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16 TVBEurope News & Analysis


www.tvbeurope.com April 2013


When Hurricane Sandy hit New York, BBC News did about 90% of reporting via LiveU


Getting footage back from the field


Although IP offers users a real ‘go anywhere’ capability, there are problems — availability, security and contention.David Foxreports


live outside broadcast. Now it will fit in your pocket. You can now even broadcast from the summit of Mount Everest with a backpack terminal.” It is also possible to


troubleshoot equipment and links remotely if something isn’t working and maybe even fix it. “Previously, once the journalist and cameraman went into the field and something went wrong, they were on their own.”


Athens riots in 2011. It allowed reporters to file live for various BBC TV and radio channels, and do emails and access newsroom systems. Sometimes they use Skype for


live video, or Quicklink Live, with Luci Live (“a very simple app”) for audio. As a simple way to do it all, there is also the BBC’s own PNG app, which allows users to take photographs, shoot video, record audio and put it straight into the BBC’s newsroom system. Staff are also using Dejero Live+ for bonding 3G and Wi-Fi on the iPhone. “It’s not quite a satellite truck


in your pocket, but it gives us the ability to go live to TV or radio and send pictures and text to the BBC,” he said.


IP is the key: Andy Reed (L), Andy Wilson and Guy Pelham at the recent BVE show in London


“ONE OF the big challenges of broadcasting is getting material back from the field at minimal cost,” according to Andy Wilson, head of the Centre of Technology, BBC Academy. The answer to this increasingly involves the use of networks (whether wired or wireless) and new ways of working. The most basic system is


simply to use a laptop and Wi-Fi, which is increasingly available in public places and even on London’s underground railway lines. Small, portable BGAN terminals are also reasonably inexpensive and easy to use, “as long as you can get line of sight,” he said. V-Sat is a further option, as are a host of 3G/4G devices, such as MyFi,


and bonded devices, such as LiveU. Failing all these, a smartphone can be all a reporter needs. BBC reporter Nick Garnett used his iPhone to cover riots in Manchester. This was after a Radio Manchester radio car had been turned over and burnt, “so it was really important” for him not to stand out from the crowd. He used the iPhone to report


on radio using Luci Live, and filed stills, video and copy into ENPS. “It did the job of a laptop, BlackBerry, stills camera, video camera, recorder, radio and television,” said Wilson. Being able to access live TV and radio on the iPhone or iPad has become an important way for reporters to find out


what is happening elsewhere, not just within the BBC, but also to see what competitors are doing, as well as monitoring social media sites, “which is great for journalists to keep up to date,” Guy Pelham, live editor, BBC News, told delegates at Broadcast Video Expo, in London. “The key technology


enabling this is IP,” he added. “Increasingly, media organisations are multimedia, and IP doesn’t care if its text or video.” There is generally, now, some


sort of connectivity wherever you go, and the technology is “smaller, lighter and more flexible. Ten years ago we needed a seven-ton truck costing half-a-million pounds to do a


“Ten years ago we needed a seven-ton truck costing half-a-million pounds to do a live outside broadcast. Now it will fit in your pocket” Guy Pelham, BBC News


Although IP offers users “a


real go anywhere, do anything capability,” there are three main problems: availability; security; and contention, particularly with anything that uses the public internet or cellular services, where lots of others are trying to use the same network simultaneously. BBC News is now trialling


V-Sat. “Ka-Band terminals are cheap and the satellite space is plentiful at the moment,” said Pelham. The dish they are using costs about £350, “and the connectivity tariff is no more than that.” The system, which was originally developed to deliver broadband to consumer homes, was first successfully used by the BBC to cover the


When Hurricane Sandy hit


New York, BBC News did about 90% of its reporting via a LiveU 3G bonding kit “in excellent quality most of the time. We kept going a lot longer than most of the satellite trucks and essentially broadcast for four or five days using a small bit of kit on the back of the camera,” added Pelham. “These sorts of devices are


transforming what we do in the UK and worldwide. But, it doesn’t mean the end of big, fast, broadcast equipment. It expands the armoury of technology available,” he said. “The smaller, lighter technology is part of a spectrum of kit. It’s a question of matching the right kit to the job.”


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