The world is full of cool things we'd all love to get our hands on. From fire suits that withstand two thousand degree flames, to robots that destroy bombs with powerful water canons, to flight simulators that you can only dream of. This is the territory of “Cool Stuff: How it Works”. Each episode is an immersive journey that reveals exactly how these things work. This unique series unravels the mysteries behind incredible technology by getting right inside our subject and watching it work. Each episode a vast range of imaging techniques from macro lenses, MRIs, X-rays, ultrasounds, scanning electron microscopes to high speed and thermal cameras, brings the invisible world to the screen in high definition.

Details

Running time: 7 x 30 minute series
Year of Production: 2007 - 2008
Produced by: Beyond Productions

Produced in High Definition

The story of engineering is one that touches everybody. Everything from computing to using the telephone, driving the car and doing the washing has been affected by an engineer.
The Elegant Solution offers fascinating insight into the inventions and developments brought to us by engineering. In self-contained episodes, each program explores one of the many facets of engineering and reflects on its importance to society. Highlighting fields such as transport, energy, medicine; uncovering the achievements of ancient peoples; and exploring military applications, monuments and the impact of nature, The Elegant Solution offers a unique perspective on the world.

Awards

* Winner - ATOM (Australian Teachers of Media) Award 1998, Outstanding Excellence in Television Production and Communication
* Winner - Silver Award, Prix Leonardo Italy, 1999
* Winner - Outstanding and Unique TV Production, ATOM Award Australia, 1999
* Winner - For Journalism and Communications, Institute of Engineers Australia Excellence Awards, 1999
* Main Feature - Vederata Scienze TV Festival, Italy, 1999
* Main Feature - US Academy of Science, Washington DC, 1999

Details

Running Time :13 x 26 min.
Year of Production: 1998
Executive Producer : Keith Stevenson
Producer/Director : Robin Newell

Have you ever wondered how a firework bursts into multiple colours and patterns on cue or if you really can get lead poisoning from a number 2 pencil? This is a behind-the-scenes look at how people and machines create some of life's most fascinating things. Engineered takes curious viewers behind four familiar objects - the challenges of their design, the machines that make them and the tests that ensure they work. Our guide for this unique insider's tour is Marshall Brain - best-selling author, founder of one of Time Magazine's “50 Best Websites”, www.howstuffworks.com and an expert when it comes to explaining things. Go beyond the everyday nuts and bolts of an object and find out how some of the most fascinating things in life are Engineered.

Details

10 x 60 minute series

Produced in High Definition

Produced by Atlas Media Corp

Said to be the last unexplained natural phenomenon, Ball Lightning is the glowing, ball-shaped light that can appear after a lightning strike. Often it hovers slowly through the air for a few seconds then disappears with a gentle fizz. Others dance on an inexplicable path sometimes appearing to chase people before coming to an end with a deafening crash. They can leave gaping holes in buildings and trees, yet sometimes pass through walls and windows without leaving a trace. Passengers on aeroplanes have reported them hovering through the cabin.
So how is it created? In Great Balls of Fire, we hear remarkable eyewitness accounts of their experience with Ball Lightning and show how modern science is attempting to understand this most rare and curious of phenomena.

Details

Running time: 1 x 60 minutes
Year of Production: 2000
Produced by: Beyond Productions

* Part of the Science Frontiers series

The most destructive weather pattern unleashed in our time is El Niño. When a strong El Niño produces heavy rainfall in coastal Peru, there is a simultaneous drought in South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Acting on revolutionary new knowledge utilizing advances in oceanography, meteorology and the study of ancient civilizations, scientists are for the first time, able to accurately predict this deadly global weather machine. Can they also protect us in the future?

Details

Running time: 1 x 60 minutes
Year of Production: 2000
Produced by: Beyond Productions

* Part of the Science Frontiers series