New Tech Makes ENG Light, Quick, Nimble

Television field transmission technology is developing fast. In some cases, it’s so fast that even some of its most cutting-edge users can’t keep up.

That struggle was outlined by tech executives from ABC, Cox Media Group and NBC Universal Owned Stations at the NewsTECHForum in New York on Monday, where the virtues of bonded cellular were weighed against the necessity of supplementing with Ka bandwidth, the flexibility of smartphones and the enduring value of microwave.

Dave Siegler, VP of technical operations for Cox Media Group, was quick to laud bonded cellular’s rising importance in field reporting. “I look at it as another blade in our Swiss Army knife,” he says, adding Cox’s multimedia journalists (MMJs) in particular find that its “simplicity matters. MMJs need that option. It needs to work and they need speed.

“It’s all about being light, quick, more nimble,” he says.

Backpack units are great when their connection is stable, executives agree. When it’s not, having Ka technology to support bandwidth for bonded cellular is still necessary says Jamie Simmons, director of technology and operations for NBC Universal Stations.

Still, cameras with their field transmission tech integrated into the unit itself can get 80%-90% reliability according to Joe D’Amico, assistant VP at JVC.

Siegler, who uses Panasonic units at Cox, says “the ability to have a wireless connection is a must have” in the camera.

Marcy Lefkovitz, VP of technology and workflow strategy at ABC Broadcast Operations and Engineering, agrees that early on, having such a connection baked in felt “nifty.” But she worries, “I don’t want to wake up five years from now and find we have an old technology built into the cameras that’s constraining us.”

Rather than buying 150 cameras, Lefkovitz says she’d rather ensure that staffers all have really good smartphones with camera and some accessories that allow it to be a bonded device. But pinning down which accessories to use is an impossibly fast moving target because of the speed of development, she adds.

Simmons agrees. “When it comes to mobile newsgathering, you can’t standardize because the technology changes too rapidly,” he says.

Further, Lefkovitz cautions that an increased use of smartphones for field reporting requires an end-to-end training around a single workflow, starting with something as simple as shooting from a landscape perspective.

Smartphone video may lack the professional polish of better tools, but Siegler says having a phone on every journalist’s waist still enables a newsroom to get that crucial early video fast and even first. “And speed trumps quality in news,” he says. “Then we’ll get the crews there and with time resources come on the scene.”

After all, tech executives aren’t nearly ready to trade in cellphones or bonded cellular entirely for their microwave trucks, even if Siegler concedes that Cox is scaling back a little on buying those trucks. “I see the truck as a platform we will still use and relay heavily upon,” he says.

NBC Owned Stations’ Simmons agrees. “As long as we have our spectrum, we’re going to use it because it’s ours.”

To listen to a recording of this panel session, click here.

To read more stories from the 2014 NewsTECHForum, click here.