem in this project as the monitor stack and rack were being built side-by-side at the same time.

Having so many connection to and from the rack also opened up another problem, which could simply be caused by confusion during the connection of the rack to the video sources and the monitor stack. This confusion could lead to video being sent the wrong way into the system, which could cause damage to equipment, or for example a Camera could be fed into one of the ENG inputs, thus it would appear to work fine on the router but it would have completely bypassed the monitor stack and more importantly the Vision Mixer.

Above I talked about just a few of the problems with last weeks Fly Away, in time I may look into re-drawing the Technical Drawing to alleviate some of the faults mentioned, and when I have re-drawn a new version of the system I will post a comparison between the two.

Download an A1 PDF of my Technical Drawing Here.
Download a PDF copy of my Cable Schedule Here.

So to start with today I started with the obvious:

• The SDP file in a RTSP stream – Testsed using VLC and Quicktime prior to JW Player, to test it was still streaming.
• JW Player (Flash and HTML5)
• Some patience

As you can see the RTSP protocol is only supported by Android Devices, as well as many Software Based Media Players such as Quicktime, VLC and Windows Media Player. I haven’t tested iOS 5 with RTSP yet, it could possibly work, as iOS uses a stripped down version of Quicktime and Safari.

This leaves me with two options:

• 1 x Cisco DME 1000 (Stream Encoding)
• 1 x Sound Desk (Tone Generation)
• 1 x Composite Signal Generator
• 1 x Picture Monitor (Live View)
• 2 x MacBook Pro Laptops (Stream ReEncoding and Viewing)

Now the website is designed, built and is stable, I will hand over the content management to the other two members of the interactive team for this event, This frees myself to carry on looking into IP streaming and how to make it possible with the kit currently available at Ravensbourne.

Today we found out we will actually be working towards two events, one test event in November 2011 and the other main event in June 2012. We also decided on our roles for the events, I 1/2 decided and was 1/2 allocated the Head of Interactive Media, which mainly entails creating IP Steams, Social Media and other cool interactive items.

IP Streams

My first big challenge is going to be getting my head around IP Streams and hows they integrate with HTML and the rest of the Broadcast Transmission Chain.

Today I started playing around with Quicktime Broadcaster for Mac OS X and my inbuilt iSight Webcam as the live video source. Thing started off smoothly, until my mac crashed. I did manage to get a low quality stream to Quicktime to my Windows PC but this was very limited in performance Maxing out at 15frames per second and for only short bursts (10-15 Seconds before crashing the Mac), which made it pretty useless.

Initial Todo List for the November Event

• Look into other Encoders and Streaming Servers
• Look into what is already available at Rave to Stream
• Look into how to link into the Rave Transmission Chain
• Create a Dynamic Website with Customised Content, by the Exhibitors
• Link Social Media into the Website
• Combine the Stream and the Website
• Possibly add mobile compatible Website/Stream. 

Stickaid2011

This weekend has been a very long yet fun weekend working on Stickaid 2011 with SilverLine Media, at Ravensbourne University, North Greenwich. Stickaid is a 24 hour broadcast streamed live onto Stickam.com and Youtube.com and this year it came from Ravensbourne, with the help of SilverLine providing the stream and many Ravensbourne students filling rolls from Camera Operators to Sound Supervisors to Editing and many more. The students that helped out over the weekend came from all year groups with some only 3 day’s into there courses.

Scott and Russell from Fluxity were originally brought in on Thursday and Friday to rig the events lighting and power. This job turned out to be over complicated due to some poor planning and communication from all parties involved. The rig should have taken only 8-10hours to complete but had to be completely re-worked to overcome the lack of correct power and distribution.

At 5pm on Friday afternoon Tom also joined the frustrated rigging team to assist in finalising some decisions and to get the rig moving again. The rig was finally completed at approximately 11.45pm on the Friday, with only a quick focus and program to be completed in the two hours before the 12Midday Broadcast start. Programming was completed during the first couple of hours of broadcast by Charlie Fox and Scott.

Fluxity Lighting was kept on call during the event for power and other related problems, and we are very pleased to report that we didn’t receive a single call, and the system was stable and survived the full 24hours.

Scott, Tom and Russell turned up at about 11am on Sunday for the De-rig that was due to begin at about 12.15pm. Between the three of us we had all of the lighting power and staging out of the rig and Ravensbourne back to how it was, in just under 6 hours, in a very relaxed yet steady de-rig.

All in all a long weekend in which we helped raise over £17000 for Unicef. It’s not too late to Donate still, just click on the logo above.

Here’s what Elliot from SilverLine Media had to say about working with Fluxity, over this last weekend:

Scott, Russell and in the end Tom, helped us Thursday, Friday and when I honestly thought that we weren’t going to have the lights going or anything, 2 hrs before TX they made it all happen.  Thank you so much guys, especially for dealing so well with my screw ups and then the de-rig on Sunday!

Sorry for the lack of update recently, just been so busy with loads of mini uni projects, including London Live and GCSE exams back at my old school and catching up on uni coursework and lectures.

The missed lectures and course were caused by Martins absence and other missed lectures due to the snow. To catch these up missing lectures we have been pulling extra sessions on day’s we normally have free, and where i would normally update my blog.

This weekend I have been working again with Ben Blake and Sarah Louise Ings on her latest Music Video. This weekend has been a strange one, and once again i wasn’t given any information about the director and the musicians vision until the day. This then again put me on the spot to come up with an adaptable lighting design thats sticks with the vision and looks good on camera.

I’m happy with the end result and am now waiting for them to edit the video and when its released I will post a few clips on here.

Over the past couple of day’s I have been playing around with Xcode and Quartz Composer, both of which are very powerful developer tools for the Mac and iOS platforms.  This very simple ScreenSaver is the product of about 20mins work playing with Quartz Composer.

The scene shown by my webcam wasn’t very interesting but it gives you the idea of its capability, when loaded as a full screensaver, it also shows the time in various locations. Any feedback is welcome, I’m still just playing with the software, and any thing you would like to see improved or changed, drop me a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

Installation and System Requirements

Installation is very simple process, consisting of copying the 3D Webcam.qtz file from the zip to “MAC-HARD-DRIVE/System/Library/Screen Savers”. Once the file has copied, go to the ScreenSavers menu in System Preferences, and choose “3D Webcam” and Enjoy.

This ScreenSaver has only been tested on a MacBook Pro running 10.6.6, however it should run on any Mac running 10.5.1+. Please note, running this ScreenSaver on battery power, will drain the batteries quite fast (approx. 1hour continuos)

Download

3D Webcam ScreenSaver 1.0.0 Mac

3D Webcam Cube 2.0.0 MAC

UPDATE:

Version 2 is up – This version is only a minor update with a couple of improvements:

• The cube is now slightly smaller
• The cube now rotates slightly slower
• The cube now also moves around the screen, preventing black screen burn.

Today’s lecture was quite mismatched as he was just reading from the notes, and explaining the bits we did not understand, this still didn’t give us the full reason / story behind timecode and why we use it. I feel they could have gone into more depth on how it works technically and why its so crucial.

Presentations skills are also key to getting work, as how you present yourself to a future employer is critical, as they say first impressions last. Presentations skills are also key for Producers and Operations students, when pitching there ideas to networks, and financiers.

The rig finally consisted of:

• 8 x 1k Fresnel’s
• 3 x 2k Fresnel’s
• 4 x 575w Profiles
• 4 x Mac 250 Entours
• 4 x Parcan’s

The shoot went well after a shaky start, we had some problems with blown lamps and damaged sockets, restricting out pantograph positions, and also the available lighting stock. I’m happy with the outcome of the of the day, and some of the effect created, photo’s to follow.

Today and Yesterday, I was asked to help out on the hospitality side of the event, providing assistance to delegates and generally keeping the event running smoothly. Yesterday started off as a very cold morning stood in North Greenwich Tube station, in just a T-Shirt, providing directions towards Ravensbourne. The day got slowly better, as I came in after about 2 hours in the cold, to provide Wi-Fi Assistance up on the 4th floor. This new role gave me a chance to learn more about the Ravensbourne network and how to troubleshoot it’s problems on mac and windows.

Today was a bit better, and defiantly a lot warmer, started out in the Walker space as one of the 4 Hospitality team in there making sure the audience were in and out at the correct times as well as providing general assistance to lost delegates. Working in the Walker Space had a huge advantage over other locations as it meant I could see all the fabulous 3D Content that was on show and see how it was being used to portray released and up and coming stories. The walker space is pictured to the right.

At the end of today, as the delegates were networking over in Union Square, we started the de-rig and had the huge task of turning Ravensbourne back into a working uni.

Today I was originally just the lighting assistant, but in the end with my previous lighting experience, I took over as the lighting director, coming up with the design, and assisting with the rigging.

This morning we got the bulk of the design rigged with in 40 mins of arrival, but after that, we struggled with a few flown lanterns and  dimmer channels. the dimmer channels were a major issue as they didn’t allow me to have lights where I required them.

These little issues pushed us slightly behind schedule, but we’ve learnt from them, and now know faster ways to rig in the studio, and other little niggles that are present.

Just take a look at my Facebook gallery, if you don’t believe how much snow we have had.

Due to the snow in the South East of London, and the lack of transport available, Rave decided to cancel the Industry day, that was scheduled for today. This was a good thing for me as if it had gone ahead I wouldn’t have been able to make it, due to the lack of trains and the fact that the car is also snowed in!

This morning we had a practical tv systems and signals lecture with John Palmer. We looked into termination of video signals, and why it was important. which was an interesting lecture. and it surprised alot of us, how much the signal changed based on if it was terminate or unterminated.

At the end of this lecture, the snow was still falling and I was now dreading trying to get home.

Another Electronics Practical in the afternoon, and the snow was still falling, by this time, my dad had phoned me to say we now had nearly a foot at Petts Wood, and that it will be hard trying to get home.

I finally left uni at 5pm, and got to Lewisham via the Jubilee Line and DLR with no Problems. Lewisham had still only 2-3 inches of snow and trains were running ok, into London. MY train arrived about 10-minuets late and was said to be fast to Orpington, which was fine for me, just meant a slightly longer walk back.

We Pulled out of Lewisham and moved slowly down to Hither Green, where we stopped and the opened the doors. This wouldn’t have happened if we had been the true fast service that they had said in Lewisham. We had stopped because there were 5 other trains in front of us trying to reach the South East, all being blocked by one train that had broken down at Petts Wood.

After 3 hours of very slow moving and long waits at stations we finally made it to Petts Wood, the snow is in deed over a foot deep, and there are only two lines out of the usual 4 the could just about be used. Walking back from Petts wood station was just as dangerous, with next to no grip on the compacted snow.

I don’t think, I’ll be going to uni anytime soon.

Avid, Avid, Avid, where do I begin, It’s hard to say I liked it, because I didn’t, and the truth be told I don’t think I will be finding much time to edit using it. It’s handy to know the basics and it’s little quirks with the Rave MAM System. This little bits of knowledge will help me troubleshoot problems with the software if required, at a later date.

Patching

Patching was an interesting, yet small session, aim at teaching me on how to route signals around the ravensbourne building. There’s not much more than that i can say about it.

Continuing on from the basics we learnt in the first few lectures, we moved on to some basic analogue circuits, including creating a Hi-pass and Low-Pass filter. These filters are both very simple, yet they provide crucial functionality in many everyday appliances. A good example of this is the Phone it has a 3KHz Hi-Pass Filter in it, creating the distinctive sound you hear. A Mid-Pass Filter is another extremely common one, particularly in broadcasting. Used mainly in TV tuners, to decipher one signal from the next. They are used for this purpose as they can be set to allow a very small frequency range through at a time, useful for splitting the hundreds of signals sent over FreeView.

TV Systems & Signals

TV Systems and Signals, was unfortunately canceled today due to unforeseen circumstances.

Studio sound is quite similar to Location sound, with the main difference being the amount of microphones / audio sources you can mix and output. In a studio mixer you can also use techniques such as Compression, Effects (Reverb, Delay and such), and Limiting.

In the studio at Ravensbourne there are 3 wall boxes each with a set of input / output tie-line which link back to the sound gallery. Each socket from this wall box can then be patched to any channel on the Solid State Logic C10, digital sound mixing desk. Each socket could be patched as an aux on the desk, allowing you to feed particular channels into the studio, for example as monitors for a band.

Each channel in the SSL C10 can have its own effects and compression applied to it which can be very useful in a band / interview situation, were you would like some reverb on the performance mic’s and nothing on the interviewees. Also each channel can be supplied with phantom power individually; this means that if you have microphones or other equipment that require phantom to operate, they can be supplied with it, without the rest of the inputs being affected. Some older sound desks only supply phantom to all or nothing, this can cause some problems with sensitive equipment.

The SSL C10 can handle “64 full input channels, each with dedicated 4-band EQ, Comp/Lim, Insert, Direct Output”⁵ as well as “16 dedicated mono Mix Minus buses with insert points, can be stereo-linked”⁵, all of which allows the sound supervisor to provide the studio floor / in ear monitoring all different mixes. For example a presenter will want to hear the Director, PA, and VT’s but they don’t want to hear themselves.

Studio Cameras are in some respects simplified versions of PSC cameras, as they don’t have the ability to record directly or capture sound. Studio Cameras are operated by a single operator in the studio and a secondary racking operator in the gallery. The racking operator is responsible for the exposure, white / black balance and the colours. If each camera operator had these controls, the picture wouldn’t be as consistent as if it was operated remotely by one.

We were trained on the Sony HXC100 HD Camera’s, with four being mounted on Vinten Pedestals and the fifth on a non-pressurised Pedestal. The operation of the zoom and focus has moved from the camera body (PSC) to two wired remotes on the pan and tilt handles of the Pedestal, with the exception of number 5, which is designed to be used as a hand held and its pedestal, is only a place to keep it when not in use.

Camera 5 also has a Wide Angle, which again changes the perspective of the studio for the viewer, with this lens the studio looks larger than, when it is viewed with one of the other 4 camera’s which all have the same narrower lens. Graham Reed² also went through a great deal on perspective and depth of field and how it can greatly effect an images composition. The great example he used was a line of tree’s and showed how using different focal lengths you could make the trees look closer together (narrow angle) or further apart (wide angle), than they truly were.

Locations sound works hand in hand with location camera’s providing additional sound capabilities to the single camera, for example an interview situation that required two personal mic’s could be mixed together before being fed to the camera as stereo or mono line level mix. Location mixers often have 2-4 inputs and can either mix in stereo or dual mono. Location mixers normally have better Microphone pre-amps than Camera’s, which in turn provides better sound quality, as the mixer is outputting at line level (0db) and the camera won’t apply any more amplification to the signal.

Some microphones require batteries or phantom power (+48v) to operate; these mic’s are a form of capacitor mic’s are much more sensitive than standard dynamic mic’s that don’t require power to operate. Most cameras and mixers can supply phantom power to these microphones.

When setting up for a shoot, you can use the tone that the mixer is supplying to the camera to help setup the record levels on the camera. Tone should be set just below the 0db mark as this allows some “head room” before the camera starts to clip the signal should you go above the tone volume.