July 7, 2004
Mobile Videophones Meet TV News
Frank Beacham for TV technology has written the most interesting and insightful article on how new technologies are impacting broadcast news.
"We are entering the era of the mobile videophone, a technology so potentially powerful that anyone can become an instant journalist. Images can be revealed throughout the world in a matter of minutes.
Those whose job it is to keep secrets are rushing back to the drawing board. Donald Rumsfeld is one who comes to mind. In his testimony before congressional committees, the defense secretary said that the flood of pictures was now beyond the control of U.S. authorities.
A broadcaster who has not missed this coming sea change in newsgathering technology is the BBC. Earlier this year, the "beeb" outfitted about 40 of its reporters with Nokia mobile videophones that enable them to e-mail still and motion video with audio back to news headquarters via GPRS.
The (BBC) reporters are using the same Nokia 3650 phones found at many U.S. mobile phone stores. However, these phones have been outfitted with special software from Philips that allows the handsets to record up to 15 minutes of video. When finished, the reporter simply transmits the pictures to the BBC in London.
Both Philips and the BBC acknowledge the enormous potential of newsgathering using standard mobile phones. Journalists in the field covering breaking stories can now send video reports back from difficult or remote locations. Though the image resolution is low, the technology works well enough for breaking stories where time-to-air is paramount.
[...] So far, the BBC is the only major news organization to publicly announce its use of mobile videophones for on-air reporting. Though they have been quiet, we can't imagine that U.S. news operations are asleep at the wheel on this one.
No doubt that caution will change as the technology improves (and you can bet it will) and a few aggressive and enterprising young journalists start beating big news organizations at their own game.
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/picturephoning/archives/2004/07/004458.htm
| Tweet |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
