WTSP-TV Uses Skype to Broadcast Live Shot

January 8, 2009 · Filed Under Future of Media, Tips and Tools 

Al Tompkins reports that Monday morning, WTSP-TV anchor/reporter Janie Porter was on TV, reporting live from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on the run-up to this week’s national college football championship game without a big live truck an engineer tuning in a shot.

Porter set up her own camera, opened her laptop, connected the camera to her computer, slipped a wireless connection card into her laptop, called up Skype and used her Blackberry to establish IFB (the device TV folks wear in their ears to hear the off-air signal). It all looked just great on air.

This type of reporting marks a new day. It is more than backpack journalism or one-woman-band reporting; it is soup to nuts, live reporting without a live truck or a signal that looks like a Max Headroom video. Obviously, it is also a potential cost-saving way to use fewer people and to send in live reports without using expensive trucks.

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One Response to “WTSP-TV Uses Skype to Broadcast Live Shot”

  1. TV station uses Skype to broadcast live shot « GaryNielson.com on January 9th, 2009 2:38 pm

    [...] WTSP-TV Uses Skype to Broadcast Live Shot : CyberJournalist.net. Explore posts in the same categories: [...]

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