24994J 5276 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Seeing as I'm not too smart on the technical aspects of the news, is this pretty big or just a gimmick? Also, is this going to make "Mobile 2"-ish reports more accessible, or is that completely different? http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/1772-wls-tv-purchases-innovative-new-equipment-for-mobile-news-reporting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lazynetjunkie 34 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 Gotta love all the bullshit and smokescreen in the article.. This device will not make a station be #1 or a "news leader" in a market. "More flexible" my ass. WLS DOESN'T need this thing. They've been able to cover every live thing they've needed to cover for decades now with no problems. The ultimate goal of most stations now is to cut costs and save money. It's just another device to eliminate the need for live trucks and staff. Send a reporter out in his or her own car with one of these devices, a tripod, and a camera and it's a one person live shot show. Ultimately, as this technology improves and the kinks are worked out, stations will just have more reason to lay off more technical staff, engineers, photogs, etc. and not purchase more expensive live trucks/vans, etc.. Management and networks see $$$$ and behind the scenes station staff see pink slips in the not so far future.. So it's a big deal for station management money/investment-wise. But the way they it is being portrayed is in a gimmicky way (to cover the REAL reason for these things). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted July 13, 2011 Share Posted July 13, 2011 WDJT has similar devices (the LiveU Backpack) that they're using increasingly often because they're finally starting to feel limited by their two live trucks. They suck, the quality looks bad even in SD, and apparently they're not as easy to configure as they say because last night they used it and had the wrong microphone plugged in. They've also used them last year to cover the press conference when a concrete panel fell off a parking garage and killed someone. The quality was terrible and whoever set up the computer receiving the thing had sounds on so you constantly heard the Internet Explorer "refresh" sound. The way I see things, these could be a great compliment to live trucks. They could be used to get something on air in the amount of time it takes to get the mast up and dial in to the station. As we saw with the Vancouver riot coverage, they're great for covering something like that. But they're NOT a replacement for live trucks and never ever should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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