KGTV ‘digital correspondents’ cover fire

Cory Bergman October 26th, 2007

The San Diego fires took their toll on microwave receive and relay sites, limiting local TV stations’ ability to send back live shots while covering the story. KGTV recently switched to a one-man-band newsgathering approach with 27 “digital correspondents” armed with Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 camcorders, Apple MacBook Pro laptop computers, Apple Final Cut Pro and Verizon broadband wireless Internet cards. When they were able, the digital correspodents met up with either one of three microwave trucks or three temporary microwave relay stations. When those weren’t available or out of range, some were able to file reports on the laptop’s webcam (using iChat) via the Verizon wireless broadband cards. KGTV tells Broadcast Engineering that the quality was not nearly as solid as a microwave shot, but it gave the station more reach on the ground. (Thanks, Greg!)