While CNN is not introducing any new technology here, this is a great example of the emerging trend towards a more decentralized mobile television production process typified by Video Journalism. via Lost Remote:
CNN Deploys Video Correspondents
(PRESS RELEASE 2/4/04) -- CNN recently developed new digital newsgathering equipment designed to combine cameras, editing tools and advanced satellite and Internet communications technology into a laptop-based system, it was announced by Chris Cramer, managing director of CNN International.
In effect, fifty pounds of gear is packaged into a lightweight laptop and camera, enabling CNN reporters to report, edit and transmit from nearly anywhere in the world more easily. The network also appointed a team of three international video correspondents - Ryan Chilcote, Karl Penhaul and Alphonso Van Marsh - to demonstrate the benefits of the equipment.
The system has proven so successful in the field - notably in coverage of Saddam Hussein's capture and the revolution in Georgia - that the network has issued the equipment to all of its 28 international bureaus.
The new equipment ushers in a new era of newsgathering for CNN, Cramer said. The technology enables correspondents to harness news in a quick, vibrant way without being encumbered with heavy broadcasting and editing equipment.
"These new correspondents, when combined with the newly developed laptop-based equipment, give CNN greater flexibility in the deployment of staff," Cramer said. "In addition, those deployed have language, cultural and political understanding of the regions, having lived and worked in various parts of the world for large parts of their lives."
The new DNG system enables correspondents to edit packages and file reports on the scene without carrying bulky edit equipment or traveling to satellite feed points. The system integrates a software-based videophone into a laptop computer. With the addition of editing and transmission software, the laptop becomes CNN's single-solution platform for editing, compression, transmission and live shots.
CNN developed the entire system in-house using largely off-the-shelf technology. With the new technology, CNN correspondents can now compress and transmit broadcast quality video at a range of speeds, depending on the connection options - from 128K ISDN for satellite phones to multiple megabits on high-speed data and remote VSAT lines.