Election nights are often a time for experimentation with new technology. Sometimes, it adds a new dimension to the coverage, like the slick interactive maps that can show results in real time. Sometimes, it’s just bells and whistles for no apparent reason, like the “hologram” reporter CNN trotted out last year.
Scott Atkinson, news director at WWNY-TV in Watertown, N.Y., used election night this year to try something new online. He’s in one of the smallest markets in the country–#177 according to Nielsen–and his resources are limited. The station doesn’t have a sat truck or a digital downlink. It wasn’t able to set up a hard-wired feed from candidate headquarters in time for election night. But that didn’t keep WWNY from going live.
“With a cobbled together set of laptops, a few rented IP addresses, a couple of portable Verizon ‘MiFi’ cards and some other parts, we were ‘live’ from Plattsburgh and Saranac Lake, far outside the reach of our live truck,” Atkinson wrote in an email.
How was the video quality? “Better than CNN from a battlefield, better than Oprah using Skype,” he says. “It was 1990 VHS quality.” But it worked. And it’s what the staff did with the technology that pleased Atkinson most:
We opened up live streams from each location, and kept them up. Our guys could walk over whenever they wanted, bring a guest, pick up a microphone and start talking. It was video blogging, if you will. When they were done, they’d say thank you and walk away.
We also used the feed to send material for air, so anyone watching got to see what would be on TV, a little ahead of time.
And we used ‘Cover It Live’ and separate laptops so that each crew could write quick notes about what they were seeing. The ‘Cover It Live’ sections were embedded on the same pages with the video streams, so if you went to, say, the Bill Owens page, you could watch what was going on and read Jeff Nelson’s running commentary.
The secret to making the technology work, Atkinson says, was managing bandwidth. The Verizon ‘MiFi’ unit, configured for one output, produced an acceptable picture at 250 kbps, he says.
But the station learned more than tech tricks from the exercise. “For TV, election nights have always consisted of sitting around, punctuated by bursts of manic activity,” Atkinson says. “Doing it the way we did, my guys were much more engaged all night–they were constantly talking to people, getting little updates.
“My guys loved it–they didn’t feel like it was a burden. And, oh yes, we more than doubled our site traffic.”
1 Comment
I read “Live Streaming for Small Markets” with great interest, as I was at the Hotel Saranac on Election Night.
A live webcast from the heart of the Adirondack Mountains, a region declared “Forever Wild” in 1892 by Governor Teddy Roosevelt.
The parking lot was full of Sat Trucks, whose lines to their cameras were stacked behind a table with two laptop computers. This was http://WWW.SteveWeedProductions.Com. This is where the local television video and audio were uplinked, and taken to the local Television Station’s Board via the Internet.
This was experimentation for local television, but not so for Steve Weed Productions, who has been providing CSPAN-like webcasts for 10 years.
The Miss New York State Pageant was webcasted by Steve Weed 10 years ago. Many consider 10 years to be long term. That was before the 2001 Broadband Reports during the Afghanistan War.
Live Election Debates have been webcasted by Steve Weed Productions for years, and posted on sites for later viewing.
The notion that this webcast was cobbled together with chewing gum and wire shows is out of sync.
This low cost and high quality alternative has been available. The wire has been ready to be attached for years.
We often credit technology for what is pioneered by talent and experience.
Technology evolves. ISDN broadcasts are now carried on broadband. EVDO and High Speed Cable offers more today than yesterday.
But, it is still about the content. Many believe we are in the Information Age. I believe we are in the Age of Communications, and that content is the load that is delivered.
Today there are many more users attaching their computers to their HDTVs. The audience is now comprised of viewers who use Skype or 2 Way Videos on games.
The colleges in the Channel 7’s Market are generating a sophisticated viewing audience, as their grandparent now play with their Wiis.
There is no secret in how webcasts work. Just long term experience able to deliver to a sophisticated audience.
Congratulations to Channel 7 on their Election Night Coverage. They have developed a way to broadcast and blog on their site, and their television station, too. Their live broadcasts from 3 different Election Night Sites was unparalleled by any of their competitors.
I confirmed that their coverage was viewed on every continent but Antartica.
Development means applied research. Does this local television development mean better coverage?
This Election had very little coverage of the 3 candidates during the campaign, as the Congressional District is geographically large. One County is twice the size of the State of Delaware.
Channel 7 has shown it can provide high quality and low cost broadcasts for newsworthy events from its remote regions.
Will others follow?
The benchmark will be traffic and content delivered.