Will Cell Phones Be The End of Live Trucks?

by vergenewmedia on April 10, 2007

livetruck.jpg

Live Truck Killer?

Is this the end game for live trucks? I doubt it. But what kind of headline would it be without open-ended hyperbole? Besides, where will TV reporters go to stay warm?

Video enabled phones are emerging as powerful storytelling tools, enabling people to capture moments of both significance and the mundane. The London terrorist bombings of July 2005, highlight the use of phones as ubiquitous newsgathering devices.

Imagine now, the ability to go live from your phone. Enter ComVu’s PocketCaster. PocketCaster lets you broadcast live video from your video enabled phone to their streaming server. Technology Evangelist’s Ed Kohler, interviewed ComVu’s Scott Jamar and has more details. Steve Garfield, who is always pushing the envelope with video technology, did some live streaming tests with his Nokia 95 and links to his video here.

Live from your phone is immensely cool indeed. I was at the Pentagon on 9-11 getting horrifying pictures that marked a very sad chapter in this nations history. Our live truck couldn’t get anywhere near the scene. My record of history was going nowhere except “in the can”. I would’ve paid for this kind of technology, or better yet something like Stickam. What I like about Stickam is that I can take firewire out of my “big” camera…

Jim Long with storytelling tools

and send audio/video of whatever I’m shooting (reporter, the President, a news conference) live via my WiFi enabled laptop. Often what I’ll do is Twitter my live video status and see who comes to watch. Where ComVu wins is in the fact that most of us have our phones attached to our hips at any given time. Video enabled phones are an essential part of the newsgathering toolkit and an important technological advance in television. I gets a little nutty when “visionary” management takes those tools and implements them in gimmicky fashion.

phonereporter.jpg

Meet Marianne Dimain from Toronto’s City News. Apparently this reporter runs around and files “On the Street” with her phone. I’m unable to find video of her today, but from what I watched a couple of days ago, the quality of the video and audio was terribly distracting. Here technology is not the solution and is taken out of context. But TV managers love this stuff. ugh! I’ll bet this will be Michael Rosenblum’s next “big” idea.

Bookmark and Share

Sphere: Related Content

  • Stick a fork in those puppies. They're done. I mean, would you buy a ga-zillion dollar sat. truck now? Or just a way cool gadget? Save your pennies for your PJ instead. That's my plan. Or to hop a ride on yours as often as I can.:)
  • One more thing... since when does anyone care if the crew is comfortable, watered and fed? Gotta get frills like that written into a contract nowadays. Like rock stars have those riders (sp?) that get their organic tofu products delivered to their dressing rooms every 2 hours or so.

    So you/any monkey with a gadget could go live at, say, Hurricane Next Big One, but you'd turn the thing on ONLY if you/any monkey with a phone had fresh orchids (and heat) delivered to the POB (point of broadcast) on a regular basis.

    Gotta think ahead of the suits...
  • vergenewmedia
    SpaceyG, I'm hiring you as my agent. ;-) Look, I was shooting a Today Show core for an upcoming Roker live shot in Wilmington, DE last week. The dear producer brought her PD150 along. She'd also been forced by NBC bean counters to pack two days of shooting into one. I was desperatley hoping she'd whip out her "VJ" mad skilz, but alas, to no avail. Where were you when I needed you???
  • You can take this one Jim. I am working on a whole new thing. I call it "Specialization". One guy just concentrates on the pics. Another just concentrates on writing the story. Another just concentrates on editing. Whaddya think? Can I sell it? hmmm?
  • If anyone can sell it Michael, it would be you! I must say though the market for specialists is a bit bearish.
  • I've yet to see a cel phone that could store 6 300 ft cable reels, 6 light stands and lighting rigs, boxes of cables, rain gear, foul weather equipment, spare parts, editting laptop, other need-to-have widgets and gadgets and all the other neccessary debris typically found in the average ENG van.

    Show me a phone (or even a small car!) that holds all that stuff and I'll concede the era of live trucks are over.....
  • and again WHERE WILL THE REPORTERS GO TO STAY WARM/COOL/DRY???? and obvisously with HD, multi-thread, uWave rx, COFDM, prompter coming back down the bird, comms, return etc. trucks will be around for a long while. Report back here from NAB bout trucks mudskipper!!
  • If I could find a way to edit in an intro, outtro, and do some simple titling.... I think it would work via the web, or phone to phone. But at home in the comforts of a 5.1 surround & 16:9 plasma screen, we still need all that extra technology.

    But I ask... isn't quality content valuable regardless of the quality of the transmission.

    The Kennedy assassination is out of focus, but it's all we have, which makes it priceless. If they had an "HD type camera" I'm sure we would all like to see that footage. But if all we have is the equivalent of a camera phone,.... it's better then nothing.
  • vergenewmedia
    Vergel, you raise a very interesting point, to wit, may I direct you to my post on the notion of content "qualtity". Because you are in may ways correct, quality of transmisstion in only relevant when it's relevant. There is a metric known (as a musicologist like yourself is well aware) as Signal to Noise ratio. S/N can be applied from a purely technical aspect, down to a more cerebral type of measurement. Is meaning beiing conveyed or are we paying more attention to the artifice of using a live phone video. For that matter there's the equal and opposite aritfice of super-slick and overly glossy yes?

    Vergel, thank you for making a comment! I wish I'd made podcampNYC, but i followed your Twitters. :-)
  • Take that ENG dude, ditch all that superfulous, redundant gear, and put HIM in charge of procuring lunch.... THE most important segment of any reporter/producer/monkey with a (hugenormous) cell phone's day. Send HIM out for the freakin' rain gear if needed. Have him highlight my hair and get me some more Marc Jacobs adorable cropped jackets for chrissake. The need for work place creature comforts will never change, nor will the desire for easy-on-the-eye "talent." And have him make me 15 years younger while you're at it.
  • Two weeks ago when that Boy Scout was missng and then found in the mountains of NC I happened to be standing next to the Fox News Channel Photog who was using a cell phone to send a live video stream back to the network.

    As a Fox O&O we also took the picture on our air and then on our website. I was intrigued! Over time I think this and other technology will be a great replacement to do exactly what we can do now with a full fledged live truck.

    It's all the other capabilities (mentioned in another comment I believe) that become possible with a broad digital stream that will keep the live truck alive, and make our jobs more complex, in the future.
  • punky cameraman
    soon all breaking news will be done by cell phone.
    mostly by photographers ..... i know, almost VJ but not quite
    we have the skills to get there and find it.

    i keep hearing how many people love the new BBC/discovery "planet earth" show

    at the end of the day spot news will always be a bit ugly
    speed is what counts ..... but later you better have great pictures because i
    think people will seek them out.

    punky
  • I love the idea of live mobile video, not just for news, also for seeing your friends' face while talking to them via phone. For news, everyday people who can be deputized to pipe their live footage to big outlets when they happen to be on the scene at newsworthy events. Still waiting for my wireless brain implant though.
  • Strategist
    Think of the cell phone as a compliment to the truck, and not a competitor. The cell reporter gets to the scene first and fast, and gets the story while the truck is prepped and getting going. The truck can take over when it gets on the scene, but by then the station has the lead story and can maintain the audience by mixing cell and sat. We all know news happens where it wants to, and the point is to get the story.
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post: “Tripod vs. No Tripod” and other “rules” of Video to Ignore

Next post: Amani Channel Goes Mainstream…AJC Style.