Skype as a News Reporting Tool

[TennTV1983 807]

I think this has been talked about before, but I recently saw WMC-TV in Memphis do a live sports report via Skype and the quality of it was blocky at best.

 

I wanna know what some of you think. Should Skype ever be used for doing live reports as opposed to doing it the old fashioned way?

[who?cares 255]

i think Skype could be really useful in breaking news situations where reporters don't have time to wait on a live truck.

[alaskanews 122]

Thanks to Youtube and other internet videos people are less concerned about the quality of the picture. What I don't like is how Skype shots are done from the computer webcam and so the shots are framed up terribly and the reporter is looking down at the camera. There is an attachment you can buy so you can hook up your professional camera and use it for Skype shots and make it look like a decent liveshot.

[SFTV 532]

as low budget KUSI is. sometimes they use Skype for Live Interviews. LOL

[lazynetjunkie 34]

I've been seeing some of the Chicago stations using Skype quite a bit lately.. However, it's mainly being used for interviews. I first noticed it being used to interview local Chicago area people competing in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I've also seen it used to interview some politicians down in the capitol.

 

I personally am not a fan of it. Most of these Skype interviews are being done through cheap webcams or built-in laptop cams which really make for a crappy picture. Plus, it appears most of the people being interviewed are on their computers in their bedrooms and are only wearing a t-shirt and underwear.

 

I just don't see Skype used straight up as being professional for news. Skype is something that should be kept to people's personal use. It's not for TV broadcast use unless it has been set up professionally and Skype is paying the show/station for their advertising (that little skype logo on the corner of the video). I know Skype is easy and costs next to nothing to use, especially with all the budget cuts going on nowadays; however, it's not for professional broadcast.. It's something that the kids around here that make those homemade newscasts and post them up on YouTube would use. The only time I wanna see Skype being used is if there's some major breaking news event and it's the absolute only means of broadcasting it at the moment until an actual camera shows up.

 

 

Alaska mentions that people are less concerned about the quality of the picture due to Youtube and other internet videos which is true only to a certain extent.. You gotta remember, those are internet videos and cell phone videos. People who actively look at videos online will settle for crap videos because that's all that can be provided by the person who took the videos. The general public isn't expected to have professionals cameras. People have much higher expectations from TV. The news on TV now is in HD. People were forced to switch to digital. The push to buy a new TV has been higher than ever. People have to pay much more on their cable or satellite bill than they ever have. People are paying more for electricity for those damn digital transmission adapter provided by the cable companies that gotta be hooked up to ALL the TV's in the house nowadays and don't even have a power switch. With all that, people are going to expect the best damn picture from that TV now. Which all this pretty much becomes meaningless if stations are just going to get lazy and use Skype videos. I just don't like the idea of TV stations sinking to "internet quality" videos especially when I spent so much money for high quality picture TV. Maybe I'm just getting carried away now..

[cityprod 9]

From what I see here in the UK, only CNN actively uses Skype, usually for interviews. Other broadcasters such as the BBC, ITN and Sky do use internet video to send live shots back. Usually it is pro kit though rather than through Skype. It's mainly used on the news channels because having a constant satellite feed from locations can get very expensive, so satellite feeds are saved for major bulletins and programmes, whilst the internet feed is used at other times.

 

Just occasionally they rely on an internet feed if getting a satellite truck out to a particular area is unworkable.

 

Have to say that at the moment, I have not seen RTE, TV3 or TG4 use Skype or other internet video for interviews or live shots.