On 25/6/04, Steve Jolly, discombobulated, offered: >Hmmm, I've been playing with a Sony DCR-VX2000E lately, which is the >standard camera the BBC's issuing its video journalists with right now (a >video journalist is one person doing all the jobs of a reporter, camera >operator, sound operator and producer...) - it's a hell of a lot lighter >than beta; perhaps 12lb including a mounted shotgun mike and two-hour >battery? It's not rugged though; that's probably the difference. I guess >there's news and there's news :-)
Plus, it is being used by people who generally haven't got a clue as to what they are doing. If you've never seen a VJ at a press conference, they're the one who is red in the face from huffing and puffing to and fro, trying to get shots, trying to take notes, trying to arrange interviews, trying to organise playouts/dispatch riders, trying to figure the camera out, trying to get it all together - - and doing a pretty miserable job of it all. Meanwhile, reporter + camera persons are (respectively) doing the organising + getting the footage all in double quick time. I kid you not: the VJ is the first to arrive and the last to depart a presser, and the result sucks big time. But the people who have the power to make these things happen, the people in charge of TV companies now are not program makers, they are corporate execs who could be in charge of a telecoms co, a fast food chain, a retail chain, anything you care to mention. It's all about money. Quality is taking a back seat. Nearly. </rant> > >Betacam is definitely broadcast-quality though; the smaller formats aren't >really. > >(Disclaimer - I now work for the BBC and therefore consider myself >entirely qualified to bore the list with this kind of thing ;-) ) Steve, if you want to improve the TV news, forget about consolidating staff positions through hardware, instead - make things faster. Instant broadcast quality live pics and sound from anywhere via mobile technology with minimal fuss will be a big step forward. Forget landlines etc, it needs to be completely standalone, operating in the field, no mid-points, but no satellites either- too expensive. maybe new mpeg compression or something? Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| www.macads.co.uk/snaps _____________________________
