So… it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? I haven’t posted since the 16th of October, and before you think I’ve just been sitting around eating grapes (I wish), let me

In the glorious, often chaotic, world of film and television production, the journey from a flickering idea in a screenwriter's mind to a tangible object on scr

We've all been there, haven't we? The moment you realise a piece of technology, once a trusty sidekick, is on its last legs. For me, that moment arrived not wit

Hello, wonderful readers and fellow magitech enthusiasts! Can you believe it? My heart is practically thrumming with excitement because I'm finally, finally get

Hello there! You might be wondering where I’ve been, or perhaps you just thought I'd finally succumbed to the allure of a permanent nap under a pile of tech man

You know that feeling when your digital life suddenly throws a 'pay up or lose it' notice at you? That little email that lands in your inbox, polite but firm, r

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The excitement is palpable as NAB 2025 kicks off, and once again I start my tour of the various vendors and companies releasing or updating their offerings, all

On a recent visit to IKEA, I was thrilled to discover their expanded range of smart home products. Intrigued by the possibilities, I decided to delve deeper int

Now if only they would bring back the Application Server Ubiquiti's latest release, the UNAS Pro, is a serious upgrade to their network storage game. This power

Rigging for events: Part 6 Welcome to another edition of the Rigging for Events series. This time I'm going to be looking at how I would rig a larger venue usin

<![CDATA[n The Problem n For what seems like an eternity, but what has actually been 4-5 years, I have been planning to build a computer to replace my 12-year-o

<![CDATA[n Birthdays, Driving and shopping n Please excuse the short post this week but it’s been a bit manic and I’ve not been able to make much progress on ei

<![CDATA[n About a year ago, we moved into our new home, and it's been a whirlwind of DIY projects ever since. n We kicked things off with a fresh coat of paint

<![CDATA[n Rigging for events: Part 4 n Today, I'll be extending my 'accidental' Rigging for Events series – though at this point, it's less of an accident and

<![CDATA[n Today is a significant day for those in the UK, as it's your opportunity to influence the next five years of our nation's trajectory. It's Polling Da

<![CDATA[n Earlier this year Freely, a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, launched to not a lot of fanfare. Whilst love the idea behin

<![CDATA[n An introduction to Elgato n In my previous post, I had a look at what it would cost to create a Blackmagic Design Streaming setup for when I'm delive

<![CDATA[n Another Quick post this week following on from my quick post last week. Over the last two or three weeks I have been rebuilding the website, almost,

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a few issues crop up on the WordPress sites that I manage both for myself and for friends and family. It was the typ

<![CDATA[n n I can't believe how much trouble I've had trying to create an HbbTV App n This a relatively short post this week, as I'm sure some of you will be g

<![CDATA[n The Plan n As anyone who knows me will know I'm a huge fan of Blackmagic Design and the products and services that they provide. I wanted to look int

<![CDATA[n n Event Rig Series – Part 3: A Small Portable Basic Lighting Rig n In the third part of my accidental series on Rig for events, I will look at a basi

In my last post, I described how I have had an idea for years about building an eco-village and with the help of Generative AI I was finally able to get some of

<![CDATA[n n Using AI to help me visualise a grand plan I've had in my head for years. n I've been playing with a few Generative AI tools over the last few week

Event Rig Series – Part 2: The Local Bands Sound Over the years I've had the opportunity to work with a variety of artists at different stages of their careers

<![CDATA[n Just a quick post to say I have added some helpful calculators to the projects menu. I'll be growing these out over time but I thought I'd add the on

<![CDATA[n Event Rig Series – Part 1: Blackmagic's NAB Presentation was nuts! They launched some amazing products but it was nuts! n n Blackmagic has certainly

A match that could be made in heaven! As you may know, if you have seen any of my previous posts, I had a bit of downtime recently (mainly due to me being an id

<![CDATA[n n Blake Stephen Hope n Born on 6th March 2023 at 14:48 weighing 6lb 9oz n I've been a bit quiet over the last few weeks, a big part of that is due to

<![CDATA[n If in doubt leave it alone! n You may notice a few thing may look a bit different or missing entirely around here. n Well... that may be a little bit

<![CDATA[n n I may be a bit behind the times when it comes to the launch of Freely, but I am excited for its launch. This post has been sitting on my phone for

<![CDATA[n n With Energy Pricing as high as it is, I thought it might be time to upgrade the Energy Usage Calculator. n A few years ago I created a web tool to

<![CDATA[n Just a quick update as it's been quite hectic over the last few weeks between work and getting ready for child number 2's to arrive. that he is makin

<![CDATA[n Surely this should be a thing already! n n If you've been following this blog or know me personally, you probably already know I'm obsessed with smar

<![CDATA[n n How much would it cost to build a full-stage setup on AliExpress? n Lately, I've been really into something new. It all started when we got our han

<![CDATA[n n What if Blackmagic covered the whole event ecosystem? n In my last post, I mentioned the idea of a Blackmagic ecosystem and the idea just wouldn't

<![CDATA[n n So Close to the Perfect 4K ATEM n It's been a while... around 7 and a bit months to be nowhere near exact. If you read my last post you can probabl

<![CDATA[n Say Hello to Scarlett Eileena Hope n Born: 13th August 2022 n n I haven't posted in a little while but I promise I have a good reason! n The last cou

<![CDATA[n n Every time I do DIY something seems to go wrong n We *cough* Mrs Jim *cough* decided that it was about time we turned my office/the spare room into

<![CDATA[n Now that most operating systems and browsers support PassKeys it's time to start getting rid of passwords! n n When I watched Apple's WWDC they made

<![CDATA[n If only I worked for Linus Media Group! n n I've been a fan of Linux Tech TIps for quite a while now, ever since I got hooked on videos showing how p

<![CDATA[n I don't want to but Apple is making it difficult to stay in the walled garden. n n I know I'll never most likely be able to afford a Mac Pro but I ca

<![CDATA[n Moving from a Home Lab to a Cloud Lab sounded difficult but ZeriTier Made it simple! n n I recently had to move all of my home lab apps up into my Or

<![CDATA[n n Trying to make a Smart TV on the cheap n Ever since I started transforming our home into a smart home I've wanted to be able to include our TV as p

<![CDATA[n I know I know. It happened again but there's a reason I promise! n n So it's been a week or so since my last post was posted. My mac mini decided it

<![CDATA[n Access your home lab without opening ports on your firewall. n n We recently changed our internet service provider from Vodafone to TalkTalk and one

<![CDATA[n n Don't get me wrong, I love how they expand the universe but couldn't they be so much more? n When Marvel announced that they would be releasing a b

<![CDATA[n What electric van options are there for my dream Campervan build? n n For quite some time now I've been wanting a campervan. It all started back in u

<![CDATA[n n We Have Smart Lights! So... What's Next? n So for a while now I have been swapping out all of the lights in our home for smart bulbs. I originally

<![CDATA[n How Would Making My Latest Video Rig Mobile Change It? n n For a long time now I've wanted to start my own business where I would turn up at an event

<![CDATA[n The Energy Cost Calculator just got better! n This is a really quick update. I just wanted to let folks know that I've updated the Energy Cost Calcul

<![CDATA[n China is rolling out cheap electric cars left right and centre... why aren't we? n n This has been bugging me for quite some time and I really need t

<![CDATA[n Now that I'm going to be training people over Zoom I think I'm going to need a slightly better setup! n n I recently got a promotion at work which me

<![CDATA[n n Energy prices may be rising but that doesn't mean your bill has to! n Over the last 12 months, or more, the wholesale cost of gas and electricity h

I wouldn't be writing this if Dante was built in Blackmagic! Over the years I've had a few ideas on how to get Dante working with ATEM Vision mixers and after m

<![CDATA[n Where's The ATEM 4M/E Constellation 4K? n n Just before NAB Blackmagic let us know about some new products they are releasing and boy was I excited.

<![CDATA[n n Too Expensive or Just not for you? n So I'm a little behind the times with this post, between trying and failing to restore the website (after a ma

<![CDATA[n Accidental Smart Home Week – Part 3 nTo finish out what has somehow become Smart Home week I thought I’d look at some of the available Smart Home app

<![CDATA[n Part 2 of Accidental Smart Home Week nIn my last post, I had a look at different energy monitoring solutions that would work with Home Assistants new

<![CDATA[n It’s about time I figured out where we use all our energy nIt’s been a busy week where I’ve learned a lot and slept just as much. Starting a new job

<![CDATA[n It’s time to get out my non-existent Credit Card… Again! n As I mentioned in my last post, Blackmagic recently released a bunch of new products, I al

<![CDATA[n A lot was announced in a short amount of time n Last Thursday Blackmagic Design had a live stream where they released some new products for both HD a

<![CDATA[n You can have a Smart Home with Privacy n I mentioned in a previous post that I’d moved my Home Assistant installation over to a Raspberry Pi from my

<![CDATA[n Is an ARM Processor in the running for my Workstation? n If you have read my previous post you’ll know that I have recently moved my webserver over t

<![CDATA[n And It’s All Thanks To Portainer And Servarr n Not that long ago I moved my Home Assistant server from my old Mac mini to my new Raspberry Pi. The ma

<![CDATA[n Now we can stream!! n n In my last post, I gave you my idea for a multi-purpose camera rig. This time I’ll be fleshing that rig out to give us a Live

<![CDATA[n Now we can stream!! n n In my last post, I gave you my idea for a multi-purpose camera rig. This time I'll be fleshing that rig out to give us a Live

<![CDATA[n Future-proofing your camera rig! n n As I mentioned in my previous post I have once again pretended I have an actual budget to come up with a Multi-P

<![CDATA[n It's so easy the pirates are already doing it n Since the second year of my degree, a thought has been bugging me. Why are there no internet/cloud-ba

<![CDATA[n So..... Blog 2.0 it is then n Well it look like I've just lost over 2 years of blog posts... and this time it wasn't even my fault (Stupid hosting pr

<![CDATA[n I Finally Got a Lighting Desk Connected! n Now I have my laptop back full time, Abi got her new one yesterday, I thought I’d have a shot at getting m

<![CDATA[n Guess who’s Made a New Kit List? n So a few weeks back Blackmagic Design released a couple of interesting products. One of those is now firmly attach

<![CDATA[n The History n When I was back in University I produced a student-led webcast once a week. It wasn’t the most watch webcast in the world with average

<![CDATA[n Home Assistant Rocks!!!… Just not on my phone n You may have noticed that I’ve not posted anything over the last couple of week. It’s been a bit busy

<![CDATA[n Where are my Royalties @BlackMagic_News ? n A Few months ago I wrote a post asking Blackmagic design to add a couple of features to the ATEM Mini Pro

<![CDATA[n Was The Upgrade Worth It? n I recently started my new job at Vodafone and one of the first things I was told was that I could talk about work. As you

<![CDATA[n Finally, A Way To Do Face Tracking With FaceID n For a while now I’ve been looking into different ways to do motion capture on the cheap. You won’t b

<![CDATA[n This May Change How My Posts Look n So I’ve done something either really cool or really stupid… or possibly both. I’ve installed a plugin that gives

<![CDATA[n Imagine a smart home with no hubs that just connects. n I had another idea the other day. Imagine if when you bought your smart home products you wou

<![CDATA[n Everything still works on macOS 11 & iOS 14 n A couple of weeks back apple release their beta versions of macOS & iOS to members of the developer pro

<![CDATA[n Seriously @apple what’s the point n I’ll start this off by admitting that I own a boat load of apple products already and that I’m a fan of theirs, e

<![CDATA[n Guess my learning to code project is going to have to go on the back burner… n I got a fantastic phone call on Sunday evening letting me know that th

<![CDATA[n Which @blackmagic_News setup works best for me? n So Over the last few months I’ve come up with a number of Video production setups as a bit of an ex

<![CDATA[n It’s not the hardware… it’s the developers n I know I’m probably going to get lynched for this post but I think it needs saying and hopefully it will

<![CDATA[n Sorry I Mean @Apple Silicon Computers n When I was watching the WWDC Keynote and they Finally revealed they were going to move over to their own CPUs

<![CDATA[n I’ve wanted to write an app for ages n For a long while now I’ve wanted to learn how to write an app for iOS, macOS & Apple TV. nothing overly compli

<![CDATA[n Great Production Value, Not A Lot Of Surprises n Last night, like many around the world, I tuned in for Apples World Wide Developer Conference and wh

<![CDATA[n June 20, 2020Blog, Ideas, Video ProductionAudio, Blackmagic Design, Dante, Live, Live Events, Video n @Blackmagic_News I have a New request n If you

<![CDATA[n I Think I May Need Help To Find Out If My Theory Works from @blackmagic_news n Future Jim Note: nSince Writing this post have done a bit of research

<![CDATA[n And they really can’t cook! n Future Jim note: nFor some reason this didn’t post when it was supposed to and has held up my posting queue. Not sure w

<![CDATA[n Thanks @FullyChargedShw for helping find another house I can’t afford 😕 n So while perusing my daily feed on YouTube, I came across a really interes

<![CDATA[n Could it become a Gaming Machine? n We got our Apple TV not long after the 4th Generation device was released in October 2015 and to be honest except

<![CDATA[n and the gameplay looks amazing n You may be surprised to hear but for once it wasn’t me that wanted to watch a tech product launch. I know surprising

<![CDATA[n Moving to @VOXI_UK was the right way to go n Yesterday I wrote about how I would be changing our Mobile Internet Provider from SMARTY to VOXI and I w

<![CDATA[n Who doesn’t love Tea & Crumpets? n I recently posted about how our internet provider SMARTY wasn’t really working out for us. So I thought I’d sit he

<![CDATA[n @bobbyllew please don’t hate me n Before I start today’s rant, I know I’m probably going to upset a few people with just the title of this post and t

<![CDATA[n It’s hard to write when there’s not much to write about n As some of you may have noticed, I didn’t write a blog post yesterday. There is a couple of

<![CDATA[n Well.. Once I’ve put the bathroom floor down n So todays actually the day that I put the bathroom floor down. I planned on doing it yesterday but tur